Purveying the Neighbourhood

The Connecting Gallery (G4)

A delightful exhibition of interest to historians of the local area, including a unique collection of die-cast toy model trucks collected by our Faculty staff member Anthony Knight all on the theme of brewery delivery vehicles. Opposite the showcases are images from the Design Archives, showing the history of British Brewing traditions in advertising and varied design works. 

This collection brings fresh light to the typography, architecture and style of British breweries in their advertising history, also the finer details of model vehicle collecting and the potential that was shown for industry marketing as they engaged with replica trucks and vans, all with recognisable logos from the brewing trade. Alongside the display, photographs of familiar areas near the Grand Parade university site show the town centre's landscape has been and is being transformed and the local importance of the Tamplin company.

The buildings of the former Tamplin brewers are now a hall of residence. Students living in the Phoenix Brewery these days have access to the best in central student accommodation, but as the name demonstrates, the history of the building is in fact more steeped in beer culture than the students themselves can compete with.

Following a fire in 1820 at the Southwick Brewery, Henry Padgen Tamplin began building the new offices at Richmond Terrace with architects Amon and Amon Henry Wilds. Rising from the ashes, Phoenix became Brighton biggest brewery with 600 pubs across the South East of England and the company continued to expend through the mid twentieth-century. The premises were still a bottling plant and depot until 1991 providing important employment for central Brighton. Among the employees was Anthony Knight, now one of the faculty's friendly caretakers at Grand Parade but at one time a Tamplin/Watney's man. His passion for collecting the vehicles associated with his old trade now form this excellent display.

Read more at The National Archives, Tamplins Brewery, Brighton, http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=179-tamplins&cid=0#0 .