Brighton Marina | |
---|---|
Brighton Marina from the air | |
Location within East Sussex | |
Unitary authority | |
Ceremonial county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | BRIGHTON |
Postcode district | BN2 |
Dialling code | 01273 |
Police | Sussex |
Fire | East Sussex |
Ambulance | South East Coast |
UK Parliament | |
Brighton Marina is an artificial marina in Brighton, England. It features a working harbour and residential housing alongside a variety of leisure, retail and commercial activities. The construction of the marina itself took place between 1971 and 1979, although developments within it have continued ever since. The marina covers an area of approximately 127 acres (0.51 km2). [1]
The Brighton Marina Act 1968 (c. ii) provided the legal basis for the construction of the marina. Brighton Corporation purchased the foreshore at the Black Rock site from the Crown Estate Commissioners for £50,000 on 1 March 1972. On the same day the land was leased to the Brighton Marina Company for a period of 125 years. [2] The architect of the original plan was David Hodges of the Louis de Soissons Partnership. [3] Construction of the marina commenced in 1971 and was opened for use in 1978. [4] The marina was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 31 May 1979. [5] The original funders were the National Westminster Bank, the Electricity Supply Pension Fund and Royal Insurance. [6]
A SeaJet service ran from the marina to Dieppe in France between 1979 and 1980. Two Boeing Jetfoils were used, with three "flights" per day. The service suffered from poor reliability of the Jetfoils in the early stages, was restricted due to mid-channel wave height, and suffered during the French fishermen's blockade of channel ports.[ citation needed ]
Brent Walker purchased the marina and adjoining land in 1985 and undertook further development. [7] Brunswick Developments purchased the marina for £9m from Brent Walker's receivers in 1996. [8]
In 1992 there was a trial of summer-season passenger services to Fécamp, France, using a small catamaran ferry.[ citation needed ]
From 2003 to 2010, the marina hosted an annual, weekend event called "The Big Splash". It featured street performers, fireworks and aqua themed entertainment and coincided with the final days of the Brighton Festival. [9]
Wellcome Trust acquired Premier Marinas Limited ("PML") from the BlackRock UK Property Fund ("BlackRock") in 2015, for an undisclosed amount. Amongst previous owners, Brunswick Developments Group plc owned the head lease of Brighton Marina. [10] The marine operations are leased to Premier Marinas. [ citation needed ] The underlease for the commercial activities was purchased by X-Leisure from Parkridge Developments in August 2004 for £65m. [11] In 2013 Land Securities acquired majority control of X-Leisure. [12]
Operated by Premier Marinas, the marina provides 1,600 berths along with various ancillary services including a boatyard and fuel berth. [13] Other marina services including boat sales, equipment shops and boat trips are provided by a variety of commercial operators. [14]
The RNLI operates an inshore lifeboat from a station built in 2000 on the west quay. [15]
On the east and south side of the marina there are a number of residential buildings made up of townhouses and apartments, some of which come with their own moorings.
Planning permission for a new district of the marina to contain 853 new apartments, cafés, bars and restaurants was approved by Brighton & Hove City Council in July 2006. [16] The development is planned for the south-western part of the marina and would partly sit on stilts over the main spending beach. The centrepiece building is to be a skyscraper dubbed The Roaring Forties which would stand at 40 storeys tall and include a public viewing platform on the top floor. Two new pedestrian bridges are to be included in the scheme: one retractable bridge to link the marina arms and the second to link the western beach with the new scheme. The developers are Brunswick Developments and the architects are Wilkinson Eyre. [17] In 2006, CABE highlighted the development as one of four national developments demonstrating best practice in design and planning. [18]
Until 2013 no significant building work has started and the whole project had been put on hold in view of the poor financial climate. [19] However, in April 2013, Brunswick Developments announced that construction would commence in September 2013. [20] This part of the development is known as Phase 1 and includes two buildings on the West Quay made up of 195 flats, a RNLI building and seven restaurants. [21]
A planning application to redevelop much of the west side of the marina was submitted in September 2007. [22] The plans included several tall apartment blocks (the tallest would be Marina Point which would be 28 storeys high and Quayside which was to be 16 storeys), various new retail provisions including small shops, a new central square (where the current roundabout stands) and an "eco park", connected to the Undercliff Walk. The ASDA supermarket would be demolished and rebuilt to a larger size with car parking underground and apartments above, freeing up the considerable space presently used for its open-air car park, allowing for further development. The petrol station and McDonald's would also be demolished and rebuilt under this scheme. Around five new apartment blocks would be added to the marina in total. The developers were Explore Living, a division of Laing O'Rourke, and the architects were Allies and Morrison.
