Latest news with #Brighton
Daily Mail
40 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Missing woman's body is found on British beach 140 miles from where she disappeared eight months ago
The body of a missing woman was found on a beach on the south coast, 140 miles from where she disappeared eight months ago. Anne Porter had been seen at her home in Jersey in October last year and was thought to be going to a local beach called Greve de Lecq. After she disappeared, a massive investigation began to try find her involving multiple agencies like the coastguard, fire crews and lifeboat teams. However it has now been confirmed by the police that her body was found on a beach in Brighton. Det Ch Insp Mark Hafey, who led the investigation for Jersey Police, said: 'Remains were located on a beach in Brighton which have now been confirmed as a DNA match with Anne. 'Our thoughts are with her husband, family, and friends.' Officers had launched an appeal in October for the mother who was last seen wearing a black windbreaker jacket and blue jeans. A police appeal on Facebook from October 20 2024 said: 'We are concerned for the welfare for Anne Potter. 'She was last seen leaving her property at about 12:30pm today. 'She is believed to have headed out west towards Greve De Lecq. 'She is believed to be wearing a black windbreaker jacket and blue jeans.' Three days later the force said: 'An extensive search of the north coast spanning from Greve de Lecq west to L'Etacq and east to Sorel Point has been conducted and coordinated by SOJP.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Brighton Stand Firm as Newcastle Pursue £70m Forward
Newcastle's Brazilian Pursuit: Pedro at the Heart of Summer Chase Pedro's Rising Stock and Howe's Forward Focus Brighton have rejected offers worth over £50 million for Joao Pedro from Newcastle United and one other Premier League club, as first reported by talkSPORT. Eddie Howe, unwavering in his ambition, has identified Pedro as his primary attacking target and Newcastle are expected to return with an improved bid. Advertisement Pedro's potential arrival on Tyneside would mark a significant move for the Magpies, both strategically and symbolically. The 23-year-old's adaptability across the front line — able to play as a striker, No.10 or on either flank — fits seamlessly with Howe's vision. 'Pedro is believed to have expressed a desire to leave the Amex this summer and Howe has been a long-term admirer of the forward, who is rated at £70m by Brighton.' With Chelsea also in the frame, it is clear the race for the Brazilian international is heating up fast. Photo IMAGO Impressive Return at Brighton Pedro has delivered an exceptional debut campaign since his £30 million switch from Watford in May 2023, a club-record deal for Brighton. He registered 20 goals in 40 matches across all competitions — a healthy return that justifies Brighton's valuation. Advertisement Of those, ten came in the Premier League, with the remainder split between the FA Cup and Europa League. It's a statistic that not only showcases his finishing ability but also highlights his capacity to perform across competitions and under different pressures. As Newcastle search for a consistent attacking threat to complement Alexander Isak, Pedro offers both depth and dynamism. Discipline and Determination in Focus Yet Pedro's season wasn't without turbulence. 'During a clash against Brentford in December, Pedro avoided a red card despite attempting to elbow an opponent.' The moment revealed a volatile edge to his character, although VAR intervention kept him on the pitch. His frustrations continued in April, when he was handed a three-match ban after lashing out at Brentford's Nathan Collins. Further controversy came when he missed the final two matches of the season due to a training ground spat with Jan Paul van Hecke. 'With Joao we had a small issue in training, a type which isn't uncommon from time to time in all football clubs,' confirmed Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler. While Hurzeler insisted the matter had been resolved internally, questions remain about Pedro's temperament under pressure. Brazilian Brotherhood on Tyneside Should Pedro join Newcastle, he would become the club's third Brazilian star alongside Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes. The chemistry between those players could be crucial in bedding Pedro into the squad and maintaining morale. With Newcastle also preparing for European football, depth in quality and character will be vital. Advertisement This transfer saga may still have twists ahead. Brighton know they hold a strong negotiating hand with three years left on Pedro's contract and interest from multiple clubs. But Newcastle's intent appears genuine and unwavering. If they meet the Seagulls' valuation, Pedro could well be donning black and white stripes before pre-season concludes. Our View – EPL Index Analysis There's a growing sense of anticipation on Tyneside. Joao Pedro is the kind of versatile, energetic forward this team has lacked when key players have been sidelined. His ability to operate anywhere across the front three gives Eddie Howe new options, particularly in tight matches where tactical flexibility is everything. Yes, the price tag is steep at £70 million, but Brighton paid £30 million and have doubled his value in just one season. That sort of leap tells you all you need to know about Pedro's development. The numbers speak loudly: 20 goals in 40 games is a top-tier return in English football, especially for a player adjusting to a new system and higher expectations. Advertisement There are concerns about temperament, of course. The incident with Brentford and the fallout with a teammate won't have gone unnoticed by Newcastle's hierarchy. But if the club can harness that fire and turn it into drive on the pitch, Pedro could thrive in the cauldron of St James' Park. With Joelinton and Bruno already flying the Brazilian flag in the North East, Pedro would be walking into a dressing room where he'd be welcomed and understood. We say go for it — and go big.
