Roedean is a village in the city of Brighton and Hove,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, UK, east of the

seaside resort A seaside resort is a resort town, town, village, or hotel that serves as a Resort, vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, suc ...

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

Notable buildings and areas

Roedean Gap is a slight dip in the cliffs between Black Rock and Ovingdean Gap, and has been known by the name since at least 1724. It was the site of a toll-gate on the Newhaven turnpike, and Roedean Farm stood on the clifftop until the construction of the Marine Drive road in the early 1930s. There was also a windmill at Roedean from around 1750 to about 1790, and the old mill-house was amongst the buildings cleared for the road construction. Roedean Road itself opened between Arundel Road and the coast road at Roedean Farm in 1897 as an alternative to the cliff-top road which had become unusable to the east of Black Rock owing to cliff erosion; seventy-five feet of land had disappeared in fifty years. The new road to Rottingdean, Marine Drive, was opened on 22 July 1932 by

Percy John Pybus Sir Percy John Pybus, 1st Baronet, (25 January 1880 – 23 October 1935) was a British Liberal Party politician. Business career Having completed an engineering apprenticeship John Pybus joined electrical engineers Phoenix Dynamo Manufacturing ...

, Minister of Transport, with the cliffs protected by the Undercliff Walk sea-wall.

Roedean School

The village is known for its

independent school An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...

Roedean Roedean is a village in the city of Brighton and Hove, England, UK, east of the seaside resort of Brighton. Notable buildings and areas Roedean Gap is a slight dip in the cliffs between Black Rock and Ovingdean Gap, and has been known by the ...

White Lodge

White Lodge, The Cliff, is an atypically small house by Sir Edwin Lutyens, built for Victoria Sackville. It was one of the architect's first commissions, and herringbone-style vertically laid floor tiles in the garden were in part laid by the architect himself.

John Howard House

John Howard House at the western end of Roedean Road (which today would be considered part of the mid-late 20th century East Brighton estate of Whitehawk) was opened in 1914 at the expense of Sir John Howard as a convalescent home for gentlewomen, but it was almost immediately requisitioned for use as an officers' hospital in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In 1974 it became a home of the

Royal Hospital and Home for Incurables The Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, in Putney, South West London, is an independent medical charity that provides rehabilitation and long-term care to people with complex neurological disabilities caused by damage to the brain or other part ...

, which is based in Putney and run on a voluntary basis. It is now the site of the Brighton Steiner School.

Roedean Bottom

Roedean Bottom extends northwards from the gap and has been the site of a number of Roman finds. In about 1900 an isolated row of coastguard cottages now known as Roedean Terrace was erected to the west of the valley. The Roedean estate, which was developed around the terrace from the 1930s, is now one of Brighton's most exclusive residential districts with a population of around 600. The open spaces along the cliff top were acquired by the corporation in 1928–35. The miniature golf-course opened in April 1957, but was reduced to 16 holes in 1988 for the new layout of Marine Drive to cater for Marina traffic; the adjacent area to the north of Roedean Road has also been used as a pitch-and-putt golf course. Stretching north, between the pitch and putt golf course and the Roedean School is a downland meadow. On its east slope of the Bottom there is a little piece of aboriginal Downland turf, where in late summer autumn ladies tresses orchid grow, with

carline thistle ''Carlina vulgaris'', the carline thistle, is a plant species of the genus '' Carlina''. It is a biennial that grows on limestone, chalky or other alkaline grasslands or dunes. The flowers are clusters of very small brown florets surrounded by br ...

and hairy violet. Tiny moss snail in the turf demonstrates the site’s antiquity.Bangs, Dave (2008). ''A freedom to roam Guide to the Brighton Downs : from Shoreham to Newhaven and Beeding to Lewes''. Brighton: David Bangs. . . In autumn migrant birds gather there and on the grazed fields yellow wagtails gather and in the trees above the school Pallas' Warbler was seen in 2020.

East Brighton Golf Club

The East Brighton Golf Club in Roedean Road is a private club, founded in 1893 as the Kemp Town Golf Club.East Brighton Golf Club official website
/ref> Initially it had just a few holes alongside Roedean Road, but it was soon extended to nine holes across the Downs, and in 1897 changed its name to East Brighton with the addition of another nine holes. The small clubhouse was near the present fourth tee, but the present clubhouse was erected in 1897 and extended several times until 1912. The course itself is 6,291 yards long and was remodelled in 1903 along Wick Bottom; the land is leased from the corporation which acquired it in September 1913 as part of the East Brighton estate. Past presidents of the club include the Duke of Norfolk,

Marquess of Abergavenny Marquess of Abergavenny (pronounced Aber''genn''y) in the County of Monmouth, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom created on 14 January 1876, along with the title Earl of Lewes (pronounced "Lewis"), in the County of Sussex, for the ...

Earl of Chichester Earl of Chichester is a title that has been created three times, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The current title was created in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1801 for Thomas Pelham, 2nd Ba ...

and Earl Haig. Unlike many Downland courses still has its roughs to scrub thickets and woodland and in winter short-eared owls often reside in the area.

References

{{Brighton and Hove Areas of Brighton and Hove