Click on the thumbnails for a closer look at the prints as well as a model that Sean made of the Brighton and Hove Walker, which can be seen at the INK-D Gallery in Brighton, while the prints themselves can be purchased from the Etsy website.





THE BRIGHTON AND HOVE WALKER..A HISTORY
In 1896 Dr Jules Bradbury Stevenson, a popular Brighton entrepreneur, acquired the now legendry AT-AT Walker from an unexpected visiting Imperial fleet docked at the shipping yard in nearby Portslade-on-Sea. The Walker exchanged hands for over 7000 guineas and was said to be a decommissioned model headed for scrap. After equipping a No.75 street tram with a specialised hydraulic system and fitting it to the roof of the walker, Stevenson quickly began advertising shoreline excursions along Brighton’s seafront, inviting the public to “Come Take A Trip”.

The maiden voyage was on the 30th of April 1896, each voyage costing 6 shillings and lasting approximately 40 minutes. The journey ferried between Black Rock and Hove and soon proved incredibly popular with both locals and visiting tourists. The service ran daily from May through to September, including bank holidays and ended the year with a special festive excursion on Christmas day mornings.

With the outbreak of the 1st World War the walker (now affectionately nicknamed by the public as “Old Strider”) was acquired by the Navy initially for training purposes but it later saw active duty at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, sinking a German Dreadnought and saving many British lives. It also delivered over 50,000 soldiers and officers to secret locations along the coastlines of wartime Europe.

This earned the Walker an honorary Victoria Cross in 1918 for outstanding services to King and country and after a triumphant and very public return to Brighton in 1919 the Walker resumed its commercial service. The shoreline excursions continued successfully up until the 1930’s and many famous celebrities and film stars of the day were regularly said to hire the vehicle for private parties and fishing trips.

In 1936 disaster struck when 3 people drowned after falling from the Walkers main passenger carriage. This was blamed on poor maintenance and repair work, which the owner Stevenson emphatically denied, blaming sabotage from corrupt local businesses and organised crime. The event spelled the end of the Walker’s commercial career and the vehicle stood derelict up until the outbreak of the 2nd world war.

In 1939 the government announced that the Walker would reprise its role with the British war effort, on the conditions that it would only be used for mine sweeping duties and target practice for the home guard. After years of irreparable damage the Walker was decommissioned at the beginning of 1945. It was anchored at the end of the West Pier, providing a makeshift lighthouse facility for local fishing boats and tourist yachts. The rusting hulk could be seen up until the end of the 1950’s when finally, one notably stormy night, it disappeared beneath the waves without trace.

Local legend has it that the grandson of Dr Stevenson, a Professor Lucas Ridley Stevenson, had recovered the Walker and taken it back to Portslade gasworks where he planned to restore the vehicle back to its former glory. Many also believed a more fanciful theory that, after years of neglect, Old Strider had simply walked out to sea of its own accord...never to be seen again.