Holocene peat and piddocks

Found on the beach: Holocene peat and piddocks. After winter storms, Brighton Beach occasionally reveals dark, rounded lumps scattered among the flint shingle. At first glance they resemble stone, but they break easily in the hand and crumble rather than fracture. They are not rock. They are fragments of Holocene peat, washed ashore from submerged deposits offshore.

These pieces are part of a prehistoric landscape that once lay above sea level. Between about 6,000 and 8,000 years ago, rising post-glacial sea levels flooded low-lying woodland and peat bogs across what is now the English Channel. Waterlogged, oxygen-poor conditions preserved the compressed remains of trees, roots and plant matter. Those peat beds still lie buried beneath sand and gravel offshore.

Strong seas periodically erode these deposits and release fragments, which are rolled smooth by waves before appearing on the beach. When dry, the peat is light and brittle; when wet, it is dense, dark brown to almost black, and easily mistaken for stone.

This fragment found on Brighton Beach shows a second stage in its history. One face is densely perforated by rounded holes of varying sizes. These are piddock borings, made by marine bivalves such as Pholas and Barnea. Piddocks rasp into soft substrates - chalk, clay and peat - to create permanent shelter. They cannot bore into flint or hard rock, which is why such holes appear only in the peat and not in the surrounding shingle.

The presence of these borings shows that the peat fragment lay exposed on the seabed for a prolonged period before being torn free and washed ashore. Most peat fragments lose this evidence through abrasion; only a few retain a clearly bored surface.

Together, the peat and the piddock holes record two deep timescales at once: the slow drowning of prehistoric land as sea levels rose, and the later colonisation of that drowned landscape by marine life. What reaches the beach is not just debris, but a small, durable remnant of Brighton’s submerged past.

Ghost fishing gear

A large mass of ghost fishing gear - i.e. any fishing equipment that has been lost, abandoned, or deliberately discarded at sea and continues to fish on its own! - was removed from Brighton beach Monday after washing ashore overnight. A member of the public alerted the council’s Seafront Office, prompting a rapid coordinated clean-up by staff and volunteers from the Brighton & Hove Seafront Team, Leave No Trace Brighton and the Anglers National Line Recycling Scheme (ANLRS).

The net was a dense tangle of green rope and floats, described by Leave No Trace Brighton as one of the most damaging forms of slow-degrading marine debris. Lost gear of this kind can take centuries to break down, continuing to catch wildlife, abrade seabed habitats, and fragment into microplastics. The team on site - including Abi from the Seafront Office, Coral from Leave No Trace Brighton, and Steve from ANLRS - estimated the haul at roughly 200 kg of plastic.

Once secured, the net was cut, lifted clear of the shingle, and transported off the beach for processing and recycling. Brighton has developed a recognised system for disposing of fishing line and netting since installing dedicated deposit points along the seafront, and the recovered gear will now enter that recycling stream rather than be consigned to landfill.

Removing ghost gear on land is considered critical: once the tide reclaims heavy netting, it can be lost for months or years, drifting through marine habitats and continuing to entangle animals. Yesterday’s operation prevented that cycle from beginning again. 

Although I did not witness this personally, Facebook and Instagram video stills capture the scale of the recovery - a sprawling, buoy-studded mass on the shingle - and the effort required to deal with it quickly. It marks another example of the growing collaboration between council teams, volunteer groups and national schemes to keep Brighton’s coastline clear of harmful debris. This is far from an isolated incident - some four years ago, Brighton and Hove News reported on divers, off the Brighton coast, recovering 400 lb of ghost fishing gear. 

See also Leave No Trace.

Lost Mary found

Found on the beach: Lost Mary. This BM6000 Triple Berry disposable vape is a sub-brand of Elf Bar, made by Shenzhen iMiracle Technology in China. It is a high-capacity, single-use device with a lithium-ion battery and pre-filled nicotine salt e-liquid, non-refillable and not intended for disassembly or routine recycling. According to Wikipedia, Elf Bar’s vapour products are known for their fruity flavours and colourful appearance and were, by 2023, the world’s most popular disposable e-cigarettes.

These vapes have become a common form of coastal litter across the UK. Beach-clean groups consistently report rising numbers of single-use vapes on Brighton’s shoreline, where they join other modern waste such as wet wipes and bottle caps (see this Argus article from 2023). The devices leak plastic fragments, residual nicotine solution and small amounts of battery metals into the environment and must be disposed of as electrical waste, though in practice most end up in general rubbish or on the street.

Nothing about the brand name ‘Lost Mary’ has an official explanation. It was probably crafted to sound personal and provide a narrative, suggesting a figure who is ‘lost’ in a way that aligns with the escapist themes often used in vape marketing, reinforced by pastel, dreamlike packaging. Some reviewers have speculated that ‘Mary’ nods to the slang ‘Mary Jane,’ giving the brand a faint counter-cultural echo without referencing cannabis directly.

UK Vape Scene offers this review: ‘I opted for the Fizzy Cherry flavour, and once the super-quick setup was complete, I was now ready to start vaping. My initial first few puffs on the device were great - the flavour was very tasty without being overly sweet, and Lost Mary seem to have nailed the airflow. There isn't any airflow adjustability which can sometimes be a problem with other kits, but for me the default setting on the BM6000 was just how I would have set it anyway. Although the flavour was great, the one thing I didn't like too much was the nicotine hit. Being someone who uses 10mg nic salts in my usual vape, doubling my strength to 20mg was something I couldn’t get used to right away. Don’t get me wrong, the hit was smooth and wasn't very harsh but it was noticeably more intense than what I usually get from my 10mg Ultimate Nerd Salts.’

