EXHIBITION OF PROPOSALS FOR THE ROYAL ALEXANDRA HOSPITAL SITE

Taylor Wimpey invited the public to view their two proposals, in advance of of the submission of formal planning applications for the Royal Alexandra Hospital site.

Taylor Wimpey had prepared two schemes, one for total demolition of everything on the site and to include 138 flats, of which 54 were affordable, a GP’s surgery and a pharmacy. The second scheme retained the main Alex building and included 118 flats, but did not include a GP’s surgery or any affordable housing.

Neither of these plans meet the requirements of the planning brief. The planning brief is only of use if the Council insist that Taylor Wimpey adheres to it.

The company claims that these are the only approaches which are financially viable. The Council is to ask the District Valuer to look at these options in advance of seeing Taylor Wimpey’s figures.

see also : the royal alex gallery

GRADE II LISTED BUILDING MAY BE REPLACED WITH A SIX STOREY OFFICE BLOCK

The Astoria, opened as a 1,800 seat cinema in 1933, was converted to a bingo hall in the 1970s, but closed in 1997.

It was acquired by Yes/No Productions, the company that created the Stomp, who sold it in 1997, and recently bought the Old Market in Hove.

Plans to replace he Astoria with a 6 storey block of offices with a café on the ground floor, and a two storey annex for smaller ’starter’ offices, will be submitted in October 2010.

PLANS TO REPLACE MEDINA BATHS WITH A NINE STOREY BLOCK OF FLATS AND RESTAURANT

A planning application no: BH2009/03015 has been submitted to build a 9 storey development including 9 flats, with a ground and first floor restaurant and basement parking.

Medina Baths were designed by the architect P B Chambers and built by the Hove Bath and Laundry Company in 1893-4. In 1906 a request was made to the Council to close the slipper baths to create a Turkish Bath which was in full swing by 1911. An advertisement appeared in Pike’s directory for the ‘Hove New Turkish, Medical and Electro Hydropathetic Baths Company Limited’.

Hove Baths, as it was renamed, was bought by Hove Council in 1918. Some wonderful floor to ceiling gazed tiles in a repeating pattern remain around the suviving walls on the second floor.

In 1920 the Ministry of Health bought the site. From 1940-1994 the building was used Monickendoms as a diamond cutting workshop employing 50 people. In 2000 the Turkish Baths were demolished.

The ceramics are the most important part of the site, as far as possible these should be salvaged and moved Brighton Museum.

OLD MARKET—ALL PREVIOUS BOOKINGS CANCELLED

Yes/No Productions, creators of Stomp, the international alternative dance troupe, exchanged contracts for The Old Market last week, and will launch their new venture with an exclusive performance for the 2011 Brighton Festival. All previous bookings: lectures, concerts and weddings, have been cancelled.

Yes/No Productions, formed in 1991, intend to create an artistic space where ideas can be formed, performed and taken out on the road. The main hall will become a recording venue for musicians, choirs and orchestras, and a rehearsal space for both theatre and dance groups. Luke Cresswell, one of the directors of Yes/No, said that they were aware of the fantastic accoustics of the building.

Plans are being drawn up to create a series of performing arts summer schools. It will be a commercial venture not reliant on grants and subsidies, but still focused on residents of Brighton and Hove.

Yes/No Productions had originally planned to take over the Astoria but this proved to be an inappropriate decision for them at the time. The Old Market will be closed for a short time so that essential work and small renovations are carried out, but they plan to reopen in November 2010.

Timeline of the Old Market:
1828 The Old Market, designed by Charles Busby, opened as the market building for Brunswick Town.
1840 The Old Market became a riding school.
1880 The building was aquired by Alfred Dupont and became known as Dupont’s West Brighton Riding Academy. The building was enlarged to provide additional stabling.
1929 Converted to a grocery distribution warehouse.
1930 Bacon smokery added.
1970s Plans to develop it as an arts centre were examined.
1980s Project falls through for lack of funding, and the building left empty.
1995 The Hanover Band Trust commissioned a feasibility study. A separate trust to run the building was recommended.
1996 Old Market Trust formed to own and manage the building.
1997 The National Lottery awarded £3.8 million to restore the building.
2010 Sadly The Old Market closed, the building is bought by Yes/No productions.

CONCERNS GROW OVER HOSPITAL MODERNISATION

Designs for the £400m redevelopment of the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Eastern Road were unveiled recently.

The plan is to modernise the hospital to develop services provided for seriously ill and injured patients and to develop its role as the regional teaching hospital. The hospital authorities maintain that the buildings at the front, built 180 years ago, are inadequate and they need to replace them with modern facilities.

Our prime concern is the loss of the main building designed by Charles Barry and, at the rear, the chapel designed by William Hallett. Although the chapel is listed English Heritage refused to list the Barry building as there had been too many alterations.

