Narrow Victorian terraces behind the station carry shopfronts painted a different colour from their neighbour, with no national chain signage in sight.
What North Laine looks like
North Laine's streets form a tight grid behind , most of them closed to traffic. and are lined with shops painted in a different colour from their neighbour, black fascias with gold lettering beside pale blue and teal fronts, with bunting and hand painted signs hung between the lamp posts. No shopfront here shows a national chain's branding.
The buildings behind them are two and three storeys, lower than the taller buildings on the main roads around the grid. Most date from the 1800s to the 1850s, with Bond Street's south side going up in the 1740s and Sydney Street built between 1848 and 1853. Fronts are painted stucco render, white or pale pastel colours by long tradition, with brick and the local flint and brick mix called bungaroosh on some streets.
On , the building line sits hard against the pavement edge, with small front gardens or basement lightwells rather than a front yard. is the one street still open to cars, its north side built in the 1820s and its south side in the 1840s. Gardner Street looks north to , a bold brick building that rises clear of the surrounding roofs.
The pub on Church Street dates from 1848. Brighton railway station sits on the grid's northern edge. Upper Gardner Street still runs its Saturday market, stalls set up along the same paving as the permanent shopfronts.
Shot in North Laine
ITV's Grace shot its first series on Sydney Street and returned for its fourth to dress a real shop at the corner of Trafalgar Lane and Gloucester Road as Daly's Vintage Emporium. The corner unit is Julian Stephens Goldsmith the rest of the year.
Grace, Series 1 (2021)
Actor John Simm was seen filming on Sydney Street in September 2020. The street's independent takeaways, boutiques, bakeries and a florist line both sides of it. Shop owners were asked to remove any pandemic signage so the street could stand in for the show's usual pre pandemic world. Street View
What North Laine can double for
Lark Lane in Liverpool, England
Two storey Victorian terraces line Lark Lane in Aigburth, almost every ground floor given over to an independent shop or cafe rather than a chain. The scale and the ratio of shopfronts to upstairs windows is close to North Laine's own streets. The brick fronts read warmer and more uniform than North Laine's painted stucco, so a production matching the colour needs to dress or grade the shopfronts. Try searching independent shops Victorian terraces now.
Camden Passage in Islington, London
Camden Passage runs as a pedestrian lane of independent antique dealers and boutiques behind Upper Street, the same hidden grid behind a high street that North Laine keeps behind the railway station. Its buildings go back to 1767, older than North Laine's Victorian terraces, so door cases and window proportions need checking before a strict period match. Already car free, it needs no dressing out of modern traffic. Its shopfronts sell antiques rather than North Laine's mix of cafes and bakeries. Try searching antique dealers pedestrian lane now.
Portobello Road in Notting Hill, London
The shop parade on Portobello Road north of Chepstow Villas runs to three storeys of Victorian terrace with shopfronts on the ground floor and independent traders who repaint the fascia with every new tenant. The brightly painted houses people associate with Notting Hill sit on the residential streets just off Portobello Road rather than on the market strip itself. The extra storey and the market crowds make a wide shot on Portobello Road busier than one on North Laine, and the painted colour needs picking up from a side street rather than Portobello Road itself. Try searching independent shopfronts Victorian terrace now.
