The Level is an urban park in central Brighton, on the south coast of England. The park is a triangle of bounded by Union Road to the north, Richmond Terrace (A270) to the east, and Ditchling Road (A23) to the west. In the past, the land has been used as a cricket ground for the Prince of Wales and as a setting for large-scale dinner parties to commemorate events such as the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte and the coronation of Queen Victoria.
The Level is often used for public meetings and gatherings. These have included May Day events, a 1983 peace camp and the Brighton Urban Free Festival. Present day features of the park include a grassed area with elm trees and outdoor seating, a skatepark, public toilets, a rose garden, a children's playground and a water feature. The park was substantially redeveloped from 2009 onwards.
Overview
The Level is in central Brighton, about north of the seafront. It now covers but was originally much bigger, encompassing the present-day Victoria Gardens and Valley Gardens to the south and the land now occupied by Park Crescent to the north. It forms a rough triangle enclosed by Union Street to the north, Ditchling Road (A23) to the west and Richmond Terrace (originally the southernmost part of Lewes Road) and Richmond Place (A270) to the east.
The park is surrounded by elm trees and is laid out in three sections. The northern part of the urban park is a grassed area. In the middle section is a skatepark. The southern part of the park is a children's playground and also includes a café, public toilets, a pavilion which can be hired for community use, a water feature, a sensory garden and a zone for boccia and pétanque.
Brighton and Hove City Council added the Level to their Local List of Heritage Assets in 2015. The council's assessment described it as a "well-designed municipal public playground, within an early public park ... [which] contributes greatly to the character of the area". The park lies on National Cycle Route 20 and is served by buses 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29 37, 37B, 46, 48, and 49.
Early history
London Road and Lewes Road, two major routes leading out of Brighton, were built along steep-sided valleys through which winterbournes flowed intermittently. The valleys, and therefore the streams, met where the Level is now and flowed out to sea at the Old Steine. The land was always marshy and swampy and was never built upon. Instead, it became a popular place for public recreation and entertainment as Brighton grew into a fashionable seaside resort in the 18th century. After the town's authorities banned ball games and other traditional entertainments on the Old Steine in 1787, the Level became the focus for the early resort's sporting activities: The Prince of Wales (later George IV of the United Kingdom) then laid out a cricket ground on the northern side in 1791. The Prince of Wales Ground hosted early first-class matches and served as the home of Brighton Cricket Club, later one of the principal founders of Sussex County Cricket Club. In 1822, the cricket ground moved to a nearby site called the Hanover Ground; after another move to the Royal Brunswick Ground on the Brunswick estate, it was established on its present site on Eaton Road in Hove in 1872. The Bat and Ball pub on Ditchling Road, facing the west side of the Level, commemorates the ground. Other popular events included the town's annual bonfire celebrations on Guy Fawkes Night, regular circuses and fairs, and traditional activities such as bat and trap and skipping. Writing in 1883, a contributor to the Sussex Archaeological Collections journal noted that the local Good Friday tradition of skipping was still maintained at the Level, where "scores of skippers" could be seen.
As well as these informal recreational events, the Level (especially the southern part, closest to the town centre) was used for formal, town-wide events and commemorations, such as the Prince's birthday celebrations. The Allied Powers' defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte was celebrated in Brighton by the Great Peace Festival of August 1814. A mass dinner of roast beef and plum puddings was served at 75 double rows of tables for more than 7,000 people, and the town's authorities organised activities such as running races, stoolball, dancing and kiss-in-the-ring. The coronations of King George IV and Victoria, and the ends of both the Napoleonic Wars and the Crimean War were celebrated with similar large-scale public feasts.