Churning sea water

Found on the beach: sea foam. At first sight, there’s not much to the creamy-white frothy stuff that gets blown across the Brighton Beach shingle now and then, and, yet, look it up and you soon find yourself at the intersection of ocean chemistry, biology, and weather. 

When waves churn up water containing dissolved organic compounds - mostly proteins, lipids, dead plankton, fragments of seaweed, and microbial by-products - these act as surfactants, lowering surface tension and allowing bubbles to form and persist. The rougher the sea, the more vigorously the water column is mixed, drawing these organics from deeper layers to the surface. Brighton’s English Channel water, especially after storms that rip up seaweed beds, is particularly good at producing short-lived, bubbly foam.

A single litre of seawater can contain millions of phytoplankton cells, and when some species die off in blooms, the cellular breakdown releases long-chain molecules that are remarkably similar to the stabilisers used in food foams (like the head on a beer). That’s why foam can look so creamy despite being nothing more than air, water, and microscopic biological debris.

Globally, sea foam becomes more intriguing - and sometimes alarming. The most notorious examples are the ‘foam tsunamis’ of Australia’s east coast, where intense storm swell can drive metres-deep, cappuccino-coloured foam through seaside towns. In 2020 at Yamba and 2007 at Sydney’s beaches, whole cars disappeared under it. The foam itself was harmless; the force of the waves beneath it was not.

In California, the breakdown of Phaeocystis algal blooms has produced foam rich in proteins that can become irritant, stinging exposed skin. Conversely, along South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal coast, winter sardine runs produce a slick of fish oils that help create thick ivory-coloured foam valued by surfers because it flattens chop on the surface.

The strangest example comes from the North Sea, where researchers found sea foam rich in microplastics - tiny fragments that stick to the bubbles and are blown far inland, making foam one of the vectors by which coastal microplastic pollution travels beyond the shoreline. The foam acts like a sticky film, picking up plastic shards, tyre particles and airborne dust.

Foam can also carry nutrients and spores. After the giant Sargassum blooms in the Caribbean, decaying mats generate surfactants that fuel disproportionately large foam lines on beaches; these sometimes carry bacterial loads high enough to make cleanup crews wear masks. In contrast, in Iceland and parts of the Baltic, sea foam streaks can be associated with whitish pumice ash, swept into the surf after volcanic eruptions.

Even the colour can be telling. Most foam is white because the bubbles scatter light uniformly, but brown foam signals a higher concentration of organic matter; greenish foam often appears during phytoplankton bloom collapse; and pinkish foam has occasionally been recorded after massive blooms of pigmented dinoflagellates - the same organisms responsible for some red tides.

Brighton’s foam, by comparison, is modest, fleeting and almost always benign. It’s simply the English Channel exhaling - a reminder of the constant churning, mixing, and invisible biological life just offshore, thrown up in small bright heaps that the wind leaves on the stones for a few minutes before carrying them away.

More information can be found at National Ocean Service, Science Direct, Marine Insight and How Stuff Works. The photograph of foam on the beach at Yamba was found at the BBC (Nature’s Weirdest Events).

The European fan palm

Found on the beach: Chamaerops humilis, commonly known as the European fan palm. It grows low and wide on the shingle, its fronds rattling in even the gentlest seafront breeze, looking half like a survivor from some Mediterranean headland and half like an escapee from a forgotten Victorian planting scheme. Brighton Beach is one of the few places in Britain where this species seems entirely at home. The salt spray, the glare, the scouring winds that flatten other ornamentals all suit it perfectly, and its scruffy, sun-bleached skirt of old leaves gives it the faintly rakish air of a visitor who has stayed long enough to become a local.

Chamaerops humilis is the only palm native to continental Europe, growing naturally around the western Mediterranean from southern Spain to Sicily (see pic below from Wikipedia). It is a compact, clumping species, often forming several short trunks rather than a single tall one, and its fans are stiff, segmented and edged with tiny teeth. The fronds emerge a bold green but quickly fade to a straw colour in coastal exposure, creating the characteristic thatch of shredded leaves seen on the beach. In spring it produces small yellow flowers at the base of the leaf stems, followed later by clusters of reddish fruit that are technically edible but rarely palatable. What makes the species so useful in Brighton is its tolerance: it survives drought, cold snaps, poor soils and salt-laden winds, and will root happily in rubble or shingle where more delicate ornamentals fail.

Historically, the European fan palm has been familiar to travellers since antiquity, appearing in early herbal texts for its fibres, which were used for rope, brushes and stuffing. Its leaves were woven into mats, baskets and the rustic rain capes once worn by shepherds in Spain and Portugal. Renaissance gardeners admired it as a curiosity from classical lands and often tried to coax it through northern winters, though with little success until more robust varieties were introduced in the nineteenth century. By the early twentieth century it had become a reliable feature of British seaside towns, planted in the optimistic belief that palms could summon the air of a warmer climate. Brighton adopted the idea enthusiastically, dotting the seafront with species that could endure the Channel’s temperament, and Chamaerops humilis proved one of the hardiest.

