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Plans to brighten up gateway into Brighton

1:30pm Wednesday 17th March 2010 in


A gateway into the city will be brightened up if a major £3 million revamp gets the go-ahead.

Phoenix Brighton, which includes a gallery and artists’ studios, is planning to update its building in Waterloo Place, Brighton, in order to bring in more cash.

The scheme would include redeveloping the ground floor and improving the gallery, creating an artists’ shop and cafe/bar, enhanced education facilities and a new commercial letting space for arts businesses.

The plans, which have been developed by architects RH Partnership, also involve opening up the entrance to the building, installing a new lift in the old shaft, refurbishing existing windows and improving the facades at the front and back of the building.

Phoenix Brighton is home to more than 100 working visual artists, from painters, sculptors and print makers to film makers, photographers and jewellery designers.

It was founded 17 years ago and is run by a board of trustees and a small team of paid staff.

It is a prominent building in the streetscape of Brighton and stands at one of the key gateways into the city.

Comments(21)

Granny says...
2:21pm Wed 17 Mar 10

How can you say Waterloo Place is a gateway to the city, or am I missing something here? I asume from this statement that anything north of Waterloo Place is not in Brighton and Hove.

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Bennn says...
2:35pm Wed 17 Mar 10

The plans look fantastic. I really hope they go ahead with it and that the usual Nimbies don't start moaning. The place is a dump now, it really needs brightening up. Bring it on!

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Number Six says...
2:40pm Wed 17 Mar 10

If you're missing something Granny then so am I.

Only on Planet Argus could Waterloo Place be described as a gateway

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HoveAlone says...
3:46pm Wed 17 Mar 10

Well seeing as the city is NOT Brighton it is 'Brighton & Hove', I wait with bated breath what Hove's gateway will be, or is the 'city' of 'Brighton & Hove' just for Brighton's benefit only?

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Christophe Hawtree says...
4:10pm Wed 17 Mar 10

How many "gateways" and "landmarks" can one place take, even if they are not "iconic", let alone, that other Council favourite, "holistic"?

Lo and behold, the security phrase is "yeah more". It must have been written by Simon Fanshawe.

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HoveAlone says...
4:20pm Wed 17 Mar 10

Ah yes, Simon Fanshawe - I forget about him. Just the kind of trendy, uber-liberal lefty idea I would come to expect from him! After all, he was responsible for the death of Hove and Brighton, and the creation of the monstrosity we now know as 'Brighton & Hove'!

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Whitedot says...
4:24pm Wed 17 Mar 10

Dear Argus, please get rid of that friggin survey button pop up window, I've clicked the big red NO button more times than I can remember arrrg!

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bug eye says...
4:42pm Wed 17 Mar 10

sounds great any improvement welcome, but how about that tacky flower display on the roundabout of the A23 surely this is the gateway and badly needs something more radical and 'very brighton' and hove. when are the council going to value the seafront properties along the Kingsway gateway that are run down and of no character, why not encourage residents to develop modern eco homes or extensions such as on shoreham beach. kingsway could do with the miami effect, but our planning officers are more interested in preserving rundown granny homes.

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yorkie44 says...
5:04pm Wed 17 Mar 10

One persons gateway is another persons exit!

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Masterchav says...
5:11pm Wed 17 Mar 10

Hang on a minute. Back in December, Preston Park was the gateway to the City. The same month it was Preston Barracks on the Lewes Road. In 2007 it was Pool Valley. In May last year it was London Road!! (All in the Argus of course).

How are all the tourists supposed to find their way about? We don't want them to miss the joys of London Road, a grimy coach station, a derelict barracks and a run down office building do we!

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cheezburger says...
7:08pm Wed 17 Mar 10

This is not a news story. This is churnalism. Churning a press release almost verbatim into an article. Make it an advert, or even a feature piece by all means, but its not a news article. They arent even doing it to benefit the city but to 'bring in more cash' for themselves. You could have at least queried them as to where the money is coming from?

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Crunchie says...
10:10pm Wed 17 Mar 10

It is churnalism, but it's also true that the Phoenix is a prominent landmark on the way in to the city, because all traffic from the Lewes Road or the London Road has to go through the junction outside it (unless it's a bus).

I would be really pleased to see some development, particularly if it made the ground floor area better used and more welcoming. At the moment it might as well be an office block.

