A zone in transition

Brighthelm Centre churchyard

The Brighthelm Centre has a very attractive and peaceful churchyard.   This area is a ‘zone in transition’. Round every city centre, there is an area of shifting, rootless population.

Migrants to a city don’t settle at the edges. They come into the city centre by train, looking for somewhere cheap to stay. That’s why the Community Base and the YMCA are situated near here. Early in the morning, you will see the street people.

At the far side of the churchyard, are a series of small shops, many selling second-hand goods. These are the remnants of a very poor quarter, which existed on this site in the early nineteenth century.

Comments about this page

  • “Remnants of a very poor quarter” I thank you that the shops here may not look brand new, but the prices are far from cheap! Long live old Brighton and it is not an attractive peaceful place its full of people out of their heads on drugs and alcohol.

    By Herbie taylor (15/02/2008)
  • The transition is well under way. I hope to have the chance to update this page ASAP.

    By Rev David Coleman (07/07/2008)
  • I live in one of the cottages facing in to the park and am interested to hear what plans are in place for ‘transition’ – currently I share concern over the activity that takes place in the park!

    By Michael Simms (28/07/2008)
  • My Gt Gt gt Grandmother, Elizabeth Sargeant, was buried in the old churchyard here in 1842. Unfortunately her grave appears to have been lost under the later widening of Queen’s Road when much of the cemetery disappeared. The tombstones were supposed to have been stood around the sides of the churchyard but her’s isn’t amongst these as I was unable to locate it amongst the brambles beer cans and other paraphernalia on a visit there a few years back. Fortunately the East Sussex Archives has transcriptions of most of the inscriptions including hers. The family were in Brighton at this time as her husband Samuel Sargeant was Clerk of the Works for the Board of Ordnance on the building of Church Street barracks and also involved with work on the barracks at Preston, the Military Hospital at Canterbury and the Royal Burial Vaults at Frogmore. I have often wondered where they lived in Brighton at this time.

    By Tim Sargeant (06/05/2015)

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