Viva Brighton Issue #52 June 2017

BRICKS AND MORTAR
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Brighton and Hove at your fingertips
Mapping the city through the ages
The fifth furlong of North Laine. Dating from approx. 1792 and showing the area roughly between the station and New England Road. Ref ACC 9495
The shifting of buildings and streets in
Brighton and Hove has long been captured
in map form. As well as being a means to
find your way about the city, the maps tell a
story of its development from a scattering of
villages and homesteads to the city that we
know today.
Old maps are a form of historical evidence
that offer a distinctive perspective on the past,
and The Keep holds maps of Brighton and
Hove that go back to the first farmers and
landholders. Situated on Lewes Road towards
Falmer, The Keep is the archive centre for the
East Sussex Record Office (ESRO), the Royal
Pavilion & Museums Local History Collections
and the internationally significant University
of Sussex Special Collections. An hour
to two at its architecturally state-of-the-art
library, or on its website, and one can go back
in time - by house, street, neighbourhood and
parish - through its collection of maps and
public records dating back 900 years.
As well as conveying actual information – the
location of town halls and other infrastructure
– the design of maps is often more intuitive
than factual, capturing how we make sense of
our places and spaces and our particular psychogeographies.
How we see the map of the
city in our mind’s eye, depending on whether
we are driving, bussing, walking or cycling,
will differ greatly, as will the maps that depict
those routes. The bus-route map shows a different
city from that of the cycle routes.
The present-day maps of Brighton and
Hove tell a story of how we use the city and
consider its heritage. There are maps for
travelling around the city by foot, bike or
bus, as well as maps that place Brighton and
Hove in the larger South Downs and Sussex
coastline routes. There’s a map of arts venues
in the city. Maps of our past and present pubs,
and our heritage buildings. The MyBrightonandHove
website is a rich source of local
maps. There you’ll find a map of the twittens
(those narrow pathways between roads) that
together make for a walking tour of the city.
Also to be found there are survey maps from
the 1800s, maps of the city’s neighbourhoods
from different eras, and contemporary maps
of areas of regeneration.
Our ecological assets are also mapped; a map
has recently been published of Brighton’s
Elm Tree Collection. The marine seascape is
mapped too – head to MyHarbour.com for
harbour plans and approach charts.
As a collection, the maps of the city reveal
much about our relationship to the place,
reflecting our values and priorities. The city
is undergoing rapid change to the built environment.
What will the maps of our future
depict? Cara Courage
thekeep.info
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