White Night '11

A few pictures:

'Dollytopia'- New Road

'Return to Eden' - Victoria Gardens 

'Return to Eden' - Victoria Gardens

'Polyester Festival' - Jubilee Library

'Metahub' - Jubilee Square

A revamp of Lewes Road

Development of Lewes Road began northwards from the Level in the 1860's and to begin with, judging by St. Martin's Church and imposing Gladstone Terrace opposite, there were some aspirations to cater for the Victorian middle-class. The entire east side of the road, up to the extra-mural cemetery was closely planted with trees that, by the coming of the trams in 1901, had grown to near maturity. Sadly, these trees were deemed to inconvenience tram passengers on the top deck and, instead of being carefully pruned, were completely removed. The trams & trolley-buses came and went but, although a few trees have now been planted, the road has remained generally rather sad & shabby ever since. Nowadays, it also suffers from some of the worst air pollution in the City. I said 'generally rather sad & shabby' because it is only fair to mention the notable exception of the 'Franklin Arms' which, having a deep forecourt planted with two fine semi-mature trees, provides a welcome oasis.

The city council now has nearly £8M to spend on a scheme to improve the transport flows, street scene and air quality along Lewes Road and surrounding streets and will be staging exhibitions of their broad proposals for the area in November & December. This will provide an opportunity for residents and businesses  to feed-in their own suggestions which will then be used to help draw up more detailed plans before more consultation next year.

It will not be easy. Making the road more pedestrian-friendly, and reducing air-pollution are mutually incompatible targets. The first requires widening the pavements and providing more crossings. The second requires speeding-up and smoothing the traffic flow.

Venues and dates for the exhibitions are:- Hollingdean Community Centre, November 11 and 12; Coldean’s Larchwood Community Café, November 15 and 19; Hanover Community Centre, November 21, 23, 26; Moulsecoomb Leisure Centre bar, December 2, 3; Bevendean’s Norwich Drive Church Hall, December 8, 9, 10.

Times vary – for details see www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/lewesroad or call 01273 290487.

'Vitrine' on White Night

If you intend to be out & about on Saturday evening don't forget to do some window-gazing in Bond Street & Gardner Street.



Film Co Lab has announced the list of moving image art works that will be screened in Brighton for the public art exhibition Vitrine, 11 Colourful Outside Jobs as part of White Night Brighton 2011:-

 AL and AL, "I killed thousands of people last night and these are all the weapons I used" – 3D, (2009). Gresham Blake, 20 Bond Street. www.greshamblake.com/
 Greta Alfaro, "In Ictu Oculi", (2009).
Fruity, 8 Gardner Street.
 John Baldessari, "Six Colorful Inside Jobs", (1977).
artrepublic, 13 Bond Street. http://www.artrepublic.com/showrooms/4-brighton.html
 Dara Birnbaum, "Mirroring" (1975).
Manor Cafe, 52 Gardner Street. themanorbrighton.co.uk
 Herz Frank, "Ten Minutes Older" (Par Desmit Minutem Vecaks), (1978).
Wildcat, 6 Gardner Street. wildcat.co.uk
 Ian Helliwell, "Coloured Light District", (2002).
Infinity Foods Shop and Bakery, 25 North Road. infinityfoods.co.uk
 Olga Koroleva, "Dialogues: White Chocolate and Jesus, part 1", (2011).
Infinity Foods Cafe, 50 Gardner Street. http://www.infinityfoodscafe.co.uk/
 Jess MacNeil, "The Swimmers", (2009).
Temptation Cafe, 56 Gardner Street. brightontemptation.com
 Jorge Santos, "(untitled)", (2011).
Badger Clothing, 25-26 Bond Street. badgerclothing.co.uk
 Richard Serra, "Hand Catching Lead", (1968).
Laste, 6 Bond Street. laste.co.uk
 Gillian Wearing, "Dancing In Peckham", (1994).
Capers, 27 Gardner Street. capers-brighton

36 Church Street

 

Rosen's, father & son, secondhand clothiers at the top of Church Street, satisfied a need in Brighton for nearly 100 years. Both the building and the trade plied there seemed to hark back to a different, almost Dickensian age. Certainly the packed rails outside and its stuffed interior always called to mind some of the Victorian shops minutely described in Dickens' novels.

In considering redevelopment, the Council planning department was originally keen to keep as much of the original structure as possible, but when work started it was found that the Church Street facade was in a dangerous condition and had to be demolished. So now it is gone.

The latest approved planning application BH2010/02604 covers partial demolition of the building and rebuilding and replication of the front façade; the retention of the rear façade with a two storey rear extension, and between the facades the erection of new structure comprising shop with ancillary office storage at ground floor level and 2 two bedroom flats above.

The drawings show that the front parapet will be preserved but the dramatic effect of the former variation in roofline will be diluted by the addition of a dormer storey. 

It is interesting that 36 Church Street was, and will remain a 'semi-detached' property. There is a small gap between its west wall and that of the property on the corner of Queens Road, formerly the Windsor Castle inn.

From Queens Road

Persephone Books

In their latest biannual newsletter Persephone Books have chosen to illuminate their pages with two images drawn from Brighton & Hove's art collection. On the cover is the locally well-known "Alice in Wonderland", c.1879, by George Leslie Dunlop, and depicting his daughter Alice. GLD was part of the St. John's Wood (London) clique of painters who favoured light-hearted, domestic genre paintings. He became an RA in 1876. The popularity of GLD's work has survived to this day, his "Daughters of Eve" fetching £170,000 in 2000.

On the inside pages is "The Coat of Many Colours" c.1926, by local artist Louis Ginnett. Louis was a member of the famous circus family, he attended Brighton, Hove & Sussex Grammar School, became a teacher at Brighton College of Art and in 1913 was commissioned to produce an extraordinary series of murals for the Grammar School hall. These he worked on, on and off, until their completion in 1939, and they are still to be seen to this day.

School Hall, BHASVIC

Persephone Books, of Lambs Conduit Street, London, prints mainly neglected fiction and non-fiction by women, for women and about women. With their distinctive plain grey jackets and cream 'labels' for the title wording, all their books look the same from the outside. Inside, each is different, with the endpapers chosen especially to match the date and mood of the book.