Overview
Brighton, together with its neighbour Hove, is the largest town in Sussex, with a population of around 250,000. Before 1783 and the decisive arrival of the Prince of Wales, few outside the area had heard of the fishing village of Brighthelmstone. The town seen today is largely a creation of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Archaeological work suggests habitation began around 3000 BC, with Neolithic communities possibly practising cannibalism. Significant Iron Age encampments once crowned the nearby South Downs, upon whose slopes Brighton now lies.
After the Roman withdrawal, South Saxons settled the region, giving Sussex its name. Their economy centred on fishing and hemp cultivation for nets. The parish church of St Nicholas stood outside the village, which was overshadowed in importance by Rottingdean, Preston and Shoreham.
Following the Norman Conquest, Brighthelmstone became part of land granted to William de Warenne, who built Lewes Castle and the Cluniac Priory of St Pancras. Sussex was strategically important as the Normans’ first major foothold in England. The county was divided into administrative “rapes,” each with a castle—Arundel being the best preserved today.
Brighthelmstone escaped early French raids during the Hundred Years’ War, but in 1514 it was burned in retaliation for an English attack on Boulogne.
Religious tensions shaped Sussex’s identity. Protestant ideas from the Low Countries took root, and after Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, anti-clerical feeling grew. During Queen Mary’s persecutions (1555–1557), 26 men were burned at Lewes, including Brighton’s Derek Carver.
In 1651, after defeat at Worcester, the future Charles II fled south. He was secretly transported to France by Nicholas Tattersell of Shoreham for £200—a large sum at the time. Charles almost certainly spent the preceding night in Brighton, chosen for its obscurity.
Brighton’s transformation began in 1750 when Dr Russell published a treatise promoting sea-water as a cure for glandular diseases. Moving his practice to the Old Steine, he attracted aristocratic visitors seeking health cures.
The Duke of Cumberland introduced his nephew, George, Prince of Wales, to Brighthelmstone in 1783. George fell immediately in love with the place. Smaller, prettier and less corrupt than Bath, and delightfully obscure, Brighton provided the perfect retreat for the pleasure-loving prince.
Finding no suitable accommodation, George leased a farmhouse before purchasing nearby land. In 1787 he commissioned Henry Holland to create the first Marine Pavilion, a turreted, castellated residence. After receiving Chinese silks and wallpapers from a diplomatic mission to China, he ordered the Pavilion’s interiors redecorated in an exotic “Chinese taste.”
As Britain expanded its empire in India, “Hindu” architectural styles briefly became fashionable. The first example in Brighton was the Stables Complex (1806–8), now the Dome Concert Hall and Corn Exchange. The extravagant comfort of the stables reportedly made the Prince jealous.
Humphrey Repton produced the first plans for turning the Pavilion into an Indo-oriental palace, but the Napoleonic Wars delayed progress. (The news of Trafalgar reached Brighton before London.) After Waterloo, work resumed under the Prince’s favourite architect, John Nash, who also designed Marble Arch, the Buckingham Palace façade and Regent Street.
The completed Pavilion was Indian on the outside and Chinese within, constructed with a pioneering iron frame covered in early concrete. Its domes were copper-clad, its Music and Banqueting Rooms decorated with enamelled fish-scale patterns, and its kitchen—designed for the famously gluttonous prince—was the finest in Europe. The great chef Carême even worked here.
The Pavilion divided opinion. The unpopular George IV was mocked along with his palace—Hazlitt dismissed it as “a collection of pumpkins and pepper pots,” while one cleric joked that St Paul’s Cathedral had “come to Brighton and pup’d.”
George’s declining health kept him away after 1826. William IV added gates, but Queen Victoria detested the Pavilion, considering it vulgar and too public. She sold it to the town in 1850 for £50,000—far below the cost of building it—and stripped the interiors of most furnishings.
Brighton grew rapidly regardless of royal favour. Its population rose from about 4,000 before 1800 to more than 100,000 by 1901. Much of the town beyond the seafront is Victorian. A religious revival in the late 19th century led to many fine churches, including St Peter’s, the first commission of Sir Charles Barry.
After World War I Black era glamour faded and the town became popular with wealthier newcomers, including the Sassoon family. Fearing unchecked development, the council established a protective Green Belt in the 1920s–30s. The darker side of the interwar years appears in Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock and Hamilton’s The West Pier.
WWII threatened Brighton directly; parts of the South Coast were evacuated and many seafront mansions deteriorated. In 1941, as Hitler considered invasion, locals—including elderly WWI veterans—formed Home Guard defence units.
Post-war, Brighton embraced youth culture earlier than most towns. By the 1950s–60s, rock’n’roll, scooters, motorbikes, arcades and the infamous rivalry between Mods and Rockers defined local identity. The 1964 Bank Holiday riots became legendary, immortalised in The Who’s Quadrophenia.
The University of Sussex was founded in 1961 on preserved Downland. Notable visitors have included Dr Johnson, Dickens, Lewis Carroll, Thackeray and Edward VII. Residents have included Rowland Hill (inventor of the postage stamp) and Rudyard Kipling.
A Walk Around “The Lanes”
The Lanes preserve the layout of the original medieval village. Begin in East Street, opposite Walter Gillett/Sussex Stationers.
At “Al Forno,” point out the fishwife’s cottage—traditionally associated with Martha Gunn, Brighton’s famous bathing-machine operator and friend of the Prince Regent.
Continue past English’s Seafood Restaurant, whose sign quotes Alice in Wonderland, recalling Lewis Carroll’s visits. Proceed into Brighton Place and toward the Pump House, notable for its black mathematical tiling.
Walk past the Druid’s Head (a rare survivor of the 1514 French burning), into Brighton Square, then through the short alleyway on the left. Continue past the Bath Arms and turn into Union Street, noting the Elim Tabernacle, rebuilt in 1810.
At Prince Albert and Black Lion Streets, stop at The Cricketers—one of Brighton’s most famous pubs with a coaching-yard entrance. Next door is the Derek Carver pub, named for the Protestant martyr.
Proceed down Black Lion Lane to Ship Street Gardens, noting the 200-year-old fig tree. Continue to Middle Street, once the town’s central axis, until reaching King’s Road and the seafront.
From here, point out the Palace Pier (1899) and the closed West Pier. Highlight historic hotels: The Ship (1670), The Ramada, and The Grand—damaged by the 1984 IRA bombing. End the tour at the Town Hall, built in the form of a Greek cross.
Fans of Quadrophenia may appreciate the alley behind Choyls Restaurant where a scene from the film was shot.