Times
an hour ago
- Business
- Times
Meet the glamlords: the couple keeping creativity alive
There are slum landlords, and there are glam landlords. Geoffrey Pope, 90, and Christopher Ryan, 82, fall firmly into the latter category. When I meet the couple in their Brighton coach house, it feels like I am walking into a cross between the Liberace museum and the Old Curiosity Shop. Filled with gold cherubs, chandeliers, baroque mirrors, candelabra, leopard print, Chinese screens, china dogs, Roman busts and mirror balls, it's surely Brighton's most glamorous home. At ten o'clock on a Friday morning, it seems entirely appropriate when Ryan offers me a glass of champagne. 'You can tell we're not minimalistic,' Ryan says, wearing big cherry-red glasses that Dame Edna would have coveted, and a polka dot blouse. 'It's just a modest humble abode.' 'There should be a touch of theatre in everything,' Pope adds. Their decor may have hints of Marie Antoinette, but they're far from ruthless. Not only are they glamorous landlords, they're also generous. Round the corner from their coach house they own a mews, comprising Victorian stables with 12 workshops and a one-bedroom flat. The couple rent to creatives, at below market rent, and over the past ten years they've only raised the rent once. During Covid they told tenants, 'Pay us what you can.' At a time when artists are being priced out of cities, and are losing affordable workspace, the couple are providing a lifeline. The average commercial rent has risen 39.71 per cent in five years in Brighton, according to the estate agency Knight Frank; the average residential rent has risen 44 per cent in the past ten years, according to Hamptons. 'Our idea is that if you look after people, and you're a good landlord, they'll be loyal to you. It's a harmonious situation,' Pope says. 'I love to see them getting on. You have to give people a leg-up.' One of the beneficiaries of their largesse is Kate Jenkins. In the 1990s Jenkins, 53, a knitwear designer, was renting a studio in Hoxton, east London. 'And then all of sudden there was a dotcom boom, my rent tripled, and I remember thinking, I'm going to have to find something else to do.' Jenkins ended up in Brighton, and in 2004 she walked past the mews and saw a 'for rent' sign. She has been renting a workshop from the couple ever since, and in 2014 moved into their mews flat. Jenkins has been the linchpin when it comes to recruiting fellow creatives to rent in the mews. Before the artists arrived, the couple were having trouble with their tenants. 'We've had a few conmen,' Ryan says. The couple bought the coach house in 1989 for £220,000 after selling their Brighton antiques shop, Follies, which they lived above. The coach house was a garage with a flat on top and they converted it into a three-bedroom house. As part of the deal they also bought the mews. In the beginning the couple rented the workshops to a motley crew of car mechanics, electricians, spare parts dealers and, unbeknown to them, a prostitute who ran a brothel. 'We had a spate of terrible tenants,' Pope says. 'One chap was a Walter Mitty type, and he owed us £35,000 when he left. People came and went. We've had to take people to court and get bailiffs.' The couple hoped that the rental income would be their pension, but many workshops sat empty. 'That was 1989, and we hit the recession,' Ryan says. 'Everyone was holding on by their fingernails. Geoff said we're going to have to get back into business, because we weren't earning anything.' • Read more expert advice on property, interiors and home improvement The couple had run pubs together. They met in London 60 years ago — Ryan was the first male hairdresser in Peter Jones department store, Pope worked in window display at a men's suit shop in Soho — before opening a pub in Wiltshire, then Chichester and then a restaurant in Arundel, West Sussex. They moved to Brighton in 1983. In 1992 they bought Brighton's Regency Tavern and created a popular venue with a curious USP — a pub with camp decor that also served real ale ('we were open to everyone, from mink coats to overalls,' Ryan says). The couple sold it in 2004, the same year that Jenkins arrived in the mews, attracting a stream of creatives, including Julie Nelson, a ceramicist, Bip-Art, a printmaker and workshop, East Side Print, the framer and gallerist Thomas Rainsford and an artisanal coffee roaster. 'From our experience the creatives are less trouble as tenants,' Ryan says. 'It just seems to work better.' These are tough times for artists. One in three British ones doubt that they will be able to continue to work professionally in five years' time, according to a 2023 survey by Acme, an arts charity. Jenkins says many of her contemporaries have been priced out of the city. 