More than two dozen seafront arches are set to be demolished and rebuilt over the next few years.
A stretch of arches running from just west of the Shelter Hall to the next set of steps – including Brighton Music Hall – are to be replaced.
This will be the fifth phase in redeveloping the Kings Road arches which began in 2012 – and became more urgent when the arch housing the Fortune of War pub collapsed in 2014, closing the seafront road above for several months.
If approved, the work on this and the fourth phase (by the Kings Road playground) are unlikely to start any time soon, as a funding bid to the Department of Transport has yet to be made.
It’s intended that the A259 will remain open throughout any works.
A planning application for this next phase submitted by the council to itself last month, written by R H Partnership Architects, says: “Structural failures along Kings Road in the last two decades have led to the wider development works along the seafront to provide safe support for the heavily trafficked road.
“Resolving the arches’ weakened integrity is the primary driver behind this development scheme and requires a wholesale structural overhaul as opposed to a material renovation.
“The listed railings [on the upper promenade] require replacement as the current railings are of an unsafe height and represent a risk to the public
“New railings will be produced as faithful reproductions of the existing with only minor modifications to increase their safety. Detailed moulds will be taken from the existing to produce the new cast iron elements.”
As well as shops, restaurants and bars, the stretch of arches also includes the council’s seafront office and the lifeguard store.
The masonry arches will be replaced by concrete, and the new facades will be made of brickwork in the same design as the previously refurbished arches.
The new arches will have improved ventilation, and low-demand air-source heat pumps.
The council is preparing an application to the Department for Transport for funding for both this phase and phase four, which is due to be submitted next March.
The first phase saw the arches just west of what is now the i360 site redeveloped. After that, arches to the east were redeveloped, followed by the Shelter Hall.
Shane they didn’t put in a raised track for the volks to run along side and put to hove
They should extend that track to King Alfred-be great to go all the way along.
No doubt it will be another can kicked down the road. No vision, no clue. Brighton is fast becoming the Blackpool of the South.
The fact that plans have been made, planning permssion applied for and funding will be requested so this hasn’t been ‘kicked down the road’ and they do have ‘a clue’.
It this work isn’t done there will be no road because it will have collapsed in on itself.
I think you will find that Blackpool has replace much of its decayed seafront and infrastructure. Holiday destinations like Blackpool are fast becoming a thing of the past. At least Blackpool and the Fylde know this and are taking it into consideration. New trams new destinations and a new seafront but still retaining the old theatre and entertainment structures including the Tower. Brighton could never afford to keep the Tower in place.
‘Demolish’ sounds alarming. Particularly dozens at a time. This structure has been largely closed for over a decade. What is the guarantee it won’t just be demolished and left like that until a developer comes along?
Demolish and restoration/re-creation are polar opposites. This is a Grade II star listed structure. It should not be entrusted to anyone who associates the word ‘demolish’ with ‘restoration’
Not sure that structure you’re thinking of Barry but it’s not the one this article is about!
Will the council finally understand that it has a responsibility to maintain the city always?
This was reported some time ago, and was a project suggested when the HS2 was cancelled by the previous government, so unless the Labour Party has spirited the money away on some ideological plan of their own, the finance should be ready and waiting.
Just to put some background to this:
These victorian arches have done their job for decades but they were originally built to raise the promenade and were used as fishermen’s storage and places to mend their nets. The problem now is that the pointing has deteriorated between the bricks and the arches are having to support more road weight above than they were ever designed to so.
A few years ago, I was the leaseholder of two of the smaller arches in the Artists’ Quarter, and the back of most arches there have long since been filled with concrete, to support the road outside the Queens Hotel.
There has also been some sinkage into the beach below, with many arch frontages dropping a bit, and so many arches need to be rebuilt and with better footings.
There is the additional problem whereby the seafront railings above are starting to collapse – and they are too low to comply with modern railing height safety rules.
It’s great there is a plan in place to build these arches to look much the same and, because they support the road, the money should come from the Department of Transport, and not our local council tax.
Thats a useful summary
Not many people realise that the road is actually a viaduct and not built on solid rock
These arches that basically run between the two piers only exist because of the viaduct construction.
And not many people realise that the Shelter Hall project was basically as add on to the main project which was to reinforce the arches that were holding up the Kings Road / West Street junction and the area either side.
Indeed, the Regency Society have a map of June 1779 that shows the narrow seafront road (called Ship Street in those days) ran at the immediate frontage of the hotels. There was a headland for a military battery at the foot of ‘The Steyne’ It appears that the whole seafront was built like a harbour wall all along the whole of front, and the sea came much further in, though that may be artistic licence.
It’s on-line. It’s fascinating. It was a map surveyed by by Yeakell & Gardner It was Brighthelmstone of course, not Brighton.
Copy and paste into Google: Brighthelmstone June 1779 Yeakell & Gardner
(as an aside, where Donatello stands, that was Brighton’s town square, and that was where a stone circle stood, depicted on the pub board of The Druids, which faced it, and explains the pub’s name)
That’s right, so the department for transport will be doing us a favour, good to see some knowledgeable comments.