Visit Bear Road, Brighton Places

Welcome to Visit Bear Road, Brighton Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Bear Road, Brighton

  

Bear Road, Brighton Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Bear Road, Brighton

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Bear Road, Brighton history

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At the time of the Domesday survey in 1086, the parishes of Patcham and Preston were part of the Hundred of Preston in the Rape of Lewes. The boundaries of the hundred were later changed to cover Preston and Hove parishes, and they remained in this form until 1833 or later. The parish of Preston itself was broadly rectangular, approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) from east to west and 1 mile (1.6 km) north to south, but it “[sent] a long tongue eastwards along the boundary of [Brighton parish] to the summit of the Race Hill”. North of this “tongue” of land was the parish of Patcham, which like Preston parish became part of the Borough of Brighton in 1928. The tithe map of Preston parish before it became urbanised shows most of the northeast part of the parish, including all the land now covered by the Bear Road area, was owned by George Harrington and farmed by Bartholomew Smithers. There were five principal fields, a pond, some farm buildings next to Lewes Road and a windmill. Bear Mill was built in about 1810 and survived until 1903; it stood on the site of number 89 Ladysmith Road. It was a post mill with cloth sails and a white-painted roundhouse. A similar mill, the Race Hill Mill, stood at the top of Bear Road on Race Hill between January 1862 and May 1913, when it collapsed after several years of disuse. Originally known as Park Mill when it stood on Albion Hill, it was moved to its new site over a three-week period in 1861–62. Meanwhile, much of the land south of Bear Road was part of the arable land belonging to Scabe’s Castle Farm, whose buildings were on Hartington Road. The name of Bear Road comes from the Bear Inn at the foot of the hill, facing the junction with Lewes Road. A pub of that name still occupies the site, but the original building dated from the 18th century and was associated with bear- and badger-baiting at that time. Lewes Road was turnpiked in 1770, but development was slow: the first buildings were the Percy and Wagner Almshouses (1795) south of Elm Grove. Housing reached Bear Road in the 1860s, and in the 1890s and 1900s development spread further north into Preston parish as far as the Patcham parish boundary. At the same time, the steep hillside to the east began to be laid out with working-class housing. Between 1895 and 1899, the north side of Bear Road was lined with houses, and Coombe Terrace became the first new road of housing beyond the two main roads. Between 1900 and 1909, Buller Road, Dewe Road, Ewhurst Road, Ladysmith Road, Nesbitt Road, Redvers Road and Riley Road were laid out in their entirety, and Coombe Road, Milner Road and Natal Road were partly completed. Between 1910 and World War I, Kimberley Road and Mafeking Road were added. Apart from later infill development, the suburb was complete by 1924 with the laying out of Baden Road, Canfield Road, Crayford Road, Eastbourne Road, Carlyle Avenue and the remaining parts of Coombe, Milner and Natal Roads. Canfield Close was built in 1956–59, and the Meadowview area was developed from the 1960s starting with Jevington Drive. When the area north of Bear Road still consisted of open land, it was a popular site for travelling circuses and fairs. During one fair in the late 19th century, an elephant died and had to be disposed of. A large grave was dug on the hillside and it was buried there. The site was later built over: it is at the junction of the present Natal and Nesbitt Roads (click for image). The fairs ceased when rapid urbanisation started: between 1873 and 1900, the number of houses in the part of Preston parish east of Lewes Road rose from about 450 to more than 4,000. South of Bear Road, about 100 acres (40 ha) of the land formerly belonging to Scabe’s Castle Farm is now covered by cemeteries. The Brighton Extra Mural Cemetery is the earliest: it was founded in 1850 by the Brighton Extra Mural Company, which was set up by four eminent Brightonians who were concerned about the lack of burial space in the growing town and the implications for public health. Nonconformist minister John Nelson Goulty, his son the architect Horatio Nelson Goulty, fellow architect Amon Henry Wilds and doctor and politician John Cordy Burrows bought an initial 13 acres (5.3 ha) of land and laid out a private cemetery for Anglican, Roman Catholic and Nonconformist burials. The cemetery now covers 16.5 acres (6.7 ha) and is maintained by Brighton and Hove City Council. In 1857, the Brighton Parochial Cemetery was founded on 20-acre (8.1 ha) of land adjoining the Extra Mural Cemetery; it is now called the Woodvale Cemetery and also has Sussex’s first crematorium—the Woodvale Crematorium—which opened in 1930. A third cemetery opened north of Bear Road and opposite the Extra Mural Cemetery in 1868: it covers 31.5 acres (12.7 ha) and is known as City Cemetery or Bear Road Cemetery. In 1886, a fourth cemetery—again privately operated, a status which it still retains—opened on 30 acres (12 ha) of land southeast of the Woodvale Cemetery. It is called the Brighton and Preston Cemetery and also has a crematorium. In 1919, the new Meadowview Jewish Cemetery (replacing a 19th-century facility on Ditchling Road in Round Hill) was laid out on land between the Bear Road Cemetery and the Meadowview estate. The 3.5-acre (1.4 ha) site was extended in 1978 when 1.5 acres (0.61 ha) was added to the northeast. Bear Road was featured as the final climb on the seventh stage of the 2014 Tour of Britain from Camberley to Brighton.

