The sunken gardens of Brighton seafront were such a feature of the resort they even found their way on to postcards.

Built just west of the West Pier, they enabled flowers to grow in an exposed place, where they would normally have been destroyed by salt-laden gales.

Ray Evison, director of parks after the Second World War, was an expert on this subject and even wrote a book called Gardening by the Sea.

The gardens were removed about ten years ago to make way for the renovation of the seafront.

This has not been completed because of uncertainty over the West Pier and a delay in funding the renovation of the Victorian bandstand.