Brighton Story 1955

West Pier illumination.

The remains of the West Pier are now being permanently illuminated by a new lighting installation installed on the British Airways i360 boarding deck. The equipment was designed by Do Architecture, the firm which created the British Airways i360 tower lighting system. It uses specialist marine LED technology with sophisticated lenses to create a series of intense and focused beams of light, while consuming very low amounts of energy and requiring little maintenance. The scheme  is the result of a cooperation between BAi360 and the West Pier Trust.

Each evening after twilight, and after the starling murmuration has finished,  white light will pick out the standing ruin until midnight. The illumination will throw focused beams of white light out to the structure that will occasionally play off the rolling waves, creating a fitting adornment to the historic structure and extending the reach of its visual presence from day into night.

Earlier temporary lighting

BHCC - Review of 2017

Projects progress

Two prestigious building projects are scheduled for completion in 2018

After a seemingly quiet period work is in full swing on the Seafront Shelter hall.

The Hannington Lane development seen from Brighton Place

 Hannington Lane seen from Meeting House Lane

The new North Street entrance to Hannington Lane with the exposed Puget's Cottage behind.

Lanes Lights 2017

Brighton Herald now online

1st. edition. 

Brighton Museum have  recently released over 4000 digitised copies of the Brighton Herald newspaper on their Digital Media Bank for free online browsing or download.

The Herald was the first newspaper dedicated to Brighton, publishing its first issue on 6 September 1806.  The name of the paper changed to the Brighton Herald and Hove Chronicle on 19 July 1902, and to the Brighton and Hove Herald on 4 November 1922. The final edition, after 165 years, was produced on 30 September 1972 when the Herald was absorbed by the Brighton and Hove Gazette. The digitised newspapers released cover the period from 1806 to 1920. There is intermittent coverage for the early years, but a complete run is available from 1832 onwards.

The newspapers are available as PDF files, which were scanned from microfilm copies. As a result, the quality of the text varies, but the text has been scanned with optical character recognition (OCR) software, so it is possible to search for keywords within the newspapers. The Search Tips page on the Digital Media Bank advises how to run searches by date and/or keyword.

Over the next two years the Museum will be releasing more historic Brighton newspapers online, and they will be made freely available to view online or download to computer.

Brighton Square proposals

Strada Trading Ltd. have applied to erect a poycarbonate & laminated timber  pavilion in Brighton Square (see BH2017/03651) to provide covered restaurant space. 

The design would not be unattractive in a more spacious public park but here it would severely restrict circulation within the Square and deprive the Old Town of one of its few public open spaces. One also fears for the susceptibility of the panels to vandalism.

The proposal also requires the reconstruction and repositioning of the Dolphin Fountain which, it seems, would also prohibit unobstructed views of it from the surrounding walkways.

Toad's Hole proposals

Aerial view of the site looking south

Toad's Hole Valley, the largest greenfield development site in the City, is allocated in the City Plan to provide a modern, high quality, sustainable mixed-use development comprising new family and affordable homes, office space and community facilities. Following  consultation with residents a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) to guide the development was adopted by the Council earlier this year.

St Congar, the holding company for the land, is working with the landowners to bring forward the site in line with the SPD. St Congar will not build out the site themselves, but will sell parcels to other developers and/or housing associations to deliver over the coming years.

To facilitate this St.Congar have now published outline proposals for the development based on the SPD which seem to match or improve on the aspirations of the City Plan.

School (blue) & business areas (pink) in the bottom of the Valley

Ponds, swales, soakaways and permeable paving

Energy saving, solar energy, rainwater storage, ecological mitigation.

It is somewhat surprising that access to the site is proposed via 7 new junctions on to  King George VI Avenue. The effect of vehicles exiting the site and having to accelerate up the hill should have a notable calming effect on traffic speeds. The extra traffic at the Dyke Road roundabout might also cause problems.

King George VI Avenue