The palm on the beach now stands as part of that long horticultural experiment, a living remnant of the city’s desire to appear just a little more southern than it really is. Walkers pass it without comment, but it quietly thrives, shrugging off winter storms and growing a little wider each year. It is both out of place and perfectly placed, a Mediterranean native that has found its own niche on an English shingle shore.

Sources: Royal Horticultural Society, Kew Gardens, Harrod Outdoors, Wikipedia.

The Thruster Buster

Found on the beach: a Thruster Buster single-shot firework, its casing damp and salt-streaked among the Brighton pebbles. The label still legible - ‘Shooting Direction’ helpfully printed for whoever last took aim - links it to Kimbolton Fireworks, one of the best-known British brands. Each tube launches a single 30 mm shell, a quick pulse of lift and colour before silence returns. 

Kimbolton began life in Cambridgeshire in the 1960s, its founder Reverend Ron Lancaster combining chemistry teaching with pyrotechnics. The company became a by-word for organised displays, providing fireworks for royal jubilees, university celebrations, and village fêtes alike. Though the business was sold after Lancaster’s retirement, the brand endures in the retail market - its modest ‘single shots’ now scattered through supermarket shelves and, it seems, Brighton’s shingle.

The Thruster Buster is a small and simple firework: one lift charge, one burst, a few seconds of applause in the sky. Retailers describe it as a low-cost alternative to a rocket, designed to minimise debris (an ‘eco-alternative’ to a stick rocket because there’s no wooden stick to litter the ground). On Guy Fawkes Night it might have soared high over Madeira Drive, blossoming briefly above the Palace Pier before falling unseen into the sea or onto the pebbles.

Groyne works due to start

Brighton and Hove Council have released further documents concerning the latest phase of the project along Kings Esplanade, Hove, to remove seven existing groynes (six concrete, one timber) and install nine new timber groynes, replenish the shingle beach with 160,000 m³ of marine-dredged material, and raise a 50-metre section of the King Alfred sea wall with reinstated heritage railings. The project forms part of the Brighton Marina to River Adur Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) Scheme, a partnership between Brighton & Hove City Council, Adur District Council, Shoreham Port, the Environment Agency and the Western Esplanade Management Company. See More shingle and better groynes.

The planning application, submitted 28 October 2025 by JBA Consulting for Brighton & Hove City Council, seeks to discharge conditions 4-13 of permission BH2024/02513, including biodiversity, archaeology, and intertidal survey requirements. Together these documents confirm that the Hove frontage is entering a major, environmentally-governed reconstruction phase - balancing climate-defence engineering with commitments to sustainability, ecology, and public amenity. The works - to start in December - will form part of a strategy designed to provide a 1-in-200-year standard of protection for at least fifty years, addressing sea-level rise and erosion pressures.

The Construction Environmental and Social Management Plan (Van Oord, revised 24 October 2025) outlines how the year-long build will proceed from December 2025, with the main compound on Western Lawns and a smaller ‘plant refuge’ near the Southern Water outfall. Noise and vibration will be monitored weekly, and dredged shingle pumped ashore and profiled daily to avoid overnight stockpiles. The plan identifies multiple sensitivities - residential blocks, heritage seafront architecture, bathing-water quality, marine ecology, and a buried medieval settlement - and prescribes detailed mitigation covering noise, dust, lighting, waste, fuel storage, invasive species, and archaeological protection.

An ecological baseline survey by JBA Consulting (September 2025) recorded limited species diversity typical of a high-energy shingle foreshore. Algal and invertebrate colonisation was largely confined to the lower sections of the groynes, where Ulva seaweeds, winkles and barnacles dominated, and small mussel colonies occupied gaps between planks. The report recommends using Integrated Greening of Grey Infrastructure (IGGI) features - rope wraps, honeycomb blocks, and concrete ‘Vertipools’ - to encourage marine growth and deliver biodiversity net gain in line with the Environment Act 2021. These eco-textures will be fitted to the new groynes, partly as an educational resource under the city’s Our City Our World programme.

Guest: Brighton Beach, Windsor, Ontario

Brighton Beach in Windsor, Ontario, occupies a solitary strip along the Detroit River, metres from the US/Canada border. It lies within a neighbourhood that has become almost entirely an industrial landscape. The physical beach was never a grand resort but a working-class destination, with a scrubby, sandy waterfront bordered by scattered cottages, unpaved lanes, and the smokestacks of industry visible upriver and down. For decades, the water’s edge was a place for fishing, mooring small boats, and impromptu summer picnics - the sand blending into patches of grass and, in later years, the untidy sprawl left behind as homes disappeared.

Windsor’s Brighton Beach has kept a wild, transitional character. Waves lapped the narrow strand, overlooked by remnants of wooden docks and, eventually, the steel infrastructure of major industrial plants. The physical shoreline shifted over the years due to both natural river currents and city-led expropriation and demolition. By the 2000s, the beach was bordered more by silence and wildflowers than by families, except for the occasional urban explorer, local birdwatcher, or fisherman. Yet the riverfront view - freighters sliding past beneath blue or stormy skies - has remained an enduring, haunting place.

