Seagull Weekly Briefing 09/08

Good morning, and welcome to the Brighton Seagull's Weekly Briefing. Just to let you know, The Seagull will be taking its summer holiday for the next couple of weeks—we will return with all the top recommendations for the week on Monday 26th August.

Gardens set to return to former Regency splendour

Plans to redevelop Royal Pavilion Gardens have been approved—and the gardens will remain accessible 24/7.

We reported on the proposed changes here back in May. They include:

• Removal of existing trees and hedges in favour of 'Regency planting'
• Remodelling the toilets to make gender neutral blocks
• An outdoor learning space
• Changes to existing paths

There were suggestions that gates would be put around the perimeter of the gardens, restricting access at certain times, but these did not make it into the final plan.

Instead, entrances will be made wider, there will be new visitor and community facilities, and the historic boundary will be reinstated, based on the original 19th century railing designs.

An extra £6.5 million is needed for the work to happen, which will come from Brighton & Hove Museum fundraising, and £500,000 from the council.

Work is set to start in spring 2026, and should last one year.

Watch this space!

Madeira Terrace arches might actually be about to be restored now, for real, genuinely, actually this time

Work might finally be about to start on Madeira Terrace arches, but genuinely this time: at a special cabinet meeting on Monday, councillor Jacob Taylor will recommend that the cabinet agrees additional budget to move forward work to restore 28 of the arches.

This would mean an extra £3 million going to Phase One of the Madeira Terrace Project.

As well as restoring the arches, 'Phase One' includes:

• A new lift available 24/7
• Full replacement of the upper deck
• Painting which is 'guaranteed to perform better in coastal conditions than traditional materials available to the Victorians'
• Refacing and regreening the Green Wall 'where possible'
• A new staircase down from the deck next to Concorde 2/Shelter Hall
• Reinstatement of the planted verges at Madeira Drive level
• A more pedestrian friendly layout in front of the Terrace
• Seating on the upper deck

Madeira Terrace first closed in 2014, and there have been various attempts to repair and restore it ever since.

Planning permission was first granted in 2022, but the council is now facing a situation where the cost of the preferred bid exceeds what was planned.

Securing extra funding would take the amount of money available for the project to £14.68 million.

According to councillor Taylor, the council 'are committed to the restoration of Madeira Terrace and want to proceed with it as soon as possible'. He said:

Some cost savings have been found without significantly reducing Phase 1 and Cabinet will be asked to agree the additional funding and proceed with the planned 28 arches and new fully accessible lift.

While this will require more borrowing by the council, it is essential investment for the city and continued regeneration of the eastern seafront.

🖋 News in Brief 🖋

• Brighton Museum & Art Gallery is closed for roof work to take place. It will be closed until Thursday 12th September.
• Sussex County Cricket Club is getting new stands! It currently has imported, temporary stands on the grass banks at Cromwell Road, and hospitality tents on the south west corner. Permanent facilities will be made for both, increasing ground capacity and allowing the ground to contend for more major matches.

On Wednesday 7th August, many of Brighton's shops boarded up their windows and closed early, preparing for a mob of far-right white supremacists to bear down with all the physical and rhetorical violence we'd already seen from them in Southport.

A message from a far-right Telegram channel had been leaked, identifying 30 targets across the country that they intended to hit at 8pm; included on that list was Queensbury House on Queens Road, which hosts solicitors specialising in immigration law. In response, a number of groups including Brighton Antifascists, Trans Liberation Front, and Anti Raids Brighton mobilised across social media—they called, we answered.

In the hours before the planned attack, the air was tense. The streets were uncharacteristically quiet but for groups of anti-fascists in dark clothes and face masks gathering for safety before joining the crowd. As we approached Queens Road, we had no way of knowing what we were heading into.

We were hit first by the noise, unintelligible chants through distant megaphones. Hundreds of people lined the streets, spilling into the road; lights from police vans spat blue across the windows, and a number seven bus had got lodged among the crowd. We craned our necks to try and spot the threat, looking for a glimpse of the union jack, the distinctive movements of a scuffle, but saw nothing but a cluster of police helmets in the distance.

Instead, we saw protest signs, held up by hundreds of Brightonian hands, proclaiming messages of acceptance—‘refugees welcome’, ‘can’t spell community without unity’ —alongside disdain for the far-right —‘Brighton is no place for racists’. Residents of the buildings above the street clapped from their windows; one person emerged with ‘racist scum’ hastily scrawled on a piece of scrap cardboard before dipping into the dark of their flat and re-emerging to add ‘you came to the wrong city’.

The words of the chants revealed themselves to us in waves; ‘say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here’, ‘from the station to the sea, Brighton will be fascist-free.’ We moved closer to the centre of the crowd, where a group of people stood above us on bins, leading boos and chants of ‘shame on you’ directed ahead of us, but still we couldn’t see the fascists. Where was this anti-immigration violence? Where were Farage and Robinson’s followers? Only by checking social media did I discover that less than ten of them had turned up—reported figures range between 3 and 8.

Immobilised by the thousands of us who had turned out to protect our city, the meagre mob were stuck for hours, surrounded by a ring of police. Outside of that miserable circle, Queens Road had become full of the spirit of the city, with folk from all backgrounds packed in between buildings like a street party. From the depths of the crowd came music: brass instruments, drums, and thousands of strangers who sang and clapped and cheered in unison: “There are many many more of us than you…”