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

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.

First BikeShare docking stations

East of the Palace Pier.

Between now and early September 50 bike share docking stations are being installed around the city. Their locations are:

Imminently:

• Brighton Centre (Odeon cinema)
• Brighton Palace Pier (seafront)
• The Grand Hotel (seafront)
• Hove Lawns Café (seafront)
• Madeira Drive (Yellowave)
• Metropole Hotel (seafront)
• Peace Statue (seafront)

From 10 July 2017:

• Brighton Station (Surrey Street)
• Edward Street
• George Street (Hove)
• London Road (opposite Baker Street)
• New England Street (Sainsbury's supermarket)
• Old Steine 
• Preston Park (Preston Road)
• Seven Dials (Vernon Terrace)
• St James Street (Kemptown)

From 17 July 2017:

• Hartington Road
• Hove Town Hall
• Western Road

Locations for the rest of the 50 stations will follow. 

The scheme is operated by Hourbike for BTN BikeShare in association with Life Natural Spring Water. It will offer 450 smart bicycles with built-in GPS and wireless capabilities. Users will be able to locate and rent “Life Bikes” locked in any location across the city via an app, or online. Riders can return bikes to any docking station or lock them up at any legal location around the city.

Brighton & Hove is the first UK city bike scheme to feature Sobi smart bikes, a high-tech brand used in New York, Portland and Santa Monica. Other local businesses are now being invited to sponsor the bikes with packages ranging from £5k to £50k. 

Dodgy dodgems

RP&M image store

A photograph taken just over a year after the end of WW2 shows a miniature race track at the shore end of the West Pier. 

These differed from conventional dodgems which pick up electricity from an overhead metal mesh and return it through the conductive rink surface. 

On the West Pier the stadium-shaped track was made of wooden planking separated by narrow metal strips. These strips were of alternating polarity across the track and so provided 'go and return' paths for electricity. Brushes under the cars were spaced across an odd number of planks to contact the metal strips and supply power to the electric motors. Contact tended to be intermittent and there was much sparking when the cars veered across the track; which all added to the excitement. 

I have no idea what voltage was used but at that time direct current motors would have been the norm and much of Brighton was still on a 230V direct current supply. Nevertheless, the attendants used to walk across the track with apparent impunity. Perhaps they had rubber-soled shoes. 

The Marina - not all about housing . . .

Seemingly a long way from home the "Hebridean Explorer" has found it worthwhile to use Brighton Boatyard for some winter maintenance.

Locking through to the inner harbour 

Passing under the raised roadway, workboat assisted.

Entering the 60 tonne boat-lift

Boat-lift operator on station

Starting the lift

Moving off

Rampion wind farm progress

From Hove seafront

Installation of the 116 monopole foundations was completed last November. On a clear day the northernmost ones can be seen with the naked eye. Sixty interconnecting cables were also laid, followed in December by two 16km long export cables. Installation of the remaining 62 cables and the turbines is planned to start this spring.

Westdene Library

One of Brighton’s far-flung community libraries, Westdene in Bankside, has been spruced up and re-opens at 9am on November 29.   It has been closed for alterations to create a new classroom for Westdene Primary School next door.

Under the council’s Libraries Extra initiative it will now be open seven days a week and staffed on Tuesdays.  On other days library members can enter with their library card and PIN number. Facilities include a range of books, electronic media, computers, printing and free wifi.  There is also a new public toilet.

The library will also be on the lookout for volunteers.  For information on this or any other aspects of the library visit www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/libraries or call 01273 290800.

The opening hours are:-

Monday - 9am to 7pm (Libraries Extra)
Tuesday - 9am to 5pm
​Wednesday - 9am to 7pm (Libraries Extra)
Thursday - 9am to 5pm (Libraries Extra)
Friday - 9am to 5pm (Libraries Extra)
Saturday - 9.30am to 5pm (Libraries Extra)
Sunday - 11am to 5pm (Libraries Extra)

Thanks to 'Libraries Extra' Brighton is  bucking a national trend where access to libraries is shrinking due to budget cuts. Most Brighton & Hove community libraries are now operating ‘Libraries Extra’ scheme which provides:-
- a dedicated phone helpline
​- easy-to-use self-service kiosks to borrow and return items
- volunteer help on some days
​- constant monitoring by a security company with CCTV and live audio
- a dedicated intercom to the security company in case of emergency

To use Libraries Extra, members need to upgrade their membership card for free at their local library. They must bring two proofs of identity, one with an address, and agree to new terms and conditions of membership.

Waste & Recycling - Hollingdean Open Day

The conveyor belt.

Have you ever wondered what happens to your recycling after it is collected? Veolia invites visitors from across the city to come along and find out all this and more at their ‘Waste & Recycling Wonder Open Day’ on Thursday 10th November; at Hollingdean Materials Recovery Facility from 10am - 3pm.

