A youth charity is planning to turn the former Level cafe into a community gym.
The FMG Project has submitted plans to make alterations to the building, which has been closed for almost five years because of persistent water damage.
Brighton and Hove City Council said the charity had applied for grants to make the necessary repairs, estimated to be about £360,000 in 2024.
The planning application asks permission to make alterations, including replacing several of the building’s extensive glazed doors and windows with timber stud walls.
Fourteen of the building’s 26 glazed doors would be replaced, and another five replaced to include vandal shields.
The former public toilets, which suffered from extensive vandalism while open, will be taken out and replaced with a personal training studio and a physio room.
The cafe’s interior toilets will be retained for use of gym goers.
The council has installed new public toilets in the nearby MacLaren Pavilion, which was advertised for lease two years ago to an operator on the basis the tenant will run the toilets in return for a reduced rent.
The council says a tenant has now signed up and is due to open in the new year.
The application says: “The building is to be refurbished to create a community fitness hub run by The FMG Project, who successfully operate an existing gym in nearby Kensington Street.
“The new facility will expand their community offer within a central public space and provide affordable, inclusive access to exercise.
“The Level has historically experienced issues with anti-social behaviour, particularly after the
café closed.
“Reintroducing an active, well-used community facility in this central location will re-establish a vibrant hub at the heart of The Level and provide young people with a positive, structured space for physical activity
“The building contains 26 external doors and 3 windows, an unusually high number for the intended gym use. The proposed works therefore rationalise these openings to create practical internal wall space.”
The water damage caused persistent flooding to the cafe’s floor. Investigations eventually found was caused by damage to Victorian drainage systems caused by the installation of the nearby skatepark.
This meant when flash flooding during storms sent water rushing down Ditchling Road to the Level, it pooled underneath the cafe building.
Several measures, including new tree planting, have since been installed to mitigate this.
Click here to view and comment on the planning application.
I can see the headline: “Charity devastated by senseless attack as gym targeted!”
There is 2 massive gyms not even a minutes walk away from there! Bring back bloody youth clubs stop wasting money on rubbish!
Seems like they are doing something a bit different as a charity by considering a more affordable model for young people. I’d like to hear more about their ambitions, but the logic behind it seems very sound.
The logic behind it is incredibly unsound. The two gyms that are 60 seconds away both offer student / young person rates of £14 a month. Both are huge, full of kit and available 24 hours a day. There is no way this charity will last 2026.
I suspect you’d benefit from reading up on what the charity does. The gym is a vehicle, and if they follow the same strategy here, the offering is vastly different to your examples.
So yes, the logic is, and remains, very sound. Look them up, learn something about them, see if it changes your mind?
There are a lot of senseless people in Brighton, and I can’t see them going away.
A bigger part of the problem is that it doesn’t benefit any of the younger generation to play by the rules . There is very little to offer them. ‘Charities will try anything to procure govt funds and get a good olslap on the back. It won’t make any difference at all.
Hate to be negative but a gym… It’s just unimaginative and really doesn’t suit or compliment what’s around it. What was wrong with a decent cafe?
I think the article doesn’t really describe the charity too well; it uses the gym environment to enable pathways for youth such as coaching, alternative education provision, and the like.
Open Art studio for creative art 🎨?? And a Gallery to sell works 💪?
Why do we keep letting idiots run this place? It’s literally a licence to print money given the footfall every single day, all day, in summer three times the rest of the year.
What a stupid idea to make it a gym? The logic behind it is incredibly unsound. Both nearby gyms away both offer student / young person rates of £14 a month. Both are huge, full of kit and available 24 hours a day. There is no way this charity will last 2026.
Absolutely idiotic – people no doubt sent the charity money with good intentions, it seems yet again charities are run by people without the slightest sense in the real world.
For a person who names themselves evidence based, you’ve not done your research in the charity and done yourself a disservice, because if you had, you’d recognise the fatal flaw in your assumption that it is just another gym.
I mentioned it against your other comment, but actually read into them a bit more, you’ll see it’s a bit more than just that.
https://fmgproject.co.uk/