ABSTRACT
Full of independent shops selling bric-a-brac, clothes, records and other alternative items, the neighbourhood also includes a tightly packed residential community, workshops, creative business, restaurants, traditional pubs and trendy cafes as well as Brighton’s new library. Often misspelt, the name of the neighbourhood is North Laine – in the singular and with an ‘i’ and not to be confused with the ‘Lanes’ of Brighton, the old Saxon town with its tight narrow streets that lies between North Laine and the sea. ‘Laine’ was the name for the medieval shared fields that once surrounded Saxon Brighthelmstone. These were laid out as a grid and were accessed by paths called ‘leakways’, which became streets as the town expanded. The early expansion of Brighton in the Regency period spread along the coast. The later Victorian development was more prosaic, spreading inland and following the pattern of the medieval fields. North Laine was built as a series of terraced streets to house the workers in the nearby locomotive works. Its structure and architecture are identical to thousands of similar neighbourhoods across the country. What makes it an amazing ‘place’ is the way that the people and businesses of the area have turned such ordinary material into a unique urban environment. Brighton has an L-shaped shopping centre. The two main shopping streets are North Street, which runs parallel to the sea towards Hove, and London Road, which, as its name suggests, is the road to
The footfall created by this retail geography caused a secondary shopping spine to develop through North Laine including New Street, Regent Street and Kensington Gardens. For many years this was populated with electricians, hardware shops and cafes as well as a shop selling nurses’ uniforms (there are still shops selling nurses’ uniforms but the customers are no longer nurses). Some of these shops still exist, including a fantastic woodworking business. They have, however, been joined by hundreds of independent shops selling clothes, books, second-hand records, antiques and bric-a-brac. One local shop selling hand-made cosmetics grew to become the Body Shop. Today the central spine is lined with independent businesses, each with a distinctive shopfront and many decorated with murals. This street is packed with people and the activity has spread onto the eastwest streets. As with many such areas, this transformation grew out of adversity. In the 1970s the area was threatened by a road scheme that would have demolished roughly a third of the neighbourhood. This gave birth to a campaign, and people in Brighton are very good at campaigning. When the road scheme was shelved, this opposition turned to activism to promote the area as an alternative shopping and businesses quarter. However, as it became successful, the focus shifted from promotion to protection of its diversity as independent businesses started to be squeezed out by national chains. The shop units in the area are small and under a variety of ownerships, something that has provided a degree of protection from the encroachment of national retain chains. The North Laine Traders Association
maintains a database of property and rents. They can’t prevent landlords charging higher rents, but they can advise businesses what level of rent a particular unit will support and in doing so they are able to control rents to an extent. Their efforts mean that a
balance has been maintained and the area has not been gentrified as has happened in places with a similar history such as Covent Garden. Customers would in any case probably not welcome national chains. One local retailer, who has grown a chain of six shops, feels the need to conceal this by giving each outlet a different name and changing the identity of each every few years. The buildings of North Laine are decorated with murals, distinctive shop signs, graffiti and public art – a bohemian look that can be found in other places now. However North Laine was one of the first such boho quarters and is aware that the look can be overdone. The planning authority was originally resistant to the signage and murals, having made it a Conservation Area. However, they now work with the traders to promote the image of the area. Today North Laine remains lively, independent and local. The people shopping and walking in its streets feel like a cross-section of Brighton people, even if many of them are probably tourists. Such areas feel so well established that it is easy to forget how fragile they can be – teetering between the twin threats of decline and gentrification. North Laine has survived because it has recognised the threat and because there are local structures in place to look after its interests. The hope is that the fragile balance that has created its special character can be maintained.