Historic and contemporary photographs give a stark sense of this shifting landscape. The most comprehensive series is in ‘Brighton Beach Through The Years’ on International Metropolis, which features aerial images from 1949 through 2006, charting the steady disappearance of homes and roads as the area reverted to prairie and open shore. There are also evocative ground-level photos and travelogues from blog photographers - such as JB’s Warehouse & Curio Emporium - who captured the crumbling streets and river’s edge as late as the 2010s. The adjacent photo, for example, carries the caption: ‘Brighton Beach continues to offer up the finest in abandoned couches. Treasure hunters or connoisseurs of neglected boat hulls, car seats and furniture would have smiles on their faces after a quick scouting trip of the neighbourhood.’

E-scooters for the seafront

Brighton Beach’s long seafront cycle lane may soon get a lot busier. Brighton & Hove City Council has agreed to apply for government approval to run an e-scooter trial, a move that could soon bring rental scooters to the city’s seafront. At a cabinet meeting on 16 October, councillors voted to seek Department for Transport consent for a scheme that would add up to 300 e-scooters to the existing Beryl bike-share programme. The cabinet report explicitly mentions that the council will ‘prioritise locations on the seafront and seek to maximise convenience for commuters with central sites near car parks, stations and bus stops.’ If successful, the trial would launch in April 2026, with a public consultation and full financial review to be completed before rollout. 

The plan is part of what transport experts call ‘micromobility’ - small, lightweight vehicles such as bikes, e-bikes and scooters designed for short urban journeys. According to the CoMoUK Annual Shared Micromobility Report, more than 40 million journeys were made on shared bikes, e-bikes and e-scooters in the UK in 2023, with around one in five scooter trips replacing a car journey. The Council argues that giving residents and visitors a regulated hire option could cut emissions, reduce traffic, and displace the use of illegal private scooters.

Under the scheme, up to 75 scooters would be introduced each week until the full fleet is in place. The operating zone would be smaller than the bike-share area, excluding the Undercliff and private land without consent. Thirty new parking bays are proposed, located along the seafront and at transport hubs, to prevent obstruction on pavements. Charges would be higher than for e-bikes, with an unlock fee and per-minute rate. Safety measures include speed caps, no-go zones, possible curfews between midnight and 5am on weekends, licence checks, helmet promotion and access audits of parking sites to protect disabled users.

The council report reminds councillors that privately owned e-scooters remain illegal to use on public roads and pavements except as part of authorised trials. The document then notes that many people are already using them around Brighton despite the ban, creating safety concerns and enforcement difficulties (see Brighton and Hove Police on Facebook). The trial is pitched as a way to provide a safe, regulated alternative, with proper insurance, speed limits, and parking controls - and to reduce demand for illegal private scooters. Moreover, the report highlights that most scooter collisions involve private machines, with hire schemes showing a far better safety record. Data from other trials suggests that e-scooters not only replace car journeys but can also complement public transport, making them an important tool for cutting congestion in busy coastal areas.

The application deadline is 21 October, with a decision expected in January 2026. A three-month mobilisation would then precede the launch. The scooters will be funded and owned by Beryl, and the Council anticipates no additional budget costs, with any surplus offsetting existing borrowing on the bike-share scheme.

The Social Science Association

150 years ago today the Social Science Association - a British reformist group founded in 1857 - opened its annual meeting, in Brighton for the only time in its 30 years history. The main events were hosted in the Pavilion estate, with plenary sessions in the Dome concert hall and, possibly, some events in the new aquarium’s Great Hall. The principal proceedings ran through Wednesday 13 October, with associated exhibitions on the estate continuing to Saturday 16 October. 

The choice of location was not incidental: Victorian medicine and social reform were already saturated with arguments about the health-giving qualities of sea air, sea breezes and the bracing effects of coastal climates. At Brighton in 1875, these beliefs surfaced directly in the Congress papers, providing a tangible link between the town’s beach and the themes under discussion.

The National Association for the Promotion of Social Science was founded in 1857 bringing together reformers, politicians, philanthropists and experts to debate public health, education, penal policy, political economy and social morality. Its annual congresses, held in major provincial centres, mixed presidential addresses with departmental sessions across law, health, education, economy and social morals, and became a recognised platform for introducing progressive ideas into public debate.

At Brighton in October 1875, the Association was presided over by Henry Austin Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare. Among the most notable contributions was Benjamin Ward Richardson’s presidential address to the health department, later published as Hygeia: a City of Health. In it he stressed free ventilation and exposure to natural breezes, a model that resonated with Brighton’s identity as a seaside health resort. A contemporary retrospective on Brighton as a Health Resort explicitly recalls a paper read before the Congress in 1875 that tied disease patterns to sea winds and the aspect of streets near the shore. The history of the Social Science Association is fully covered in Lawrence Goodman’s Science, Reform and Politics in Victorian Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2004).

Although the Association never returned to Brighton, the 1875 meeting embedded the town within its reformist geography, and the proximity of the Dome and Corn Exchange to the seafront - alongside the prestige of the new Aquarium on Madeira Drive - gave the congress a clear Brighton Beach dimension.

Likely delays to arches work

Work to restore the first 27 arches of Madeira Terrace is now unlikely to finish by summer 2026, as originally hoped (see Progress on the Madeira arches), after testing revealed that a small number of cast-iron elements failed initial stress tests, prompting further investigation. J.T. Mackley & Co, the contractor appointed by Brighton & Hove City Council, began work last November, and the council had anticipated public use by summer 2026. 

