RSCH Helicopter deck gets £500,000 donation

Mr Robert Bertram, Chair of the charity the County Air Ambulance Trust, visited the Royal Sussex County Hospital yesterday. He presented a cheque for £500,000 to aid with the construction of the hospital’s new helideck, which is part of the 3Ts Redevelopment of the County Hospital. The helideck, which will open in the middle of 2018, is being constructed on the roof of the hospital’s existing Thomas Kemp Tower. This is the first of two donations from the charity that will give £1,000,000 in total towards meeting the cost of the facility. It will be used to fund the ongoing helideck works in the coming financial year.

 A new lift, exclusively for transferring patients between the helideck and the Emergency Department, will be built as part of the project. Currently air ambulances have to land in East Brighton Park and patients have to be transferred to the hospital by road.

The preparations for the construction of the helideck are nearing completion and the steel work to support the deck will start arriving on site in the next six weeks. The initial construction works will be at a low level and not visible from the ground, but by the latter part of the summer the support structure will be clearly visible above the roof line.

A plaque to Edward Zeff

A plaque commemorating the WW2 Secret Agent Edward Zeff, has today been unveiled on Embassy Court, his post-war home. The plaque was first put on display to the public at a special ceremony in the Corn Exchange last November.

The arrival of the special guests including Zeff family members.

Introduction by the Mayor.

Address by Paul McCue, Military Historian, author of 'Brighton’s Secret Agents' and Edward Zeff’s biographer

Address by Paul Roberts representing Bluestorm Ltd, the freeholder.

Address and unveiling by Don Miller representing The Zeff family

The ceremony was concluded with the Last Post, a one minute silence and Reveille.

Zeff had an amazing wartime career. Despite having no experience of clandestine warfare, he volunteered for S.O.E. to work as a secret agent in enemy-held France in the dangerous role of radio operator.
Germans  were eventually hot on Zeff’s trail in Lyons, but it was only when he was trying to return to Britain that he was betrayed and captured as he was about to cross the Pyrenees into Spain. Badly tortured and interrogated in Paris, he nevertheless held firm - only to then be sent to Mauthausen concentration camp.
As a Jew and a British agent, his fate should have been doubly sealed, yet somehow this remarkable man managed to survive. He was awarded the MBE (Military) and, by the French, the Croix de Guerre.
Edward Zeff returned to Brighton to live at 94 Embassy Court with his wife, but subsequently returned to his tailoring business in Paris and died there in 1973.

Brighton "Palace Pier" launch

A "City Greeter" explains her job.

 . . also some interesting visuals of a part of the Lanes that isn't built yet!

Philip Webb in Hove (2)

A reader has kindly submitted some additional details from the book "Philip Webb" by Sheila Kirk.

In this book she describes the extension as having 2 shallow octagonal vaults each with roof lantern. This corresponds well with what is visible in the Google Earth view in the previous post.












The catalogue section of the book contains the following entry:-

Saltdean Lido looking like it

The Pool

The Lawn

The Children's Pool

Changing facilities under construction

Official opening 27th May.

Campaign against fly-tipping

A new campaign is underway reminding householders it is a criminal offence to dispose of household items in the street.

Brighton & Hove City Council has joined a national publicity drive by Keep Britain Tidy called Crime Not To Care (# CrimeNotToCare).

Last year the council recorded over 2,600 cases of fly-tipping, costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds to clear up. Nationwide there are around half a million cases a year.

The council’s Cityclean staff are aiming to highlight 100 flytips in Brighton & Hove. They are handing out leaflets reminding people that leaving large items out in the street is a criminal offence and advising how to dispose of things properly – including via council special collections.

Residents are being urged to check that anyone collecting their waste has the required licence.

CCTV cameras are now being moved around fly-tipping hotspots to catch offenders.

See also: Fly-tippers beware

Philip Webb in Hove?

Philip Speakman Webb (12 January 1831 – 17 April 1915) was the architect of William Morris's Red House in Bexleyheath and is sometimes called the Father of the Art & Craft movement in English architecture.

