Brighton Trip: Birds and Concrete

 The final post from my birthday trip to Brighton and two favourite subjects: birds and concrete.

 I did not remember Fulmars on the cliffs in Sussex from my keen birdwatching teenage years but there is now a very large colony on the cliffs at Ovingdean and research confirmed that they were not recorded as breeding until 1976. They were very busy setting up nest sites and territories as expected in January when they return from the sea.

My other interest well supported on this trip is concrete architecture (there is a Concrete Appreciation Society so I am not alone!!) The new town hall in Hove was built by John Wells-Thorpe in the Brutalist architecture style, predominantly out of concrete clad and was officially opened in 1974.

Hove Buildings etc (Jan 20th)

On my last morning, I walked along towards Shoreham s the sun came up and then back via Hove town looking at the buildings - such a range of architectural styles including a rather splendid Tescos! 

Starlings Leave Roost (Brighton 20th January )

Still catching up on images from trip to Brighton. This was my last morning when my planned walk from Brighton along towards Shoreham was a bit delayed by the wonderful spectacle, first of the starlings leaving the old West Pier and flying off over Hove and then by the colours of the sunrise.

 

Cambridge Architecture: Station Road and Warren Close

A group from CCC spent the morning looking the the new developments in the Station area and the Cattle market (now housing the Junction, Travelodge and Light Cinema complex). The latter has changed little in the last 5 years but area around the station is transformed. Very poor light to get the effect I was aiming at so will return on another day.

 

Regency Brighton and Palace Pier

Regency describes the years from 1811 to 1820 during which George III was judged to be incapacitated and his son, the Prince of Wales, acted as Regent. Architecturally, however, it flourished for more than three decades until it gradually withered during the reign of William IV. One of its main protagonists was John Nash, who transformed the Prince’s more modest pavilion with an amalgam of Mogul Indian, Scottish Baronial and Chinoiserie features. Palace Pier was opened in 1899 so of a later period but it fits well with the Regency buildings of the Old Steine area immediately inland with the dominant domes of the Royal Pavilion.