History
The North Street area and Phoenix Industrial Estate, although neglected today, played a crucial role in the history of Lewes and wider Sussex. It was home to the Phoenix Ironworks, established on the site by John Every in 1861. At its peak, it comprised multiple workshops and foundry buildings, supplying railings, bandstands and decorative ironwork across the county and beyond. In more recent years, the site played host to much of Lewes’s creative community, with art studios, a theatre and music venues on the site.

The site was marked for potential redevelopment in the early 2000s, resulting in a series of failed proposals, including the plans by investment fund Santon for the North Street Quarter. At the same time, a group of local people established Lewes Phoenix Rising with the aim of making sure that the plans being developed were consistent with the town’s needs for more affordable housing and workspace. A fire broke out in 2014, accelerating the site’s decline.

The neighbourhood centre
The Foundry Yards will be the civic heart of the Phoenix. Built around two industrial heritage structures, the Every Hall and the Foundry Workshops, this pedestrianised square will be built around a community canteen, co-working and creative makers’ space, a new events and music space and, through arches in the flood wall, to the river front.

The Phoenix will embrace its position at the edge of the Ouse, opening up the riverfront to Lewes: a river walk will run the length of the Phoenix, connecting to Willeys Bridge in the north and the Causeway Foreshore Park to the south. It will widen in the centre, where elevated gardens, the Belvedere, will provide a place to sit and take in views of the river and Downs. Here it will connect to a new pedestrian bridge across the Ouse to Malling.