Planning permission was refused in December 2008. [23] The developer appealed against the planning decision and a public enquiry commenced in November 2009. The appeal was dismissed in July 2010. [24]
The Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital is a children's hospital located within the grounds of the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton on the south coast of England. It provides outpatient services, inpatient facilities, intensive care and a 24-hour emergency care service for children referred by GPs and other specialists. It is managed by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.
Regent Centre is a large business park and residential complex in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The business park is home to a variety of companies, including banking group Virgin Money whose Head Office is located on the site. The centre has its own transport interchange with a station on the Tyne & Wear Metro and integrated bus station.
The original Medina House in Hove, Sussex, was the eastern of two seafront buildings, located on either side of Sussex Road, which together comprised Hove Baths, later to become more popularly known as the Medina Baths. The western building housed the men's baths, and the eastern building housed the women's baths.
The New England Quarter is a mixed-use development in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. It was built between 2004 and 2008 on the largest brownfield site in the city, adjacent to Brighton railway station. Most parts of the scheme have been finished, but other sections are still being built and one major aspect of the original plan was refused planning permission.
Sovereign Harbour is a residential and commercial development of the shingle beachland and marsh between Eastbourne amd Pevensey Bay in the seaside town of Eastbourne, England. The concept for the area came as a gift of the land out of private ownership and ministry of defence use. After some change in legislation, planning was given to the no mans land that existed with no public access. The possibility of housing on the site came in early 1970s when it was considered that community design and an inclusive plan would enable the site to accommodate visitors business and homes. The commercial area for retail began trading in 1993 and today still expects some additional business and commercial entities to open. The shingle area was formerly known as The Crumbles and now Sovereign Harbour has a fishing quarter and boatyard, shops, restaurants and bars, alongside homes, a primary school and medical centre. The harbour is designed with five separate basins: North Harbour, South Harbour, West Harbour, Outer Harbour and Inner Harbour. The retail park has undergone a change in design since inception, and the housing projects being built in stages was allowed to benefit from differing designs, so not all blocks look the same and many different house types are included. The overall layout gives access to walk around all harbours all waterfront amd gives access to the beach. By design Sovereign Harbour is Northern Europe’s largest composite marina complex.
The King Alfred Leisure Centre is a leisure centre on Hove seafront in the city of Brighton and Hove in England. The complex, which includes a ballroom, sports halls and swimming pools, is owned by Brighton and Hove City Council and operated by Freedom Leisure. The centre is colloquially known by some locals as the "Devil Tower".
Embassy Court is an 11-storey block of flats on the seafront in Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It has been listed at Grade II* by English Heritage. Wells Coates' "extremely controversial" piece of Modernist architecture has "divided opinion across the city" since its completion in 1935, and continues to generate strong feelings among residents, architectural historians and conservationists.
Holy Trinity Church is a former Anglican church in Hove, in the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built in the early 1860s to provide extra capacity for Anglican worshippers in the rapidly growing town of Hove, its use declined in the 20th century and it was closed in 2007 following a Diocesan review. Until 2015—when a planning application to convert the building into a doctors surgery was approved—its future was uncertain, and a heritage group has described it as one of Britain's top ten threatened Victorian and Edwardian buildings. The church, which has been a medical centre since 2017, has Grade II listed status, reflecting its architectural and historic importance.
The building at 11 Dyke Road in Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove, was in its most recent guise (2014–2023) the Rialto Theatre and as of January 2024 was being converted into a live music venue, but it originally housed the Swan Downer School for poor girls, for whom it was designed and built in 1867 by prolific architect George Somers Leigh Clarke. The highly ornate brick structure, in a "freely inventive" European Gothic style, has also served as a chapel and an office since it was vacated by the school, whose pupils were recognisable around Brighton in their blue and white uniform. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
Brighton and Hove, a city on the English Channel coast in southeast England, has a large and diverse stock of buildings "unrivalled architecturally" among the country's seaside resorts. The urban area, designated a city in 2000, is made up of the formerly separate towns of Brighton and Hove, nearby villages such as Portslade, Patcham and Rottingdean, and 20th-century estates such as Moulsecoomb and Mile Oak. The conurbation was first united in 1997 as a unitary authority and has a population of about 253,000. About half of the 20,430-acre (8,270 ha) geographical area is classed as built up.
