Brighton New England Quarter
Key Principles
- Achieving a high density, mixed use development through a pro-active approach
Details
The New England Quarter demonstrates how the pro-active approach of a local authority can help to achieve a high quality development that is responsive to local context.
Despite its prime location adjacent to Brighton Station, the former Brighton station goods yard and locomotive works had proved difficult to redevelop. Having laid vacant for nearly 40 years, a high density and mixed use quarter is now emerging which features a number of interesting design solutions.
In the late 1990s the Council refused planning permission for the development of a large supermarket and surface car park with a small office and residential component, on the grounds that it did not respond to local context and failed to deliver a sufficient mix of uses.
The Council engaged a team of consultants to demonstrate the viability of alternative schemes and in 1998 the refusal was confirmed at appeal. The Council then set about working closely with local residents and action groups, who had strongly opposed the original scheme, to prepare a development brief for the site.
A working group was established, comprising Brighton and Hove council officers, Ward Councillors and representatives of Railtrack, SEEDA, local community groups and local trade organisations, as well as property consultants to give independent advice on viability and deliverability issues. In 2000, the development brief was adopted as SPG.
Simultaneously, the New England Consortium, comprising Railtrack, Sainsbury’s and other interested development parties, engaged URBED to prepare an alternative masterplan for the site that would meet the requirements of the development brief. Planning permission was granted in 2003 and construction of the scheme commenced in 2004. The masterplan included a regulatory plan that fixed the key urban design parameters in the planning consent.
When completed, the area will include approximately 350 dwellings, a supermarket with basement car parking and residential uses on the upper floors, a language school, two hotels, approximately 2,700m2 offices, a community facility and a station car park. Block densities of up to 145 dwellings per hectare and very low car parking standards reflect the high accessibility of the site.
Other information:
- Location: Brighton
- Project Team: Brighton and Hove City Council, New England Consortium, URBED
- Contact: www.brighton-hove.gov.uk;
