VICTORIAN railway arches could become Brighton’s “most unusual new restaurant” in an ambitious transformation.

Network Rail have submitted plans to convert disused storage space at Brighton station into a dazzling new restaurant space.

The rail authority has unveiled ambitious plans to update Trafalgar Street Arches with a refurbishment mixing huge modern triple-glazing windows while retaining period pieces of its railway past.

Network Rail bosses said they hope the regeneration project will help to transform the area between Trafalgar Street and Fleet Street into “an important and lively thoroughfare in the coming decades”.

The site was last used last summer when it was home to a temporary market of 26 independent stallholders for six months while its last permanent tenant was St Martin’s Vintner wine shop.

The arches were originally built in 1883 as an expansion of the goods yard for the station.

Under the new plans, architects are looking to open up the currently disused space to create what Network Rail are dubbing the “most unusual new restaurant in Brighton’s recent memory”.

The rail authority said the glazing would be styled on “1930s, steel, “Crittall-style” used on hundreds of railway stations across the country altered in the 20th century.

Other architecture features to be retained include a lift cab previously used to take goods up from the yards to the railway platform which will be converted into a dining room.

And the tarmac in front of the new restaurant will be dug up to reveal the historic cobbles beneath.

Period windows will be cleaned and restored to a “current but faded 1920s Southern Railway colour scheme” while the building’s brick jack arches will be cleaned, conserved and illuminated.

The external brickwork of the block, which is also home to popular music venue The Green Door Store, Amsterdammers Bike Shop and Under The Bridge Studios, will be “steam cleaned”.

A Network Rail spokesman said: “The sweeping towering east side of Brighton Station is one of the highlights of Brighton’s Victorian architecture.

“This project can help begin to lift the quality of this important thoroughfare.”

A decision on the application is expected in February.