Tucked away in the backstreets of Kemptown in Brighton is a secret garden most locals and visitors don’t realise is there. It lies secluded behind this light-blue ivy-covered door in the historic Kemp Town Estate, a sophisticated area of historic Regency-era homes and quiet leafy squares a mile east of Brighton’s Palace Pier.
I first discovered and visited the Secret Garden Kemp Town when I was writing my guidebook to Brighton unknown, Secret Brighton. If you’re planning a summer weekend day trip to Brighton, I’d highly recommend visiting it.
A fun way to discover it is on this self-guided hidden walk around the historic neighbourhood. This takes you through Kemptown village with its shops, cafes and quirky tearooms to browse, before hitting the beach, one of the most overlooked beaches in Brighton, a great place for escaping the crowds in Brighton – and a beachfront sauna experience you’ll remember for years.
First though, a quick history lesson. The Secret Garden Kemp Town is located in the Kemp Town Estate, the first upper-class housing development in Brighton for the fashionable rich, now found in the modern Kemptown neighbourhood. The boundary between the two areas is hard to define but roughly it runs from Lewes Crescent west to Rock Street. Many of the most beautiful Regency homes on the estate can be found in Lewes Crescent and Sussex Square above.
Most of these buildings are now flats, but there was a time when each one was used as a single-family home. Some shared a garden that could be accessed by a tunnel linked to the owner’s property. Number 32 Sussex Square, was one such home, originally connected to a vast outdoor pleasure garden. Today, although three times smaller than it was originally, it’s the setting for this secret garden.
The Secret Garden Kemp Town is a special secret Brighton sight to stumble on and offers the perfect refuge from the crowds. It’s the only kind of garden in the city where major outdoor works of sculpture are shown in a secure setting.
When it opened a few years ago, the only way to see inside was on during Heritage Open Days, when private historic properties open to the public. Nowadays, it’s open every weekend from the end of April to September.
Traveller tip: When I visited, I was invited in via the blue door pictured above on Bristol Place. Now, visitors enter via a much grander entrance around the corner on Bristol Gardens.
How did the Secret Garden Kemp Town come to exist? We have a man called Dr Anthony Dale, founder of the Regency Society, and his late wife, Yvonne to thank. They bought it in the 1950s to save it from development and their wishes were that it never be sold and that it always remain a haven for the community in the form of an arts venue.
Together with Regency Society chairman Gavin Henderson CBE, also the former artistic director of Brighton Festival, they came up with the idea of creating a place where large-scale sculptures could be shown that would be run by a board of trustees, which would secure funding to realise their plan and continue their work.
What was once mainly lawn has been completely redesigned by the venue’s resident gardener, Nick Dwyer, to feature beds filled with plenty of seasonal colour and traditional perennials mixed with contemporary architectural plants, as well as apple, mulberry, quince and medlar trees. There’s also a lovely, covered area built against the garden’s west flint wall used to host gatherings and a bench from the West Pier on the lawn.
Disclaimer: I got so carried away taking pictures of the garden and space itself, that I forgot to take many of the actual art, which makes it all the more important you visit!
Oh wait, before I go and in case you were wondering, yes there is food on offer so you can have a little picnic in the garden. Seriously amazing cakes and reasonably priced drinks – think £1 for tea and coffee! – are from the special cafe run by the lovely Siobhan of TABLE. It’s worth visiting The Secret Garden Kemp Town for her cakes alone!
Find The Secret Garden Kemp Town at Bristol Gardens, Brighton BN2 5JE. Open every Sunday 11am-5pm, from June to September.
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