The owners of a shopping arcade in The Lanes have applied to close off one end and put a new shop there.
Baron Homes, which owns commercial and residential property throughout Brighton, wants to reconfigure the Bartholomews entrance to East Street Arcade.
It wants to increase the art gallery to the left of the entrance and put a new shop where the entrance curerntly is.
The arcade’s other entrances in East Street and Market Street will remain.
A planning application written by Lewis & Co Planning says: “The East Street Arcade, formerly known as the Regency Arcade, is located in the Old Town area of Brighton between East Street, Market Street and Bartholomews. The arcade was opened in 1961 and was built on the site of warehouses known as Wardens Building’s.
“A number of units in the arcade are currently unoccupied and footfall through the space is low in comparison to the surrounding area. This application seeks to improve the use of space.
“The existing entrances to the arcade from Bartholomews and Market Street are very simple and understated, with minimal street presence.
“There is one main entrance to the arcade, the East Street entrance, this is more prominant in design with a decorative archway and framed lightboxes to the entrance.
“The Bartholmews Street and Market Street entrances are secondary to the main East street entrance.
“The Market Street and Bartholomews entrance surrounds are painted white with black East street Arcade signs above the entrance way.
“Two simple columns on either side of the entrances frame the aperture, over which a security grill is lowered at night.
“These entrances also include illuminated projecting signs which list the shops found inside the arcade.
“The internal arcade is made up of several small units accessed from within the arcade with timber framed glazed partitions and doors separting the walkway.
“They lack natural light and street presence, struggling to draw customers in.
“The proposals are for the internal alterations to the ground floor of the arcade, 2 Bartholomews and 3 Bartholomews, along with alterations to the entrance of the arcade on Bartholomews.
“The existing arcade entrance is to be repurposed to create a new entrance for 2 Bartholomews, whilst still providing escape from the arcade.
“The existing 2 Bartholomews entrance and portion of 2 Bartholomews will become a new commercial unit.
“A new entrance door is being proposed to 3 Bartholomews, along with extending the footprint into the exising arcade passageway.
“The internal alterations and changes to entrances seek to to provide a better use of the spaces.
“The new door to the gallery will also offer more street presence enticing more passing public to enter.”
This removes one of the reasons for calling the area “The Lanes” – part of Brighton’s USP and reason for tourist visits.
Will destroy part of the history. Shameful!
All for profit.
If I had a shop in that arcade I would be looking at moving. To close off one of the entrances which guarantees footfall is daft.
Will destroy part of the history. Shameful!
All for profit.
It’s very short sighted. Block off an entrance so even less people go in there, all your units in there will be empty pretty quickly. Saying that, the lanes is dead at the moment. Rents are wayyyyy to high for any commercial business to make money hence why they are all shutting up shop and moving elsewhere in the city. Typical greedy landlords trying to squeeze as much out of the businesses as possible. Add to that the carpark in the lanes charges people £30 for a few hours visit. I think people are just sick of being treated like cash cows
I live here but avoid town centre as it is no fun. Apart from the nuisance of getting there it is dirty, full of people begging or comatose through drugs, many shops carry little stock and refer me to their website and the staff in these shops seem downbeat and ill trained.
The only time I ever venture there is for the Komedia and a couple of good restaurants.
I do most shopping online or in towns that encourage visitors.
I wish them well but until the council and the police clean it up I won’t change my habits.
My thoughts exactly. Problem is , what police? what council?
You had a good point but you just had to shoehorn parking charges into the argument!
In my mind when I think of people walking in the lanes I naturally think of trains and buses bringing people into the area. A few hundred capacity car park that happens to be expensive doesn’t really play into the equation.
Money money money.
Instead of moaning on here put in a formal objection to the application on the planning portal on the councils website..
But comments like “don’t like it “ and “money money money” etc will be discounted as they aren’t proper planning grounds.
Taxes, empty alleys do not count in your business taxes, but an empty shop does, build an empty space and qualify for business taxes, incl VAT.
It was closed off today with a sign saying it was ‘closed for maintenance’ and it looked like they had already started building work on blocking it off.
As a trader in the arcade Market Street is already closed off. This means there is the potential for us to have one entrance when 18 months ago there were three. This will be the death knell for the small businesses inside and is a real shame for the arcade.