Green spaces in Round Hill and Sylvan Hall
From The Round Hill Reporter Spring 2024
You may have noticed a new feature in the fence around the east end of Sylvan Hall, bordering Princes Crescent: a gate! Aurelie Elder (the force behind this space since Syvan Hall's previous community leader, Barry Hughes, passed away) applied for a community grant to install the gate. This will give the Round Hill community better access to the hedgerow and meadow with its fruit trees.
As well as improving access for volunteers to help maintain this delightful resource, it also gives easy access to admire and enjoy the space that belongs to the Sylvan Hall Estate residents. If you'd like to volunteer please email: aurelie.elder@gmail.com.
Rob Stephenson
Right by the new Sylvan Hall gate, Round Hill is to get its first community composter! Composting fruit and vegetable peelings is a great way to reduce household waste. But not everyone has the space to do this at home, so community composting provides a great solution. Sylvan Hall Residents’ Association Committee has agreed to the location of the composting scheme. And we’re lucky that a Sylvan Hall resident is responsible for building and installing community composters across the city.
The initial pilot will have one composter. If the pilot is successful, additional composters can be placed inside the triangle of the Sylvan Hall orchard space. The Brighton & Hove Food Partnership will provide advice and training, and is happy to answer any questions residents may have about the scheme. Visit their website at bhfood.org.uk.
The scheme requires two community compost monitors and a minimum of 10 users. If you’d like to join, send an email with the subject line “For the Attention of Stefania Rosso – Community Composting” to roundhillsociety@gmail.com.
Elsewhere, Round Hill Green Spaces is applying for funding to install a pocket park alongside the southbound bus stop at the junction of Princes Crescent with Ditchling Road. This comes in the wake of a successful four-year campaign to get council permission for the project, which now opens us up for many more funding opportunities.
The Wood Store has provided us with a quote, based on the design approved by the council, to build and install the pocket park’s four wooden planters. We are incorporating this quote into our funding applications, together with the design plans agreed with the council.
The first of our major funding applications was submitted to the new Brighton & Hove UK Shared Prosperity Fund in January. We are still waiting to hear the outcome, but in the meantime, we are researching other sources of funding to make Round Hill’s new pocket park an even more special place for our community.
Dominic Furlong & Jane Power dominicfurlong@gmail.com
This page was last updated by Ted on 23-Apr-2026