Brighton, London-by-the-Sea

Brighton is England's most famous seaside city, "London-by-the-Sea", where for more than two centuries Londoners have escaped to breathe the salt air, stroll on the pier and have fun. Eccentric, colourful, young and nonconformist, it is the city of the fanciful Indian-style Royal Pavilion built for a pleasure-loving prince, of Victorian piers with their rides, of the lanes full of independent shops in The Lanes and North Laine, of the biggest Pride celebration in the United Kingdom and of the first Green MP elected to the British Parliament. Together with neighbouring Hove it forms a city of unique character, surrounded by the hills of the South Downs National Park and the white cliffs of the Seven Sisters, under an hour by train from London and half an hour from Gatwick Airport.

Brighton at a glance

The city of Brighton and Hove, which was granted city status in 2000, has about 280,000 inhabitants and stretches for some fifteen kilometres along the English Channel coast, in the county of East Sussex. The beach is pebble, not sand, but that does not deter the crowds who fill it on sunny days. It has two universities, the University of Sussex, on the Falmer campus designed by Basil Spence, and the University of Brighton, and one of the youngest and most highly educated populations in the country. Politically it is the most progressive city in England: in 2010 the Brighton Pavilion constituency elected Caroline Lucas, the first Green Party MP at Westminster, and the seat stayed Green after she stood down in 2024. Brighton is regarded as the unofficial capital of Britain's LGBTQ+ community.

The history of Brighton

From fishing village to the fashion for sea bathing

Until the 18th century Brighton was a poor fishing village called Brighthelmstone, threatened by storms and French raids. Its fate changed around 1750, when the physician Richard Russell, from nearby Lewes, began recommending sea bathing to his wealthy patients, and even drinking sea water, as a cure for many ills. The fashion for sea bathing drew the aristocracy, and within a few decades the village turned into an elegant resort.

The Prince Regent and the Royal Pavilion

The decisive turning point came in 1783 with the first visit of the young Prince of Wales, the future George IV, a lover of pleasure, gambling and parties, who in Brighton could live away from the eyes of the court and meet his secret wife, the Catholic Maria Fitzherbert. The prince had a summer residence built there which, between 1815 and 1822, the architect John Nash transformed into the extraordinary Royal Pavilion, with onion domes and minarets inspired by Indian architecture and lavish Chinese-style interiors. Around the prince's court the town filled with elegant Regency squares and terraces, such as Regency Square, the Royal Crescent and the Brunswick Town district in Hove. Queen Victoria, who found the town too crowded and lacking in privacy, sold the palace to the town in 1850.

The railway and the Victorian piers

In 1841 the railway from London arrived, and Brighton became the destination of mass day trips: thousands of Londoners could reach the sea in a few hours and return the same day. Seafront hotels appeared, such as the Grand Hotel of 1864, and so did the piers: the West Pier, opened in 1866, and the Palace Pier, of 1899, with theatres, tea rooms and rides. In 1883 the inventor Magnus Volk opened the Volk's Electric Railway on the seafront, now the oldest operating electric railway in the world. In 1938 Graham Greene set his noir novel Brighton Rock here, depicting the city's dark side of criminal gangs and racecourses.

From the 20th century to today

In the 1960s Brighton was the scene of clashes between the youth gangs of mods and rockers, depicted in the film Quadrophenia. On 12 October 1984, during the Conservative Party conference, an IRA bomb exploded in the Grand Hotel in an attempt to kill Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was unhurt: five people died. The West Pier, closed in 1975, was destroyed by two fires in 2003 and today only its iron skeleton remains, one of the city's most photographed sights. Since the 1990s Brighton has established itself as a creative, university and digital city, and as one of the most open and tolerant places in the country.

What to see in Brighton

The Royal Pavilion

The Royal Pavilion is a building unique in Europe: from outside it looks like a Mughal palace in India, while inside the rooms are decorated with dragons, chandeliers shaped like lotus flowers, hand-painted wallpaper and bamboo furniture. The most spectacular rooms are the great Banqueting Room, with a chandelier held by a silver dragon, and the Music Room. The tour also takes in the kitchens, cutting-edge for their time. In the surrounding gardens, restored to Nash's design, are the Brighton Dome, the prince's former stables turned into a concert hall, and the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, with collections of decorative arts, fashion and design, including Salvador Dalí's famous lips sofa.

The Lanes and North Laine

The Lanes are the old heart of the city, a maze of narrow alleys, called twittens, on the layout of the old fishing village, with jewellers, antique dealers, cafés and pubs. To the north, North Laine is the bohemian district, with more than three hundred independent shops, record stores, vintage clothes, vegan cafés, street performers and colourful façades: the ideal place to soak up Brighton's alternative spirit.

