Fascinating archive photos show the way Brighton worked

The coronavirus pandemic means many people are working from home.

For those back in the workplace, social distancing measures and new equipment have made things almost unrecognisable compared with how they were.

So as the Government makes a bid to get the economy up and running, we thought it was a good time to take a look at the way things were much longer ago.

This week’s selection of photos from The Keep archive in Falmer shows men at work in the 20th century, while next week’s selection will focus on women at work.

At first glance, only one of the jobs featured here has disappeared from Brighton.

That is, of course, the telephone operator above.

As an eternally tourism-oriented city, hospitality and retail have always been a major employer. Butchers and barmen are still widespread in Brighton, though it could be argued the latter have fared better than the former.

A curator, probably at the Booth Museum, polishing a mammoth bone in 1937. Photo: East Sussex Record Office/The Keep

Apart from factories in Hollingbury and rail depots, even in the 20th century the town was never a major industrial centre. Nowadays Brighton’s biggest employers are financial firms, the retail and hospitality sector and Brighton and Hove Buses.

And we should not forget the burgeoning digital and creative start-ups spread out across the city.

High-tech labs and 5G test centres are a far cry from the jobs featured in today’s pictures.

But there is something missing from these photos: the stories behind them. Helpfully, The Argus photographers who took these pictures wrote down their names -– apart from one or two.

So if you know the workers featured, email samuel.brooke@theargus.co.uk. We would love to know more about them.

The Keep is now able to take orders for these photos and others. Call 01273 482349 or visit thekeep.info, quoting the picture reference and date it was featured in The Argus.