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Worthingite Bert Kent who was born and bred in Worthing(1928) and raised a family of three there, Mary, Stephen and Angela, very kindly sent the following:
 Attached with this is a scanned photo of Ham Road, looking north from the seafront end opposite the Half Brick Hotel. The van on the pavement is filling up with petrol. I worked at this garage in 1945, went into the Services from 1946 to 1949, and then returned to the garage. At that time there were three petrol pumps along side the pavement.
Unlike Brighton and many other towns, in Worthing it was not allowed to serve petrol with the hose across the pavement. This by-law, and the advent of modern filling stations springing up, lost this and many other small garages their trade.
What looks like snow on the ground, is in fact sea water. When it rained hard at high tide, the sea would come up the drains, and the hotel cellar would flood. I used to help the landlord rescue things from the water, where barrels floated around until the water receded.
I acquired this photo from a lady who was clearing her late mother's possessions from the house opposite the garage. She tore it out of a photo album and brought it across to the garage, and asked me if I would like it, as she lived out of Worthing and had no use for it.
The photo was probably taken in the 1920's. I do hope that you can make sense of it. Today this site is a car park for the Half Brick Hotel.
By the way, my older sister told me that the tide used to go up Heene Road, in the same manner.
Bert Kent, Worthing, 2001
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