Garden entrance and hillside steps in Brighton and Hove

The job

A homeowner in Brighton and Hove wanted a new pedestrian entrance through their existing brick boundary wall. The catch was that the entrance would open directly onto a steep hillside. Their brief was simple: they liked the look of upright oak sleepers, wanted the steps to blend into the surrounding landscape and did not want a steep, conventional staircase. There were no detailed designs to work from, so the route had to be worked out with the customer in a way that met their brief and was practical to build.

What we did

We formed a new opening through the boundary wall and, once the gate had been made, installed its steel posts and completed the brickwork around them. Double-skin brick walls on either side form the approach to the steps. Because the ground beneath the steps was soft, we built a system of interconnected concrete steps reinforced with steel mesh, supported at selected points by deep concrete piles. We worked out the levels and position of each step as the design developed, so the route follows the hillside instead of taking the shortest, steepest line. Treated oak sleepers were installed upright to frame the steps. The first three steps are clad in brickwork to tie in with the new entrance walls, moving into weathering metal cladding further up the slope. The tops of the steps were finished in white screed to pick up the house and the stonework around the driveway.

Challenges

The biggest challenge was creating a natural-looking route up a steep slope without a finished design to follow. A lot of time went into setting out and levels so the steps flowed rather than feeling like a staircase. The soft ground meant the steps could not simply sit on the soil, which is why the reinforced concrete and deep supports were needed. Bringing brickwork, oak, weathering metal and white screed together also took care, with a gradual change from the formal entrance into the landscape.

The result

The work took six weeks. The customer now has a completely new pedestrian entrance leading into a run of oak sleeper steps that follow the hillside. The brick walls and first three steps give the entrance a defined start before the steps move into weathering metal, and the white screed ties everything back to the house. It is a practical route up a steep garden slope in Brighton and Hove that blends into its surroundings, just as the customer wanted, with a lot of careful construction hidden beneath the surface.