Patcham Duck Fayre returns.

After a hiatus of 14 years Patcham Village reclaims Old London Road from traffic for a day and the event promises to be bigger & better than ever.

"The Snowman" comes to Brighton.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Snowman, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, together with Penguin Ventures (part of Penguin Random House) are showing an  exhibition of the original book artwork created by Raymond Briggs. Raymond taught illustration at Brighton College of Art and still lives near Brighton.

In 1982 The Snowman was adapted for screen and has been shown on Channel 4 at Christmas every year since, becoming a firm favourite with children and adults all over the world and an intrinsic part of family festive traditions.

Some of the original hand-drawn cels, celluloid sheets used for traditional animation, from the TV adaptation will also be on display.

Since it was first published forty years ago, The Snowman has been produced in 21 languages around the world and has inspired a number of additional stories including a sequel animation, The Snowman and the Snowdog.

To commemorate the anniversary, children’s author Michael Morpurgo has reimagined Raymond Briggs’ original tale as a chapter book. Illustrated by Robin Shaw, The Snowman by Michael Morpurgo will appeal to middle-grade readers. Robin Shaw has also created a short animation especially for the 40th anniversary celebrations that will premiere in the gallery from 4 December.

Families will be able to enjoy a fun-filled Christmas day out by visiting The Snowman show and Christmas at the Royal Pavilion where the Pavilion is decked out in sumptuous festive decorations including a replica of Queen Victoria’s sleigh for the ultimate Christmas family photo.

The exhibition will also be the inspiration of a new artwork by the museum award-winning artist Helen Marshall. Using festive images submitted by the public throughout October and November Helen will create a collage portrait of The Snowman and James which will be unveiled and on display in the gallery from 4 December.  Festive photographs of Christmas memories, snow scenes, or all things wintery can be submitted at  www.thepeoplespicture.com. 

Help Keep Fabrica

Only £5000 of £20,000 target to go.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/keep-fabrica

Tourism 2016

Latest figures released by Tourism South East show the city attracted a total of 11,234,000 visitors in 2016, an increase of 6.4% on 2015.

On a regional and national level, the overall picture shows that Brighton & Hove is performing well, while England saw visitor numbers increase by 4%, the South East, overall, recorded a decrease of 2%.

Total expenditure by visitors to Brighton & Hove is estimated to have been in the region of £885.9 million in 2016, an increase of 3.2% compared to 2015.

The data also shows the city had  9,627,000 day trippers,  a 5.8% upturn on 2015, while the amount of money spent during their trip increased by 6.2% to £353 million.

The number of overnight stays in the city showed the biggest increase at 1,607,000, just over 10% up on 2015.  Domestic visitors were shown to be the group that had contributed most to this growth with almost 15% more overnight trips made by UK travellers compared with 2015 figures. 

The only figure to have dipped slightly is the number of overnight trips made by overseas visitors, which was down marginally, by 2.1%, though both the length and value of each trip has increased.

About Tourism South East (TSE)
TSE is a not-for-profit organisation with a mission to provide services and expertise that supports the performance and growth of tourism businesses and destinations. Services provided include:  domestic and international marketing campaigns, PR and web promotions, training courses, research and visitor information services, networking opportunities and advocacy.

Read more about the Economic Impact of Tourism Study, Brighton & Hove

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

Lanes Lights 2017

Christmas 2107 at the Royal Pavilion

Experience a magical Christmas at the Royal Pavilion. The fires are lit, the candles are flickering, the spectacular Banqueting Room table is laid with after dinner treats and the building is transformed with festive decorations and glittering trees. Pavilion-inspired decorations including butterflies, birds and flowers bring sparkle, glamour and Christmas cheer for all the family. 

Drop-in activities and spotting  George the playful Cat on a family trail:

• 21- 30 November 2017 at 10:00 am until 4:30 pm.
• 1 - 5 December 2017 at 10:00 am until 4:30 pm

Activities at the weekends 2 & 3, 9 &10 & 16– 24 December

• Storytelling in the Music Room between 12-4pm (on the hour, lasting 25 minutes). Free with admission
• Make your own tree decorations, 12-4pm. Free with admission, drop-in.

(On 24 December activities will end at 2pm as the Palace closes at 2.30pm.)

Christmas Lights switch-on '17

 This year’s big switch-on event will take place on Thursday 16th November from 5:15pm

From 5pm on Thursday 16th November, Brighton city centre will burst into festive spirit with a FREE party in East Street. The event, organised by Brilliant Brighton is in association with 107.2 Juice FM and Chestnut Tree House children’s hospice, while the Christmas lights are being sponsored by Southern Water.

