History of Brighton
Encyclopedia
The overall history of Brighton
is that of an ancient fishing village which emerged as a health resort in the 18th century and grew into one of the largest towns in England
by the 20th century.
of the name of Brighton lies in the Old English
Beorhthelmes tūn (Beorhthelm's farmstead). This name has evolved through Bristelmestune (1086), Brichtelmeston (1198), Brighthelmeston (1493) and Brighthelmston (1816). Brighton came into common use in the early 19th century.
, near Brighton Marina
are an unusual outcropping of palaeolithic Coombe Rock, revealing in section a paleocliff cut into Cretaceous Chalk. These rocks were formerly known as the "Elephant Beds" in reference to the fossilized material recovered by geologists and palaeontologists. 200,000 years ago the beach was significantly higher and this clear strata
can be observed preserved in the cliff. Protohumans (assumed to be the same species of hominid found at the Neander Valley
) hunted various animals including mammoth
along the shore. The preservation of this raised beach and associated evidence of a coastal paleolandscape has led to protected status for the cliff. This section can be seen directly behind the car-park of supermarket
Asda
.
is an early Neolithic
causewayed enclosure
c.3500
BC. The centre is some way towards the transmitter on the south side of Manor Road (which bisects the enclosure), opposite the Brighton Racecourse
grandstand. Archaeological enquiry (by the Curwens in the 1930s and English Heritage in the 1990s) have determined four concentric circles of ditches and mounds, broken or "causewayed" in many places. Significant vestiges of the mounds remain and their arc can be traced by eye.
The building of a new housing estate in the early 1990s over the south-eastern portion of the enclosure damaged the archaeology and caused the loss of the ancient panoramic view.
The fate of a neolithic long barrow at Waldegrave Road is recorded. It was used as hardcore during the building of Balfour Road and workmen were regularly disturbed by the concentrations of human remains poking through their foundations.
More of pre-historic Brighton and Hove can be seen just north of the small retail park on Old Shoreham Road, built in the late 1990s over the site of Brighton's football ground
. Here one can visit The Goldstone. This is believed to have been ceremonial, and there are suggestions that it, together with now-vanished stones, may have formed an ancient circle. In the early 19th century a local farmer, fed up with romantic tourists, had the largest stone buried. It was exhumed in 1900.
After a scholarly review, the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity noted, "there are a concentration of Beaker
burials on the fringes of the central chalklands around Brighton, and a later cluster of Early and Middle Bronze Age
'rich graves' in the same area."
An important pre-Roman
site is Hollingbury Camp. Commanding panoramic views over the city, this Celt
ic Iron Age
encampment is circumscribed by substantial earthwork outer walls with a diameter of approximately 300 metres. It is one of numerous hillforts found across southern Britain. Cissbury Ring
, roughly 10 miles (16.1 km) from Hollingbury, is suggested to have been the tribal "capital".
there was a stream running along what is now London Road. The villa was sited more or less at the water's edge, immediately south of Preston Park. The villa was excavated in the 1930s, prior to the building of a garage on the site. Numerous artefacts were found, as well as the foundations of the building. Locals remember that the garage owner had a small display of Roman statues and brooches on a shelf behind the till.
In Brighton museum, within the new Brighton and Hove Archaeological Society display (Autumn 2006), one can view two Roman figurines unearthed from the Brighton Roman Villa. In Stanmer Park, to the north of the city, is believed by the Society to have been a Roman temple.
A Roman road
leads from Shoreham-by-Sea
through Hove
to Brighton, where it turns and leads north to Hassocks
, a Roman industrial centre. No significant Roman settlement has been found in Brighton or Hove. However the presence of the Roman roads, the high number of Roman artifacts, and significant changes in geography (due to sedimentation and erosion) could mean that any possible settlement is either buried or may have been washed away by the sea.