Guided tours will be running throughout the day with plenty of opportunities to ask questions and discover what happens at the modern integrated waste management facility. Wonder Day tours must be pre-booked by calling: 01273 544205

Veolia South Downs has a 30 year contract for the delivery of an integrated waste management service across Brighton & Hove and East Sussex. Working in partnership with both East Sussex County Council and Brighton & Hove City Council, it is committed to providing a sustainable approach to managing the area’s household waste.

Experimental Motion

Coming soon to a gallery near you. - In fact the Spotlight Gallery of Brighton Museum  on
22 October 2016.

A new display will tell the story of experimental film-making in Brighton & Hove, from 1896 to the present day.









Unknown to many, both Brighton and Hove have played a rich and important part in international film history. Early film-making pioneers including George Albert Smith and James Williamson, who became known as the Brighton School and worked here at the turn of the 20th century, while modern and contemporary filmmakers and moving image artists – like Jeff Keen, Ben Wheatley and Ben Rivers – have cemented the city’s status as a hotbed of experimental film.

Free City WiFi network

BHCC and BT have joined forces to make free wi-fi available at a range of locations across the city centre. The new outdoor network will cover the busiest areas for tourism, shopping and leisure, providing free wi-fi for local residents, hundreds of businesses, and the 11.5 million people who visit the city each year.

A total of 40 BT Wi-fi hotspots will be available on completion of the project, allowing visitors and residents to get online while ‘on the go’ through their smart phones, tablets and laptops. Thirty of the wi-fi access points are now live, with the remaining ten due to be switched on later in the summer.

The ‘BrightonHovefreewifi’ network will come at no cost to the council. In return, BT will get access to some of the city’s lamp posts and other street furniture allowing the company to install new mobile infrastructure.

The service will cover a large proportion of the city centre, including parts of Western Road, Queens Road, West Street, North Laine, London Road, St James’s Street and the seafront between Brighton Pier and the Hilton Metropole Hotel, as well as in front of Hove Town Hall on Church Road and at the top of George Street in Hove.

People within range of the network will be able to tap into free wi-fi following a simple on-off log in. They will then be taken automatically to a landing page with links to the council website and VisitBrighton the city’s main resource for visitor information.

For more information visit: www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/bhfreewifi

i360 progress

It seems to be at 8 cans up with 9 still to go, which will more than double the present height.

Proposed south elevation

When standing at the north end of Regency Square I always used to feel vaguely disappointed that the old West Pier was not exactly aligned on the centre-line of the Square. It seems that the i360 designers have decided to perpetuate this anomaly. I don't suppose there is any chance of getting them to alter it now so I shall let it ride.

See also: "The growing i360."

The Telephone Box reborn

Marine Parade

Although most public telephones have now been made redundant by the mobile phone network,  the familiar red boxes are still hanging on in conservation areas and their removal would leave the street scene much the poorer. In their favour they all have electricity supplies and are very solidly built and durable. Some in busy areas have already been ingeniously converted to coffee kiosks.

Now a series of planning applications from architects M B Design & Build, working with the charity "Thinking Outside the Box", British Telecom and other registered charities, are seeking to convert other boxes for advertising.

“Thinking Outside the Box” is a charitable trust supporting homeless projects

around the country by undertaking to give a percentage of their earnings from

the retail uses of converted phone boxes. 

It is proposed to adapt disused boxes in Marine Parade, Trafalgar Street, Churchill Square, Dyke Road and St. Peter's Place to house full height LCD screens positioned immediately behind the glazed sides of the kiosks. The kiosks will be fully refurbished, fitted with toughened glass and repainted. The only other modification needed is to the door which involves installing a lock behind the pull plate.

St.Peter's Place

Pole progress

The i360 is still just a hole in the ground but things are now set to change fairly rapidly. Concrete pumping is scheduled for Saturday with concrete being delivered just the few miles from Shoreham harbour. The first tower sections, the "cans", are scheduled to be delivered to the beach by barge at high tide on June 11th.

A crane with a jib nearly as high as Sussex Heights is to be employed in the assembly work. A special jig will allow successive cans to be slid in at the bottom of the tower while the completed portion is raised by the crane.

The architects, Marks Barfield, designers of the London Eye, are world famous. The launch, scheduled for next summer, of the no less ingenious i360, is likely to make the headlines around the world; so helping to ensure the future of the City as a modern, exciting, destination.

Free WiFi coming to public buildings

From next March visitors to more than 50 public buildings and offices across the city will be able to access free WiFi. Sites will include the Brighton Centre, Portslade Village Centre, Hove Town Hall, King Alfred Leisure Centre, Foredown Countryside Centre, St Luke's swimming pool, youth centres and the seafront office.

The City Council won government investment to provide improved digital connections and Brighton & Hove are one of only 17 places across the UK to be selected for the super connected cities programme which complements the innovation and energy of the growing digital economy.

Funding has been provided by Broadband DeliveryUK through the government’s super-connected cities programme. Other projects in the city include a broadband voucher scheme where businesses can apply for a grant to improve their broadband connection, and a 'digital exchange' to offer ultrafast low-cost broadband for local creative and digital companies, based in New England House.