This year’s event showcases the enchanting 40-strong all-female Brighton choir, We Bop, along with the angelic young voices from Hove’s Singing’s Cool and performers from renowned The Theatre Workshop, starting the feel-good family festivities.

Comedic group AFOUR will also be performing their fun, tongue-in-cheek Christmas song Four Kings.

There will also be a raffle with fantastic prizes from Brilliant Brighton businesses, with all donations going directly to children’s hospice, Chestnut Tree House.

Googlebox stars Chris Butland-Steed and Stephen Webb (who live locally) will have the all-important task of counting down and flicking the switch to unveil Brighton’s festive lights. These will  include the new "Ho Ho Ho", voted for by the public, in September.

The event is staged by Brilliant Brighton,  an organisation formed of 517 businesses who put on the switch-on event and collectively pay the £75,000 per year fee to ensure the city is lit up at Christmas, and sponsored by Southern Water.

Burning the Clocks 2017.

'Burning the Clocks 2017, East' by Graham Carter.

Help make it happen from just £5.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/burning-the-clocks-2017

Lego® Wind Turbine comes to Brighton

This November, the LEGO® Wind Turbine moves to its new home at Park Square, Brighton Marina, in celebration of LEGO reaching its target of 100% renewable energy capacity a 3 years early.

In May, LEGO was awarded a Guinness World Record for creating the world’s largest wind turbine made from LEGO bricks and now you too can visit the impressive 7.5m model in Brighton Marina from Saturday 4th November and throughout the coming months.

A team of LEGO experts from Czech Republic, Hungary, France, and UK spent around 600 hours building the LEGO brick turbine, using 146,000 LEGO bricks.

Royal Pavilion & Museums - a bumper summer

Between April and September the Royal Pavilion received more than 220,000 visits, up by 6% and on target to reach an estimated 325,000 this year.

The Royal Pavilion is a good general barometer of the local tourist economy and this year has seen a notable increase in the proportion of foreign visitors - 43% compared with 37% in 2016/17.

Visits to Brighton Museum also increased by 13,000, despite entry charges for non-residents. Between April and September there were 61,000 visits to the museum – a massive 27% increase on last year.

The increases are partly due to the weak pound attracting overseas visitors and some popular exhibitions, such as Jane Austen By The Sea at the Royal Pavilion  and Constable at Brighton Museum.

Preston Manor visits were 2,600 above target, with 11,768 through the doors of Brighton’s Edwardian mansion between April and September. Two-thirds of visits to Preston Manor are school groups and almost all the autumn sessions are fully booked.

Palace Pier revamp

Over the coming winter Brighton Palace Pier Company is to invest £1.3M in revamping the bar and restaurant facilities.

With 4.65 million visitors a year the Pier is the fifth most popular free destination in the UK.

It is good to know its immediate future is secure.

How the BA i360 was built

In the i360 beach building an interesting exhibition is open to the public until, come winter, the pod starts loading and unloading from the lower promenade level.

Interesting facts about the construction:
• The 4,150-tonne concrete foundations are 3 metres deep.
• 7,200 tonnes of natural beach shingle was excavated during construction and returned to the beach at Shoreham, to help reverse the longshore drift.
• The 162-metre-high tower consists of 17 steel cans that were bolted together using 1,336 bolts.
• The steel cans vary in thickness from 85mm at the base to 20mm at the top.
• The pod is 18 metres in diameter and is 10 times the size of a London Eye capsule.
• The glass panels of the pod were shaped at high temperatures using bespoke moulds.
• The West Pier tollbooths were reconstructed using castings from the original structures.

Royal Pavilion & Museums - £2.8M successful bid

The Royal Pavilion & Museums (RPM) has successfully bid for nearly £2.8 million over four years (£689,507a year) from Arts Council England’s National Portfolio.

This offer is conditional on an agreed business case for invigorating the Booth, Hove Museum  and Preston Manor and bringing the collections across the city closer to communities, through digital and schools activities to exhibitions, events and outreach.

At the Booth Museum a new ‘evolution gallery’ will feature a specially commissioned replica of an ‘Iguanodon Mantellisaurus’ (a type of dinosaur) and the story of its local discoverer Gideon Mantell. From birds to butterflies, flora to fossils, the Booth’s Designated collection will evolve into an interactive science centre, to share the story of what it is to be human in the natural world.

