At least 20 of Brighton’s city centre shops are currently vacant but a business leader said it is doing better than other high streets. On a Tuesday sunny afternoon this reporter walked across the busy Brighton high streets to see how many shops were vacant. After walking along North Street down to Castle Square, traversing across to East Street then up Prince Albert Street to West Street and making my way across Western Road up until Montpelier Road, there were 20 vacant ground floor shops or units being advertised as to let.
Revaluit moved its shop online in February after being in the city for two years (Image: Ramy Abou-Setta / The Argus) North Street has the majority of the empty units, two of which used to be Lloyds Bank and Virgin Money. Northern Rock stood prior to that until they were acquired by Virgin Money. They now sit as empty units surrounded by scaffolding.
Further along down the road at Castle Square sits an empty unit where Jaeger was for over a decade until it turned into Revaluit by Tech-Takeback. This happened after Jaeger had fallen into administration, the parent company was then bought by Marks and Spencer’s. The units are now empty as Revaluit moved its shop online in February after being in the city for two years.
Royal Bank of Scotland has been an empty unit since 2022 (Image: Ramy Abou-Setta / The Argus) Along the road what used to be the Royal Bank of Scotland has been an empty unit since 2022 with proposals to turn the building into new flats.