Earlier this week Mackley’s contract manager, Mike Clegg, spoke at a public meeting (see Brighton and Hove News). There have been some issues with cast iron strengths not coming up to strength, he said, meaning ‘further testing and potentially strengthening up of those items’ is required. Although tests on two columns this week had been ‘very promising’, he admitted that the testing process is now currently out of sequence. He estimated that 10 to 20 percent of the cast-iron elements have been tested so far, and the team remains hopeful that all can be restored rather than replaced. 

The wall repairs, initially beset by a failed reattachment method, are concluding this week, he said, after the adoption of an alternative technique that proved quicker and cheaper. Meanwhile, work on the new lift is progressing smoothly: the ramp, part of its hydraulic mechanism, has been delivered to site, and piling work is underway. He added that the laundry room in the wall (see Return of the laundry arch), formerly used as a sound studio and once connected to a hotel, has been cleared, including the removal of asbestos, to permit safety inspections by highways.

In the weeks ahead, some cast-iron elements will be returned for reassembly. The restored stretch is being designed so that empty bays on either side act as buffers, in case adjacent unrestored sections collapse. Councillor Julie Cattell said that a stakeholder meeting will be held to decide future commercial use of the restored arches, which will be fitted with electricity. The council’s project manager Abigail Hone noted the next phase of restoration may depend on funding, and highlighted that the cost to restore the 27 bays now stands at £12.1 million, with the Royal Terrace steps and two adjacent bays already quoted at £2 million.

At the end of the Brighton and Hove News article, a commenter under the name ClareMac wrote: ‘Quelle surprise – delays! Councillor comments also make clear that commercialisation of the terraces is at the heart of the council’s plans, not heritage.’

Leave No Trace

On Brighton Beach, just east of the Palace Pier, a bright collage of a seagull stands watch above the pebbles. Its blue feathers are layered over a city street map, and alongside it the words shout: Leave No Trace. The paste-up is by The Postman, a Brighton-based street art collective whose work has become part of the city’s visual fabric.

The Postman began appearing on Brighton’s walls around 2018, pasting up portraits of pop icons and local heroes in a vivid, pop-art style. Their pieces are instantly recognisable for their saturated colours, collage textures and playful humour. Over time they have moved from backstreet paste-ups to high-profile murals and commissions, but they continue to paste work directly into the public realm, where anyone might stumble across it on a morning walk.

The seagull piece feels especially at home by the beach. For Brighton, the gull is both nuisance and mascot, scavenger and sentinel. Its presence here, paired with the slogan, links directly to the council’s long-running campaigns to reduce litter left on the stones after busy weekends. Leave No Trace is an outdoor ethic borrowed from hikers and campers, urging visitors to take their rubbish with them and protect the natural setting. Seen from the shingle, it works as both a warning and a piece of local character.

Street art along the seafront is often fleeting - battered by wind, rain, and human hands. But for as long as it lasts, The Postman’s gull hammers home a simple seaside truth: the beach belongs to everyone, and what we leave behind becomes part of it.

Juvenile herring gull

Found on Brighton Beach: a boldly barred feather from a young herring gull, and, nearby, the bird itself resting among the shingle. Juvenile herring gulls are clad in mottled brown plumage that provides camouflage against pebbles and sand, with dark bills and pale streaked heads. They will not gain the crisp grey-and-white adult plumage until their fourth year, passing through several transitional stages. The feather on the beach is part of this annual cycle, dropped as the bird grows and moults, each stage revealing a closer resemblance to the adults wheeling above the seafront.

Herring gulls (Larus argentatus) are common residents of the Sussex coast but their numbers in natural colonies have declined sharply, leading to a Red List status despite their success in towns and on rooftops. They begin breeding at about four years old, laying two or three eggs in late spring, with both parents sharing incubation and feeding. The chicks fledge after five to six weeks but remain dependent for a while, learning to forage on intertidal invertebrates, fish, carrion and discarded food. A bird that survives its first winters may live for decades, and ringed individuals have been recorded at over 30 years old.

The multitude of gulls seen loafing on Brighton’s pebbles are rarely nesting on the shore itself. Instead, most come from colonies established on rooftops throughout the city. Since the 1970s herring gulls and lesser black-backed gulls have increasingly used chimneys, ledges and flat roofs as substitutes for cliffs, taking advantage of the protection from predators and the ready supply of food in urban areas. Thousands of pairs now breed across Brighton and Hove, while natural cliff colonies remain further along the coast at Newhaven, Seaford Head and Beachy Head. The young birds you see on the beach may have been raised only a few hundred metres inland, above hotels, flats and shops lining the promenade.

The juvenile on the pebbles is one of many dispersing from nests this season, leaving behind patterned feathers as evidence of their growth. Those fragments are reminders that the familiar gulls of Brighton, noisy and opportunistic, carry complex life cycles bound to the changing fortunes of the sea and the town.

For more information see the RSPB and BTO BirdFacts.

KRS‑2519CRGB‑1

Found on the beach: a custom or OEM RGB seven‑segment display module, tailored for a specific device or manufacturer. One side of the object features a digital display with a three-digit readout, the letters ‘L’ and ‘R’ in blue and green respectively, a lightning bolt icon, and a distinctive logo composed of multi-coloured fan-like blades. The reverse side shows a printed circuit board marked ‘KRS‑2519CRGB‑1’ and ‘2520’, alongside gold-plated contacts and through-holes indicative of surface mounting.