The seafront and the piers

The seafront is the city's stage: people walk, cycle or skate from the Marina to Hove, past beach bars, galleries beneath the Victorian arches, beach volleyball courts and colourful huts. Brighton Palace Pier, more than 500 metres long, is the fun pier, with roller coasters, amusement arcades and stalls selling fish and chips and candyfloss. A little further west rises the British Airways i360, a 162-metre observation tower designed by the architects of the London Eye, with a glass pod that rises slowly, offering views of the coast, the South Downs and, on clear days, the Isle of Wight. Next to the pier is Sea Life Brighton, opened in 1872, the oldest operating aquarium in the world.

Hove and Kemptown

Hove, quieter and more elegant, has a seafront with lawns and colourful beach huts and the grand cream-coloured terraces of Brunswick and Adelaide Crescent. East of the centre, Kemptown is the historic heart of the gay community, with bars, restaurants and Regency houses, and leads to Brighton Marina, one of the largest marinas in Europe.

The sea and the beach

Brighton's pebble beach is several kilometres long and is free and open to all. The Channel is cool even in summer, with water temperatures rarely above 18 degrees, but the bravest Brightonians swim all year round: the Brighton Swimming Club, founded in 1860, is the oldest swimming club in England, and every morning groups of swimmers go into the water at dawn, even in January. In summer people go kayaking, paddleboarding, windsurfing and play beach volleyball, and deckchairs can be hired along the beach. One of the finest walks is the Undercliff Walk, which runs beneath the chalk cliffs from the Marina to the villages of Rottingdean and Saltdean, home to a splendid art deco lido of 1938. Before swimming it is wise to check the lifeguards' flags and water quality information, which can deteriorate after heavy rain because of sewage overflows.

An open city

Brighton has a long tradition of tolerance: as early as the 1930s it was a refuge for those who could not live openly elsewhere. Brighton Pride, held in early August, is the largest in the United Kingdom, with a parade and festival that draw hundreds of thousands of people. The city is also a laboratory of sustainable lifestyles: it has one of the highest concentrations of vegetarian and vegan restaurants in the country, second-hand markets, cooperatives and environmental initiatives. In 2002 the DJ Fatboy Slim, who lives in Brighton, drew about 250,000 people to the beach for a legendary free concert.

Eating and drinking

You eat very well and very variously in Brighton: fish and chips on the seafront is a must, but the city is also one of Britain's capitals of vegetarian and vegan food, with long-established places and creative new restaurants. The Lanes and North Laine are full of independent cafés, Hove has excellent neighbourhood restaurants and the Marina offers harbourside venues. Among the typical sweets is Brighton rock, a coloured stick of sugar with the city's name running through it. The chalk hills of Sussex produce some of the best English sparkling wines, which you can taste in the city's bars or by visiting the wineries of the South Downs. Pubs are countless, from the historic ones in The Lanes to venues with live music.

Events

May is festival month: the Brighton Festival, the largest curated multi-arts festival in England, and the Brighton Fringe, with thousands of theatre, comedy and music shows, turn the city into a huge stage, while the Great Escape music festival showcases hundreds of new bands. April brings the marathon, early August the Pride, and on the first Sunday of November the vintage cars of the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, the world's longest-running motoring event, which commemorates a run of 1896, arrive on the seafront. For the winter solstice the lantern parade of Burning the Clocks ends with a bonfire on the beach.

Living in Brighton

Brighton is one of the most sought-after cities in the country, and the prices show it: houses and rents are among the most expensive outside London, partly because many residents work in the capital and commute every day. The economy is based on tourism, the universities, the digital and creative sector, media and services. Quality of life is high for those who love culture, the sea and nature, with the South Downs minutes away, but the city also has problems of poverty, homelessness and tourist overcrowding in summer. The football club, Brighton & Hove Albion, nicknamed The Seagulls, plays at the Falmer stadium and has become one of the most surprising success stories in the Premier League in recent years, even reaching European competition.

Practical information

• Getting there: the most convenient airport is Gatwick, about half an hour away by train, with flights from many European cities. From London you arrive by train from Victoria, London Bridge or St Pancras in about an hour.
• Getting around: the centre is walkable; city buses are frequent and there is a bike-share scheme.
• When to go: from May to September for the sea and festivals; even in winter the city stays lively.
• How long to stay: a day is enough for the main sights, but two or three let you enjoy the atmosphere and a trip into the South Downs.

Day trips

• The South Downs: England's newest national park, created in 2010, with the Devil's Dyke valley a few kilometres from the city and the South Downs Way trail.
• Seven Sisters and Beachy Head: the spectacular white chalk cliffs east of the city, among the most famous images of England.
• Lewes: a delightful medieval town with a Norman castle, famous for its spectacular Bonfire Night celebrations on 5 November.
• Arundel: a small town dominated by a great medieval castle and a neo-Gothic cathedral.
• Charleston and Glyndebourne: the country home of the Bloomsbury Group artists and the celebrated summer opera festival in the Sussex countryside.

See also British cities, London and England.

Brighton on the map

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