We Regret to Announce that Summer in Brighton has been Delayed...

We regret to announce that summer in Brighton has been delayed. The sky is grey and leaden today, there is a chill North by North-East breeze making it fell like seven or eight degrees Celsius and the Channel is an uninviting grey-green colour.

Even the seagulls are out of sorts, stumping around and muttering to themselves. The prognosis over the next few days is not much better, ‘unsettled’ is what the BBC calls it.

After the sunshine and warmth of Easter there was a flurry of activity with many of the entertainments and cafes open for business. Quite a few have now closed again although the 131-year-old Volks Railway - the oldest public electric railway in the world - is still trundling along between the Palace Pier and the Marina.

 

 

 

Behind it, the three-year-old Brighton Wheel is slowly and nervously revolving, many of its capsules empty. It’s nervous because further along the seafront the same architects who designed the London Eye have designed the Brighton i360 tower, which is now under construction and, on completion, it is expected to attract 700,000 additional visitors a year to the city. The i360 will have a viewing platform 138 metres high - compared to only 50 for the Wheel - and should, on a clear day, enable people to see for 25 miles, to Eastbourne and beyond for example.     

Although many businesses on the seafront are closed and shuttered, there are still a few open, including this colourful artist's shop.

 
Squeals and shrieks of terror or joy - or possibly both - attracted me further along to where the carousel was in operation. This little girl was very nervous at first, clinging tightly to the horse's neck as the ride gathered speed...

Then, mounting panic overcome, she really began to enjoy the ride, squealing with the sheer exhilaration of it all, flying along...

And a few spaces behind her were two other girls, quite a bit older, who maybe remembered when they were much younger and rode a flying horse for the first time...

 We end with the 20-ton recycled scrap iron artwork titled ‘Passacaglia’ by Charles Hadcock and erected 17 years ago. Framed in it is the remains of Brighton's West Pier, built in 1866, closed in 1975 and, following two fires in 2003 and several storms, it is now just an iron skeleton. We Brightonians hope that one day - like the mythical phoenix bird - it will be reborn in all its glory...