Despite the Romano-British
construction of numerous shore forts along the south coast (significant extant examples can be visited at Portsmouth
to the West and Pevensey
to the East) the battle to ward off Saxon
raiders was eventually lost after the official withdrawal of Roman resources in AD 410.
, King William I
conferred the barony of Lewes
to his son-in-law William de Warenne
. The Domesday Book
of 1086 contains the first documentary evidence of a settlement on the modern site of Brighton. Located in the rape of Lewes and in the Welesmere hundred, the settlement was made up of three manors, the first being described as Bristelmestune.
The 12th century font in Brighton's old parish church of St Nicholas
is described by Pevsner
as "the best piece of Norman carving in Sussex".
St Peter's Church
at Preston Village, Brighton
, currently under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust
, is 14th century. A medieval fresco depicting the murder of Thomas Beckett was discovered under paint following a fire in the early 20th century. The fresco is among the oldest art in Brighton. Two elm trees in the grounds of Preston Manor
are the oldest English elms in the world. They are thought to be c.850 years old.
St Andrew's Church, the former parish church of Hove, has a 13th century nave. The exterior is entirely 19th century, or later. St Bartholomew's Priory stood on the site of the present town hall. A small dispatchment of Cluniacs
established the monastery
submitting themselves to a regular life under the Rule of St Benedict
.
granted market rights to the village and the right to hold an annual fair on the eve, day and morrow of St. Bartholomew 23rd,24,25 August.
This map is the earliest known picture of Brighton. It shows a site laid out in a rectangular shape about a quarter of a mile square. The lower town of houses on the foreshore can be seen with a series of sloping ways rising eastwards up the cliff. Middle Street came into existence during the 16th century and West Street, North Street and East Street were fully developed by the 16th century. However the interior between Middle Street and East Street remained undeveloped and was known as the Hempshares.
The lower town on the foreshore suffered from sea erosion. In 1665 there were 113 houses out of a former 135. However as only 24 of these houses paid Hearth Tax in that year, it is suspected that many of these dwellings were mere hovels.
Deryk Carver, a brewer from Black Lion Street, was arrested by the Sheriff, Edward Gage, for contradicting the dictats of state religion. Their readings were in English and they rejected the authority of the Roman Catholic Church
and its continuing role as an instrument of state power. Carver and others were dispatched for trial in London
and ultimately executed at the county town of Lewes
. Carver was stood in a barrel of pitch and burned alive.
After his defeat at the Battle of Worcester
, Charles II
escaped
to France through Brighton and finally Shoreham-by-Sea. This event is remembered annually by the Royal Escape yacht race, now organised by Sussex Yacht Club.
The tomb of the boat-owner who was instrumental in the escape of Charles II, Nicholas Tettersell, is to be seen in St Nicholas churchyard, Brighton.
However this period of relative prosperity was followed by a slow decline into the 18th century due to a fall in the demand for fish and sea erosion. The Great Storm of 1703
caused considerable damage to the town. Daniel Defoe
reported that the storm:
A second storm in 1705 destroyed the lower town and covered the wreckage of the houses with shingle. The fortifications of the west cliff were destroyed in 1748. Proposed sea defences at a cost of £8,000 were described by Defoe as "more than the whole town was worth". By the mid-18th century the population had fallen to 2,000
of Lewes began to prescribe the medicinal use of seawater at Brighthelmstone for his patients. He wrote a tract advocating the drinking of seawater and sea bathing
in 1750. In 1753 he erected a large house on the southern side of the Steine for his own and patients' accommodation.
In 1758, Dr. John Awsiter, another prominent local doctor, also wrote a paper advocating drinking seawater and seabathing.
Still another local doctor, Anthony Relhan
(ca. 1715–1776) published a tract in 1761 advocating the consumption of mineral waters and sea-bathing. This increased interest in the use of the local mineral waters for drinking and bathing. By 1769 the cornerstone of the Brighton Baths was laid.
