Patcham flood alert.

Flooding at Patcham Place in November 2000

The Environment Agency has issued a flood alert for Patcham after a rise in water levels following heavy rain.

The Council is monitoring the ground water level and working with the Environment Agency and East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service to provide support, if necessary, to residents in affected properties.

The area was recently leafleted for households to join up to the flood alert scheme. Those households in the flood alert area will now receive a phone call advising them of the alert. You can join up to the flood alert programme here.

The homes in danger of flooding have being visited by council officers. Anyone in the area in need of more information can also email the council team on epu@brighton-hove.gov.uk. Emails will be answered as soon as possible.

Southern Water is monitoring water levels and how the sewage system is coping with the excess water.

Old London Road, Nov. 2000

Old London Road, Nov. 2000

After the year 2000 flooding various improvements were made to the main sewer, which follows the line of the London Road. This may be the first occasion since 2000 that the work has been seriously tested.

Co-op façade saved.

On December 12 the City Council’s planning committee overwhelmingly approved an application from a private company to demolish the rear of the former department store, preserve the frontage and construct accommodation for 351 students behind.

For many years since the CWS departed there were hopes that the store would be taken over by some other prestige company and pressed back into the use for which it was designed, so being a catalyst for the rejuvenation of the whole London Road area.  Apparently the big retailers had more sense and the present plans for student housing were the only financially viable proposals to materialise. Hope of saving the building as a whole must now be consigned to history.

In December 2011, the planners turned down an application to demolish the whole building and construct a larger student residence with over 400 rooms.  Reasons cited at the time included overdevelopment and loss of an un-designated heritage asset. So this latest decision is seen as a positive result for the building which was added to the local heritage list in March this year. Chair of the planning committee Cllr Christopher Hawtree said:  “It’s a victory for our stance against boil-in-the-bag architecture which often sees our distinctive buildings replaced by developers serving up easy, bland designs.

It maybe that under the circumstances it is the poor best that can be hoped for. It however does nothing however for the reputation of the architectural profession. Because of its failure to produce a design that at least matched the authority, confidence and elegance of the original, posterity will only inherit a kind of cobbled-together chimaera of a building.

London road Co-op and the 'Local List'
Council turns down Co-op proposals
Redevelopment of the London Road Co-op

"The North Laine" explained . . .

No further comment needed really. This window space has public-spiritedly been donated by fashion shop JuJu on the corner of Gloucester Road and Kensington Street. Well done JuJu.

Bond Street La(i)ne - Council withdraws

Danger point

A busy shop, a busy bank, a busy street and a narrow pavement obstructed in short order by a telecom cabinet, two phone boxes (does anyone use phone boxes anymore?) and a very large waste bin, is a recipe for disaster. It is surely only a matter of time before someone proceeding left to right with their back to the bus lane steps aside into the road and into the path of a bus. It nearly happened to the writer.

Restaurant for the Chapel Royal?

Following its restoration earlier this year, the Chapel Royal, on the corner of North Street and Princes Place, may get an 80 covers restaurant in a "unique cavern venue", i.e.  the undercroft or vaults of the church. These have no internal connection to the church and have been under separate freehold title from the chapel since 1896. Planning application BH2012/03647 details alterations to the entrance shown above to provide access to the vaults and necessary internal works.

The plans require excavating a basement area from the public highway in front of the door and providing a flight of steps and a disabled lift. This area will be surrounded by cast iron railings and its walls faced with bricks matching those of the Chapel Royal. 

Tales of the City

The film, Tales of the City, was produced by young people from East Brighton in response to the Brighton Photo Biennial 2012 theme Agents of Change: Photography and the Politics of Space.

Weekly workshops, facilitated by artist Evan Wilkinson, ran throughout July and August 2012 encouraging participants to explore the politics of their space using animation and digital storytelling.

The young people involved in the Tales of the City project went on to facilitate a series of workshops held in libraries throughout October 2012 allowing children and families to explore animation and create their own digital stories.
http://www.citylibraries.info
http://www.bpb.org.uk/2012/
Brighton Photo Biennial is produced and curated by Photoworks.

CIVITAS plus Archimedes project in Brighton & Hove

CIVITAS ARCHIMEDES stands for “Achieving Real CHange with Innovative transport MEasures Demonstrating Energy Savings”. This motto unites the cities of Aalborg (Denmark), Brighton & Hove (UK), San Sebastian (Spain), Iasi (Romania), Monza (Italy), and Usti-nad-Laben (Czech Republic). They are driven by the ambition to increase the share of sustainable modes of transport, improve energy efficiency and provide safer and more convenient travel services in medium-sized urban areas.

Each of the six ARCHIMEDES cities is located in a different EU country including representatives from new European member states. Being small and medium-sized, they often lack the resources and leverage bigger cities have at their disposal. Yet, they are keen to demonstrate how they can still achieve the same objectives for clean and energy-efficient transport and sustainable development. They see innovative solutions as the key to success.

http://www.civitas.eu/archimedes

Friends of Queens Park invite . . .

The New Encyclopaedia of Brighton on Kindle

Two decades after the original Encyclopaedia of Brighton was published, the fascinating, informative and entertaining New Encyclopaedia of Brighton by acclaimed biographer Rose Collis combines the best of the original text with hundreds of new subjects.

Alphabetically-ordered, the New Encyclopaedia of Brighton illustrates the city’s rich and diverse social history, from ‘Abattoirs’ to ‘Zap Club’. Sections include Black Brighton, Foodie Brighton, Gay Brighton, Green Brighton and Jewish Brighton to Housing, Indian Soldiers and WWI and II.

There are profiles of leading lights in business, politics, literature and entertainment, including Ellen Nye Chart, Maria Fitzherbert, Robin Maugham, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, Lord Alfred Douglas and Martha Gunn. ‘Pull-out’ quotes about the city, dating from the early 18th century, and ‘one-off’ facts vividly demonstrate Brighton’s idiosyncratic history.
Essential ‘lists’ include ‘Brighton in Art’, ‘Brighton by the Book’ and ‘Filmed in Brighton’
Converting the book into an electronic version has enabled many sections to be updated since it was published in June 2010, including those on Amex Stadium, Notable Churches, Brighton Centre, Seafront, Old Steine, Corporation, and Gay Brighton.

Whether read for fun, education or reference by visitors and residents alike, The New Encyclopaedia of Brighton is the definitive book about Brighton.

Buy Kindle edition here £8.04