A recent planning application to demolish the Coachworks at 28A Luther Street, Brighton, has created a puzzle for me which I hope readers might be able to solve.

The existing premises is a workshop 32m long by an average of 9m wide with a corrugated asbestos-cement roof on heavy timber trusses of pre-war design.

The earliest reference in the street directories is in 1949, when the site was occupied by "Luther Coachworks (Pitman & Humphreys, prop), coach builders".

An employee has told me that at about that time he worked on the roof, replacing the corrugated iron sheeting.

On the 1931 edition of the 25-inch OS map there is a row of buildings along one side of the site, probably originally a row of stables, which later became garages.

I am told during the war the site was used for the garaging of Green Goddess fire engines and a room at the back has a terrazzo floor with the words "Sweet Repose" inscribed therein.

Do any readers know when this building was erected and for what purpose?

-R.G. Martin, almer Avenue, Saltdean