After Dr Russell's death in 1759, his house was let to seasonal visitors including the brother of George III the Duke of Cumberland in 1771. On 7 September 1783 the Prince of Wales, (later the Prince Regent
, visited his uncle, whose taste for gaming and high life matched his own. The Prince's subsequent patronage of the town for the next forty years was central to the rapid growth of the town and the transition of the fishing village of Brighthelmston to the modern town of Brighton. Rex Whistler
's famous cheeky satire The Prince Regent Awakens the Spirit of Brighton is on view at the Brighton Pavilion.
Currently enjoying restoration, Marlborough House
on the Old Steine was built by Robert Adam
in 1765 and purchased shortly afterwards by the fourth duke
. By 1780, development of the Georgian terraces that characterise the classic Brighton streetscape had started, and the town quickly became the fashionable resort of Brighton. The growth of the town was further encouraged when, in 1786, the young Prince of Wales, later the Prince Regant and George IV
, rented a farmhouse in order to make a public demonstration of his new-found fiscal sobriety. He spent much of his leisure time in the town, where he set up a discreet establishment for his mistress Mrs Fitzherbert and constructed the exotic Royal Pavilion, which is the town's best-known landmark. The Kemp Town
estate (at the heart of the Kemptown
district) was constructed between 1823 and 1855, and is a good example of Regency architecture
.
of 1829, the Grand Hotel
of 1864, and the Metropole Hotel of 1890.
Gideon Algernon Mantell lived on the Steine close to the seafront in the early part of the nineteenth century; his residency is commemorated on a plaque at the house. Mantell identified the iguanadon from a fossilised tooth found locally and was an early theorist of a prehistoric age when the earth was ruled by giant lizards.
Brighton came to be of importance to the railway industry after the building of the Brighton railway works
in 1840. This brought Brighton within the reach of day-trippers from London, who flocked to peep at Queen Victoria, whose growing family were constrained for space in the Royal Pavilion; in 1845 she purchased the land for Osborne House
in the Isle of Wight and left Brighton permanently. In 1850 the Pavilion was sold to the Corporation of Brighton.
In 1859 the municipal Brighton School of Art was founded, which became part of Brighton Polytechnic as the Faculty of Art and Design and is now the Faculty of Arts and Architecture
of the University of Brighton
.
In the latter half of the 19th century a large number of churches were built in Brighton. This was in large part due to the efforts of Reverend Arthur Douglas Wagner, a prominent figure in the Anglo-Catholic movement of the time. He is thought to have spent his entire fortune on building a number of churches including St. Bartholomew's
— an imposing red brick building, built to the size and proportions of the biblical ark. Other notable Victorian
churches in Brighton include the Parish Church of St. Michael and All Angels
, which has stained glass windows by the pre-Raphaelites, William Morris
, Edward Burne-Jones
, Ford Madox Brown
and Philip Webb
.
for India
n soldiers with a total of 724 beds. It admitted a total of 4,306 patients. From 20 April 1916 until 21 July 1919, the Pavilion was designated the Pavilion General Hospital (for limbless men) and admitted 6,085 patients. The 2nd Eastern General Hospital occupied the boys' grammar school, elementary schools and the workhouse. Brighton was the location of the Third Australian Hospital and also the first hospital in Britain for shell shock
cases. During the war 233 London, Brighton and South Coast Railway ambulance trains carried 30,070 patients to Brighton.
In June 1916 the sound of the guns firing at the Battle of the Somme were heard on the Brighton College
playing field during cricket.
The Brighton War Memorial in Old Steine was unveiled by Earl Beatty
on 7 October 1922 bearing the names of 2,597 men and 3 women of the town who died in military service.
The Chattri is a memorial to the Indian soldiers who died at the Royal Pavilion hospital. It is situated on the Downs to the north of Patcham on the outskirts of the town. It is an octagonal monument built on the place of cremation and was unveiled by the Prince of Wales
on 1 February 1921.
upper classes. The growth in mass tourism stimulated numerous Brighton businesses to serve visitors. Pubs and restaurants are abundant. An important post-war development was the 1961 founding of the University of Sussex
, designed by Sir Basil Spence
. The University acquired a strong academic reputation, and a certain reputation for radicalism. Brighton, with its vibrant cultural scene, is hard to imagine without the thousands of students from Sussex and Brighton Polytechnic, which was given the name University of Brighton
in 1992, but with its early roots in the Victorian-era Brighton School of Art.
