I don’t think we’re that good at recording the world we live in (photographs, sound) for future reference.
The first question that can arise from that is: is it important? I like to think yes without being able to provide particularly good reasons why.
In any case, I used to – and still – love to look at old photographs of the places I’ve lived and grew up in, found in local shops. museums and pubs.
In was perhaps this that was the inspiration back in 2004 to take some photos of an area of Brighton that was about to the redeveloped. The area in question was next to the main station and contained various crumbling buildings from the last 150 years sticking out of the undergrowth.
It’s not just a bunch of buildings, both being knocked down and built, but a whole area where the characteristics are changing completely. For example, on the edge of the area is a Primary school, it used to be next to a busy main road and now – not be coincidence – next to a pedestrian area. They didn’t just pave the road, the whole area is different. Plus they would have had views of the Seven Dials area high up on a hill the other side of the station, now behind several different buildings. How can we show how this has changed for those who arrive in the future.
I’ve updated the ‘Brighton New England Quarter‘ pages, and added a new batch of photos.
It also has a new address (well two):
http://brightonnewengland.nostuff.org/
Nice and short: http://d.nostuff.org/
There’s now a Google map with some of the key buildings on it (something I can’t believe it lacked until now), and the latest files have been uploaded to flickr (now pro!) and a local ‘Gallery 2‘ installation. Gallery 2 ensures I have a duplicate copy on the web which I have full control of, though the Gallery software and Dreamhost webservers are not the quickest in the world (I note that Gallery 3, in beta, is a complete rewrite). I added descriptive metadata to both but need to try and find a way to reduce double keying (perhaps by adding some in to Iphoto 09, just purchased).
The pages are now in Drupal. I’ve been looking for something to run in Drupal for a while, and these are some of the last static text file html pages which were an ideal candidate. My reservation about moving anything in to a CMS is that it may restrict what I can do on a page, e.g. adding embedded media, javascript or php. So far this hasn’t been a problem.
Dreamhost offer two kinds of ‘One Click Install’. Advanced, the most common, where the software/db is installed in to your area, so your free to amend/add themes/break/etc as you please. Drupal is only offered as a ‘Easy’ One Click Install. It’s hosted for you, you have admin access but can’t access the physical install. This means no worry for upgrades, but means I can’t add modules or themes. Which may be frustrating in the future. I could of course install it myself on my own site (I have full shell access) though that sounds like effort.
So now I’ve got some photos from before they started (well, annoyingly some buildings had already been knocked down before), to being built, to current day. Some plots are still waiting to be built on, including the plot next to the station for a 5 star hotel (original plans were for a massive – ugly – skyscraper). I was never organised enough to ensure I was taking photos from the exact same locations over time, but have taken so many that there should be a good number where there will be good before/during/after shots.
So, if interested, do take a look at the site and photos. Hopefully nostuff.org will be around long enough to of use to show our the area used to be.
A few years a go I created some new pages on the ‘New England Quater’, on the site of some old railway works next to Brighton station and near me. Originally the pages just had some photos of how the site looked before work started, and at various stages since (stupidly I normally took this late in the day as the sun was setting which produced poor photos), however at the time I couldn’t find any website providing general information on the project so provided some background and useful links. Since then there has been much more information put on to the web (and lot of information removed as well).
Anyway, I write this as I’ve noticed that the council have put out a report this year reviewing the current state of play, see the link ‘briefing note 2008′.
First of all, click on this (it may be Microsoft but it is more powerful than google maps, it pains me to write).
Very near to me there is a newsagent . I like this, in fact it is one of the reasons why I chose to live here. 20 seconds away is also a deli, off-licence, and video rental. Now there is also two hardware stores (serious DIY stores), a greasy spoon cafe and two bathroom stores within the same walking distance, but I don’t use those 
I also have a couple of Indians, two chinese, a fish n chips, pizza/burger/kebab and various other misc stores (including Relate, a costume shop, two motorbike shops, a postcard shop(?), a alternative health shop… you get the picture!). The only things I lack is a decent restaurant and all day cafe.
Now, back to the point Chris, I mentioned a Newsagent, a medium sized one, fairly well stocked and open to 7 or 8pm (1 on the map). Further down the road is another one, run by a quiet Indian family, it’s small and in need to a good refurbishment (but you sense they have never done the level of business to do such things) (2 on the map). Open until 8 or 9pm. Opposite them is a post office selling similar sort of things, open during the day only.