Could the building be modernised behind the Barry facade? Unfortunately the Council are opposed to facadism. This leaves many questions yet to be answered.

THE CONNAUGHT SCHOOL EXHIBITION WILL GO TO THE REGENCY TOWN HOUSE

The exhibition about the Connaught School, devised by the Brighton Society, will go to the Regency Town House, 13 Regency Square, Hove, in time for the Heritage Open Days 10, 11 and 12 September 2010.

Brighton & Hove City Council is now hoping to buy the Connaught from City College to meet the demand for primary school places. The Connaught surely provides a better solution than Portacabins which would cost £1 million, the same cost as the essential repairs to the Connaught. Which would be better value for money?

Could the Connaught be used as a primary school on the ground floor retaining the Adult Education Centre on the first floor? In this way adult learners would be segragated from children and would therfore not have to undergo CRB checks.

Will parents whose children would have to travel a long way to school to be educated in Portacabins, cold in winter and too hot in summer, join us in our campaign to establish this dual use for the Connaught?

‘About Hove’ Quiz answers to the photographs displayed during the day’s festivities at the Connaught School on 20 March 2010 can be found here.

SUMMARY ARTICLE
Some of the arguments put about why the Connaught School should be listed have appeared in articles here in the Brighton Society website over the last few months. Below we set out a summary of the points made in those stories.

- - - - - - -∞ articles summary

The Connaught Board school is a fine example of the versatile Queen Anne brick and sash style of educational building. Evocation of the liberal and progressive ideology which inspired the board schools, the Connaught has many exquisite external details.

The external fabric has hardly been altered since it was built in 1884, and internally the original layout of corridors and classrooms remains intact.

The Brighton Society commissioned an independent survey on the building by Ron Martin MRICS of the Sussex Industrial Archaeological Society. His report confirms that the building is largely sound and intact, both externally and internally.

The Connaught Centre is a valuable example of an educational building designed by Thomas Simpson and is the only educational building by Simpson remaining in Hove, in addition the only remaining board school built for the School Board in Hove.

English Heritage, in their letter confirming the listing wrote:

“The Secretary of State . . . has decided to list the Connaught Centre at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Of special interest as an architecturally distinguished and well-preserved board school.

An early and distinctive use of the Queen Anne style in school design outside London, expressed through features such as the elegant shaped gables and façade detailing;

Retention of internal features of interest.

It is therefore of sufficient special architectural or historic interest to merit listing.”

see also : connaught centre gallery

MASTERPIECE OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE UNDER THREAT

The Saltdean Lido Campaign have applied to English Heritage to raise the status of the Lido to grade II* to give it extra protection.

The Brighton Society strongly supports the application. English Heritage’s own words in their publication ‘Liquid Assets’ states that “it is one of the finest lidos to emerge in the 1930s, a lido that is unique . . . in its design”. It was the first operating lido to have been listed in 1987.

The Saltdean Lido Campaign have asked Conran & Partners to help them deliver an alternative business plan. One idea is to introduce environmentally sustainable heating systems to extend the pool’s season, another is to include a café/restaurant and upgraded community facilities.

The Saltdean Lido Campaign is holding a competition to select 13 photographs of the Lido to illustrate a 2011 calender. The competition will be judged by Conran & Partners.

The Saltdean Lido is a masterpiece of the international Modern school of 20th century architecture, designed by Richard Jones in 1937, listed grade II, the first lido in England to be listed in 1987.

Dennis Audley, the leaseholder (the Council owns the freehold), would like to replace the pool with a number of flats in a 4 storey block, plans are due to be submitted in July 2010. Mr Audley wants to keep the open air pools which would link to a new indoor pool. He also plans  to construct a new community building.

An article in the Observer 18 July 2010 states: “the exquisite Saltdean Lido  . . . has closed and will soon be redeveloped into luxury flats”. Fortunately this is inaccurate, the Lido has not closed, and the proposal to replace it with luxury flats has not yet even been submitted.

The recent (over) development of flats at the nearby Ocean Hotel - another 1930s masterpiece - must have given the leaseholder of the Lido the idea that overdevelopment with flats is an acceptable solution to his funding shortfall. Residents would like to take over the lease so that the Lido could be run by local people, as is the Pells pool in Lewes.

An open air pool has recently been established in Dieppe, the water heated with solar power enabling it to stay open throughout the year, whereas the Saltdean Lido is open for only 3 months in the summer.

Explore Living, the developers of the Ocean Hotel flats, would provide £160,000 Section 106 money to support the Lido, but this would be inadequate. Originally the Ocean Hotel had its own pool, but this has been replaced by yet more flats.

