A new Marina promenade.

 Site of new development looking west.

The Marina Outer Harbour development came to a standstill after the completion of phase 1 in 2016 which saw the erection of the Orion & Sirius apartment blocks at the West Quay. Since then the project has  been acquired by investment managers ICG Longbow who have enlisted architects Squire & Partners to produce new plans for phases 2 & 3. Squire & Partners have an impressive portfolio of modern developments in their portfolio including Chelsea Barracks.

Whereas the earlier plans envisaged 4 discrete apartment blocks on platforms projecting out over the spending beach the latest plans have drawn some inspiration from the city's seafront squares and crescents.

Impression of new scheme looking west.

Pink areas indicate retail facilities

For the public at large the new scheme has the advantage of providing near level access from Madeira Drive via the western breakwater, several new public squares, and great permeability throughout the site, not the least including a new 250m long promenade with views directly out to sea through the harbour arms. 

"Pagoda" to "Barge"

The Pagoda Chinese restaurant

Redevelopment.

"The Barge"

The Goodall Foundation

Earlier post: Watch this space.

An Amble on the Arm

The Marina east arm to be precise. This arm is 0.7 miles long from the Undercliff to the end. A walk from the Marina bus-stop to the end and back is 2.5 miles.

The wave-screen. A swing or lifting bridge is planned which could eventually connect the end of this to the West Quay.

Watch this space

The Pagoda Chinese restaurant.

When this converted Thames lighter in the Marina, was the Pagoda Chinese restaurant it had a pan-tiled pitched roof. After the restaurant closed last year the tiles, presumably of some value, were stripped off. It looked a sorry sight.

Now it has been given a new flat roof and other work appears to be in progress. 

A banner on the roof.

What it is going to be is anybody's guess.

#mystoryatthemarina

The Marina - not all about housing . . .

Seemingly a long way from home the "Hebridean Explorer" has found it worthwhile to use Brighton Boatyard for some winter maintenance.

Locking through to the inner harbour 

Passing under the raised roadway, workboat assisted.

Entering the 60 tonne boat-lift

Boat-lift operator on station

Starting the lift

Moving off

Marina progress

West Quay from the east.

The first phase of the Brunswick development at the Marina is nearing completion. They are up to 6 storeys higher than the existing blocks along the waterfront but the height effect is somewhat mitigated by the stepping back of the upper storeys. It also appears that the top storeys are being finished in grey which will also help to make them less conspicuous compared with the white lower parts with the marina-turquoise balconies.

The lowest storey is dedicated to shops and restaurants. When finished the development will greatly increase pedestrian access to the West Quay and to a proposed pedestrian footbridge across the harbour entrance.

Existing apartments along the waterfront.

See also:- The Changing Marina

Progress on the Waterfront Project

The Black Rock site

BHCC have appointed architects WilkinsonEyre to lead a team of world-renowned experts to develop a masterplan for the city's Waterfront project, an important element of which is the provision of a new conference and entertainment venue at Black Rock.  The site under consideration, next to the Marina, is owned by the BHCC.

WilkinsonEyre who  designed the famous Gateshead Millennium bridge and the Olympic Basketball Arena for London 2012, will carry out initial work to draw up a masterplan study of Black Rock and how it relates to the surrounding seafront sites.

Providing a new events venue will enable the Churchill Square shopping centre to be enlarged and extended to the Kings Road, so strengthening its position on the south coast and ensuring competing shopping centres do not take away market share. The architectural practices appointed to transform Kings Road & Churchill Square are ACME, who are currently completing Leeds Victoria Gate and a masterplan for Chester city centre; and Leonard Design Architects, who have played a key part in major regeneration schemes in London.

The masterplan will make sure the sites are developed to a high standard that enhances the city's heritage. Conservation groups will be involved to ensure consideration of the seafront's historic landscape is included in the plan.

The Council is also considering both day-to-day and event-specific transport options for the development. The proposals will seek to link Brighton station, existing hotels and tourism infrastructure with the development sites.

Recent negotiations between the Council and Standard Life Investments (the owners of Churchill Square) on the Waterfront development should enable an agreement to be put to the Policy & Resources Committee for approval in Spring 2016. This will allow contracts to be exchanged and work to begin in earnest.

Location of the Black Rock site in relation to the Kemptown CA.

The Changing Marina

Construction has started on a new engineered platform on the West Quay as part of the Brunswick Developments' scheme. 

Other platforms are to be constructed over the Spending Beach to the west. This scheme will eventually provide 853 flats and 496 parking spaces in 11 buildings ranging from 6 to 40 storeys in height.

The Spending Beach from the west. This will disappear under the new development.

The Spending Beach from the south

Architect's visualisation from the Eastern breakwater showing the footbridge across the harbour entrance.

Helicopter views.

Photos: M.Mackay

Brighton Lifeboat

Brighton Lifeboat crew in all the latest kit 1913. 
Photo: Royal Pavilion and Museums. Brighton.

