Shelter Hall - June 2019

The Rotunda at Kings Road level now has its windows.

The first of the Neptune head decorations is being fitted to the arched openings on the lower promenade.

From what can be seen of it so far the design looks excellent and highly sympathetic to the existing seafront arches. The quality of the brickwork is particularly striking.

The work is scheduled to be completed this year. It looks as if it might be a close thing.

A new Marina promenade.

 Site of new development looking west.

The Marina Outer Harbour development came to a standstill after the completion of phase 1 in 2016 which saw the erection of the Orion & Sirius apartment blocks at the West Quay. Since then the project has  been acquired by investment managers ICG Longbow who have enlisted architects Squire & Partners to produce new plans for phases 2 & 3. Squire & Partners have an impressive portfolio of modern developments in their portfolio including Chelsea Barracks.

Whereas the earlier plans envisaged 4 discrete apartment blocks on platforms projecting out over the spending beach the latest plans have drawn some inspiration from the city's seafront squares and crescents.

Impression of new scheme looking west.

Pink areas indicate retail facilities

For the public at large the new scheme has the advantage of providing near level access from Madeira Drive via the western breakwater, several new public squares, and great permeability throughout the site, not the least including a new 250m long promenade with views directly out to sea through the harbour arms. 

Shelter Hall taking shape.

December 2108

Previous post: Shelter Hall progress.

Shelter Hall progress

West side 

South

From east

The East Street kiosk - update

The victorian Shelter Hall kiosk which was restored last year and rebuilt at the bottom of East Street has now been given a final and important decorative touch with the reinstatement  of the cast iron frieze below the guttering. Much of it must have needed recasting but fears that finances had run out were evidently unfounded.

See previous post for more photos:-
The East Street kiosk.

Groyne repairs

The first part of the Albion groyne was built in 1876 but its width was doubled in 1896 when it was extended over the storm water outfall running alongside. It originally had gas-lighting for the benefit of fishermen at sea but this presumably became redundant when the Palace Pier opened in 1899.

The carcass wall is constructed of pre-cast concrete and flint blocks but the upstanding wall along the edge is of hand-laid flints. This wall suffers battering from both sides in stormy weather and, as a result, a long section of this has evidently suffered damage and is being rebuilt.

A sloping joint between upper and lower sections of the carcass wall probably indicates the top of the original storm water outfall.

The groyne  is grade II listed as a "groyne and pleasure promenade, serving for a time as a coal delivery pier. c1880, sections of it rebuilt through the C20. Flint, walkway of paving stones." 

Dorothy Coke - artist

'Leach" was the name of a famous Brighton fishing family who later turned to other activities.

Dorothy Coke, 1897-1979 was a popular mid 20th.C watercolour artist who taught at Brighton Art College from 1939 until her retirement in1967. During WW2 she received a short-term commission from the War Artists Advisory Committee to depict the work being performed by women in various services. She was elected a member of the Royal Watercolour Society.

The Imperial War Museum holds some of her works & the Aldrich collection at University of Brighton has 34 of her sketches. Sadly there are none held by Brighton Museum.

Shelter Hall site - extra money needed

Councillors are to discuss investing extra money in the scheme to save Brighton’s seafront road and  to recreate the 1880s Shelter Hall as a seafront centrepiece. The authority had originally been working to a budget of £10.6m.  So far £12.2m has been spent.  Now a new report recommends an extra £7m is needed for two key reasons:

• To upgrade the quality of the Shelter Hall replacement building to make it more attractive to investors. It is likely to be a quality restaurant. 
• To cover the extra cost of complex engineering work needed so far to stabilise the ground, overcome underground obstacles and deal with historic structures in a worse state than expected. 

As well as costing more, the project’s complexity means it will take longer.  It had originally been expected to complete this summer. It is now likely to be autumn 2019.

A finance report to the policy, resources and growth committee on 8th February suggested mainly raising the cash from central government.  The total would comprise £4m of Department for Transport grants, £2m of borrowing and £1m from other council sources.

Council officials say at the time the bid was made in 2015 it was not possible fully to assess risk factors such as ground conditions, the full state of historic structures and uncharted underground services.

Examples of factors which require extra funding include:

• A huge engineering operation to stabilise the ground and structures – involving sinking dozens of metre-thick concrete piles up to 17 metres into the ground
• Maintaining traffic flows on the A259 in order to preserve access to local businesses and avoid damage to the local economy caused by the works 
• Improvements to the replacement Shelter Hall’s specification to boost its revenue-generation by increasing its floorspace with a larger building and mezzanine floor.  Following advice from Historic England and the council’s planning service there are additional costs arising from conservation and design improvements
• Provision of larger public toilets
• An historically faithful restoration of the Grade 2 listed kiosk above the Hall, which was much more rotten than anticipated
• Other costs arising from things such as obstacles hidden underground – including three old sea walls – and the building and road structure being in a worse condition than could have been foreseen.  This has required extra work and complex engineering solutions.
• Additional demands on mechanical and electrical services for the project. Examples include a beefed-up ventilation system for the premises and a new electricity sub-station.

Shelter Hall progress

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

Shelter Hall progress

The site today.

In total 135 piles almost a metre thick have now been sunk up to 20 metres into the ground. During the task, contractors shipped in 750 cubic metres of concrete in hundreds of cement lorries. The next phase will involve a similar quantity of concrete to create a solid slab half a metre thick on which to build the new Shelter Hall.

Piling in progress

A lorry compound on the upper prom and second diversion to the cycle lane are expected to be in place until June 2018.

Access to the beach and all businesses on the lower prom remains the same.  A temporary pedestrian crossing in front of the Brighton Centre will also stay.

Once groundworks are complete, a reinforced concrete frame will be created. External finishes will mean the new building looking similar to the Victorian structure it replaces.

The new building is expected to open in Spring 2019.

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.

The West Pier Centre opens

Beach rubbish sculpture

The sculpture isn't rubbish - it's clever - it's just made of rubbish.

Shelter Hall piling starts

The latest phase of rebuilding Brighton’s historic seafront Shelter Hall gets underway from early September, as contractors start sinking 135 concrete piles, up to 20 metres into the ground. These will then be capped with a half-metre thick slab of concrete to provide a stable base for the new building.

Around 1450 cubic metres of concrete will be pumped into the site – enough to fill three swimming pools the size of Brighton’s Prince Regent.

Hundreds of cement mixer deliveries will be needed. To accommodate them, a special compound will be created across the layby and prom opposite the Brighton Centre. This will entail a second diversion in the seafront cycle lane to be put in place imminently, shifting it a few metres south into a space shared with pedestrians. An existing diversion to the east will stay.

Piling and capping work is expected to last until around next February. However the compound and cycle lane diversion are expected to be in place until June 2018 to assist subsequent works.

Once groundworks are complete, a reinforced concrete frame will be created. External finishes will mean the new building looking similar to the Victorian structure it replaces.

The new building housing a large destination restaurant, a rotunda café, a retail unit and public toilets is expected to be fully open in Spring 2019. Revenues will help maintain the seafront in future. The council is also reinforcing the A259 to eliminate the risk of it eventually collapsing.

The new seafront landscaping

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.

Seafront sculpture sacrilege

Aug 2017

Notwithstanding the reputation of Brighton as a centre for the arts and artists philistines seem to be alive and kicking.

The setting of an important 20thC artwork has been recently ruined by the unthinking addition of a motley collection of seafront clutter. It is no consolation that some of it may not be permanent. Even the security camera mast, in itself, is sufficient to spoil the composition.

How it should look.

See also: Passacaglia postscript