The Old Slipper Baths off North Road will become 11 flats for homeless people

The Old Slipper Baths in Barrack Yard, off North Road, will be turned into 11 flats for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Brighton & Hove City Council’s^1,2 planning committee approved the plan on Wednesday 7 October, as first reported by Brighton and Hove News³.

The council owns the building and made the application itself, and the flats will stay in its hands. They will go to people on the city’s housing register as temporary accommodation while they wait for a permanent home, at a below-market rent. Seven flats will have two bedrooms and four will have three. One ground-floor flat is built for wheelchair users.

The three-storey building sits on the approach to the Prince Regent Swimming Complex, on the edge of the North Laine Conservation Area. It was a barracks before it became Brighton’s first municipal public baths, where people paid to bathe in the days before most homes had bathrooms. The baths closed in 1976. It has been empty since May 2025.

Ground-floor flats get their own terraces. A shared garden to the south will hold the bike and bin stores, and there is no car parking.

“This is a good use of space that we already own,” said Green councillor Sue Shanks. Conservative councillor Carol Theobald said: “Affordable units – hooray! In a central location. I’m pleased about that.”

The catch is the roof. A zinc-clad roof will replace the hipped roof added when the building became the baths, and the council’s heritage officers said that would harm the building and the conservation area. Planning officers judged the harm not substantial and outweighed by the need for homes. Three objections came in, about overshadowing, noise, parking and safety. Because of noise from nearby licensed venues, the flats will have mechanical ventilation and the rear windows will have to stay shut.