You can visit Bear Road, Brighton places with Walkfo Bear Road, Brighton to hear history at Bear Road, Brighton’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Bear Road, Brighton has 208 places to visit in our interactive Bear Road, Brighton map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Bear Road, Brighton, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Bear Road, Brighton places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Bear Road, Brighton & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 208 audio facts unique to Bear Road, Brighton places in an interactive Bear Road, Brighton map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Bear Road, Brighton Places Map
208 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Bear Road, Brighton historic spots	Bear Road, Brighton tourist destinations	Bear Road, Brighton plaques	Bear Road, Brighton geographic features
Walkfo Bear Road, Brighton tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Bear Road, Brighton

  

Best Bear Road, Brighton places to visit

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Bear Road, Brighton has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Bear Road, Brighton’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Bear Road, Brighton’s information audio spots:

St Wulfran’s Church, Ovingdean St Wulfran’s Church is an Anglican church in Ovingdean, a rural village now within the English city of Brighton and Hove. The church is listed at Grade I, a designation used for buildings “of outstanding architectural or historic interest”

St Luke’s Church, Queen’s Park, Brighton St Luke’s Church is an Anglican church in the Queen’s Park area of Brighton. It was designed in the 1880s by Sir Arthur Blomfield in the Early English style. It has been given listed building status because of its architectural importance.

Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity, Brighton The Church of the Holy Trinity is a Greek Orthodox church in Brighton. Built in 1838 in one of Brighton’s most notorious slum districts, Carlton Hill. It was an Anglican church for most of its life until it was declared redundant in 1980. It has been listed at Grade II since 1971.

St Mary the Virgin, Brighton St Mary’s Church is an Anglican church in the Kemptown area of Brighton. The present building dates from the late 1870s and replaced a church of the same name which collapsed while being renovated. The Gothic-style red-brick building is now a Grade II* listed building.

Church of the Annunciation, Brighton The Church of the Annunciation was built in the 1860s on behalf of Rev. Arthur Wagner. It served a new area of poor housing in what is now the Hanover district. The church is a Grade II listed building.

Royal Crescent, Brighton Royal Crescent is a crescent-shaped terrace of houses on the seafront in Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built in the late 18th and early 19th century as a speculative development on the open cliffs east of Brighton by a wealthy merchant. English Heritage has listed the crescent at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance.

Waste House Waste House is a building on the University of Brighton campus in the centre of Brighton on the south coast of England. It was built between 2012 and 2014 as a project involving hundreds of students and apprentices. The materials consist of a wide range of construction industry and household waste. It is the first public building in Europe to be built primarily of such products.

St Wilfrid’s Church, Brighton St Wilfrid’s Church is a former Anglican church in the Elm Grove area of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It was declared redundant after less than 50 years as a place of worship, and was converted into sheltered housing with minimal alteration to the exterior.

Dorset Gardens Methodist Church Dorset Gardens Methodist Church is the third Methodist place of worship on the site. It replaced an older, larger church which was in turn a rebuilding of Brighton’s first Methodist church. Between them, the churches have played an important part in the history of Methodism in Brighton.

The Blind Tiger Club, Brighton The Blind Tiger Club was a mixed music, arts and community venue in Brighton, England, which opened in 2010. Time Out described the venue as “semi-legendary”, in its round-up of Brighton’s live music scene that year. Gigwise included the club in their list of the UK’s Greatest Lost Venues.

Visit Bear Road, Brighton plaques