A busy bank holiday Monday has helped to turn around the fortunes of some traders.

After a particularly quiet weekend in which some Brighton and Hove businesses reported takings down by as much as 50%, traders were relieved to find visitors flocking to the city yesterday.

The credit crunch and the bad weather had been blamed for keeping customers away over the usually busy August bank holiday weekend.

But yesterday’s sunshine brought crowds to the beach and shop owners said more people had been spending.

Pete Webb, of the Beach House Café in King’s Road, said the businesses which had suffered most were those selling chilled products.

A colleague at the company’s pier café, which sells mostly ice creams, had noticed takings were drastically down on last year.

But Mr Webb said: “We have been doing well because we sell food and hot drinks but those that are selling cold products are going to be down.”

Jane Wheeler, manager of Two Kats and a Cow in King’s Road Arches on Brighton seafront, said the gallery had a busy weekend.

However, she said traders had noticed a change in the numbers of people on the beach this year.

She said: “In general the seafront has been quieter this summer.

Our trade has been fine but the beach has been a lot calmer because the weather has been more erratic.”

Some shops also seemed to manage to buck the trend altogether.

Velvet in Bond Street in the North Laine, Brighton, reported good sales all weekend.

Emma-Jane Faulkner, from the store, said: “The whole weekend was very busy.

There were lots of tourists on Saturday and we had a lot of big sales in the store.

“It was the same on Sunday, even though the weather wasn’t as good and today has just carried on from the weekend.”

Nuala Murphy, owner of The Gourmet Fish and Chip Company at Brighton Marina, said trade had really picked up on Sunday but Bank Holiday Monday had not been as good as usual.

She said: “Saturday was quite slow to start off with.

Sunday was quite busy but today we can feel the recession a little bit.”