'There's nowhere for creatives to go. It's really sad.' • Priced-out, stressed-out creatives are fleeing London for Glasgow Jenkins pays £780 a month inclusive for her 700 sq ft studio. By contrast, her artist friend who couldn't find space in town pays £1,550 plus VAT for a similar-sized studio in Portslade, about five miles from Brighton centre. Pope and Ryan don't regret missing out on thousands of pounds of rent. 'Happiness is more important,' Pope says. 'Knowing you've helped people along. I mean, I don't want to sound like a goody two-shoes. I'm not. I'm a businessman too, but I'm not a hard-headed businessman.' The couple, who married in 2015, paid off their mortgage long ago. 'We're earning enough to make our life comfortable,' Ryan says. 'It sounds very Mary Poppins but we're not greedy. Better to have these tenants on the regular than all the rubbish we had before with people doing runners.' The tenants know how lucky they are — few ever leave. 'There's zero affordable space in Brighton,' says Cath Bristow from East Side Print. 'Without the rent we pay, we wouldn't be able to survive.' Helen Brown from Bip-Art agrees. 'Brighton has always been an artistic community, so if everyone is priced out it becomes a soulless place,' she says. 'We're blessed to have landlords who want to create an artists' community, rather than just taking the highest bidder. They know how much effort is required to run a business. In their lives they've had their nose to the grindstone, they've got their hands dirty.' • Why private landlords are quitting the rental sector Indeed, at the couple's first pub in Wiltshire in 1969 there were no flushing lavatories, only buckets in garden sheds, and it was Ryan's job to empty them every Saturday night. 'If you knew what we've had to do in our lives,' Pope says. There are benefits for the couple too in having created this harmonious community in their golden years. Jenkins says: 'Everyone in the mews always keeps a lookout to see if Chris and Geoff are OK, although they are such a young couple in their approach to life they often seem younger than us.' The mews has a family atmosphere. Pope and Ryan check on the progress of the artists; every year they all get together for Christmas dinner. The couple have proudly watched Jenkins's career grow from knitwear to food-themed knitted artwork, including a full English breakfast made entirely from wool. She has exhibited in London, New York, Hong Kong and Germany. 'It gives me a thrill to know that people like Kate are succeeding,' Pope says. 'I feel proud. She could be like a daughter.' Jenkins says the mews has transformed her life. 'I would not have been able to achieve what I've done without this place. There have been times when I've had no money and they've helped me out by saying, don't worry, pay me next month. It's all those little things that have helped me become established.' Jenkins and her partner, Mo, who ships vinyl records, moved into the mews's one residential flat in 2014. Pope and Ryan insisted on interviewing him first. 'It was almost like he was meeting my parents, or asking for my hand in marriage,' Jenkins recalls. 'Mo was so nervous.' Pope thinks of the mews as his family, Ryan says. 'Geoff is very emotionally involved. He worries about what's going to happen to them if he dies.' The tenants too are worried that a new landlord will not be so benevolent. Jenkins says: 'We don't talk about [the future]. It's the elephant in the room. They're such great landlords and we're so lucky.' The couple say what sets them apart from most landlords is that their tenants are their neighbours; they have a vested interest in keeping them sweet. Do they think all landlords should follow their lead? 'If you're a hard-headed landlord, you're going to be that and you can't change what you are,' Pope says. 'But I think you go through life and you learn. You have to have humanity. Knowing how to treat people as you'd want to be treated yourself. That's my motto.' Landlords of Britain, take note.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- General
- The Guardian
What's missing from the perfect child-friendly summer? Generous public spaces