The Freemasons Tavern is a 19th-century pub in the Brunswick Town area of Hove, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built in the 1850s in a Classical style similar to the surrounding buildings in the rapidly growing Brunswick Town area, it was given a "spectacular" renovation when a restaurant was added in the 1920s. Local architecture firm Denman & Son designed an ornate Art Deco interior and an elaborate, brightly coloured entrance adorned with Masonic symbols; both the exterior and the interior survive in excellent condition. The tavern is a Grade II Listed building.
Amex House, popularly nicknamed The Wedding Cake, was the former European headquarters of American Express, a multinational financial services company. Its site is located in the Carlton Hill area of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. The nine-floor building, designed by British architecture firm Gollins, Melvin, Ward & Partners, was commissioned by the company in 1977 to consolidate their operations in Brighton, which had been spread over several sites. The white and blue structure, a landmark on the city skyline, received both praise and criticism for its distinctive style.
The Brighton Wheel, also known during its planning and construction phase as the Brighton O and the Wheel of Excellence, was a transportable Ferris wheel installation which operated from October 2011 until May 2016 on the seafront in Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Situated below the East Cliff near Brighton Pier and built with private funding, its promoters anticipated that several hundred thousand visitors per year would experience the 12-minute ride. The wheel's location in a conservation area with many residential buildings proved controversial.
The Keep is a purpose-built archive and historical resource centre which stores, conserves and gives the public access to the records of its three managing partners: The East Sussex Record Office, The University of Sussex Special Collections, and Brighton & Hove Museums Local History Collections. The Keep also houses the library and office of the Sussex Family History Group, functions as headquarters of Friends of The Keep Archives, and holds the Historic Environment Record database for East Sussex. From November 2018, it has also functioned as the South East Hub for the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project for The British Library. It was funded by East Sussex County Council, the City Council of neighbouring Brighton and Hove and the University of Sussex, and was built on land close to the university in the Moulsecoomb area of Brighton and Hove. The building, constructed with a budget of £19 million, opened on 31 October 2013, superseding the former East Sussex Record Office in the county town of Lewes.
The Astoria Theatre was a former cinema in Brighton, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Built in 1933 in the Art Deco style for a local entertainment magnate who opened one of Brighton's first cinemas many years earlier, it was the first and most important expansion of the Astoria brand outside London. It initially struggled against the town's other "super-cinemas", but enjoyed a period of success in the 1950s and 1960s before rapid decline set in, culminating in its closure in 1977.
The Royal Pavilion Tavern, commonly known as the Pavilion Tavern or Pav Tav and since February 2022 as The Fitz Regent, is a pub in the centre of Brighton, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Converted from a house into the Royal Pavilion Hotel in the early 19th century, its original role soon changed from a hotel to a pub, in which guise it remained until its closure in September 2019. It reopened under its new name, but still in the ownership of the Mitchells & Butlers chain, on 13 February 2022. The building was also used as a court for several years early in its history, and prominent local architect Amon Henry Wilds was responsible for its redesign as a hotel and inn. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance, and it stands within a conservation area.
Courtenay Gate is a block of serviced apartments on the seafront in Hove, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Situated in a prominent position next to the beach and overlooking Hove Lawns, the six-storey block is Neo-Georgian in style and dates from 1934. It is in a conservation area and is a locally listed building. Built to replace a terrace of early-19th-century houses which had been demolished more than 30 years earlier, the "imposing" gault brick building has a "palatial" appearance and is a landmark on the seafront.
Princes House is an office and residential building in the centre of Brighton, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. The prominently sited building, an example of Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel's "inimitable response to Modernism", was purpose-built as the headquarters of the Brighton & Sussex Building Society, forerunner of the Alliance & Leicester. The office was later used by Norwich Union, another financial institution, and now houses a restaurant and flats. The steel-framed structure is clad in red bricks with inlaid mosaicwork, forming a carefully detailed façade, and the corner elevation has an arrangement of brickwork and windows which suggests "the pleated folds of a curtain". The building is listed at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
Bayside is a residential development located on the eastern approach to Worthing town centre in West Sussex, England. Designed by Allies and Morrison, it consists of two main buildings, the tallest of which, Bayside Vista, is a 15-storey tower that reaches 52 metres (172 ft) and is the tallest building in Worthing. It replaced the Aquarena swimming pool.