Who remembers Dimarco’s?

supplied by Terry Huggins

Mark Praid… Wow, this brings back memories of the one in Hove. The best hard ice vanilla you could get.

Dennis Torrance… Ice cream was amazing there so good. I remember going shopping with my mum price rite then egg and chips lime milk shake on Friday night thanks for the memories

Wendy Belton… Remember it well. Their ice cream was amazing.

Rachel Rayburn… It was my very first job! Saturday mornings serving coffee

Keith Blizard… Not only great ice cream, a wonderful family !

Mick Knights… All meeting up late Sunday afternoon for egg beans and chips before deciding which film to see in the evening, we were creatures of habit in those days

Lloyd Johnson… I do! Tony Di Marco went to my school and I had a summer job along the seafront towards the Old Town working for the family in their ice cream shop, just before George street…

Nastassja Kaschevsky… Used to go in there a lot, lovely family.

Dennis Torrance… My mum worked in the dimarcos under st marys in the castle early 60s I used to play the machines and eat the ice cream there to mums name was Ivy Torrance

William Wallace… the one in hastings gave u the biggest cup of tea in the world lol

Keith Cowper… One of my favourite places in the 50s and 60s

Chris Meachen… Some of my earliest memories are of my dad taking me in there,- He seemed to be friends with the owners (Mr Louis is the name I recall?) I used to have an egg & tomato finger roll followed by one of their fabulous ice creams. Went in regularly all through the years until they closed, much better than a poxy macdonald’s.

Andy Caine… So much time spent in there! The interior was beautiful.

Harry Randall…  see a lot of comments about the Ice Cream! Well a lot of people don’t realise the Ice Cream/Cafe opposite the “De La Warr” in Bexhill is the same family!

Angela Frances Gardner… We used to spend our afternoons in their after the lunch times in the pub whilst waiting for opening times at 6pm!

Tony Davis…  I remember going in there on Saturday mornings for breakfast in the early seventies. Does anyone have any pictures of the old Sainsburys or J Lyons cafe that were next to Lloyds bank

Lloyd Johnson… My Gran use to take me to Joe Lyons ,she’d have tomatoe soup and a bread roll and I’d have a meringue with cream in the middle…the old Sainsbury’s was great with the marble counters and bent wood chair at each station so the customer could sit and order what they wanted…did it have palms on the counters , for some reason I have palms in my memory or would that be the tea room at the top of Plummers which is Debenhams now…such a shame all these buildings have be thoughtlessly butchered!…it wouldn’t
happen in France….

Tony Davis… My mum worked at Lyons and some school holidays went in for lunch. They served mashed spuds with an ice cream scoop and their pie and gravy was ace. It amused me years later that when I went to a garden party at Buckingham palace all the crockery said J Lyons and co on the bottom

Terry Huggins… The Pelham Place shop.

Eric Harmer… My mum worked there for a long time. I got free ice cream

Lloyd Johnson… Cor! That’s not fair! Wot about all of us!….

Eric Harmer… all I can say Lloyd is knickerbocaerglory

Lloyd Johnson… God! They were great weren’t they!….my Mum was friends with one of the Di Marco ladies and I can remember going upstairs to their flat above the cafe.She was very proud of a mural that she’d commission to be drawn on one of the walls. When we saw it it was a charcoal looking artwork..i can remember an ornamental iron room divider there as well. I guess the mural was fixed with something over the charcoal…my Mum worked in The Golden Fleece wool shop in the 50s and then was a supervisor in Marks and Spencer’s until she retired. So! Eric I got loads of crewneck saddle shoulder lambs wool sweater free or cheap….if we’d known each back then I could have swapped sweaters for knickabockaglory glories with you.

Eric Harmer… they called my mum Ricky in there Lloyd. All my family alert from me were born in India. My Granddad was in the army. That wouldn’t have been a good swop for me though. Maybe we did bump into each other back in the day ?

Judith Monk… Always enjoyed the place.

Lucy Pappas… Haha! Yes, I think it was Woolies. Best place for pick and mix! Such a lovely atmosphere there. I loved the old Sainsbury’s, too. Is that where I would have bought broken biscuits?

