Brighton Marina

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Brighton Marina

Brighton Marina is a large, man-made marina situated in Brighton, England. The construction of the marina itself took place between 1971 and 1979, although developments within it have continued ever since. The marina covers an area of approximately 127 acres.^[1]

1 Existing facilities
2 Ongoing developments
3 The Big Splash
4 Image gallery
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Existing facilities

The land within the marina has been developed in several stages and now accommodates a large ASDA supermarket and two groups of boutique shops, restaurants and bars, plus a hotel, a bowling alley, a health club, a casino, and a multiplex cinema with a multi-storey car-park built over and around it. On the east side of the marina there are several gated communities consisting of townhouses and apartments, some of which come with their own moorings, alongside public moorings and facilities for boats and their users, ranging from boat sales and service companies through to a floating launderette at the main moorings. Both harbour arms are popular locations for local fishermen; the east breakwater is often packed to capacity during summer weekends^[2], and there is regular sightseeing and fishing boat trips from the marina^[3].

A SeaJet service ran from the Marina to Dieppe in France between 1979 and 1980. Two Boeing Jetfoils were used, with three "flights" per day. The service suffered from poor reliability of the Jetfoils in the early stages, was restricted due to mid-channel wave height, and suffered during the French fishermen's blockade of channel ports.

From time to time there have been summer-season passenger services to Fécamp, France, using small catamaran ferries.

[edit] Ongoing developments

This article or section contains information about expected future buildings or structures.
Some or all of this information may be speculative, and the content may change as building construction begins.

Work began in spring 2007 on a new district of the marina which will contain 853 new apartments, cafés, bars and restaurants. The development is situated on the south-western point of the marina and will partly sit on stilts over the sea. The centrepiece building is to be a skyscraper dubbed The Roaring Forties which will stand at 40 storeys tall and include a public viewing platform on the top floor. Two new pedestrian bridges are included in the scheme, one retractable to link the marina arms and the second to link the western beach with the new scheme. The developers are local firm Brunswick, and the architects are Wilkinson Eyre, noted for Gateshead Millennium Bridge. CABE have highlighted the development as one of four national developments demonstrating best practice in design and planning.

A planning application to redevelop much of the west side of the marina was submitted in October 2007. The plans include several tall apartment blocks (the tallest will be Marina Point which will stand 28 storeys and Quayside which is to be 16 storeys), various new retail provisions including small shops, a new central square (where the current roundabout stands) and an "eco park", connected to the Undercliff Walk. The supermarket would be demolished and rebuilt to a larger size with car parking underground and apartments above, freeing up the considerable space presently used for its open-air car park, allowing for further development. The petrol station and McDonalds would also be demolished and rebuilt under this scheme. Around five new apartment blocks will be added to the marina in total. The developers are Explore Living, a division of Laing O'Rourke, and the architects are Allies and Morrison.

There is local opposition to the proposed development, which has been accused of being inappropriate, too dense, and in breach of the provision of the Brighton Marina Act 1968 that no building should exceed cliff height (approximately ten storeys). The main campaigning organisation is "savebrighton" which is coordinating opposition from individual residents, residents' organisations and amenity groups. The campaign was launched in November 2007. The founder of savebrighton, Brian Simpson, has written an e-petition to the Prime Minister calling for the "gross over-development of Brighton Marina" to be stopped.^[4]

[edit] The Big Splash

The Brighton Festival and Fringe culminate in late May. This coincides with a major Fringe event at Brighton Marina; The Big Splash, which is a weekend of street performers, fireworks and aqua themed entertainment.