There's nothing like a boiling hot summer with an energetic small child to make you acutely aware of the need for outdoor space. We are lucky to have a garden, albeit an overgrown one that isn't exactly child-friendly, so, like many parents, we mostly rely on public space in order for him to play and get the huge amount of exercise he needs. And, if you are able-bodied, there's nothing like having a child to make you look at public spaces differently. Steps instead of ramps. A lack of benches on which to feed a baby, or give a toddler their snack. No shade. No access to toilets or changing tables. Nowhere to fill up a water bottle. No fences or gates dividing pedestrianised space from a busy road, or a deep body of water, or myriad other hazards. These are just some of the things that start to matter. Before your eyes, the urban environment becomes transformed and often inhospitable. Things such as locked playgrounds (I'm looking at you, Camden council – Falkland Place playground has been closed for literally months at this point) have the potential to ruin your morning. In a heatwave, broken splash pads and locked paddling pools (most recent personal disappointments include Brighton and Leamington Spa) feel like acts of particular cruelty. It's no wonder, then, that the privatised 'public' spaces that have become common across cities, all of which share a certain slick homogeneity, start to feel appealing. Before I had a child, I disliked the new development at Coal Drops Yard in London's King's Cross. Walking around it when it reopened, it felt cold and dystopian. That, though, was before the people arrived. Now it feels safe, lively and vibrant, full of children shrieking with delight as they run in and out of the Granary Square fountains. It's a child-friendly space that isn't child-dominated: from the food market to the outdoor cinema to the students practising dances and drinking tinnies by the canal, it feels happily communal. But in the UK, actual public, child-friendly space, as opposed to 'pseudo-public space' created from private investment, such as the King's Cross redevelopment, is very much a postcode lottery. The first play fountains I ever encountered – in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester, which had been redesigned ahead of the Commonwealth Games in 2002 – used to be fantastic, but for years now this has been an area dogged by antisocial behaviour. Promises of redevelopment have stalled because of budgeting issues. The city deserves better. As temperatures increase, we should look to the continent for inspiration. Although I hoped that the increased focus on public space during the pandemic would result in more pedestrianised areas containing outdoor seating and greater investment in outdoor spaces, that hasn't always materialised. We may never have the weather, or national temperament, that turns us into the sort of society that revolves around a piazza, but the Spanish and Italian models for public space and how they integrate children's play with adult socialising, such as those lovely shaded playgrounds fringed with bar and cafe tables that have so impressed tourists they have become a social media phenomenon, are inspiring. To an extent, they exist that way because there's a recognition that the middle of the day is too hot for kids to play outside, and so the evenings become a time for everyone, with spaces blurred between adult drinking and dining, and children's play and exercise. That is increasingly becoming the case here, too. It feels as though it's becoming more common to see children in the playground until quite late in the evening, so why not start to incorporate urban design around the adults who care for them? I am not one of those people who thinks that everything is better in other countries. Just today I was reading the comments under a video about Italian children crashing out late at night in their prams while the grownups socialised. The now-adults were reflecting on how much, as children, they disliked that, how they didn't actually want to play out in the piazza until midnight, they just wanted a nice, quiet bed to lie in. Meanwhile, I'm doing my son's bedtime routine at 7pm when it's still light outside. Surely there has to be a middle ground, a public space that caters to both adults and children during the light evenings that feels safe and inclusive? After all, heatwaves are only going to get more and more common. Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist and author. Her Republic of Parenthood book will be published this summer
The Sun
3 hours ago
- The Sun
Missing woman's remains wash up on popular UK beach 140 miles away from where she vanished 8 months ago
A MISSING mum's remains have been found on a beach in Brighton - eight months after she vanished 140 miles away. Anne Potter was last seen leaving her home in Jersey in October last year and was believed to be heading towards Greve De Lecq. Her disappearance led to a major search involving multiple agencies, including coastguard, fire crews and lifeboat teams. Det Ch Insp Mark Hafey, who led the investigation for Jersey Police, said: "Remains were located on a beach in Brighton which have now been confirmed as a DNA match with Anne. "Our thoughts are with her husband, family, and friends."