And that was the way of the world. The key here is that though it is a busy road (it’s the A23), the traffic doesn’t really stop and the catchment area isn’t great. You basically want houses all around, 360 degress. There are basically no houses one side of the road (a couple of small streets) and while on the other side there is a large area of housing, the layout of roads means they will always pass a Newsagents before reaching the Preston road.
About a year a go a shop opened called Africmart. This was an odd shop, run by a guy who looks like a huge but friendly bouncer . The store sells some vegetables and fairly common food and also much which is obviously more common to those who are from Africa. He never seems busy but the shop seems like a good thing.
Then recently a new store opened just a few steps away from this shop and the small newsagent. It sells various international foods and also some bog standard stuff such as milk (and also some basic newsagent essentials).
It’s getting cosy, the small trade the newsagent would do is now being shared by these two new shops especially on the food side.
Now, another shop has just opened ‘top news’ a weird thing, a large sparse shop which seems to sell itself on traditional newsagent creditials (we sell newspapers, snacks, magazines, grociers etc) but looks to have a strong chinese slant. What were they thinking?! “hmm let’s open a newsagent” “where shall we put it in Brighton?” “why don’t we place it next to the three other places selling the same thing!”. They are advertising 24/7 opening (impressive and useful) but they are going to struggle to do business with so many selling basically the same thing next door.
Finally, this week, another new store has opened, this is again a food convience store, but also a strong slant on drink as well (a year a go I was worried by sole local off licence would shut when unwins went bust, now I have endless shops selling liquids to destroy my liver). The street with limited footfall, no parking and meters away from a main shopping street now has many shops all with a slightly different slant but basically overlaping.
As you may guess from my tone I feel a little sorry for the small old newsagent that is stuck in the middle. They never did a huge trade to start with, worked long hours, and this must be hurting. Every time I walk in either a young quiet chap or an oldish man is a cartakers coat with a very slight build stand behind a old tiny desk with a little till on it and I also feel rather bad for only buying some milk. I wish them good luck!
See this Argus article: New council leader spells out his party’s priorities, from the article:
- Review Labour’s plans for a rapid transport bus system while re-examining the monorail project
- Revisit the controversial school lottery scheme which has divided the city
- Push for underground car parks in new developments to ensure extra homes do not add pressure to the already overstretched road network, and
- Concentrate on delivering less congestion by removing build-outs while putting plans for a park and ride on the back burner.
OK. Council Tax, sounds good but what will need to be cut (unless we can find savings, or the increase in the number of homes brings about a big enough increase to sustain things).
Monorail, very little on the web, seems to be between Palace pier and Marina, the same route as the Volks railway, sounds fine, but hardly the saviour of city wide transport problems.
School lottery. No real view, I respect the council for making a tough decision and not being shy of a radical and new approach (which they must have known would get a bad press), it stops those with money buying a place at a good school then it is a step towards equality for all, though have no real problem with a new council wanting to review such a controversial decision.
‘Removing build-outs’? I’m presuming this means no more extensions to buildings, I’m not sure. And if so, not sure this is the answer to problems. He does say they are not anti-development nor anti-progress, which is good, but the proof is in the pudding. And it has been shown with the last council that strong planning controls and vision (albeit through specialist urban planning contractors) can lead to great regeneration of areas (such as the New England Quarter, Jubilee library area), I hope this continues, rather than just allowing the higher bidder to do what they want, as if often the case in so many towns.
My thoughts: We have a successful city with a great reputation (cultural, vibrant, alternative, anything-goes, party, arty, rich&poor) which we need to keep and build on, we need to redevelop key sites such as the marina, Brighton centre and King Alfred being ambitious, daring and original, and thinking about how these developments provide space and interconnect with adjacent areas. And we need to attract companies to set up base in the town, with some bias I suggest blue chip, web/tech companies are ideally suited to the city and attract those with a high disposal-able income, same is true for law and financial firms. Finally, if there is one negative aspect of Brighton, it can look dirty at times, and work needs to continue to clean it up.
The Tory’s have a majority, but not overall control. How? Look around you and play spot the tory voter. Sure there are quite a few well off people, but vastly out numbered by those who look ‘brighton-ish’, students and others who just don’t look like tory voters (of course, plenty of the well off, business types also vote labour, especially in Brighton). I just don’t walk around town and think that the majority of people I see are likely to vote tory (yes I know how stupid that sounds, can’t judge by looks).
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