Brighton Lifeboat Station

In 1858, the town council provided an area on the beach for a new boathouse opposite the Bedford Hotel close to the West Pier.[7] The station was relocated twice in the next decades, once in 1868 and again in 1886 following improvements to the Brighton seafront.[7] After 1886, the station was located on the Western Esplanade between the two piers. The site was used until 1931 when the RNLI withdrew the all-weather boat from the town after nearby Shoreham Station was equipped with a motor lifeboat.[7]

After 1931, Brighton had no lifeboats of its own until it received an inflatable D-class inshore lifeboat in 1965, funded from public donations. This lifeboat was withdrawn before the winter of 1974 and the station was closed in 1975. In 1978 the station re-opened at the new Brighton Marina where a pontoon was provided for the RNLI at the cost of £10,000.[7] At that point the lifeboat was the Atlantic 21 Lions International (B 539), which did not become fully operational until 1979. In 1981 a permanent boathouse was constructed and a temporary shelter was installed on the nearby quayside to house the crew facilities. This new permanent station was the RNLI's first floating lifeboat station.[7] In 1997 the station was provided with a larger Atlantic 75 lifeboat called Thelma Glossop (B 737).[8] The new lifeboat arrived on the station on 1 July of that year.

In 1999 work began on the construction of new shore facilities for the station on the quayside within the marina. The work was completed in 2000 at a cost of £299.775.[9] In January 2014, the station's facilities were closed and the station moved to temporary accommodation nearby. The 2000 building was demolished as part of the £235 million[1] re-development and expansion of the Brighton Marina.