Brighton Marina

Si vous avez peu de temps à Brighton, passez votre chemin.
La Marina est situé à l’extrémité de Brighton, il s’agit d’un petit port de plaisance entouré d’une série de bâtiments neufs/​en construction. On sent le projet immobilier un peu déroutant qui n’a malheureusement été investit que par une série interminable de chaînés de restaurant (Nando’s, Prezzo, Zizzi et j’en passé). Les restaurants en l’occurrence né bénéficient même pas vraiment d’une vue sur la Marina. Ils sont très bruyants car très mal isolés, et même sur une modeste table pour 2, il devient rapidement difficile de s’entendre discuter.
En revanche, on peut se laisser tenter par la kitchitude de ces lieux en quête d’âme et se laisser tenter par la faveur d’un combo mauvais plat/​ciné les soirs de pluie…
A noter: grand parking gratuit (!) juste à l’entrée de la Marina

I’m not sure how I really feel about Brighton Marina.
My boyfriend loves it, thinks it’s really nice and like to go for meals there and also the the cinema. Me on the other hand, I just think it’s a bit soulless. There’s nothing here that really makes me want to spend time at the marina.
There are plenty of Restaurants to go to, nothing out of the ordinary though — Frankie and Benny’s, Wetherspoons, Nando’s, Pizza Express etc etc.
It’s a lot nicer in the summer when you can take a stroll around the marina and look at all the fancy Yachts and dream about how the other half live!
I’ve been intending to go on a boat ride from the marina for about 6 years now and I still haven’t managed to get round to it! Hopefully this year :)

I love this place for so many reasons. I used to have a girlfriend who live here, so I have sampled many of the restaurants here. I will list my favourite places in order of importance. Asda (it’s massive and open 24 hours). MacDonald’s. The Harvester restaurant, Pizza Express. There is a cinema which I occasionally go to and also a casino «Rendezvous». (which I’ve only been to once).
Parking (by Asda) used to be completely free but now you have to pay (nowhere near as expensive as in central Brighton). Asda shoppers can get their money back by showing part of your ticket when you are at the till.

Fabulous place to be. soooo much to do/​see. Excellent dining facilitiesall prices quite competitive, and within the budget. To be fair, perhaps some places could be seen as pricey. Loads of different shops, cinema,
restaurants, casinos, gym, swimmingnot much you can’t get here.
Well worth a visit. BUT park in the Cineworld car parkcost you nothing.

I don’t get it. Chain shops and fast food restaurants. No culture (unless you count the multi cinema complex). If you’re visiting Birghton, don’t bother with this area. I really don’t get it unless you have a boat you need to dock here or like looking at other people’s parked boats.

Brighton Marina is a bit of a strange one to review. I don’t have a boat so can’t comment on the actual marina facilities. I wouldn’t want to live here — its expensive, isolated, generic and dull — why would you live here when you could live in the centre of Brighton for the same price.
The area is dominated by a massive Asda, it also features a MacDonald’s, a Wetherspoons and a Grosvenor casino — all the things that make me cringe a little! The Cineworld is ok for a large chain cinema.
It does have a David Lloyd fitness centre but I have never tried this out.
There are a few good eateries hidden away in amongst the generic chain restaurants — Frankie and Bennys, Prezzo, Café Rouge etc etc. But again, why would you come here when you could eat at far superior places in the centre of town?
The main draw is probably the car parking which is free (something you definitely can’t get in the centre of Brighton) but even this is now limited to four hours maximum stay.
However, treats such as the mackerel fishing trips and a pleasant walk along the outer wall rescue the Marina from obtaining a lowly one star rating.