The part number, ChatGPT, advises does not appear in public electronics catalogs or databases, suggesting the component was produced either for internal use by a specific brand or as part of a mass-produced but undocumented consumer device. The inclusion of ‘CRGB’ implies RGB lighting capability, meaning the segment display can change colour, possibly to indicate power levels, warnings, or operational states. The number ‘2520’ may refer to a production batch or date code, such as week 20 of the year 2025.

Such displays are commonly used in e‑bikes, electric scooters, children’s ride-on vehicles, smart sports gear, or small remote-controlled electronics. The L/R notation may signify directional indicators, balance sensors, or audio channel outputs. The lightning bolt icon, a near-universal symbol for electricity or charge, hints at a function related to battery monitoring. The visible wear and absence of surrounding components suggest the item was once embedded in a plastic housing, likely waterproof or weather-resistant, before being separated and washed ashore.

Despite the lack of direct identification, other modules with similar codes, such as KRS‑2351AW, are listed on electronics supplier sites as LED or RGB seven‑segment displays, used in meters, control panels, or dashboard-style readouts. 

Sources: Amax Technologies and Bossgoo

The Seafront Office

Brighton’s Seafront Office is the hub of activity and safety along the city’s shoreline, based at 141 King’s Road Arches on the lower promenade. From this base, the Council’s team oversees maintenance of the seafront, the running of lifeguard services, first aid posts, bookings for beach huts and boat lockers, as well as enforcement of bylaws across the Brighton Beach stretch of coast and as far east as Saltdean. The office also deals with lost property, provides safety advice, and coordinates outdoor events, filming, and ceremonies at the Bandstand.

The role of the office has always been wide-ranging, but recent months have brought significant changes. This summer the RNLI launched its first ever beach lifeguarding service in Brighton and Hove, taking over from the council’s own operation. (See RNLI to take over beach safety). Ten RNLI units now cover beaches between Hove Lagoon and Saltdean, providing a daily service from May to September. The RNLI describes its crews as highly trained and it emphasises the strong partnership with the Seafront Office - ensuring quick responses to emergencies on both land and sea.

The arches that house the Seafront Office itself are also undergoing a major transformation. In July the council secured £21 million from the Department for Transport to support the next phases of the seafront arches restoration - see More support for King’s arches. This funding will help rebuild the section around King’s Road playground and Shelter Hall, including the arches that contain the office and the lifeguard store. The refurbished structures are being designed with concrete cores, improved ventilation, and energy-efficient heating, but will retain their traditional brickwork frontage.

At the same time, the area around the i360 is being reshaped. Work on the surrounding arches and public spaces is nearly complete, bringing new shops and food outlets into use. Together with the continuing restoration of the arches and the arrival of the RNLI lifeguards, these developments highlight the central role played by the Seafront Office, balancing heritage, safety, and the daily life of a busy seaside city.

The Seafront Office also maintains a regular presence on social media with posts on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s a cute little video that takes you inside the office for a tide time booklet: ‘Planning a trip to the beach? Or a dip in the sea? Our tide time booklets help you stay safe and make the most of your visit! Learn how to read tide tables to avoid getting caught out by rising water. Pick up your copy from the Seafront Office.’

Guest: Brighton Beach, Duluth, Minnesota

Brighton Beach in Duluth, Minnesota, at the eastern end of Kitchi Gammi Park, is built on a rocky Lake Superior shoreline steeped in more than a century of history. The city established the area as its first dedicated tourism campground in 1922, offering auto tourists public lakeshore access. In the early 1930s, cabins were constructed - four in 1930 and five more in 1931 - to accommodate overnight visitors.

During the mid-20th century, as Duluth’s harbour shifted from an industrial zone into an area for leisure and tourism, Brighton Beach benefited from the same ethos, retaining its popularity as a local recreation spot. The 1960s saw several fierce storms that reshaped much of Duluth’s shoreline, including Brighton Beach, prompting later efforts at shoreline reinforcement. Plans for enhanced public access culminated in the 1980s and 1990s with the construction and eastward expansion of the Lakewalk, built in part from rocks excavated during the construction of Interstate 35. By 1991, the Lakewalk linked downtown Duluth to Brighton Beach, establishing it as a vital gateway to Lake Superior and a beloved picnic, ship-watching, and stone-skipping destination.

Though no longer a campground, Brighton Beach remains beloved for its cobblestone terrain, ideal for agate-hunting, wading, ship-watching and picnicking along the nearly mile-long lakeshore stretch that marks the eastern terminus of Duluth’s Lakewalk. 

Discussions about renovating the site began around 2015, but after severe storms in 2017 and 2018 caused major erosion and repeated damage to Brighton Beach Drive, planners shifted toward what officials called a managed retreat strategy in 2019: relocating public infrastructure inland and stabilising the shoreline rather than rebuilding in place. The City of Duluth embarked on a multi-year programme beginning in 2019, guided by a mini-master plan to rejuvenate the beach, extend the lake walk, relocate the road, rebuild shore protection and add resilient landscaping with native North Shore forest plants.

By 2023, shoreline restoration and most park improvements - including installation of picnic tables, grills, vault toilets, recycling stations, pet-waste stands, hammock stands and new accessible paths - were substantially complete. The relocated one-way road and separated pedestrian pathways were fully rebuilt by October 2024. Duluth then officially reopened Brighton Beach in a ribbon‑cutting ceremony at its historic stone pavilion, celebrating the end of the six-year, $6.4 million revitalisation. See the Duluth News Tribune and WDIO for more.

