Rose Hill Tavern to become arts hub

A pub that was listed as a community asset has been bought by a Brightonian couple.

A pub that was listed as a community asset, after a bid to turn it into flats, has been bought by a Brightonian couple.

The Rose Hill Tavern, which closed last year - and saw a campaign to keep the building as a pub after a bid to develop it into flats - could now become a community arts hub.

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Nick Earee, divisional director at leisure property specialist Fleurets, confirmed this week that the building, which is just off London Road, had been sold.

The couple, who are professional musicians and artists, plan to set the Tavern up as a arts and recording studio, with flexible space for community groups.

The pub, which first opened in 1870, has seen high-court battles over its listed status, and a bid from a community group to buy it, but it has now been sold to the mystery couple - who have not been named by Fleurets.

The couple are two of 12 founders who set up an arts and music collective called Beatabet.

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In a statement, the buyers said: 'Having purchased the Rose Hill Tavern we are keen to set up art studios and a recording studio in the cellar of the Rose Hill Tavern and the ground floor we will keep as flexible space for a variety of creative and community uses for instance, we run a regular extended artists residency programme in France and would like a space in the UK to run some of those activities.

'We would like to put on events, exhibitions, performances, live music and community activities. We would run a variety of creative work shops.

'We are concerned that some of the more interesting and influential arts and music spaces have disappeared in the Brighton area over the last decade and we would like to help to stop this trend by creating a new hub. We belong to an extended local network of artists, musicians, photographers, creative work shop leaders and performers and we would like to set up a space that can help contribute to the configuration of the London Road area.'