Tenants move into nine new council flats at 137 Carden Hill, Hollingbury, later this month. The site was a 1950 pub, then the Hollingbury Library.

Nine new council flats on the site of the old Hollingbury Library are finished, and the first tenants move in later this month. Brighton & Hove City Council announced the completion on Friday 6 November.

The building at 137 Carden Hill, BN1 8DA, has one and two-bedroom flats for social rent. They are being let to people on the city’s housing register, the council said.

A pub, then a library

The site has a longer history than most council schemes. According to the council’s project page:

  • the brewer Whitbread built the building as a pub, The County Oak, which opened in 1950
  • the pub moved to a neighbouring site in March 1961
  • the building was converted and opened as Hollingbury Library in 1962
  • by the time the council drew up plans, the library was unused and the building was contaminated with asbestos and “beyond restoration or refurbishment”

The council consulted residents on the designs in August 2023, and planners approved the scheme in March 2024. Trinity Homes started building in January 2025. The project page had expected completion by September 2026, so the homes are about two months later than planned.

What the flats have

The block is three storeys in part and four in part. The council says the flats include:

  • an air source heat pump in each flat, for underfloor heating and hot water
  • energy-efficient glazing
  • private outdoor space and a shared roof garden
  • cycle storage, with bus stops just outside

Councillor Gill Williams, Cabinet member for housing, said: “This is a lovely building and I was struck by the quality of the build.” She thanked Trinity Homes for “such an excellent job”.

Part of a bigger push

The flats are the latest finished under the council’s New Homes for Neighbourhoods programme, which builds council homes on land the council already owns. The council lists other work under way:

  • Moulsecoomb: 222 council homes and a new community hub
  • Portslade: two developments about to begin
  • Sackville Road, Hove: 306 low-cost homes started by Homes for Brighton & Hove, the council’s partnership with the housing association Hyde, which has already finished 346 in Coldean and Portslade

The council is also buying back homes sold under Right to Buy.

The pressure on housing is wider than these schemes. On 12 November, Cabinet considers a plan to secure 500 more temporary homes for homeless households.

What it means for you

  • You cannot apply for these flats directly. They go to people already on the council’s housing register. Registered households bid for homes through the council’s Homemove system.
  • If you are not on the register, you have to join it before you can bid for any council or housing association home: see the council’s apply for housing page.