Other post-war developments radically changed the centre of Brighton, in the name of creating much needed low-cost local housing. An example is the virtual replacement of Richmond Street to make way for tower block
s in the vicinity. A notable feature of this area was a fence at the junction of the present Elmore Road and Richmond Street which once stopped carts from running away down the steep hill.
In the same area of the town there have been further developments, with student accommodation at the bottom of Southover Street being built in the early 1990s near the site of the Phoenix Brewery. An adjacent housing association
development at the bottom of Albion Hill, behind the Phoenix Gallery, incorporates the houses once known as "The Peoples State of Trumpton" which was first squatted by Martin and Suzie Cowley in an effort to halt the demolition of the cottages, one being the smallest cottage in Brighton, it was twinned with The Peoples State of Chigley which was a squatted area in Brigg in Humberside, formerly a long-term squatted
dwelling, its colourful appearance much in fitting with the area's Bohemian demographic. The Peoples State of Trumpton arose alongside the politics of the Brighton Justice?
movement and the creation of a social space in a nearby squatted former courthouse.
The period of the 1970s and '80s saw much of the town becoming somewhat dilapidated. At the same time, a major investment was being made into the Brighton Marina
, which encountered stiff opposition from many local people. Opposition to the way the town was being run was also voiced by the semi-anarchist newspaper Brighton Voice
. The seafront, in particular, was much less developed than today. There was notorious sub-standard rental accommodation run by slum
landlords. High levels of unemployment in the central districts led to a strong unemployed counter-culture involving squatting, drugs and summer festivals, very much at odds with the mainstream population. Whilst a minority of the population, they had a strong and visible presence, often with brightly dyed hair or dreadlocks, and were overtly political, vocal in their hatred of the Margaret Thatcher
government.
This period is punctuated by a natural phenomenon: the Great Storm of 1987. The Level and Steine were decimated by this event with many great elm
trees lost. The Pavilion and the Church of St. Peter suffered substantial damage.
Embassy Court
is one of the most unusual buildings on the seafront at Brighton and Hove, although the reasons for this have differed over the years. When built in 1935, designed by architect Wells Coates
, the building contrasted sharply with the more sedate and ornamental architecture of King's Road, and was suggested as a prototype for a proposed total redevelopment. However, by the 1990s the structure drew comment because of the state of its decay. The building made the local press after chunks of render and windows fell from the building onto the street below, and it appeared until recently that it might suffer the same ignominious fate met by the nearby West Pier
, which all but succumbed to the elements and suspected arsonists in early 2004. Eventually this fate was avoided: a consortium formed by residents and owners were able to wrestle the freehold of the building from the then management company, and restoration began in 2004, being completed by autumn 2005.
Social change during the 20th Century has seen many of the 19th Century townhouses converted to flats, along with the mews buildings which once served many of them.
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
is that of an ancient fishing village which emerged as a health resort in the 18th century and grew into one of the largest towns in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
by the 20th century.
Etymology
The etymologyEtymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
of the name of Brighton lies in the Old English
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
Beorhthelmes tūn (Beorhthelm's farmstead). This name has evolved through Bristelmestune (1086), Brichtelmeston (1198), Brighthelmeston (1493) and Brighthelmston (1816). Brighton came into common use in the early 19th century.
Palaeolithic
The western section of the cliffs at Black RockBlack Rock (Brighton and Hove)
Black Rock is an area of wasteland located near Brighton Marina in the city of Brighton and Hove.-History:From at least the early 19th Century , Black Rock was the site of an inn and a few houses overlooking cliffs to the east of the then town of Brighton....
