Ditchling Road

The second highest road in the city

Reproduced with permission from the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder, 1990

Please note that this text is an extract from a reference work written in 1990.  As a result, some of the content may not reflect recent research, changes and events.

Reaching 525 feet above sea-level over Hollingbury, and with extensive views to east and west, Ditchling Road is the highest road in Brighton outside the Woodingdean area, and was established as a turnpike road to Lindfield and Cuckfield in 1770 with a tollgate at the Patcham / Preston boundary near Osborne Road {112}.

Alongside the Level (q.v.) Ditchling Road was originally known as Brunswick Place North and retains several interesting buildings from the 1810s; no.3, probably by A.H.Wilds, and the adjacent composition, nos.5-13 which are adorned with balconies, verandahs, bow windows and a pediment on the centre-piece, are listed buildings. The Open Market opened on its present site in 1926, but was rebuilt in 1960 (see "Markets"). No.93 Ditchling Road housed corporation slipper baths from 1891 until about 1932. Facing the northern side of the Level, no.2 is an attractive yellow-brick house with a Doric doorway, while the adjacent nos.4-8 were once home to the LadyChichesterHospital (see "Clifton Hill (Windlesham Road)"). Back along the main length of Ditchling Road, ascending the hill, are nos.12-24, attractive cottages formerly known as Ditchling Terrace. No.26 was built as a branch of the Brighton and Hove Dispensary in 1885. {44,83,9 4}

The Brighton Business Centre at the corner of Viaduct Road opened in 1987 in the former Chichester Diocesan Training College for Schoolmistresses, erected in 1854 (see "Viaduct Road").

The borough boundary ran along the western side of Ditchling Road from Viaduct Road to Florence Place until 1873. In the mid nineteenth century several large residences were built on the eastern, or Brighton, side; these included Sylvan Hall, the home of Henry Infield, which gave its name to the estate of council flats developed on the site from 1949. The attractive nos.68-82 Ditchling Road are a row of 1850s semi-detached villas originally known as Round Hill Park; they are now included in the Round Hill conservation area along with the former Ranelagh Terrace to the north. The western, or Preston, side of Ditchling Road was developed from the 1880s; large, semi-detached houses with Corinthian doorways line the road to the south, impressive red-brick housing was erected to the north. {83,109}
Opposite Round Hill Road stood St Saviour's Church, built in 1886 by Edmund Scott and F.T.Cawthorn. Faced in flint with brick dressings, the church was dominated by a very large reredos by W.Slater and R.H.Carpenter which was removed from Chichester Cathedral in 1904-5. A chapel was added in 1889, but the church closed in 1981 and was demolished in 1983 to be replaced by the flats of St Saviour's Court. A red-brick archway remains in Vere Road , and the parish has merged with St Augustine's. The area of attractive terraced housing to the south of the railway and west of Ditchling Road came to be known as St Saviour's in the late 1980s following the formation of a residents' association of that name.
At the end of Florence Place is the Freehold Burial Ground, given to the Brighton Synagogue congregation in 1826 by T.R.Kemp for use as a cemetery; it has an unusual octagonal, red-brick mortuary chapel with a turret roof {112}. St Matthias's Church to the north of Fiveways was built in 1906-7 by Lacy W.Ridge in Early English style, a red-brick building with a wooden hammer-beam roof, a small spire, and an apsidal chancel. It was consecrated in 1912. {1,45,123}

Ditchling Road then continues over the slopes of Hollingbury (q.v.) to Old Boat Corner, the junction with Carden Avenue and Coldean Lane. Lying about 475 feet above sea-level, this crossroads is named from an upturned boat that was once used as a shepherd's hovel {128}, and lay within a detached part of Falmer parish until 1934; it was then transferred to Stanmer , but was annexed by Brighton in 1952. The old crossroads signpost is now exhibited at StanmerRuralMuseum. The Brighton bypass will run through a cutting underneath Ditchling Road to the south of the crossroads; there will be an interchange with Carden Avenue to the west and an eastbound slip road from Coldean Lane to the east.
The road then leads out of the borough to Ditchling Beacon which, at 813 feet above sea-level, is the highest hill in East Sussex and the fourth highest point on the South Downs; only Butser Hill, Littleton Down and Linch Down are higher. The summit area, which has an Iron Age entrenchment, is owned jointly by the National Trust and Brighton Council which purchased 386 acres of High Park Farm in October 1928. {1,305}

Any numerical cross-references in the text above refer to resources in the Sources and Bibliography section of the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder.