Tag Archives: West Hill

Brighton, Brighton Centre, Brighton Life, Elf, Elf The Musical, Musicals, Pantomime, theatre, Theatre

As long as you’ve got your Elf

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Nadia Abbas reports on a new production of Elf at the Brighton Centre

Every Christmas, people around the world rewatch the beloved Hollywood hit Elf. Buddy’s lovable and energetic character, the picturesque New York setting, and the sense of family and nostalgia make this film a festive favourite. This timeless tale will be brought to life on stage for Brighton residents to witness as Elf the Musical will be performed at the Brighton Centre in January. This musical promises to capture the magic of the Elf story whilst also including new and exciting features such as aerial cirque stars, an indoor snowstorm, and much more! It will be the perfect New Year treat.

Jon Conway Productions is bringing Elf the Musical to the Brighton Centre from the 5th-6th of January 2024. It will feature a star-studded cast, including West End actor Steven Serlin, who will play Buddy the Elf. ‘Birds Of A Feather’ actor Charlie Quirke will play Buddy’s New York pal, Charlotte Hall will play Buddy’s love interest Jovie, and Barry Bloxham stars as Buddy’s dad. This musical is suitable for all ages, and it will have hilarious comedy, terrific costumes, and lively original songs by Matt Sklar and Chad Beguelin. Charlie Quirke, actor, said: “Our dance routines have loads of people, they are really big, really in your face, it’s quite eye-catching. There’s a fair bit of everything in this musical.”

This musical will follow the Elf film storyline, but there will also be some thrilling interactive elements to make it a spectacular stage production. This includes arming the audience with two hundred inflatable snowballs during the famous snowball fight scene from the film that they can throw at each other and the actors. Jon Conway, Elf the Musical producer, said: “We never quite know how the snowball fight is going to go; sometimes you get kids who get really carried away, and they jump out of their seats, and they run up and throw the snowballs all over the place!” There will also be a flying sleigh with Santa inside that flies over the cast. Jon Conway, said: “Every few minutes something happens that you don’t quite expect.”  

This musical is working with the charity Laughter is the Best Medicine by raising money for underprivileged children and giving them free tickets to the show. Three hundred of these children are coming to watch the Brighton performance. Jon Conway, said: “If you can’t do good at Christmas, when can you?” Jon Conway Productions is also an ambassador for the charity KidsOut and regularly works with them.

This musical is being performed in other locations throughout December, including Bournemouth, Manchester, and Newcastle. Brighton is the last performance. Charlie Quirke said: “In that first week of January, people are still trying to hold onto that festive season and spirit. Elf is based around Christmas, but it’s also a really nice family show.”

Tickets cost between £26.50 and £55.50 and can be purchased from the Brighton Centre’s website. 

To find out more, visit  https://brightoncentre.co.uk/whats-on/2024/elf-the-musical/

Brighton Life, Montpelier Villa Women, Women's football

Skip Kelly – Hope Hawkins – Dec 2023

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Recently at a game that had all been decided but for the final whistle, I was keen to share the knowledge I had acquired about the opposition and pointed to one of the players and revealed they had played in an FA Cup quarter-final. Hoping that this would give our team some solace in being on the receiving end of a team with some well-established pedigree, I was instead stunned into silence when one of our substitutes responded. “So what? so have I.”

This same person was responsible for ruining Christmas a few years ago when, as the opposition manager as well as their goalkeeper, they masterminded a 1-0 win over Montpelier Villa. It wasn’t a great day. I wasn’t happy. That all changed when we needed a goalkeeper. I put all that in the past, forged a new relationship and since then I’m pleased to say we’ve had some more Hope in our lives. 

“I feel special,” said Hope Hawkins when I said I wanted to interview her. Hope belongs to the generation of female footballers who’ve thrived and played at the highest level despite all the barriers and obstacles. 

“I remember playing football with my cousin who was football mad. There wasn’t a fence between his and the neighbour’s back garden so we used to use all of it as a big football pitch and breaking all my aunt’s plant pots and we also had to make sure we didn’t disturb my uncle’s pigeons. He was a couple of years older than me and he never went easy on me so he taught me a lot.”

Hope does humilty well. When I point out that she played at the Withdean Stadium in an FA Cup Quarter-Final against Arsenal, managed AFC Varndeanians there as well as hosting ourt recent FA Cup exit, she said “it’s also where I fractured my ankle,” 

Despite winning multiple leagues and cups with Brighton and sharing the pitch with a star-studded Arsenal side that included former England captain Faye White, Hope said she doesn’t get excited by winning trophies. 

“Winning leagues and cups is nice but when I think of my best memories it’s the friendships I have made that have lasted years although I remember the first team I joined was an all-boys team with my cousin, I wasn’t allowed play any matches because I was a girl even though I was one of the best players there,” she said, allowing the humility to slip for a second. “They let me play a friendly at the end of the season and I took a free-kick. It hit the crossbar. I was devastated it didn’t go in.”

Hope played for Hollingbury Hawks, Brighton, Rottingdean, and was player-coach

at AFC Varndeanians before reverting to a player once more at Montpelier Villa where she recently announced her retirement but as she points out, this will be the third time she attempts to retire. On this occasion it has come on the back of doctor’s advice but as always Hope has not taken too well to being told what she can’t do and has arguably defied expectations for longer than she should have for the benefit of her team. 

Hope made a brief cameo in the game I mentioned at the beginning of the article. The injuries sustained over a long career of always putting the team first finally catching up with her and although it wasn’t known at the time, this was the last time Hope would play football. 

Despite all, the enthusiasm and love for the game shines through. Hope struggles to contain her delight in describing the makeshift football pitch she shared with her cousin surrounded by pigeons and plant pots. For Hope, it’s never been about the trophies, the stadiums, famous players she’s played with and against. It’s been the lifelong friendships that will outlast all football careers but more importantly than that, it’s been about proving people wrong. 

Brighton Life, Co-op, Conservation, Latina, Seven Cellars

Seven Cellars / Latina v The Co-op

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A long time ago in a faraway land – well, in these pages last April – we ran a story about how the Co-op – yes, the caring, sharing Co-op, the place we all used to bank so we could avoid the rapacious capitalists like Barclays and NatWest… that very same Co-op – was looking to take over Seven Cellars and Latina and create a very big Co-op on the Dials. Sorry, that should have read “another very big Co-op on the Dials”. These shops are an integral part of our community and while we all occasionally go to the Co-op – go on admit it. Maybe when you book Red Snapper and forgot to take a bottle – how many Co-ops do you need? The Dials vibe is of independence, of the personal – let’s keep it that way. 

You have to search for good things to find in stories like these, but one maybe is how it pulls the community together. Local resident, lovely Emma Thomas (quick round of applause) has been pivotal in this and has written this letter. Please read and circulate. And sign.

Dear neighbours,

I am writing this letter to you because our neighbourhood needs you. We are asking for your kind help to support local shops and restaurants in our community. 

Independent shops are the lifeblood of Seven Dials – they give our neighbourhood its distinct character and a lovely feel. They are also vital to living a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly future and one that reflects the dreams and hard work of ordinary people living and working in local communities – rather than large corporations cashing in.

As you may have heard two local small businesses are at risk as the Co-op supermarket chain has bought the lease to their buildings and has threatened them with eviction. 

We already have a huge co-op down the road. This means historic shopfronts dating from as early as 1841 could be destroyed. Unless we act it means that we will lose two much-loved local businesses – the Latina Café, which serves delicious Portugese food and The Seven Cellars wine and beer shop. A lot of love, care, sweat and tears have gone into these businesses, and they are popular with residents and tourists – it is devastating for their owners to invest so much hardwork and money and be forced out by big business in this way.

WHAT WE CAN DO AS A COMMUNITY?

Some residents have already been showing they care by boycotting the small grey co-op on the Seven Dials roundabout and also by putting up this notice in their AirBnbs and guest rooms – so tourists who visit the area can also decide if they want to help to make a difference.

There’s a petition you can sign here (put your phone camera over the QR code… 

Please also write to the CEO of the
Co-op and tell him to get his hands off our lovely Seven Dials.

Matt Hood, Managing Director Co-op

1 Angel Square Manchester M60 0AG

He’s also on Twitter and LinkedIn. Just saying…

Bright Start Nursery, Brighton bschools, Brighton Life, Brighton schools, Conservation

Bright Start Nursery

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In late October, Brighton & Hove City Council announced plans to cut and relocate Bright Start Nursery in North Laine, a much-loved nursery known for its experienced, caring staff. It’s been in the Old Slipper Baths building at Barrack Yard since 1989 and is used by several families in West Hill. My own daughter may lose her place if the move goes ahead.

 The Council tried to close the nursery last year, but it was saved for the 2023/24 year by a community campaign. This time, the Council are trying to close the nursery by the back door, and have come up with plans to move the nursery into the Tarner Family Hub. 

The proposals would decimate the nursery, scrapping provision for under 2s, reducing the number of spaces by about 70%, and reducing the hours and weeks the nursery operates. 

“It seems bizarre that the Council is cutting one of the few affordable childcare services in the city centre at a time when many parents are struggling to find affordable childcare,” another parent commented to me. 

The Council plans to move the nursery by September 2024, which means the plans are being rushed through. There will be no consultation with the community, and parents are only being offered the opportunity to shape the “operating model” at the new location.