Alan Esdaile… The tea was always good. Remember having welsh rarebit with chips a few times.

Terry Huggins… There was also a Demarcos. A different branch of the same family, but different spelling. I can’t remember the exact explaination. There was also a Devito family, but I don’t think they were related to the Dimarcos (I may be wrong). The Divitos had a shop under the cinema in Albert Road and later moved to Queens Road.

Angela Jordan… If you were very good you went one side for a meal otherwise you went the other side and only had a drink x

Neal Hunter… The good thing was they had a back door so if anyone you didn’t like came in you could get out that way

Janie Lowe… Who remembers Leesons the Butchers its location used to be the Home and Colonial opposite Sainsburys owned by two brothers who were Australian

Peter Thomson… Was a treat for us to go out for lunch here after we moved to Hastings in ‘67. I remember when MacDonald’s bought the place to mixed reactions. They started their installation work and peeled back to the base structure, only to find it unsafe. To their credit, they stuck by their investment and rebuilt it but the top floor is “false”.

Joe Knight… Lovely family run cafe

Pauline Sims… Mum went to Demarco’s in Castle Street for her lunch break, while working at the small Tesco shop in the same street (I think!) She used to take me shopping with her – we’d go to most of the different counters in Sainsbury, then traipse up to the far end of the shop to pay. While waiting for Dad to finish work and as a treat, she’d take me upstairs in Joe Lyons for tea and welsh rarebit or beans on toast. Fond memories

Terry Huggins… Just to be pedantic, Tesco was in Wellington Square and Dimarcos was in Wellington Place. It’s a common mistake, but Castle Street ends at the Woolworths building and magically becomes Wellington Place on one side and (after Wellington Square) York Buildings on the other. Until the 1850s, it was called York Place. Hastings has many streets that change their name as you move through them. After Castle Street, it’s Breeds Place, Pelham Place, Sturdee Place and so on with the streets changing its name frequently. Another common mistake is to think parts of Robertson Street are Cambridge Road.

Alan Esdaile… The small Tesco was where Sussex Stationers was (or maybe the shop next door).?

Mike Mitchell… Frothy coffee. Soooo sophisticated!

Janine Anne Scott… My Auntie Flo worked there in the 60s

Charles Sharrod… counter service on the left and waitress service on the right …bath bun and butter..happy memories shopping with my dear old mum

Dave Nattress… I recall Dimarcos well, even though I’m Bexhill born and bred. Bexhill – I’ve tried to get away, well actually succeeded many times, but it keeps dragging me back. The Criterion restaurants/cafes/Ice-cream parlours, used to be 2 in Bexhill. one in Western Road, the one opposite the De La Warr indeed, still there. Used to get the old ice cream with little tiny bits of ice in it!

Angela Jordan… My man worked in the one in bexhill

Jan Warren… Yeah Dave, I’ve been in Bexhill (on and off) since about 1967 so I remember The Criterion in Western Road and we all used to hang out in Fortes Coffee Bar and “Ags” Amusement Centre on the seafront, and I get what you mean about Bexhill keeps dragging you back, haha ……… I’ve tried many times to escape, but it seems to have this strange “magnet” that pulls you helplessly back into its clutches?! – Bexhill is a small but somewhat strangely charming little town, haha

Lorna Brazier… I worked here in the mid eighties.

Glenn Piper… I knew Joe Devito in the 70’s, but I’ve no idea if he’s even still alive. Divito’s in Queens Road used to be where the key kiosk is now (building was knocked down along with 2 others to make way for the Albert Road expansion. )

Eugene Hughes… The last time I saw Joe was over 5 years ago. He was working nights in a petrol station on the A21. Saw one of his daughters in Sainsburys a couple of weeks back.

Terry Huggins… This was Divitos under the cinema. Later on they moved to Queens Road and this was Divito’s Queens Road shop. It was where the small key and mobile phone shops are now next to Greggs.

 

photo 2 Claire Pendrous Collection

Frederick Saunter… here was a small tesco  in wellington place i know i used to work there in the early 60s for six months and i got the sack for frightening a fellow worker a lady with a dead mouse i had found in the stockroom and being a young lad at the time i thought it was funny.

Joe Knight… Free bus to Hollington Tesco