Lewes Road

North of Hollingdean Road

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.

e) SAUNDERS PARK: Saunders Park covers 4.2 acres to the north of Hollingdean Road, and was laid out in 1924 on the site of the Lewes Road waterworks which had latterly been used by the Parks Department as a nursery. Unemployed labour was used to construct the park, and it was formally opened by the mayor, Hugh Milner Black, on 17 September 1924. In the same year Arthur and Benjamin Saunders offered an area of their land behind the pumping station to the corporation for about £1,000 and the park is named after them; this land was in the occupation of, and subsequently sold to, the War Office for £2,000, the proceeds going towards the cost of the Preston Park cycling track stand. Several old flint walls of the waterworks remain, while the large, brick building was an electricity substation erected in 1924. {83,115,126}

f) PRESTON BARRACKS and the PAVILION CENTRE RETAIL PARK: In 1795, at a time when Europe was on the brink of war, a cavalry barracks was established alongside the Lewes Road in the parish of Preston . The site included a hospital, smithy and riding school, and a small community grew up on the opposite side of the road to service them. Now, nearly 200 years later, the barracks are largely redundant and the seventeen-acre site will provide land for about 200 houses in addition to the retail park known as the Pavilion Centre.

This latter site houses Halfords (opened 30 September 1989), Harveys/Lounge House (3 November 1989, Comet September 1990), and B & Q (19 October 1989) superstores. Five acres have been retained for Territorial Army use, and the new T.A. Somme Centre opened in October 1988. Some of the service houses were taken over by the council at Christmas 1987. Two early barracks blocks, formerly the married men's quarters, survive at the southern end of the site. {17,107,109,123}

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.