Our House
This page contains:
- General information about our house and its location.
- How to find out more information about our house including its accessibility and sustainability.
- Information about our rooms.
- Information about our social space and garden.
Location
Our 7 bedroom house is situated at the heart of the quiet but picturesque area of Moulescoomb. Brighton and Hove’s first garden estate. Located just outside of town, the community sits in between the two universities of Sussex and Brighton (Moulescoomb campus). We are also very lucky to be surrounded by the south downs national park which provides plentiful opportunities for walking and connecting with nature. Castle Hill nature reserve is also only a medium walk/cycle or short bus ride away. All of this forms part of the ‘Living Coast‘ a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve home to rare but extremely biodiverse chalk grassland habitat.
How to get to us
We encourage people to use active travel (walking and cycling) + public transport wherever possible. Please contact us if you need specific driving directions. We are a short walk (uphill and downhill) from bus stops Hawthorne Way, Halland road or Moulsecoomb Way, all serviced by the 49 route. All Brighton and Hove buses have accessibility access. https://www.buses.co.uk/services/BH/49. We are also a 20/30 minute walk or 10/15minute cycle from Moulescoomb or Falmer stations. https://www.btnbikeshare.com/. These walks/cycles may involve some uphill elements. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you need help or advice getting public transport or finding us.
Train
Walking and cycling distance (see below) from Moulescoomb or Falmer stations. 5-10 minutes train ride from Moulescoomb to Falmer. 5-10 minutes train ride from Falmer (Sussex uni) or Moulescoomb to Brighton center
Cycling
10/15 minute cycle from Moulescoomb or Falmer stations. 20/30 minute cycle to Brighton town center (mostly covered by a cycle lane). Brighton city bikes are available to hire across the city if you are visiting short term.
Bus
Take a 49 (Hove - Churchill Square - Old Steine - Moulescoomb) to Hawthorne Way, Halland road or Moulsecoomb Way bus stops. ~20/30 minute bus ride from Old Steine.
Walking
20/30 minute walk from Moulescoomb or Falmer stations or Sussex university and Brighton Moulescoomb campus. 45/60 minute walk to Brighton town center
Our House
Overview
7 Bedrooms
7 medium sized double rooms of varying sizes including 1 accessible downstairs rooms
Kitchen/living space
1 medium sized open plan kitchen-living room
2 Bathrooms
2 bathrooms including 1 accessible downstairs bathroom
Garden/outdoor space
1 medium/large back garden with accessible patio access coming soon. 1 small front garden
Outdoor space
The house has a large back garden (especially by Brighton standards) and a small front garden. We are hoping to landscape our back garden and get our tenants involved in this! Any advice or help with the gardening would be most appreciated. Current ideas we have for our garden include:
- Space to grow food.
- Wildflower planting.
- A mental health space.
Accessibility
Our house is currently only accessible by steps from the pavement to the ground floor. However, we have 4 stage plan which includes accessibility and sustainability improvements. Stage 1 and 2 we are aiming to include a ramp (step free access) from pavement to ground floor and from the ground floor to the garden. We are also hoping to widen some of the interior doorways and include an accessible downstairs bathroom. Stage 3 and 4 of our plan will deal with sustainability elements detailed below. Unfortunately, due to planning constraints, we were not able to offer these accessibility elements for our first year in 2021. We will provide updates on this as and when we receive more information!
Sustainability
The climate and biodiversity crisis is a very serious issue. Currently, UK housing stock accounts for approximately 20% of our carbon emissions and a whopping 65% of people support a mass retrofitting program of our homes. Good energy efficiency helps to reduce energy loss and thus carbon emissions whilst also saving people money and reducing fuel poverty. It is therefore imperative that we as a co-operative ensure that our housing is as green as possible.
BHESCO (Brighton and Hove Energy Services co-operative) have conducted a complete audit of our house. This provides us with a comprehensive overview of the measures and improvements we can put in place to reduce our energy loss and make our house greener. This ranges from things such as good insulation, triple glazing and even heat pumps to recycle warm air. Overall these improvements should drastically reduce the amount or tenants need to use the heating. This will cut carbon emissions and slash their energy bills ( a win – win!).
We also want to promote our tenants to lead sustainable lifestyles. Encompassing a wide range of measures including growing local food, shopping local and at sustainable outlets i.e infinity foods co-operative, getting involved in local activism, using recycled goods and contributing to the circular economy + a lot more. We encourage active travel such as walking and cycling or public transport for all of our tenants. However, we recognnise that this might not be possible for all people in all situations for example, if people have accessibility issues or if people are moving their things in for the first time!
Find out more:
Find out more about our accesibility
Find out more about our sustainability
Our Rooms & Layout
We are currently enquiring as to whether it would be possible and appropriate to post our floor plans here. Please bear with us and if you need specific size details then please get in contact.
Ground floor
Room 1
Information coming soon
Ground floor bathroom (accessible)
Room 2 (accessible)
Accessible (coming soon) ground floor room with access to accessible bathroom and patio (coming soon).
Kitchen/living room
First floor
Room 3
Information coming soon
Room 4
Information coming soon
Spare room
Information coming soon
Room 5
Information coming soon
Second floor
Room 6
Information coming soon
Bathroom
Information coming soon
Room 7
Information coming soon
Our Garden and Social Space
Garden
As described above our house has a large back garden (especially by Brighton standards) and a small front garden. The patio of the back garden will have step free access coming soon. We are hoping to landscape our back garden and get our tenants involved in this! Current ideas we have for our garden include:
- Space to grow food.
- Wildflower planting.
- A mental health space.
Any help and advice with gardening would be most appreciated. We are currently speaking to a local allotment co-operative about gardening & planting advice and local artists about painting an outside mural.
Both images taken from Righmove before we moved in!
Our garden ideas
Space to grow food
In progress
Mental health space
In progress
Wildflower planting
In progress
Mural
In progress
Social space
Our social space includes a kitchen-living room that our tenants can make their own. We also have a spare room but we haven’t sorted out any ideas for this yet as our first tenants have only just moved in. Over the course of their time here our tenants should be able to make both of these spaces unique and they have full control over redecorating and redesigning.
We aim to use recycled or reused materials where possible and we will try to wait for items that we need to become available in this way. There are various groups and activists across Brighton and Hove who we can contact to find out about items that are no longer needed or ‘sales’ that might be happening in the city.
