Residents spoke of their fury at discovering a late-night beer garden was being built just 10 metres from their front doors yesterday.
People living in Gloucester Place are now a stone’s throw from the new SpiegelGardens – a beer garden and performance space run by the Laine Brew Company as part of Brighton Fringe which will open until 2am from Thursday to Saturday and until 12.30am the rest of the week.
They said they feared a repeat of last year’s Euro fan zone, which drew complaints from people living nearby about noise – but was only open until 10pm.
Speaking at the outdoor events meeting at the Ironworks in Cheapside, resident Maxine Horne said: “Why was a beer garden for that length of time approved when the shows finish at 10.30pm? Beer isn’t the arts.
“It’s 10 metres from our front doors. With Spiegeltent, it was 50 metres away from the nearest homes.
“I can’t exist with 31 days of no sleep.”
Outdoor events manager Ian Baird said because the Old Steine wasn’t available this year, the fringe events were “a bit pushed for space”.
St Peter’s Square – just south of St Peter’s Church – and Richmond Square – just south of the obelisk – were being rested after a “very busy 2024” which had impacted on the trees there.
He said Victoria Gardens North – alongside Gloucester Place – was being trialled as an events space this May, adding: “We are really interested to see how that works differently to St Peter’s Square.”
Gareth Hance, an acoustic consultant who is working with Laine Brew Co and Spiegelgardens, said: “It’s a very different animal to the Old Steine, where there’s a buffer and it’s also a different profile of resident – there’s no hotels or hostels. We have worked that into the plan from the get go.
“From the moment this was even a notion of an idea, we had to make it a lower impact space in terms of its profile. It’s intended to be not as high energy.
“We have tried to make all the acoustics run from north to south so it doesn’t spill east and west. We will have proper responsible grown ups to take a walk around the neighbourhood and listen.
“We have got sound monitors – they just measure numbers and sound’s a very subjective experience but we are going to measure and monitor the sound.
“I can assure you that anything practical that can be done is being done. This is not something we are scrimping on.”
The meeting also heard from residents elsewhere in Valley Gardens impacted by events, including the funfair and Revel Puck Circus currently on The Level.
Another resident, who lives near The Level and introduced herself as Nina, said: “Our green spaces are being prostituted out for the benefit of the finances of the entire town when we have one of the most socially and economically challenged demographics.
“Whenever we say anything on public boards, there’s a massive pile on of, ‘Well you chose to live here’. But the vast majority of people do not choose to.
“We have shift workers, all sorts of people, a high amount of social housing yards away from where you have now shoved a circus and a funfair.
“Most people can’t afford to go to that circus or that funfair. They cannot afford to buy beer in the fan zone or the Spiegelgarden.
“You treat us as a social experiment – you are really interested to see the sound effects on the people who are stuck around the Spiegelgarden from next month.”
She added: “We don’t care about the arts, having to happen outside our door. There are so many venues where that could happen.”
And Fred Corneby, who lives in a high rise block in Ashton Rise, said the noise from events travels up the hill and can make life unbearable – saying it was particularly bad when the Fringe venue Fools Paradise and the Euro fan zone set up in St Peter’s Square last summer.
He said: “It’s hours and hours of the same thing. It was hell for two months last year.”
Mr Baird said: “This [Spiegelgarden] isn’t the fan zone – this is a very different event. The lessons we learnt have been informing the discussion we have had with organisers this year.
“Last year, we drew Fools Paradise back to an 11pm finish because they weren’t playing by the rules and we will do that this year if we feel the considerations aren’t being taken into account, if there’s real disruption.”
In answer to questions about why alcohol is so central to outdoor events, he said: “We don’t have Arts Council grants any more. The money to pay for it has to come from somewhere.
“The way that arts are funded is a disgrace. The primary way nowadays in this country is through the sale of alcohol. That has to change.”
“Our green spaces are being prostituted out for the benefit of the finances of the entire town”
It’s a diverse arts festival that’s been running since 1967, paid for by tax payers and grants.
You live in the centre of a city, love. Do get a grip.
You’d have had a good point if you hadn’t signed off with misogyny.
No one is complaining about the festival as a whole, just having a noisy beer on their front door step for a whole month. They’ve got sound monitors, what are going to do if it’s too noisy – tell all the drunks to talk quietly?
It’s not a diverse arts festival, it’s a late night for profit huge beer tent a stone’s throw from residents’ homes
There are plenty of alternatives spaces for outdoor events away from residents and in areas where they would be welcomed. They dont have to be sited altogether in the city centre.
How come come Valley gardens has been designated as one of 3 event spaces? By whom?
Meanwhile Black Rock remains unused
> Meanwhile Black Rock remains unused
Have you see how far the walk is to Black Rock from the city centre?
I always find these kinds of NIMBY complaints odd. Living in the centre of the city means city life happens. Not as if this is a surprise change of use. Cities have noise and parties. And this is beer drinking, not shouting at the football. No reason for loud cheers. Doubt it will be louder than the traffic in the daytime.
