Scope
Reference
BHCC - 038719
Description
The Royal Pavilion Estate is the city of Brighton & Hove's cultural heart and the Royal Pavilion is an internationally recognised emblem. Uniquely combining an historic Royal Palace and Regency Garden, a museum & art gallery, and three performing arts spaces, the two custodians of the Estate Brighton & Hove Museums (B&HM) and Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival (BD&BF) are coming together with BHCC in a cross-cultural partnership to reinvigorate and reconnect this historic Estate through the implementation of an estate-wide masterplan. This project relates to Phase Two of the masterplan for the Royal Pavilion Estate (Phase One was the refurbishment of the Corn Exchange).
The Royal Pavilion Garden comprises 3.3ha of paths, lawns, shrubberies, garden beds and ancient trees. Importantly it comprises the setting and is the access point, for the Royal Pavilion and Brighton Museum & Art Gallery.
Presently, the garden is a partially restored John Nash designed Regency Garden (listed Grade II). It has recently been placed on Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register (HARR) due to its deteriorating condition which is a result of overuse, antisocial behaviour and lack of investment.
The Royal Pavilion Estate contains many historic listed buildings and features:
- Royal Pavilion Garden (Grade II)
- Royal Pavilion (Grade I)
- Brighton Museum & Art Gallery (Grade II*)
- Brighton Dome Theatre (Grade I)
- Corn Exchange (Grade II)
- Northgate House (Grade II*)
- India Gate (Grade II)
- William IV Gate (Grade II*)
- 19 William IV Lamp posts (Grade II)
Following successful completion of the development phase funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project partners BHCC & B&HM have jointly secured £6.2M from the National Lottery Heritage Fund with roughly 60% allocated to the capital works project to re redevelop the estate. This notice relates to the Capital works only.
The approved designs focus on the conservation and improvement of the garden to enhance environmental sustainability and to attract a wider range of people and ensuring there are more opportunities for use and community involvement.
The planned capital works consist of:
- New visitor and community facilities including a new public toilet facility with changing places, outdoor learning space, benches and bins.
- Extensive landscaping improvements including path widening and entrance improvements.
- Restoration of historic planting designs.
- Restoration of historic fixtures such as perimeter railings and lamp columns.
- New physical interpretation and wayfinding
Our key priorities are to:
- Deliver high quality and visually engaging spaces in this highly public and well loved public space in the centre of Brighton
- Connect the Royal Estate, creating a sense of arrival
- Minimise disruption to the site whilst delivering the works, to enable the Trust relies on visitors to maintain the viability of the site.
The tender process is a competitive flexible procedure consisting of at least two stages; a shortlisting stage and a full tender stage.
The shortlisting stage is released with this notice with full tender release in February 2026. The planned site handover should then go-ahead late summer, early autumn 2026.
Total value (estimated)
- £3,600,000 excluding VAT
- £4,320,000 including VAT
Below the relevant threshold
Contract dates (estimated)
- 6 July 2026 to 24 August 2027
- 1 year, 1 month, 19 days
Main procurement category
Works
CPV classifications
- 45000000 - Construction work
Contract locations
- UKJ - South East (England)
Submission
Tender submission deadline
13 November 2025, 12:00pm
Submission address and any special instructions
Submissions must be received through the SE shared services e-procurement portal available on the following link:
Tenders may be submitted electronically
Yes
Award criteria
The stage 1 shortlisting exercise will consist of the procurement specific questionnaire and a quality response against criteria described in the Invitation to Tender Document. This stage will shortlist to a maximum of 5 contractors.
The stage 2 criteria will be based on price and quality the details of which will be released with the stage 2 shortlisting.
The stage 3 criteria is based on the outcome of stage 2 and will be a price only value engineering exercise.
Procedure
Procedure type
Below threshold - open competition
Contracting authority
Brighton and Hove City Council
- Public Procurement Organisation Number: PNNH-3312-CQGT
Hove Town Hall, Norton Road
Hove
BN3 3BQ
United Kingdom
Region: UKJ21 - Brighton and Hove
Organisation type: Public authority - sub-central government