Early birds, tennis balls and other stories (#7)
TL;DR of local press and stories from Brighton and surrounding areas.
Apologies for the longer-than-usual wait since the last issue. Life happened. On the bright side, we have a brand new food section courtesy of our newly hired Food Correspondent. We hope you have a good holidays break ahead.
News
The Brighton Marathon 2023 is saved!
Some more analysis of the Census 2021 data. Brighton and Hove population is increasingly white, and increasingly not religious.
Interesting fact: only 28% of all land in Brighton and Hove is classified as developed. This is largely due to the South Downs National Park accounting for 40% of the land area of Brighton & Hove.
The public toilets saga continues. After closing the public toilets for the winter season, a plan heavily criticised, the council is apparently considering closing some of them for good as a cost-saving measure.
The Brighton i360 might fail to pay the next instalment of £900,000 towards its £47m outstanding debt to the council.
According to TimeOut the best place to visit in the UK in 2023 is… Eastbourne!
Everything is ready for the Burning the Clocks parade on Wednesday 21st December. Read more about the event, including route and timeline.
TIL split ticketing is a thing. For long train journeys you can save money by buying tickets for intermediate sections of your route.
The “Don’t Pay” campaigners protested in Churchill Square shopping centre against the rising costs of energy bills. If you are struggling with your energy bills here is a lengthy list of recommendations and grants you might have access to.
More information about the upcoming revamp of the bike-sharing scheme. It will be managed by Beryl, the same company providing tech for London Santander Bikes.
The “Sea Lanes Brighton”, the new seafront pool being built close to Black Rock, announced that the early bird memberships will cost £45 a month, which according to 70 per cent of public (Argus readers, really) is too damn high.
Gatwick Police launched an appeal to donate spare tennis ball for the police dogs at Gatwick Airport. They got too many in response.
The Blind Veterans UK St Dunstan’s building in Ovingdean, which hosted a rehabilitation centre that sadly closed last year, is in the process of being converted into 64 homes, with a cinema, gym and swimming pool. The South Downs planning committee discussed the planning application (starts at around 01:11:00, slide 48). Notable the description of the architecture of the building: “The building itself is designed to mimic an aeroplane, with the front cockpit, two wings to the north and the south, and the fuselage to the rear.”. There is an ongoing conversation about the plan, particularly around the seemingly too small contribution of the developer towards affordable housing.
Meanwhile the revamping plan for Kingsway to the Sea has been approved. In a few years (not before late 2024) the adjacent King Alfred Leisure Centre will also be redeveloped.
The Brighton Gasworks site near the Marina is also being considered for a revamp. The developer submitted an amended planning application this month.
Snacks and the City
Crocodile Cafe
Affordable Italian in the heart of Saltdean? Book a table and make it snappy.
The name Crocodile Cafe doesn’t scream “authentic Italian”, but that’s what you’ll find at this family-run restaurant. The interior is welcoming — cosy but not too small for our party of eight — and the reception was friendly. Between us, we sampled most of the menu. Starter highlights included the perfectly seasoned Tricolore salad and the truffle and pesto bruschetta (which gave me the most food envy). The smoked cheese pizza was delicious and the pasta dishes were well-cooked, with the lasagne and slow-cooked lamb ragu being particularly praised. My personal favourite was my dessert of fennel taralli with hard cheese, dried figs, and truffled honey — buonissimo. I also highly recommend finishing your meal with a sip of the world’s booziest limoncello. Downsides: the arancini was a little dry and the cannolo was soft, which was disappointing. On the whole though, the menu seems to change regularly and is so reasonably priced that we’ll definitely be back.
8/10
History corner
“Once described by Julie Burchill as ‘…the most beautiful building in Britain’, Saltdean Lido stands at the southern end of Saltdean Park. It was opened by the Estate Company on the site of some tennis-courts in 1937. […] In July 1987, it was listed as a building of special architectural interest. […] During WWII, the pool was used as a water tank by the National Fire Service College, which was then based at the Ocean Hotel.” After the war, the building was redeveloped, reopened and reclosed a couple of times until “In March 2010, it was announced that owner Dennis Audley planned to close the Lido for good and redevelop it into [an] apartment block. […] Thousands of people joined the Save Saltdean Lido and, in 2012, the council put a nil valuation of the 125-year lease in 1997.” The lido reopened in 2017. (from The New Encyclopaedia of Brighton)
Music
“Shaping a spaghetti western universe out of squalling guitars, vivid colours and cinematic vignettes, there’s no other British band out there like Black Honey. Bursting out of the ether in 2014 with their debut track ‘Spinning Wheel’ – a Pulp Fiction-flecked barrage of piercing screams and twanging surf-rock – they have continued to build their own surrealist world ever since.” (source)
