Patcham (ˈpætʃəm) is a suburb in the unparished area of Brighton and Hove, in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. It is about north of the city centre. It is bounded by the A27 (Brighton bypass) to the north, Hollingbury to the east and southeast, Withdean to the south and the Brighton Main Line to the west. The A23 passes through the area.
Patcham was originally a separate village that developed around the partly 12th- and 13th-century All Saints' Church. The parish of Patcham extended to and encompassed large parts of what are now adjacent suburbs, such as Withdean, Westdene, Hollingbury and Tongdean. It extended eastwards into modern-day Moulsecoomb, westwards beyond Dyke Road into Hove, and northwards across the sparsely-populated South Downs towards the parishes of Pyecombe and Ditchling. The centre of the original village, based around the church (on Church Hill) and the Old London Road – now bypassed by the modern A23 – is a conservation area, and several buildings are listed.
Sir Herbert Carden, a prominent Brighton solicitor who was mayor for three years from 1916 and served on the council from 1895 until 1941, was responsible for the boundary changes on 1 April 1928 which brought Patcham within the "Greater Brighton" area. To commemorate this, two large stone pillars, known as the "Pylons", were erected on the A23 just north of the village of Patcham, marking the new boundary line. The land around the village was mostly undeveloped at this time, but many houses were later built. Many of the estates built around the old village date from the 1930s. The Ladies Mile Estate, built around the former drove road from the village to Stanmer Park, is an example; it is separated from Hollingbury to the southeast by Carden Avenue, named after Sir Herbert.
The roads around the Mackie Avenue estate (all with Scottish names) were named by the Scottish builder George Ferguson who developed the estate. He also planted the Scots pines on the Ladies Mile Open Space.
In 1921 the parish had a population of 1768.
