page_title: Bear Road, Brighton
section_title: Buildings
hierarchical_section_title: Bear Road, Brighton / Buildings
caption_attribution_description: Sussex Beacon, Bevendean Road, Brighton, City of Brighton and Hove, England. Built in 1992 as a treatment facility for HIV/AIDS patients. It occupies the site of the former Bevendean Isolation Hospital (demolished in 1990).
context_page_description: The Bear Road area is a largely residential area in the east of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Centred on the steep west–east road of that name, it is characterised by terraced houses of the early 20th century, but Brighton's main cemeteries were established here in the 19th century and there is also some industry.
  Bear Road itself, a steeply sloping route running from the main Brighton–Lewes road eastwards towards Brighton Racecourse, divides the area into two contrasting sections. North of the road, the bare hillside was developed with densely populated streets of small houses from 1895 onwards. Development was effectively complete within 20 years, and most of the roads have names connected to the Boer War, giving the suburb "a strong sense of place". Other surviving buildings include some large early-20th-century factories, but an isolation hospital and the area's only church have both been demolished since 1990. South of Bear Road, a series of cemeteries and crematoria were built on a large, undulating area of farmland between 1850 and 1919.
context_section_description: The only church in the area was St Alban's, an Anglican church built between 1910 and 1914 at the junction of Coombe Road and Buller Road.  Architect Lacy W. Ridge was responsible for its red-brick Early English Gothic Revival design.  It had its own parish until 15 May 1974, when the new Parish of the Resurrection—consisting of St Martin's Church on Lewes Road, St Wilfrid's Church on Elm Grove and St Alban's—was formed.  Its deteriorating structural condition led to its closure in 2006, and the Diocese of Chichester declared it redundant on 22 November of that year.  Planning permission was granted in 2010 for its demolition and replacement with nine houses.  Demolition was authorised in February 2013 and took place later that year.  The former parish hall, built in 1902–03 at the corner of Riley Road and Bear Road, still stands.  By 1990 it had been acquired by Brighton Polytechnic, and it is now a nursery school.  Adjacent to the former church is Coombe Road Primary School, which opened in April 1912 and took infants from 1915.  As of 2012 it had 317 pupils between the ages of 4 and 11.
  Bevendean Hospital—known as Brighton Borough Hospital when it opened in 1881—was originally a sanatorium used to treat patients with contagious diseases.  It stood on the east side of Bevendean Road at the top of the hill overlooking the suburb.  A smallpox outbreak prompted its construction.  Brighton Borough Surveyor designed a permanent building to replace the original wooden huts; the mayor Sir John Blaker opened it on 27 October 1898.  Several "pavilions" dedicated to the control of particular diseases were built over the next few years.  The hospital passed from local municipal control to national control in 1948 and was renamed Bevendean Hospital.  By 1989 it had capacity for 127 patients and cared for elderly and psychiatric patients as well as maintaining its specialism in infectious diseases; but on 24 April 1989 it was closed because of a lack of funding.  One ward for day patients stayed open until 26 September 1990, but the site was cleared after that.  It is now occupied by new housing (Fitzherbert Drive) and the headquarters of Sussex Beacon.  The entrance lodges and red- and white-brick gate piers survive; the latter are Grade II-listed.  Bevendean Hospital gained national notoriety in 1950–51 when a girl who was brought there was found to have contracted smallpox.  The hospital was quarantined for 34 days; 10 people died, including six hospital workers, although the girl survived.
  Sussex Beacon is the only centre in the county of Sussex specifically intended for the treatment and care of people with HIV/AIDS.  It opened in 1992 and offers day care and longer-term treatment: there is a residential unit with 10 beds.  In 2009 1,700 people were treated for HIV/AIDS in the city of Brighton and Hove, and the Sussex Beacon forms an important part of the city's HIV/AIDS treatment and care strategy.  The Sussex Beacon Half-Marathon, in which thousands of people participate annually, has been central to its fundraising efforts since it opened.
  Industrial development started in the early 20th century at the junction of Coombe Road and Lewes Road.  Two large factories were built, both of which survive (but not in industrial use).  On the north side of Coombe Road, Bernard Oppenheimer's diamond cutting company National Diamond Factories (Bernard Oppenheimer) Ltd built a large works in 1917.  Employees included amputee former World War I soldiers.  In 1927, it was subdivided into premises for Schweppes and the local electrical engineering company Allen West Ltd, whose works further up Lewes Road had been damaged by a lightning strike.  C.V.A. Tools were the next occupants from 1945, but the factory closed in 1973 after a company takeover.  In 2000 it was renovated and turned into flats with Art Deco touches.  Immediately opposite, on the south side of Coombe Road, another diamond factory was built in 1918.  Later, until it closed in 1991, it became the European base of Dentsply, a false teeth manufacturer.  Since then it has been o
caption: The Sussex Beacon opened in 1992.
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