Plans on show

These plans, which are expected to create over 1000 jobs and attract over half a billion pounds into the city’s economy, will be on display for comment at a public exhibition.

A joint planning application for three sites; the University of Brighton’s Watts car park and Mithras car park sites on either side of the Lewes Road and neighbouring Preston Barracks, will be submitted to Brighton and Hove City Council Planning Department by U+I Plc and the university later this year. 

There will be a new home for the university’s Brighton Business School along with new teaching and learning facilities.

The scheme as a whole will deliver around 1,300 student bedrooms at Preston Barracks and on the Mithras House car park, ensuring provision of quality, managed accommodation for students at the university and taking the pressure off private rented accommodation. 

Artist's impression of the Preston Barracks regeneration. Image courtesy of Studio Egret West.

All existing university parking spaces will be replaced by a multi-storey carpark on the Watts car park site and there will be additional car parking at Preston Barracks to serve the new residential and business uses.

A 50,000 sq ft ‘central research laboratory’, acting as an incubator centre and cutting-edge facility to support new, hi-tech and design-led manufacturing start-up companies and entrepreneurs will be at the heart of the Preston Barracks site. It has attracted a £7.7 million grant investment from the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership.

Approximately 350 new homes, including affordable homes, will line new green public spaces. Small independent retail units, workshops and cafes will be provided at street level and new routes will be created to provide better connectivity from neighbouring residential streets to the Lewes Road and Moulsecoomb Railway Station.

Addressing a detailed brief for development by Brighton & Hove City Council and working with award-winning architects Studio Egret West and HASSELL, this employment-led regeneration scheme will create an estimated 1,065 new jobs and contribute £511.28 million to the city’s economy over the next ten years. 

Our university and U+I have an established working relationship that dates back to 2006 and have worked closely, alongside Brighton and Hove City Council, on the development now underway at Circus Street in Brighton city centre, adjacent to the university’s Grand Parade campus.

Professor Debra Humphris, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Brighton, said, “We see this as a great opportunity to improve the facilities we have for our students and staff as well as to open up our sites on the Lewes Road to the local community. This is a very exciting proposal for the city and for the university – one which will create an open and attractive location which generates jobs, brings economic benefit to the city and will reduce pressure on the private housing market.”

Cllr Warren Morgan, leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, said, “Preston Barracks has been on the drawing board for 14 years and it is a key site for new affordable housing for local people, jobs and growth. Brighton and Hove City Council City Plan envisages a joined up approach should be taken to development along the Lewes Road so it’s great that we are working in partnership with U+I and the University of Brighton to drive forward this much-needed regeneration.”

Richard Upton from U+I Plc said, “The partnership aims to create a new place that is lively and bursting with creative energy, delivering a wonderful place to live, work and learn. This major development will act as a marker to the city from the north, whilst contributing a vibrant new place with a melting pot of uses, which will complement the existing community.”

The exhibition is open to the public from 12pm to 8pm on Friday 22 April and 10am to 4pm on Saturday 23 April at FIELD at Preston Barracks and then will be taken to Churchill Square in the city centre on Saturday 30 April and Sunday 1 May.