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Borrom says...
3:54am Thu 18 Mar 10

Most of the above seems to make sense to me: the 'gateway' - why we need to call it that is beside me - that most visitors experience is either the Pylons, or Brighton Station. Both are, in themselves, rather pleasant and encouraging ways to begin a visit. I appreciate the sentiments of those unfortunate enough to live in Hove Actually. As a true Brighton lad, I no more wish to be linked with you than you do with me! Only joking, I feel roots in both places, though nicely pointlessly feel slightly superior, having only ever lived here in BN1! Why can't it just be said that Waterloo Place is part of that dismal stretch of central Brighton that jars so terribly embarrassingly with the splendour of other parts of both towns? Just like the Brighton Centre, the poor West Pier, and other testaments to local government corruption.

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another village idiot says...
5:48am Thu 18 Mar 10

I don't think anyone will notice. It may stick out a bit more than it did afterwards, but it's not exactly in an area of outstanding natural beauty is it? Why not put palm trees round up the Lewes road to lead up to it's new splendour?

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stan bailey says...
7:10am Thu 18 Mar 10

HoveAlone wrote:
Ah yes, Simon Fanshawe - I forget about him. Just the kind of trendy, uber-liberal lefty idea I would come to expect from him! After all, he was responsible for the death of Hove and Brighton, and the creation of the monstrosity we now know as 'Brighton & Hove'!
what was Simon Fanshaw originally famous for, I honestly cannot remember?!!

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HoveAlone says...
8:42am Thu 18 Mar 10

bug eye wrote:
sounds great any improvement welcome, but how about that tacky flower display on the roundabout of the A23 surely this is the gateway and badly needs something more radical and 'very brighton' and hove. when are the council going to value the seafront properties along the Kingsway gateway that are run down and of no character, why not encourage residents to develop modern eco homes or extensions such as on shoreham beach. kingsway could do with the miami effect, but our planning officers are more interested in preserving rundown granny homes.
Because it's Hove of course! The council couldn't care two hoots. They only care about Brighton. So much for the unified 'city' idea! It was just an excuse to get the word 'city' in the name!

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Jimmy Stewart's Imaginary Rabbit says...
8:52am Thu 18 Mar 10

Unbelievable. I opened this article thinking it might be about having an extra pylon on the A23, or some developments on the A27/A259 roads where they lead into Brighton, or maybe even changes to the railway station; instead I find it's about changes to a building in the centre of Brighton!


Whilst anything that spruces up that slightly-decayed area of the city is welcome, like others I must point out that by NO stretch of the imagination can it be called a 'gateway'.

I demand that the Argus sack Ms Elliot (and the dumb subbie who wrote the headline) and employ people who at least live in the city!

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Jimmy Stewart's Imaginary Rabbit says...
8:58am Thu 18 Mar 10

Just too add that I do like the last paragraph where the author tries to justify calling it a 'portal' (Gateway, whatever) but instead totally shows their ignorance of Brighton: 'stands at one of the key gateways to the city'. Someone show them a street map.

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stephencrane says...
9:23am Thu 18 Mar 10

stan bailey wrote:
HoveAlone wrote:
Ah yes, Simon Fanshawe - I forget about him. Just the kind of trendy, uber-liberal lefty idea I would come to expect from him! After all, he was responsible for the death of Hove and Brighton, and the creation of the monstrosity we now know as 'Brighton & Hove'!
what was Simon Fanshaw originally famous for, I honestly cannot remember?!!
Hi most significant achievement is that he replaced the "hilarious" Doc Cox in the final series of That's Life.

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stan bailey says...
7:49am Fri 19 Mar 10

stephencrane wrote:
stan bailey wrote:
HoveAlone wrote:
Ah yes, Simon Fanshawe - I forget about him. Just the kind of trendy, uber-liberal lefty idea I would come to expect from him! After all, he was responsible for the death of Hove and Brighton, and the creation of the monstrosity we now know as 'Brighton & Hove'!
what was Simon Fanshaw originally famous for, I honestly cannot remember?!!
Hi most significant achievement is that he replaced the "hilarious" Doc Cox in the final series of That's Life.
Oh dear

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Crunchie says...
7:21pm Fri 19 Mar 10

stephencrane wrote:
stan bailey wrote:
HoveAlone wrote:
Ah yes, Simon Fanshawe - I forget about him. Just the kind of trendy, uber-liberal lefty idea I would come to expect from him! After all, he was responsible for the death of Hove and Brighton, and the creation of the monstrosity we now know as 'Brighton & Hove'!
what was Simon Fanshaw originally famous for, I honestly cannot remember?!!
Hi most significant achievement is that he replaced the "hilarious" Doc Cox in the final series of That's Life.
To be fair, he won a Perrier comedy award as well. More than most people here have done, me included.

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