page_title: Southgate, West Sussex
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Southgate, West Sussex / Economy
caption_attribution_description: English: Crawley station, 1983. View westward, towards Horsham etc.: new station, opened 28/7/68 to replace ex-London, Brighton &amp; South Coast station a little to the west: London - Three Bridges - Horsham - Mid-Sussex main line.Crawley station, 1983.
context_page_description: Southgate is one of the 13 residential neighbourhoods in Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. Crawley was planned and laid out as a New Town after the Second World War, based on the principle of self-contained neighbourhoods surrounding a town centre of civic and commercial buildings. Southgate was one of the four in the "inner ring" closest to the town centre, and was intended to be the largest of the nine designed in the original master plan. It was built in two stages between the 1950s and the 1970s, but retains some older buildings from before the New Town era and has "significant areas of pre-New Town character".
  The area was settled by pre-Roman people, and industrial and other artefacts from that era were found during construction of the neighbourhood. In the 19th century, after Crawley was connected to the national railway network, housing developed south of the line around the Brighton Road, which divides the modern neighbourhood in two.
context_section_description: Modern Southgate is primarily residential, and the area was mostly undeveloped before the New Town was created.  Nevertheless, some commercial and industrial development existed around the Brighton Road and railway line, and farming provided employment.  Two sets of local shops serve the modern neighbourhood, but its proximity to Crawley town centre and main transport routes mean that, as intended in Anthony Minoprio's masterplan, residents travel outside Southgate for most of their employment and shopping requirements.
  In common with other areas around Crawley, the land to the south was held by several large farms.  Malthouse Farm had its own small-scale brickworks as well; Hilltop Farm was at the highest point in the area, 315 feet (96 m) above sea level; and Hogs Hill Farm, named after the herds of pigs farmed there, stood on a ridge east of the Brighton Road.
  Crawley's two main building firms had their yards and works in the Victorian streets near the railway line.  Richard Cook's firm, which built the houses and streets of the 19th-century "New Town" development, was founded in 1861 and was based at the corner of two of the new streets.  The works included a brickyard; poor drainage led to soil and dirty water from it polluting the surrounding area.  The Crawley and Ifield Vigilance Committee, an amateur pressure group, demanded improvements for several years, and proper drains were eventually laid.  Cook and Sons' advertisements revealed the range of products manufactured: the works made bricks, tiles, pipes and pottery, and his team of labourers carried out all types of building and contracting work.  James Longley and Sons became the most famous business in Crawley and one of its largest: in 1898 more than 700 people worked for it.  Longley moved his small firm from Turners Hill in 1881 when he bought Malthouse Farm and its brickworks.  Expansion was rapid, and they received commissions for Christ's Hospital school near Horsham, the King Edward VII sanatorium in Midhurst, Graylingwell Hospital in Chichester, the choir stalls in Westminster Abbey and almost every railway station owned by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.  Longley and Sons, which soon became Longley and Company, quickly became one of southeast England's main building firms; but it was nearly ruined on 20 March 1924 when the joinery and timber works, all stock inside it and sixty machines were destroyed by fire.  The firm recovered, though, and was able to tender for a wide range of contracts in the New Town era, including Hazelwick School, much of the Manor Royal industrial estate, Crawley fire station, the Queen's Square shopping area and Crawley College's tower block extension.
  Neither building firm survives. Cook's lasted into the New Town era but wound down after that; their work survives in the streets of Southgate and at St Peter's Church in West Green, a school in Handcross, the churchyard of St Margaret's Church, Ifield and elsewhere.  Longley and Company ceased trading in 2000, and the works and associated buildings were demolished soon afterwards to make way for housing and a hotel.  The Arora International Hotel Gatwick/Crawley, which has conference facilities, a large health and fitness suite and restaurant, was built on the site at the end of East Park in 2001.  The 4-star hotel has 432 bedrooms.
caption: The hotel occupies the site of Longley and Company's factory and yard, seen here in 1983.
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