Brighton Marina is a great place to visit on a beautiful, sunny day if you’re feeling like you want to escape the hustle and bustle of the city centre. The shopping isn’t that great (apart from the enormous 24-​hour Asda), but it’s a lovely place to go if you fancy a meal in a slightly classier place with great views out over the sea. Indeed, I can’t help but feel a little envious of everyone sailing out into the sea on their boats in the glorious summer sunshine…
As far as eating establishments go, most of the places are at the upper end of chain-​style dining: Frankie & Benny’s, Strada, Pizza Express, Zizzi, Café Rouge & Prezzo. There’s also your obligatory McDonald’s and Pizza Hut but they’re down in ‘cheesy entertainment central’ alongside Bowlplex, Rendezvous Casino and Cineworld.
As well as the chain restaurants and brilliant but tacky entertainments on offer, there’s also an extremely pleasant Wetherspoons (far better than their usual standard) and a gorgeous independent floating Chinese restaurant: The Brighton Pagoda.
The Marina is a great place to go when the weather is warm and the sun is out, although it doesn’t have that much to offer in winter (apart from the casino, bowling and cinema). The best thing about the place is sitting out on the restaurant terraces enjoying the summer sun away from the Brighton crowds of beach-​based tourists.

This is the kind of place you want to go ‘Bonkers’ to break the monotony, and its all there to do it. It has ramps, walkways, space, bars, food, water but nothing to excite or inspire. But then this is the problem with just relying on money and free market values to create some kind of town, similarly with Milton Keynes or Telford, you do end up with something that kind of works (ish) but it is a bit dull.
There is only so much looking at the water and boats and going ‘thats nice’ you can take before you realise you cannot go in the water or go on the boats because it is mostly owned by a select few. Which is fine, I am all for people saving to buy boats and it must be a fantastic way to retire, which it seems many people do here. You can go on boat trips, and I hope in the future these will be cheap and easily accessible and perhaps in the future some bars, restaurants and shops will open that are a bit more interesting. For some the Marina does its job, for others if this is a ‘design for life’ its not a very good one.

Brighton Marina is a huge missed opportunity. Built in the 70s, when it was assumed that cars were the future and that the kind of people who had the leisure time to hang out at a marina development wouldn’t consider doing anything other than driving, it has awful pedestrian access and hard to cross roads. You’re supposed to drive into the multi storey and walk from there straight onto the ‘jetty’ section (my description, not an official one) where the bars and restaurants are. Buses do also run here, although they’re not well catered for.
There are a range of tacky bars and chain restaurants, as well as an Asda and a cinema. It can be pleasant to sit out on a summer day with a drink and drool over the expensive boats, but generally, this is somewhere to miss.

I think the marina is a great place to go. There is sooooo much down there that you could spend a couple of days doing things here. Ok it doesn’t have the charm that Brighton itself but then no newly regenerated area has the history to give it charm.
Activities include; a casino, bowling, cinema, indoor golf, shopping, crazy golf, fitness and boating but to name a few. Walking along the marina outer wall is a good walk whilst taking a look at the boats.
In the future this area is going to become more for residents so it will become more homely and therefore have more character. Currently, it does lack this in the winter but in the summer this area is good fun.

Brighton Marina is a strange hybrid of marina, shopping mall and housing development. Although I find it a bit creepy that all the houses are identical and brand new, it’s well designed from a community point of view — a lot of the flats are built around a main square with a newsagent and fountain. This square is home to a monthly market and mini-​festival in the summer, which gives the place a lot more character and life. It feels almost as though someone’s drawn an identikit rustic town and brought it to life here, in this almost hermetically sealed refugee pocket of Brighton.
It certainly has got everything — except character. The vital essence of humanity is missing from the parade of chain cinemas, chain stores, chain restaurants. I suppose it used to be a chain pier, but that wasn’t quite the same thing. A bit of personality is beginning to break through though. If you walk out of the east end of the square alongside the houses (with their own private jetties! Marvellous) you’ll see Dutch barges and 1930s motor-​craft sharing a convivial mooring-​peg with the ubiquitous yachties, RIBs and gin-​palaces. A walk along the harbour wall will reveal even more interesting craft fender to fender with ferrocement day sailors. If you get there early enough, you can watch the fishermen come in with the morning’s catch as well, which is bizarrely picturesque despite the outboard motors. There are plenty of places to eat, a sports centre to amuse yourself in, cinemas and shops. The real enjoyment of Brighton Marina though, in my opinion, is still the boats and watercraft it was originally designed for — however it tries to expand, its true purpose is still as an amphibious bit of land between earth and water, and this is the most exciting aspect of it for me.