Webb is also said to be the designer of an extension to 23 Second Avenue, Hove.

Judging by the Google Earth view there is certainly something out-of-the-ordinary about its appearance.

Nos 21 & 24 Second Avenue are both Grade II listed properties. 23 is unlisted.

Further information see: Philip Webb in Hove (2)

BA i360 nominated for RIBA award

Funding boost for Royal Pavilion estate project.

The first phase of a major project to revitalise the Royal Pavilion Estate has been awarded £3m from the Coast to Capital Local Growth fund. The grant award will go towards a major refurbishment of the Grade 1 listed Brighton Dome Corn Exchange and Grade 2 listed Studio Theatre as the first phase of an ambitious heritage project at the Royal Pavilion Estate. 

Due for completion in late 2018, the transformation of the Corn Exchange (formerly the Prince Regent’s Riding house) will restore long-lost heritage features, provide increased seating capacity and an impressive new viewing gallery. Major improvements to the Studio Theatre (once a stables and supper room) will include balcony seating, new bar facilities a new artists' creation space and a café opening out onto a plaza at street level. 

The £3m grant joins funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England (ACE) and Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), along with money from the city council, charitable trusts and individual patrons. Together this ensures £19.3m of the £21m phase one project costs are now in place. Fundraising will continue throughout the build which will include ways to support the project digitally, a seat appeal and event activity.

The multi-layered project, which will be delivered in three phases over the next few years, aims to reunite the historic Estate created by George IV in the early 19th century to create a centre for heritage, culture and the performing arts which reflects the unique spirit of Brighton.

See also: Restoration of the Corn Exchange & Studio Theatre

New Electric Bus trial

Brighton and Hove Buses are trialing new ways of making transport in Brighton and Hove more eco-friendly. Their newest initiative is the introduction of a fully electric bus.

Have your say on Toad's Hole Valley

See also: Toad's Hole Valley grinds on.

A Brighton twitten

"Twitten is an old Sussex dialect word, used in both East and West Sussex, for small passageways leading between two buildings to courtyards, streets, or open areas behind. Its origins are not clear, it is suggested it may be a corruption of ‘betwixt’ and ‘between’. It is early 19th century and is perhaps related to the low German ‘twiete’, meaning an alley or a lane."

My Brighton & Hove

Collins Dictionary dates it somewhat earlier:-

How to park free in Brighton & Hove

Brighton's 19 parking zones

Assuming you don't want to park in the zone-free outskirts (at least 2 miles from the city centre) the simple answer is that, any day of the week, you should arrive after 8 o'clock in the evening and leave before 9 o'clock the next morning. However there are local variations in the restrictions that can be taken advantage of.

There are three types of parking bay:-

• Permit holders only.
• Pay & Display.
• Shared Permit holders & Pay & Display.

In all the following zones the same time restriction 9am to 8pm (the period when the casual parker risks a fine) applies to all 3 types of bay:-

 Zone A - Preston Park Station
 Zone C - Queen's Park
 Zone E - Preston Park Station(North)
 Zone F - Fiveways
 Zone G - Hollingbury Road/Ditchlinq Gardens
 Zone H - Kemp Town & Hospital
 Zone  J - Preston Circus
 Zone M - Brunswick & Adelaide
 Zone N - Central Hove
 Zone O - Goldsmid
 Zone Q - Prestonville
 Zone R - Westbourne (incl. Church Rd, Portland Rd and Poets Corner)
 Zone T - Hove Station
 Zone Y - Central Brighton (North)

This accounts for 14 of the City's zones. Of the remaining 5 zones the most significant is Zone W, Wish Road.

Zone W - Wish Road, Hove

Zone W

In Zone W the restrictions are less severe. Parking is free between 11o'clock in the morning and 7o'clock in the evening. Usefully this allows for daytime visits to the beach, Lagoon, or other leisure facilities along Hove seafront and the Portland Road shops.
Parking is also free overnight from 8pm to 10am.


The remaining zones:-

Zone B - Coldean and Zone D - Moulscoombe. Parking is only restricted on match/event days at the nearby Amex stadium. At all other times parking is free but it is a long way from the city centre albeit with a good bus service.

