A positive campaign for the local community, environment & economy. Improve the A23 through Preston Village.

200 years earlier in the same place outside the Crown & Anchor. You can see people in a village. That’s PRESTON VILLAGE.

Since the 1950’s the A23 road has dominated and Preston Village is no longer a place for people.

RENEW PRESTON VILLAGE!

Many thanks to the Regency Society for the use of this image of the Crown & Anchor in 1831.

You can see the whole of the James Gray archive at regencysociety-jamesgray.com

In 2025, people go to Fiveways for fun, Seven Dials for style and Preston Village for… Petrol?

But Preston Village punches well above its weight in terms of attractions. With the park’s calendar of events plus lawn tennis, bowls, croquet & cricket, a cycling velodrome, walled garden, Brightons oldest church, a listed Edwardian mansion, rock garden and more.

But few people stop to visit Preston Village these days.

Map of Preston Village from the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder, 1990 via mybrightonandhove.org.uk

6 lanes now dominate Preston Village, but they aren’t all needed.

Traffic engineers told our campaign ‘because there are 3 lanes to the North & South of the village, no capacity is added to the A23 by widening to 6 lanes through the village'.

So the 6 lanes don’t help traffic capacity, but does increase traffic speed, noise, air pollution, and make our village unattractive and unhealthy.