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 with a communal roof terrace. On East Street sits two empty units at the entrance, one of which used to be fashion retailer Sandro, and the other Maje until earlier this year when they closed. The units sit empty and are part of the Hanningtons Estate.
Further along the road there sits a further two empty units. One of these used to be Paperchase, which sat next to Reiss until Paperchase fell into administration last year. Phase Eight, the women’s clothing chain, closed its doors in East Street too.
Two units which used to be fashion retailer Sandro and the other Maje closed earlier this year (Image: Ramy Abou-Setta / The Argus) Gavin Stewart chief executive officer at Brighton BID said:” Though there are empty units across the city Brighton only has 9.5 per cent of its ground floor units as vacant or empty and only 7.5 per cent in the area which is covered by BID, bucking the national average of 11 per cent of ground floor vacant units, so in the grand scheme of things Brighton is doing really well.
” A business improvement district is a defined geographical area which involves all businesses located within it. Traders join together to fund improvements to their trading environment. Brilliant Brighton - or Brighton Business Improvement District - consists of 517 businesses across the city centre.
They cover from Western Road (the Clock Tower to Montpelier Road), North Street, Preston Street, East Street, Brighton Place, Market Street, Meeting House Lane, Bond Street, Gardner Street and Kensington Gardens. Gavin said: ”There is a high churn rate in Brighton meaning that businesses are always changing around due to the high demand within the area from the high profiles all across the nation. “So though there may be vacant units, they are often let at a higher rate than average due to the demand within the city.
” Brilliant Brighton also helps to organise the Christmas lights and holds different events to help the businesses within their remit. Their current term ends in 2026 and they hope to renew the BID for a further five years. A full breakdown of the empty units we spotted is as follows: North Street - Five Castle Square - Three East Street - Five Ship Street - One West Street - Two Western Road - Four.
