The Brighton & Hove Wrap - 21st March 2025
Booth Museum closure, gasworks inquiry + Whitehawk ticket campaign
💰 £500k has been paid to the council by the owners of the fire-damaged Royal Albion Hotel.
➡ It’s the first instalment from Britannia to compensate for money spent on making the site safe, writes local democracy reporter Sarah Booker-Lewis.
🏡 The number of houses and flats sold in Brighton & Hove fell to “an 18-year low” in 2023, according to new data analysed by Brighton and Hove News.
🎶 Brighton & Hove has been named the fifth best city outside of London for live music in pubs, according to music industry body PRS.
🏢 The council could buy out up to 44 home owners who purchased “right to buy” flats in eight tower blocks in Hollingdean, Whitehawk and Kemptown owing to safety concerns. Brighton and Hove News has more.
🔥 One of the caravans parked on Wilson Avenue, near Whitehawk, has been destroyed by a fire. Last week the council had served those living in the caravans “with a direction to leave”, says The Argus.
🛝 A climbing frame in Queen’s Park has been destroyed by arsonists.
🚌 “Almost £7m has been raised in fines issued to motorists using bus gates installed in the centre of Brighton four years ago,” according to the results of a Freedom of Information request by the BBC.
➡ Here’s a short audio story on the four bus gates installed as part of the Valley Gardens project.
🏢 Updates from Brighton and Hove News on business owners at New England House: a group of 11 have asked the council to find an alternative building and extend the notice period for tenants after it was announced that the building is to be vacated by 30th September for renovations.
🌆 Street artist Ben Eine has admitted to repeatedly vandalising the works of two other street artists in Brighton & Hove. Full details in The Argus’ report and some examples of the vandalism on Reddit.
🏗 A public inquiry into rejected plans to build “hundreds of homes” on the site of Brighton’s former gasworks (in Marina Way and Roedean Road) started on Tuesday (18th), reports the BBC. Here’s an interview with a historian about the structures.
🎭 The Argus previews two operas in town this weekend — Puccini’s La Bohème and Madama Butterfly — both performed by the Ukrainian Opera & Ballet Theatre Kyiv.
📸 A selection of historic images of Brighton & Hove from The Regency Society’s collection are now on display in a free exhibition on the seafront near the i360.
🐦⬛ The Booth Museum in Dyke road will shut for a year from 20th April for “essential works”, writes Brighton and Hove News.
🔥Fire engines were called to a fire at Camber campus on Wednesday (19th), reports The Badger, the University of Sussex’s student newspaper.
🌳Brighton & Hove council told residents on Monday that it should have done more to communicate the felling of trees in woodland areas across the city.
🚪 Hove Museum of Creativity hosts a free talk about the design style of mid-century modernism on Thursday 27th at 11:30am.
⚽ Whitehawk FC will give fans attending tomorrow’s (22nd) match against Carshalton a souvenir ticket designed by artist David Shrigley. It’s part of a campaign against rising ticket prices in football.
👨🎓 The University of Brighton has announced its free medical school lecture series, which runs over spring and summer.