Brighton's seafront railings

Brighton & Hove News reports that the seafront railings are to be painted by offenders:-

"For the next fortnight, offenders working through Surrey and Sussex Probation Trust’s Community Payback scheme will be working between the piers, going over the area painted last year to touch up rust spots caused by winter weather, and then work eastwards from the Sea Life Centre towards Kemp Town."


Unfortunately, in some places the rust "spots" are of long-standing and caused by more than one winter's weather. More than simple "touching-up" would seem to be necessary if the iron-work is to be saved long-term.

I suspect the problem lying behind the gradual deterioration of the Victorian seafront is that there is no "glory" for the Council in carrying-out unglamourous regular maintenance. They would prefer to simply let things rot until they are beyond simple maintenance, and then, with fanfares, replace with something new. New, but perforce cheap, and therefore usually inferior to the original; as with the paddling pool, and the walled gardens. One wonders what will eventually happen to the Madeira Terraces.

Wagner church damaged by fire

The Argus reports that the former St. John the Evangelist on Carlton Hill, built by Brighton's famous church-building, Vicar the Rev. Henry Wagner, has been seriously damaged by fire. His only other surviving church is the beautiful St. Paul's in West Street.

A Blue Plaque to Henry & his son Arthur is scheduled to be unveiled this month at the Old Vicarage, Temple Gardens.

Cheap & Nasty

Cheap plastic cladding and an ungainly roof extension with no redeeming features.

Nasty zinc-clad boxy dormers with anti-pigeon spikes on top. Grim & forbidding.

If this kind of degradation of the built environment worries you, you should support a local conservation society of which the City has three: The Brighton Society, Hove Civic Society and the Regency society. They all have small planning committees or working groups who examine planning applications as they are published and comment or object as necessary. This helps to balance commercial pressures on the Planning Department and avoid unsympathetic changes to the streetscape.

Positive news from the Saltdean Lido Campaign

The campaign has this week submitted an application to English Heritage for the listing category to be upgraded from Grade II to Grade II*. If granted, and should any planning application for the site be submitted, this would require the Council to give special consideration to the Lido as a "particularly important building of more than special interest".

It is also reported that Sir Terence Conran is supporting the Campaign, and his project architect, Paul Zara, who was also behind the refurbishment of Embassy Court in Hove, is working free of charge to draw up sympathetic plans to save the Lido.

Old Steine cannon (3)

According to the  note to the above photo in the James Gray collection,
" . . . . Russian guns, relics of the Siege of Sebastopol (ended 1855), were placed in the gardens in 1859 and were removed during the 1930s." The photograph itself is a rather distant shot but it is just possible to make out one of the guns at the north end of the southern garden. It seems probable that there were a pair of cannon one each side of the north entrance and the 1930's photo is of the other one.

Interestingly, 1859 is also the year in which Brighton's West Battery, near the bottom of Cannon Place was demolished and the guns used there were 36-pounders*. I'm not an expert but I believe those in the Old Steine could be 36-pounders too. It all seems too much of a coincidence. Perhaps the Sebastopol relics were simply stored at the battery for the few years before it was demolished. . . ?

* "The Encyclopaedia of Brighton" by Timothy Carder