So these people live in the centre of a bustling city, on the main arterial route in and out of the city, surrounded by pubs and fast food places and they’re complaining about the (potential) noise? Idiots.
You understand the difference, presumably, between day-to-day bustle & the occasional one-off event or weekender — versus 30 consecutive days of loud music running from midday to gone midnight?
Totally inadequate venue as usual provided by the council for the abuse of all and sundry. For a supposedly green agenda they do a good job of being everything but green. On the one hand they are planting trees on the other they are destroying them. It wouldn’t be so bad if they demanded 80% of all profits. And I see Waterhall is now out of bounds due to some event.
It’s terrific to have these festival events in the city centre. This is very much part of city life. The Brighton Festival is hardly anything new.
I have lived in the city centre for decades and, for sure, you have to get used to people enjoying themselves and to the traffic noise 24/7. If you struggle to sleep because of noise then the first step is to buy some ear plugs.
If however city centre life is not for you then accept that, and make a change.
Not against events in the city centre but it needs to the right event in the right place
I disagree Nina/maxine, I’d say most people can probably make their own choice to live in the centre of town right next to the fringe venues or go maybe half a mile further out of town where it’s much quieter all of the time and pay less rent. You have chosen to live there so stop whining and embarrassing yourself. As for social housing, maybe you can’t move but hey, you’ve got a FREE House, a roof over your head and food in your stomach which means you’re doing better than most of the average person in the world so be grateful for that and don’t complain. The people drinking at the bars are paying for you and your benefits by working full time jobs so I think they probably deserve to celebrate the festival and spend their hard earned cash there if they want to
It needs to be the right event in the right
Oh my word On the pulse (?) – what an entitled response devoid of any empathy and an assumption riddled pile of garbage. Valley Gardens didn’t exist for an event space until about 4 years ago. When it launched it was beautiful. Events spaces were just the hard standing areas – not the entire grass and flower beds, that starved of sunlight and air and water for over a month will die, just like the rest of that land has been returned as scrubland after events. And if you think it is reasonable that residents who need to work, children who need sleep for school, teenagers taking their GCSE’s, shift workers – should be sleep deprived – not just for a weekend, nor a week but an entire month, you are insane. The performances end at 10.30/11pm – then it just becomes an outside commercial beer garden until 2am for virtually 31 nights in a narrow strip of land 10 metres from homes in a conservation area. There are dozens of bricks and mortar pubs within 1 to 3 minutes walk away with 1pm to 3am licenses – an outside beer garden is not a requirement of the Brighton Arts & Cultural Festival. It is only the beer garden residents are objecting too.
Well will you pay the stamp duty and removal fees. Bought the house. It was great for the last 15 years, now this happened. It’s not our choice!
Ian Baird seems to be very inexperienced in our area. He has also moved St James Street Party at Pride, he seems to think people will ignore the local LGBT+ venues he is excluding from his corporate party but tens of thousands will still head to St James street. He also wants to leave the roads open where there will be large crowds creating a easy target for terrorists.
But in a city center you have got to expect noise, i live next to a pub that does live entertainment. We recently had a new resident that started to complain about the noise, i think the new resident is at fault and should accept the pub or move. The pub never causes any problems to us locals.
Brighton council does prostitute the city centre space. Not everyone wants these sleazy events. And we have a right to live in the city centre and expect to be able to sleep. Can accept its busy… but a huge festival stuck in the middle of memorial parks etc. Next to people’s houses. Its ignorant to say just move. What right your you got to deny our right to enjoy our lives.
As always it’s the people completely unaffected by something that tell others to just suck it up.
Not satisfied with churning up the grass around the Old Steine fountain and collapsing the sewers, now they want to expand and repeat the experience on new grounds!
No it’s not nimbyism! I went past there, and I certainly wouldn’t be happy with the close proximity I would actually be ill. Shame on BHCC.
Where has our sense of balance gone, our sense of fairness, trying to see someone else’s point of view, situation.
“Crow looks at the world first with one eye, and then the other”. Jamie Sams and David Carson.
Laine Brewery has no connection with Brighton despite the fake name.
It’s now owned by private equity. Basically rich people ripping you off with £7 pints of crummy beer.
No doubt the average tourist won’t know much of this and think they are “keeping it real”.
Mugs…. avoid
It has always been owned by private equity. They’ve never been some plucky upstart local brewer. It’s just a faceless Pubco with dreadful beers who have a stranglehold on our city sadly
So being kept awake till 2 am is acceptable to city folk just because they live there? What happened to the noise limiters this weekend then? I could her it it every room in my house and I’m not the only one in Shoreham to complain. Yes Shoreham! I went to find the offending house party but the noise came straight across the water on the NE wind from Brighton.
So being kept awake till 2 am is acceptable to city folk just because they live there? What happened to the noise limiters this weekend then? I could hear it it every room in my house and I’m not the only one in Shoreham to complain. Yes Shoreham! I went to find the offending house party but the noise came straight across the water on the NE wind from Brighton.
There are people living in a house 10 meters away. Despite this, we cannot sleep until 2 am almost every day. It really is a terrible location. We are waiting for the day it will be finished as soon as possible.