Zone U -  St Luke’s. The smallest zone. Free parking 11am to 2pm and 3pm to 10am next day. Or in other words the only period you have to avoid being parked is the one hour between 10am & 11am and the one hour between 2pm & 3pm.

Zone Z - Central Brighton (South) Possibly as a hangover from earlier schemes different restrictions apply to different types of bay:-

• Permit only and shared Permit only and Pay & Display bays: - Free parking from 8 o'clock in the evening to 9 o'clock the next morning.
• Pay & Display bays:- Free parking 6 o'clock in the evening  to 9 o'clock the next day. (There are only a few of these). 

The northern boundary to Zone Z runs along the south sides of Temple Gardens, Clifton Road and Clifton Terrace.

Happy Hunting.

February 2018 update

Since the original post six new zones have been added which are detailed below:

Most noteworthy is the addition of zone L which extends the area of light restrictions from zone W up to Boundary Road.

29½ New Road

Dome Studio Theatre

Mr. & Mrs. Brown outside the Dome Cottage

The Dome Studio Theatre, formerly the Pavilion Theatre, stands on the site of a coachman's cottage and Mrs Fitzherbert's stables. The cottage was built for the Prince Regent circa 1806 when New Road was being created. From 1867 to 69 it was occupied by the Inspector of the Brighton Volunteer Fire Brigade, but not given the number 29½ until 1888 when the town's Inspector of Gas Meters, later Inspector of Public Lamps, was stationed there. By then the number 30 had already been allocated to a property at the south end of New Road.

The Inspector of Public Lamps was replaced in 1897 by Frederick William Brown, the Works Supervisor of the Pavilion Estate.  His daughter Miss Annie Brown continued in residence until its demolition in 1932.

In 1937 the present building started life as a Supper Room for the Corn Exchange with kitchen below. It was erected to plans by Robert Atkinson, the Art Deco architect who also designed the much-lamented Regent Cinema. Thankfully the future of his surviving Brighton creation looks secure. Work has recently started on an extensive renovation/remodelling which will see a new cafe/bar on the ground floor opened up to New Road and the Pavilion Gardens, and a viewing gallery into the Corn Exchange created behind the shops in New Road

New cafe/bar

Viewing gallery into Corn Exchange.

See also: 

Arts Council Grant for Dome Complex
Restoration of the Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre           

War Horse visits Brighton beach

Jason Kitcat reviews the Budget,

What's that smell?

A new milestone for the RSCH redevelopment

The 3Ts Redevelopment of the Royal Sussex County Hospital has passed another milestone this week. The move of the Radiopharmacy Team to the Hanbury Building has freed up the Nuclear Medicine Building. This is the  final area of the hospital required for the Stage 1 Building to go ahead.

The Stage 1 construction area takes up most of the south east quarter of the hospital site.

The buildings at the back of the construction area have already been removed and earthworks have started there. The Latilla and Jubilee buildings, the two largest structures at the front of the site will be deconstructed over the next two months. There will then be a clear view from the front of the construction site on the border with Eastern Road all the way back to the Thomas Kemp Tower and the Children’s Hospital that mark the northern boundary of the site.

The earthworks are preparing the site for the screw-piling that will start in the next few months. These are required to secure the sides of the site before excavation can begin. The entire Stage 1 area will have to be excavated to a depth of approximately two and half storeys so that the foundations of the building and the machinery required to run it can be put in place. It will also include an underground car park.  

The eleven storey Stage 1 Building is the larger of the two new buildings the redevelopment will provide. It will be the new main entrance to the hospital and house a mixture of outpatient, general inpatient and specialist inpatient services including Neurosciences, Intensive Care and the Stroke Unit.

Preparatory earth and foundation works for the building will continue into 2018. The building’s structure, much of which is being pre-constructed off site, will take approximately eighteen months to complete. The rest of the construction time into 2020 will be used for the specialist fit out of the building.

Further details.

The 2017 Brighton to Paris Bike Ride

This year's Mayor's Charity.