4 days Ago
Pictures from The Argus archives have shown how Churchill Square has changed over the years. It has been nearly 60 years since the grand shopping centre in the city was unveiled; here is what it looked like before the redesign. Churchill Square had been planned since the 1930s but was held up by the Second World War.
It was envisaged by architect Sir Hugh Casson, who had been largely responsible for the Festival of Britain. At one time there were plans to demolish the Grand Hotel but these were rejected after a public inquiry. Houses demolished to make way for the shops were regarded as slums at the time.
It proved to be one of the last open-air malls to be built in Britain - hard to imagine now with it being a closed roof. For months, shoppers wondered what would be revealed when high boards surrounding the site of Churchill Square were taken down, in 1968. At the time only one half was completed and the rest did not open until 1972.
More than 70 shops occupied the site at the time including branches of Tesco, Sainsbury’s and the Co-Op. Named after the wartime prime minister who was a freeman of Brighton, Churchill Square lasted less than 30 years before it was demolished. Brighton council promoted a redevelopment by selling the freehold to Standard Life and work started on the new covered shopping centre in 1996.
Ikea’s parent company The Ingka Group bought Churchill Square Shopping Centre in 2023. It will be opening an Ikea store this year in the shopping centre's former Debenhams unit on the upper two levels..
