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Most popular posts since the first one on 28 February 2009.

The Old Town traffic-free scheme

Pavement café tables, better shopping and fewer accidents are a step closer under a scheme for traffic-free streets in Brighton’s historic heart.

The council is set to approve measures which would exclude vehicles most of the day from key parts of the old town – the area surrounding the Town Hall.  It follows a public inquiry concluded in the autumn when a government inspector approved changes comprising:

• Traffic prohibited from East Street between 11am and 7pm each day. The inspector said the move would help businesses and improve road safety. However it was felt impacts of diverting traffic into Little East Street should be investigated more. So excluding cars from East Street would be implemented once a sound scheme for Little East Street was ready. Plans are being designed and would be subject to public consultation.
• Closing a section of Ship Street between Duke Street and North Street to general traffic. There would be ‘access only’ for a few hours in the morning. It would be one-way from the south instead of the north, barring access from North Street.  
• Excluding traffic from a section of Prince Albert Street between Ship Street and Black Lion Street. Measures will be designed to allow loading for the nearby Friends Meeting House and access to a solicitors’ car park. Before proceeding, the council wants to assess the effects of closing Ship Street.

A report recommending councillors to approve the measures goes before the environment committee on January 14, and work is expected to start in Ship Street, with improvements there completed in March.  Dates for other changes are yet to be confirmed.

Old Town traffic - Public Enquiry results.

Rough seas at the Albion groyne

A brilliantly captured instant by Paul Cahill

Concrete groynes (in calmer weather)

HNY 2014

The Circus Street development

Up until the 1930's the area bounded by Carlton Hill to the south, Circus Street to the west, Sussex Street to the north and the now non-existent Carlton Row to the east comprised a warren of mean houses dating from the early 19thC.  They were clustered around insanitary courts and twittens and by the 1930's had been classified as slums, compulsorily purchased by the Council and, apart from the  Circus Street School, demolished. Among the premises lost was a chimney sweeps, a public house, general store, newsagent, and sawdust merchant.

On the cleared site the Municipal Market, later the Fruit & Vegetable Market was erected (see above). A remaining vacant site in the south-east corner became a small NCP car park. The lower part of Carlton Hill was renamed as Kingswood Street. In 2005 the market closed and the building has become increasingly derelict.

Planning Application BH2013/03461 by Cathedral Limited proposes a high density mixed-use development on the site which reproduces something of the original grain of twittens and interconnected courts as shown in the schematic plan below.

It is an appealing idea to refer to the original character of Brighton's townscape. However the buildings proposed for the site are 2 to 6 floors higher than nearby buildings and, seen from the Valley Gardens, will loom unattractively over the elegant houses in Grand Parade and degrade their roofline. The drawing below gives some idea of the extent of the effect. 

Strangely, the site is owned by the Council but the height of the development proposed seems to contravene the Council's own Tall Building policy since this is not a scheduled Tall Buildings (over 6 stories) Area. This may reflect the Council's need to cram the maximum number of housing units on to any available site to satisfy the Government housing policy. Perhaps the blame needs to be laid at the Government's door.