Back in February this year, MIX108’s Nick Cooper published photographs and a report about ‘waves of ice shards rippling along the shore’ of Brighton Beach. The waves, he said, were catching the last light of the day in the approach to sunset. Moreover, ‘the noise of the waves and ice shards in the water was pretty soothing and almost hypnotic’.

New board criticised

Brighton & Hove City Council has officially revealed the twelve members of its newly established Seafront Development Board, signalling a renewed commitment to revitalising the city’s iconic shoreline - but the move has drawn criticism from the Green Party, who accuse Labour of sidelining public accountability and undermining the role of elected councillors.

The board, which brings together a distinguished group of local leaders and professionals, is tasked with guiding investment and long-term strategy across the city’s seafront, with early focus on the redevelopment of Black Rock and the restoration of Madeira Terrace. It will also play a role in delivering the broader ambitions of the City Plan and seafront regeneration programme, which goes beyond Brighton beach in both directions, to Shoreham Harbour and Saltdean.

Following an open recruitment process that attracted over 90 applicants, the final line-up was selected by the Labour administration. Lord Steve Bassam of Brighton, former leader of Brighton Borough Council and a member of the House of Lords’ inquiry into seaside towns, has been named chair (see A bit of pizzazz.) He is now joined by Vice Chair Councillor Jacob Taylor, Deputy Leader of the council and Cabinet Member for Finance and City Regeneration.

Among the board’s private sector members are Georgia Collard-Watson, Principal Associate Architect at Grimshaw Architects; Carolyn Jikiemi-Roberts, Director at Hot Yoga South Brighton; Alastair Hignell CBE, a former England rugby international and MS advocate; Alma Howell, Historic England’s inspector of historic buildings; and Simon Lambor, Director of Matsim Group.

Also appointed are Juliet Sargeant, an award-winning garden designer known for her Chelsea Flower Show work; Rob Sloper, Senior Development Director at Landsec U+I; and Pete Tyler, a retired travel executive with longstanding ties to the tourism sector. Representing the council’s political leadership, Councillor Julie Cattell, Lead for Major Projects, and Councillor Birgit Miller, Cabinet Member for Culture, Heritage and Tourism, complete the board’s line-up. (Pics, from top to bottom: Bassam, Miller, Sargeant, and Howell.)

However, the Greens have voiced concerns about the board’s structure and remit. According to the Brighton and Hove News, the Greens said ‘the ruling party had packed the board with Labour politicians, questioned the process for choosing the chair and asking whether anyone else was considered for the role’.

Councillor Kerry Pickett, the Greens’ spokesperson for regeneration was quoted as saying: ‘There’s a risk that this appointed board could push through development decisions behind closed doors - decisions that will shape our city for generations.’ She added, according to Brighton and Hove News, that the Greens ‘strongly support the regeneration of the seafront but believe it must be guided by transparency, consultation, and democratic oversight.’ However, I can find no official source for these quotes and opinions (nothing on the Greens website for example.)

The council has said the board will meet quarterly, with a role focused on ‘guidance, challenge and championing’ rather than decision-making. According to the council’s own statement, the board will help ‘shape future development of the seafront’ by advising officers and councillors, while all formal planning decisions will remain within the council’s democratic structures.

Cucumber Bench restoration

Hove’s ‘Cucumber Benches’, so named for their green colour and double-sided design, are a familiar sight on the Hove seafront. As has been widely reported in the press, these benches are currently undergoing restoration as part of a social value scheme initiated by Brighton & Hove City Council. The restoration - which will make use of a new MDF material and Seafront Green paint - involves a collaboration between the council’s contractors, local businesses, and offenders participating in the Community Payback Scheme.

The benches, traditionally made of wood, are being repaired and repainted with the help of R. J. Dance, a local highways contractor, and local building merchants and paint suppliers. The Community Payback Service provides manpower for sanding and decorating, offering offenders a chance to contribute to their community. The initiative aims to revitalise the seafront and provide a visible demonstration of how offenders can contribute to their local area. According to the council, the benches have been surveyed and work is scheduled to begin later this month. (See also BBC News.)

The history of the benches themselves is linked to the development of Hove’s seafront, particularly the Hove Esplanade. In 1903, a wire fence was replaced with a granite kerb and iron fence, and recesses were created to accommodate seats. These seats, initially made of teak and later with glazed screens, proved popular and were expanded upon with additional orders in later years.

In a press release, Councillor Birgit Miller, Cabinet member for Culture, Heritage and Tourism, was quoted as follows: 

‘Maintaining our seafront comes with many challenges, not least the scale of the task at hand. Our teams are responsible for 13km of seafront, including 6km of railings, 18 shelters and 19 cucumber benches. A comprehensive seafront maintenance plan will be published shortly, but I’m delighted to see this element of our strategy getting underway soon. We really value the commitment to improving our city that contractors like R. J. Dance and many other local businesses continue to show.  

Involving people from the Community Payback Service also provides a visible and tangible way for offenders to contribute to their community. We’re hoping to work with more businesses and recruit further volunteers as the scheme progresses. This is a creative solution to the challenges around seafront maintenance and I’m really looking forward to seeing the benches back to their best.’