 It’s also unclear if there has been a proper examination of alternative options. One possibility might be to relocate the nursery into St Bartholomew’s School, which would help keep both children and schools in the area. 

A group  of parents at the nursery have launched a campaign – “Save Bright Start” – to try to save this important service. We are calling on the wider community to support us by writing to the leader of Brighton & Hove City Council, Bella Sankey, and the Chair of Children, Families and Schools Committee Cllr Jacob Taylor expressing their opposition to the plans. We have also launched a petition to call on the council to save these services. This can be accessed through the QR code. 

Ed Armston-Sheret

Clothes, Fashion, Preloved, Second-Hand, Style, Sustainable Brighton

Loved and Loved Again

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Style correspondent Ceri Barnes Thompson finds out how to dress to kill while having a “nothing new” pact

When Vanessa Wright was a little girl, she played shops when her peers played teachers and doctors. You’d be more likely to find her rummaging through a jumble sale than a rumbling round the playground, and for little Vanessa easily the best sweet shop was a haberdasher. A career in social work and a family followed alongside a move to Brighton, and as she walked the streets of her new home she would wonder every time a new shop came up for rent why someone didn’t open an old-school dress agency like the ones she grew up around. Until one day…. 

‘Preloved of Brighton’ opened its doors 10 years ago – with its stylish owner ever present to hear how you are, what gigs you’ve been to, what exhibitions have impressed you as well as what you are looking for clothes-wise. Never pushy, always happy for you just to check out any new additions (her stock updates daily with new contributions) Vanessa’s edge is curating her store like a boutique. The jeans are all in one place, the sizes separated up, the sparkly clothes for events and Christmas presented together. Shoes, bags, belts dotted around, there’s even a £10 rail – very worth a rummage for a bargain. And crucially she knows her customers and the fashion zeitgeist so well. There’s no point trying to get her to sell your skinny jeans if wide and cropped is what’s happening at the moment.. she knows what will sell and it’s what makes people happy. Her lovely shop has gone from strength to strength with so many following suit – the market for vintage having massively expanded, and apps  like Depop and Vinted giving new life to old clothes. I see my younger son in someone’s old French-blue Ralph Lauren hoody he’s found on line and snagged for a steal and know that for him it delivers that spark – it’s new to him. 

When Preloved started it was the only place of its kind here – chic and thoughtfully stocked with people’s preloved clothing – splitting the proceeds 50/50 with the people who bring her their treasures. And so often for Vanessa the real treasure is in the stories of the clothes, the connection to her customers and the lives that they have lived.

Initially her clientele was probably between 30 and 60 years old, but now Vanessa reckons it’s more like 15 to 80, and this is so much down to the atmosphere that she’s created. She believes clothes aren’t ‘just’ clothes; they are key to how you feel. Her warmth and interest in the people who come in and their stories wraps you up like a friendly hug. I can’t think of a time I’ve visited when there hasn’t been a lovely chat or a serendipitous exchange of information. I’ve even found a physiotherapist who knows about knees whilst in the shop with Vanessa literally getting on the floor and showing me the best joint exercises to do. 

What gets her up in the morning is a real mission to change people’s minds about buying all their clothes new – it truly makes her day if even one person makes a decision to buy vintage and feels great in it. 

And it’s because of pioneers like Vanessa that I’ve started asking those questions I’d never asked myself – what really do I wear that makes me feel properly myself? The answer is a very limited list, truly. 

This year my husband and I have had a pact to buy no new clothes and it’s been HARD. 

The biggest test of our ‘nothing new’ pact came in the form of a wedding and our oldest son’s graduation. Could I ever feel ‘dressed up’ wearing something ‘old’ to events like that?. Hovering over the ‘add to basket’ on the Cos website too many times, I headed up to Preloved. There was Vanessa, the shop lit up by the early summer sunshine and her smile, a lovely scent filling the air from an aromatic little steamer on her desk. Behind her, hanging up waiting to go on the rails, was a bright orange and pink summer dress, long length, short sleeves, two layers of cotton. ‘I’d never wear that it’s just not my thing’, I thought and dismissed it immediately. Vanessa held it up. “Why don’t you try it, Ceri? it’s a good length for you”. So I did. And when I opened the curtain Vanessa said “Look at that smile!”. I felt fantastic. Worried that my idea of pairing it with my dark blue clutch bag would ‘kill the dress’ (she has a very, very good fashion eye) Vanessa found a gold and orange one and that was that. For £40 I had an outfit that made me feel a million dollars. 

People like Vanessa and their passion for design, designers, textiles and stories really do make the world go round. She’s recently launched a ‘what are you looking for?’ service and she also uses her Instagram presence to promote other local business generously. It’s from her that I really do understand that new doesn’t have to be ‘brand’-new. It can be new to ME. And that not only has to be good enough it’s just plain great.