The Brighton lifeboat station, was established in 1824 in a cave in the cliff near the then new Chain Pier. It is said to be the first in England. no doubt it had to vacate this site with the start of the construction of the great Madeira sea-wall in 1830. Lifeboats then continued to operate from a variety of locations along the seafront ending up at arch no.111 now occupied by Brighton Sailing Club. A now unreadable plaque on the wall between arches 109 & 110 records the Robert Raikes, RNLI lifeboat of 1867 partly financed by pennies collected by Brighton Sunday School children. This arch was vacated in 1932 and for a number of years Brighton was covered by the offshore boats at Shoreham & Newhaven.

In 1965 an RNLI inflatable returned to a station just to the east of the Palace Pier and was removed to a pontoon in the partly-completed Marina in 1976.

View of the Marina

If you choose your viewpoint carefully you can make the Marina look almost attractive . . . . 

See also: The Marina from Roedean

The Marina from Roedean

 . . . . and a reminder of what summer looks like . . . .

Tetrapods

Tetrapods protecting the wave-spending beach at Brighton Marina. They were invented over 50 years ago in France as a substitute for large boulders which tend to get dislodged over time by the pounding of waves. They are designed to lock together in a random but open structure which dissipates the energy of the wave through turbulence. Numerous variations in shape have since been produced but all go under the generic name "tetrapod", borrowed from zoology. 

Their use became very widespread at one time, but the pendulum has swung against "hard stabilisation' of coastlines as this interferes with natural currents, material drift and deposition. Tetrapods now are only used in special situations such as that shown above; and Japan has undertaken a large programme of removal of tetrapods in an effort to beautify its coast. However they are intriguing objects and collectively form a fascinating abstract sculpture. Moderation is the key.

Eastern prospect

A view from the Palace Pier shows a corner of Roedean school on the extreme left  and the West Quay (Wetherspoons) on the extreme right with St. Dunstans (1939) near the centre. The Marina access ramp sweeps across the picture with the multi-storey car park at the RH end and just beyond the car-park is the squat drum tower of the Seattle Hotel. The Rottingdean windmill is just to the left of the Seattle's flagpole but partly obscured by a crane working on Southern Water's new waste water treatment scheme. To the left hand end of the beach is the banjo groyne built 1877.

ASDA Marina car park

Financial considerations aside, proposals to provide Brighton with a yacht harbour on an otherwise unsheltered part of the south coast always had appeal. But whereas boats must have sheltered water, it seems somewhat perverse to have dedicated expensively reclaimed land to car-parking.

This car park for about 250 cars occupies about a 30th of the 127 acres enclosed by the Marina's breakwaters. These 127 acres were provided in 1980 at a cost said to be in the order then of £50M. This equates to £170M today. Each car park space therefore cost about £23,000 at today's prices. 

To make the Marina a viable economic proposition it was always planned to introduce revenue-producing activities additional to yachting, but something less mundane than a superstore and car park might have been hoped for.

Editor's note: Since the date of this post there has been a proposal to build apartment blocks over the car park, even including a roof-top link to the cliffs, but this hasn't so  far come to fruition.

The Marina: then & now

As completed in 1977 the Marina, providing 127 acres of sheltered water, could accomodate 1500 boats at moorings, some tidal, some in the locked inner harbour seen here in 1980. The first building to be finished  was the multi-story car park (not in shot). Surely a harbinger of what was to come.

In 1979 the Marina Company went into receivership and the Marina was bought by Brent Walker, who brought in ASDA,  with the result seen above. This kicked off a surge of building which produced, beyond ASDA, Village Square and blocks and blocks of apartment buildings. One wonders if Henry Cohen had this amount of development in mind in his original concept. Even more development is proposed, on the ASDA car park, and to the south of the multi-storey car-park. Thankfully perhaps, this seems to be on hold, either due to failing the planning process, or the current economic climate. Some parts of the Marina are now quite attractive but many improvements are possible. It is a pity these always have to be linked with more housing in an already crowded and unique area.

Black Rock: then & now

At Black Rock the chalk cliffs from the east dive below layers of sandy gravel & coombe rock producing an area susceptible to rapid erosion by sea & weather. By 1897 the coast road had been fenced off and traffic diverted to the purpose-built Roedean Road to the north. Seen at the extreme left is the end wall of Seaview Terrace, beyond which were the Abergavenny Arms and Black Rock House, set slightly farther back. All three properties were purchased by the Council in 1928 and demolished to reinstate the coast road which opened in 1932 as "Grand Crescent" but is now known as Marine Drive. The low building in the left middle distance is the "Bungalow Station" of the Volk's Railway situated somewhat to the east of the present station.

The present day photo is probably taken slightly further inland than the first but some features can still be identified: namely the corner of the sea-wall below the cliff, the curve of the road in the middle distance and the fall of the land beyond  the Marina access ramp.