HMV, Churchill Square, Brighton (three sites) and 61-62 Western Road, Brighton, BN1 2HA. Online HERE.
‘The HMV Shop’ as its fascia used to say was first located at the back of the old wet and windy open plan Churchill Square, Brighton. The first complex was built in the 1960’s and required the demolition of a run down area of town. Work commenced in 1965 and the first Churchill Square shop (not an HMV) opened in 1967 though many of the units were not filled until 1968 when the centre was officially opened. It had been the last major open precinct built in the UK with trends pointing towards indoor malls from the early 1970’s onwards. Thus in 1996 work began on the new indoor mall that we see today and it opened in 1998.
Brighton was fortunate in having a second HMV store for a while. It was located at 61-62 Western Road, Brighton, BN1 2HA between 1990 and 2011. It was almost a satellite branch of the main one in Churchill Square, but was the only branch when ‘the Square’ was being rebuilt.
HMV went back into the new undercover Churchill Square on the top level at 48-50 Churchill Square Shopping Centre, Brighton, BN1 2RG. This new megastore was in direct competition to the new Virgin megastore, which was a stone’s throw away. They both were specialising in some vinyl, mainly CD’s, with DVD’s books and posters. HMV then closed and their site is now occupied by Victoria’s Secret & Victoria’s Secret Pink.
With the closing of their undercover Churchill Square branch, HMV were not present in Brighton for a while until they opened their latest store which is now located at Unit MSU1A, Lower Mall Churchill Square Shopping Centre, Russell Place, Brighton BN1 2RG. (Update 14.04.20 “Gym plans to open in old HMV store”).