The Booth will also build on its popular events programme to attract new audiences; it has hosted award-winning life drawing classes, promenade theatre, sell-out pub quizzes, acoustic gigs and taxidermy demonstrations that have shown the venue and collections in a new light.

Hove Museum’s profile will be developed as a ‘museum of making,’ encouraging and inspiring a wide audience to experience the Craft and Film & Media collections. Programming, exhibitions and activities will explore the processes and the people behind objects in the museum with a ‘Maker in Residence’ from the University of Brighton sharing the collections with visitors.

Collaboration with local film organisations such as the Brighton Youth Film Festival, Cine-City and Film Archive South East will explore new ways of using the spaces and collections at Hove Museum.

At Preston Manor, the emphasis will be on providing greater access to parts of this historic building, and revitalising the kitchen gardens. Improvements to the visitor experience will build a better understanding of the house, collections and those who lived and worked there.

On the Royal Pavilion Estate a series of exhibitions and displays will mark key milestones over the next four years such as the 200th anniversary of the Royal Pavilion’s creator, George IV’s, ascension to the throne, and the 50th anniversary of the Moon landings.

The restoration of the Royal Pavilion’s Saloon will be completed in 2018 and the funding will enable an accompanying display to showcase the ‘behind the scenes’ work of  a range of specialists involved, including carpet makers, silk weavers, upholsterers, decorative artists and historians.

The Arts Council has previously recognised RPM’s sector expertise in the use of digital programming and technology to engage audiences. During  2018-22 a digital publishing programme will promote exhibitions, events, and the unexpected stories behind the collections. RPM aims to reach a million sessions per year across their various websites by the end of the four year period

A new Volks railway station.

Being loaded on to a transporter.

A new station for Brighton’s Volks Railway is due to be craned into position near the Sea Life Centre, tomorrow (15 June 2017)

Designed by Hove-based ABIR Architects and built by Boutique Modern at their warehouse in Newhaven, the new Volk’s Railway Aquarium station has just been loaded onto a lorry for delivery to Madeira Drive today. Estimated arrival time is around 8.30 – 9.00 pm.

Tomorrow morning the three elements of the modular building will be craned into their home on the beach on Madeira Drive.

The new building will house the Volk’s Railway Aquarium Station and a new visitor centre.

BA i360 landscaping - update

West side. The Activity/Performance piazza 

East side. The Heritage piazza

On the west side of the i360 the work is complete with high-standard paving and street furniture.

On the east side the heritage installation is still progressing. The planned spiral of reclaimed piles is beginning to take shape. It is intriguing how, in the background, the remaining beach piles of the West Pier enter the composition.

The east side piazza is also intended to be home to a restored West Pier kiosk which is till awaiting funding.

See also - Seafront mathematics

SE "Project of the Year" - the BA i360

The highly acclaimed Project of the Year accolade is presented by the R.I.C.S. to the scheme which demonstrates overall outstanding best practice and an exemplary commitment to adding value to its local area. British Airways I-360 not only scooped the prestigious title this year, it also won the 'Design through Innovation' and 'Tourism & Leisure' awards.

Brighton has a long tradition of expressing its identity through remarkable architecture and British Airways I-360 continues this tradition of celebratory structures. Not only has the project given the city a 21st  Century landmark with which to identify itself, it has created new jobs and spurred economic growth. The innovative form of funding used to build British Airways i360 means that Brighton & Hove City Council (BHCC) earns nearly £1 million per year for the city. These earnings are used for regenerative purposes, to breathe new life into forgotten areas and to give back to the city.

In urban design terms, the tower can be seen as an equivalent of an obelisk which traditionally was used to complete the bottom of an open-ended, three-sided plan, such as Regency Square. The height of British Airways i360 is half the length of the West Pier, while the visitor centre at its base, including the reconstructed Eugenius Birch-designed 1866 tollbooths and flanking stairs, stretches the width of Regency Square behind it. The tower, aligned on the central axis of Regency Square, creates a strong reference point from afar.

Preston Manor well-house

West elevation

South elevation

North elevation

The Preston Manor well-house was grade II listed in 1971 and doesn't look as if its had any attention since.

It dates from c.1735. It is rectangular in plan with an eastern extension probably originally a stable. The well inside is said to still survive surrounded by a low brick wall on which rests the remains of 19th.C cast-iron winding gear.  It has lost its original horse-operated iron pump and capstan.

It is situated in the grounds of the Preston Croquet Club. It needs careful preservation work, to be included in the purlieu of Preston Manor and treated as a historic attraction.

Leader of the Council on Madeira Terraces

A Pool for Madeira Drive - update