The distinctive shade of aqua known as Brighton Blue is not being used for restored seafront terraces or lamp columns because it costs too much.
Getting specialist protective paint mixed to precisely the right shade can add tens of thousands to paint budgets.
Brighton and Hove City Council has decided instead to opt for the closest match to the pale turquoise from the range of standard colours, known as RAL colours – which is known as 6027 or light green.
At an update meeting for the Madeira Terrace project two weeks ago, council project manager Abigail Hone said: “RAL colour is cheaper. The paint will be used for seafront fixtures going forward too.”
She then said she was not 100% certain what was being used for all seafront fixtures.
Brighton and Hove City Council’s press office subsequently said Brighton Blue was “made obsolete” pre-2012 and that the council is moving away from using oil-based paints on heritage cast iron.
However, freshly painted bollards by the Palace Pier have been painted in a colour which more closely matches Brighton Blue, and is visibly different to the RAL light green colour used on the restored lamp columns.
When put next to each other, RAL light green appears more blue than Brighton Blue.
Contractor JT Mackley’s manager Mike Clegg, who has been overseeing the terrace restoration, told the meeting: “When we were stripping all the paint off the cast iron pieces, we discovered the original colour was a dark green.”
After the meeting, cabinet member for public realm Jacob Allen said: “To protect the cast ironwork, we’re using a specialist long-lasting coating system, rather than standard paint, and the closest available match to the turquoise paint used on the terrace since the 1920s as determined by microscopic paint analysis.
“The use of the matched colour is specific to restoration projects, such as Madeira Terrace and the city’s seafront lamp columns, where durability and long-term maintenance are important considerations.
“In daylight, it will very closely match the turquoise used on the terrace for the past 100 years, while the terrace’s new lighting scheme will create different visual effects after dark.
“Over time the appearance of the colours will become more muted but we are confident this is as good a match as possible.”
Brighton Blue paint has probably been made obsolete for such a long time as the Council hasn’t bought any! I’m not that bothered about the difference though, anything is better than the horrible rust.
The colour is pretty unique to Brighton and part of the city’s heritage – it’s been used for 100 years, and its use continued during financial crises and pressures in the past, including the the Great Depression in the 1930s, the Second World War, the Winter of Discontent. But this Labour council are ending it – the new colour is much more generic and clearly very different to the Brighton Blue which sets our seafront apart and is part of its character.
Just do it, no one will care, except those who bemoan any change just for the sake of moaning, not because it’s actually the hill they will die upon…
If you’d like to pay the difference Joe J, crack on. As it’s tax payers money, I think a stock colour is absolutely the correct and logical way to go.
Dose that mean the residents of recency square don’t have to pay for expensive Brunswick magnolia every few years in the same context…
As long as it looks smart and blueish, that will do it for me.
Yet, Quelle surprise, no shortage of money for underused and unenforceable cycle lanes?
it seems this Labour administration is on a scorched earth mission to destroy everything that makes Brighton and Hove special. Roll on the May 2027 local elections.
One learns that Brighton Blue is no longer to be Brighton Blue, but RAL 6027, a perfectly serviceable standard colour which is apparently cheaper and more durable.
How very practical.
What next? Harrods green replaced by whatever is nearest on the RAL chart? Cadbury purple deemed unnecessarily specific? Ferrari advised that red is red?
Perhaps the Royal Pavilion could simply be done in magnolia while we are at it. One understands there are some excellent bulk discounts.
Some colours are simply colours. Others are part of an identity.
Brighton Blue rather gave the game away.
Probably good idea that B & H have a few quid saved in the coffers. They will need it when the city of sanctuary is visited by a few hundred illegal immigrants