Flats topped out on the site of the old Sussex Maternity Hospital

The mayor of Brighton and Hove, Theresa Fowler, has topped out a block of 22 flats at 80 Buckingham Road, on the site of the old Sussex Maternity Hospital. She placed an English yew branch at the highest point of the building, which Martin Homes is putting up.

The hospital was founded in West Street in 1830 and was for a long time the only maternity hospital in Sussex. A new building on Buckingham Road replaced the West Street hospital in 1921, according to the National Archives³ catalogue, and it was renamed the Sussex Maternity and Women’s Hospital in 1924. It closed in 1970, when its work moved to a new unit at the top of the tower block at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

One woman born there with her twin sister in June 1956 later wrote on the My Brighton and Hove⁵ history site that on her paper round she delivered newspapers to mothers on the ward.

David Martin, who founded Martin Homes, grew up a few hundred yards from the site. “This place and site have historic and close ties to me,” he told Brighton and Hove News¹.

The council approved 20 flats and a community use unit in 2019 and allowed two more in March 2025. Under the planning conditions, the community unit has to be made available for use before anyone moves into the new block.

Next door, work is finished on turning four former Victorian townhouses at 76-79 Buckingham Road into 14 flats.

First reported by Brighton and Hove News.