As one of the oldest public spaces in Brighton, the Level has a wonderful rich history and has been the hub of the our great City for over 300 years. It’s also taken on many guises in this time, everything from agricultural land to a cricket ground for the Price of Wales and an even an Army base.

 

MacLaren and The Level

In the 1920s Captain Bertie Hubbard MacLaren, Superintendent of Parks, re-designed the south end as a playground and boating pond with surrounding columns and pergolas. His designs were illustrated in his plans [PDF 2.28mb] and described in his journals [PDF 7.01mb].

The general layout of The Level remains largely unchanged, with the northern part still a level grassed area for events and the southern part occupied by the remains of the children’s playground. One of the two restored pavilions at the park (the one on the Ditchling Road) side has been named the MacLaren in his honour.

Development of Brighton’s public parks

Unlike the towns of the industrial north, Brighton came late to the realisation that public parks and playgrounds were essential to the health and happiness of its inhabitants, relying for most of the 19th Century on the benefits of its sea water and air. Brighton’s period of civic enterprise is therefore largely 20th Century.

Two men responsible for much of the purchasing and modernisation of Brighton’s parks during the first three decades of the 20th Century were Sir Herbert Carden, three times Mayor of Brighton from 1916 to 1919, and Captain Bertie Hubbard MacLaren, Superintendent of Parks and Gardens from 1920 to 1951.

Our ‘People’s History of The Level’ community oral history project exhibition first opened to the public in the Bertie MacLaren Pavilion at The Level at the end of 2013. The black and white photo is of the pavilion before it was restored. The colour photo below was taken after it was restored.