According to Arnold Laver, timber merchants, prior to this announcement, Brighton council trialled the use of Mediate Tricoya (a new type of extremely durable MDF) for refurbishment of a single bench. Barbara Goodfellow, a council building surveyor stated: ‘We have a lot of small buildings and furniture along our very long seafront promenade. The trial of Medite Tricoya proved its suitability for a harsh coastal environment.’ Arnold Laver also noted that the refurbishment trial used Dulux paints - Seafront Green (Hollybush) and Dark Brown.

To (disposable) bbq or not to bbq

Brighton & Hove City Council has launched a public survey inviting residents and visitors to voice their opinions on whether to extend the ban on disposable barbecues, lanterns, and balloons, set to expire in August 2025. Currently enforced by a Public Space Protection Order introduced in July 2022, the order prohibits single‑use barbecues (as well as the intentional release of lanterns and balloons) across all council‑owned land - including beaches, seafront, parks, and open spaces - and carries a £100 fine for breaches. (See this news report from the Argus on fines given out.)

By law, Public Space Protection Orders must be reviewed and cannot simply be rolled over indefinitely. Under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, the council - one of the first across the country to bring in such a ban - is required to consult the public before renewing or amending such orders, which lapse after three years if not renewed. The survey is therefore not just a gesture of transparency but a legal step to ensure any continued restrictions have proper public backing.

The council emphasises that disposable barbecues pose serious fire hazards, from causing bin and depot fires to scalding sand and scorching vegetation. They also leave behind injuries for people and animals and impose cleanup costs on taxpayers. Likewise lanterns and balloons, once released, become litter that can harm wildlife and ignite fires, and their fragments often end up washed ashore. In light of these dangers and the cost of clean‑up operations, the council wants to know whether the community supports maintaining - or even strengthening - the current restrictions via the survey, which is open until Sunday, 20 July.

It’s worth noting that thoughtful etiquette and clear bylaws also guide reusable barbecue use on Brighton’s beaches. Reusable grills are permitted after 6 pm in designated areas, but always above the pebbles and away from restricted sections such as the stretch between the two piers, Hove Street to Fourth Avenue, and Hove Lawns; non‑designated or disposables incur fines or confiscation.

Beyond local regulation, this campaign reflects a broader national movement away from throwaway barbecues. A recent Guardian report cites chilling incidents, including a nine‑year‑old boy badly burned by residual heat from a discarded disposable barbecue, and highlights the environmental toxicity tied to charcoal and igniter‑soaked grills. This follows supermarket chains like Aldi and Waitrose halting sales of such products and government deliberation of tighter controls due to their link with accidental fires.

The Beach Guide has summary information on beach bbq bans across the country - and reports that Brighton & Hove was ‘one of the first councils to completely ban disposable barbecues’.

Hot but not hottest

As a wave of hot weather sweeps across the UK, Brighton Beach finds itself once again at the frontline of a summer heatwave. Crowds have surged to the seafront, swimmers dot the water, and sunbathers are making the most of the unusually high temperatures. With temperatures nearing - and in some parts exceeding - 30°C this week, Brighton is experiencing its hottest spell of the year so far, mirroring a national trend that has prompted heat health alerts and coastal safety warnings.

According to the Met Office, Brighton recorded its hottest day of the week earlier this month, part of a broader trend of increasing summer extremes. The warmest day ever logged in Brighton remains 19 July 2022, when temperatures spiked to 35.7°C. That same day also marked a historic national milestone: the UK’s all-time record high of 40.3°C was reached in Coningsby, Lincolnshire.

The photograph above was taken yesterday afternoon (while the sun was taking a break from scorching); and the photos below were taken in July 2022 (the one on the left sourced from The Argus, the one on the right from Sussex Live).

In contrast, this June’s heat is not yet record-breaking for Brighton, but it is consistent with the increasing frequency and intensity of heat events in southern England. Coastal towns like Brighton are experiencing earlier and more sustained summer heat spells, driven by both global climate shifts and regional atmospheric patterns. The BBC reported a few days ago that temperatures were well into the high twenties, triggering yellow health alerts and packed beaches from Bournemouth to Blackpool. 

But while the sunshine may tempt thousands to flock to Brighton Beach’s iconic pebbles and cool waters, safety experts have been urging caution. The RNLI issued renewed warnings, especially in light of the growing crowds and warmer air temperatures. Despite the heat, the sea around Brighton remains relatively cold - a dangerous contrast that can lead to cold water shock. ‘Air temperatures may feel warm, but UK sea temperatures are cold enough year-round to trigger cold-water shock,’ warns Chris Cousens, RNLI Water Safety Lead. ‘Big waves and strong rip currents can overpower even the most confident swimmers.’

The RNLI’s Float to Live campaign is being widely promoted across coastal communities. The advice is simple but proven to be life-saving: if caught in trouble, tilt your head back, submerge your ears, stay calm and float - don’t try to swim immediately. So far, the technique is credited with saving at least 50 lives.

Statistically, the risk of accidental drowning increases fivefold when air temperatures rise above 25°C, according to research from the National Water Safety Forum and the Royal Life Saving Society (see Swimming.org). With that threshold breached in Brighton this week, the RNLI warning is especially timely - particularly for teenagers finishing their exams and heading to the beach to cool off, sometimes without awareness of the dangers.

However, as I write, the forecast is for temperatures to fall, to around 20°C for the next week.