If you would like to become a member of the campaign (£15 per household) to save the Saltdean Lido contact: Rebecca Crook
e: saltdeanlidocampaign@googlemail.com
w: www.saltdeanlidocampaign.org

PLAN FOR LARGER ASDA STORE AND 60s INNER CITY HOUSING ESTATE DISMISSED

But it is a hollow victory for Kemp Town, Marina and Brighton residents. The Secretary of State has dismissed the plan to build a larger Asda store, with a restaurant and 764 flats, refused planning permission in December ‘08. The developer, Explore Living, appealed against the refusal and a public inquiry was held before Christmas ‘09. The Secretary of State’s decision was given on 13 July ‘10.

Extraordinarily the Secretary of State agrees with the Inspector’s conclusion that “for the most part the development would be a high quality solution to the challenging site”. He is also “satisfied that the proposal would preserve the setting of the Kemp Town Conservation Area and listed buildings.” Factors weighing against the proposal include loss of views of the cliffs, the Downs and eastward glimpses of the sea.

The Secretary of State agrees with the Inspector that “the planning balance favours the planning permission, but concludes that the shortcomings of the section 106 obligation are potentially so serious that the proposal in its current form is unacceptable and that planning permission should therefore be refused”. There is nothing in the report which gives the Kemp Town Society, savebrighton or the Brighton Society any comfort. www.savebrighton.com

The plan includes demolition of the petrol filling station and its replacement with 148 flats, demolition of McDonalds to create an enlarged drive-thru restaurant and 233 flats above, demolition of the estates office to create 35 flats, demolition of the eastern end of the multi-storey car park, to create a petrol filling station; a total of 1,294 flats in addition to the Brunswick scheme for 800 odd flats which already have permission on the seaward end of the Marina.

Although the Society did not be appear at the inquiry, as the Kemp Town Society and Save Brighton presented a well researched case against the development, our chairman submitted written evidence opposing this ill planned scheme. The Brighton Society also considered that the development would be detrimental to the celebrated Kemp Town estate, considered to be one of the best examples of formal town planning in western Europe.

AMERICAN EXPRESS AND CARLTON HILL

It was announced on 5 July 2010 that a fire had broken out in the church of St John the Evangelist on Carlton Hill and it appears to have been quite seriously damaged. It is thought that the fire was started deliberately. The church has been used for many years by the Greek Orthodox church.

American Express have received planning permission (application no. BH2009/01477) to build new office blocks on Carlton Hill, Mighell and John Streets: of 5-9 storeys, including 2 basement floors, 106 car parking and 132 cycle parking spaces.

The application does not show clearly enough the impact of this development would have on the neighbouring Carlton Hill Conservation Area, which includes the listed Mighell Street farmhouse (pictured below), the listed church St John the Evangelist and the listed Tilbury Place. We were concerned about the overshadowing of these tall office blocks on the playground of Carlton Hill School. However the school has been awarded  £300,000 under a Section 106 Agreement to relocate its playgound.

The Brighton Society welcomes very considerable improvements to the Amex proposal. Although the main building is still built right up the the edge of the pavement of Carlton Hill, considerable articulation and detailing of the facades has been introduced, with less impact than a slab block.

The windowless ‘information’ building has been set into the ground and provided with windows, giving it a friendlier feel.

The Council will of course welcome the securement of existing employment opportunities offered by American Express.

MIGHELL STREET The Brighton Society is particularly concerned about 33 Mighell Street, a Georgian farmhouse, which is in poor condition. Two thirds of the building is owned by American Express, and one third by the owner of Thwaites Garage. We would hope that American Express could aquire the ownership of the whole building, restore it and use it for some human activity, perhaps as a social club for Amex employees, as well as making it available for nearby residents on occasions.

QUESTIONS REMAIN ABOUT HISTORY CENTRE MOVE

The Keep has not attracted lottery funding, so the building will be smaller than originally planned and the important public areas will be reduced. The Keep is not as accessible as the History Centre in Brighton Museum.

Plans for the Keep have been drawn up, a planning application will be submitted in the summer, but is Woollards Field near Falmer the right site? It is at least 20 minutes walk from Falmer station.

Woollards Field is owned by Brighton & Hove Council and has presumably been donated as its contribution to the cost of the Keep. The building is due to start in 2011, but will probably not be completed, fitted out and dried out until 2015 or even later.

The Council’s own website describes the History Centre as “the place to come to research any aspect of  the City’s heritage.” It houses reference materials such as newspapers, electoral roles, a complete set of street directories, public health reports, photographs, unpublished works including university theses, census returns etc.

It is invaluable as a resource for people researching both local and family history.

Many people joined the campaign to save the History Centre by writing to Councillor Smith cabinet member for culture, their local councillor, the Argus, and signing–along with almost 1,200 people– the e-petition. It was a concerted effort on the part of many organisations, and individuals.

Should we now run a campaign to keep the History Centre at Brighton Museum?