, near Brighton Marina
Brighton Marina
Brighton Marina is an artificial marina situated in Brighton, England. The construction of the marina itself took place between 1971 and 1979, although developments within it have continued ever since. The marina covers an area of approximately...
are an unusual outcropping of palaeolithic Coombe Rock, revealing in section a paleocliff cut into Cretaceous Chalk. These rocks were formerly known as the "Elephant Beds" in reference to the fossilized material recovered by geologists and palaeontologists. 200,000 years ago the beach was significantly higher and this clear strata
Stratum
In geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguish it from other layers...
can be observed preserved in the cliff. Protohumans (assumed to be the same species of hominid found at the Neander Valley
Neanderthal, Germany
The Neandertal is a small valley of the river Düssel in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, located about east of Düsseldorf, the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia. The valley belongs to the area of the towns Erkrath and Mettmann...
) hunted various animals including mammoth
Mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...
along the shore. The preservation of this raised beach and associated evidence of a coastal paleolandscape has led to protected status for the cliff. This section can be seen directly behind the car-park of supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
Asda
Asda
Asda Stores Ltd is a British supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, general merchandise, toys and financial services. It also has a mobile telephone network, , Asda Mobile...
.
Pre-Roman period
Whitehawk CampWhitehawk Camp
Whitehawk Camp is one of the earliest signs of human habitation in Brighton and Hove, Sussex, England. It is the remains of a Neolithic causewayed camp inhabited sometime around 2700 BCE and is a scheduled ancient monument...
is an early Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
causewayed enclosure
Causewayed enclosure
A causewayed enclosure is a type of large prehistoric earthwork common to the early Neolithic in Europe. More than 100 examples are recorded in France and 70 in England, while further sites are known in Scandinavia, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Ireland and Slovakia.The term "causewayed enclosure" is...
c.3500
35th century BC
The 35th century BC in the Near East sees the gradual transition from the Chalcolithic to the Early Bronze Age. Proto-writing enters transitional stage, developing towards writing proper...
BC. The centre is some way towards the transmitter on the south side of Manor Road (which bisects the enclosure), opposite the Brighton Racecourse
Brighton Racecourse
Brighton Racecourse is a horse racing course at Brighton, East Sussex in England, for flat races of up to about one and a half miles. The course is one of three courses in Britain which is not a circuit and forms a figure like three sides of a square, sloping, with wide left-hand turns and an...
grandstand. Archaeological enquiry (by the Curwens in the 1930s and English Heritage in the 1990s) have determined four concentric circles of ditches and mounds, broken or "causewayed" in many places. Significant vestiges of the mounds remain and their arc can be traced by eye.
The building of a new housing estate in the early 1990s over the south-eastern portion of the enclosure damaged the archaeology and caused the loss of the ancient panoramic view.
The fate of a neolithic long barrow at Waldegrave Road is recorded. It was used as hardcore during the building of Balfour Road and workmen were regularly disturbed by the concentrations of human remains poking through their foundations.
More of pre-historic Brighton and Hove can be seen just north of the small retail park on Old Shoreham Road, built in the late 1990s over the site of Brighton's football ground
Goldstone Ground
The Goldstone Ground was a football stadium and home ground of Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. between 1902 and 1997. The club currently plays at American Express Community Stadium, a stadium on the outskirts of the city, following the move from their temporary stadium in the Brighton suburb of...
. Here one can visit The Goldstone. This is believed to have been ceremonial, and there are suggestions that it, together with now-vanished stones, may have formed an ancient circle. In the early 19th century a local farmer, fed up with romantic tourists, had the largest stone buried. It was exhumed in 1900.
After a scholarly review, the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity noted, "there are a concentration of Beaker
Beaker culture
The Bell-Beaker culture , ca. 2400 – 1800 BC, is the term for a widely scattered cultural phenomenon of prehistoric western Europe starting in the late Neolithic or Chalcolithic running into the early Bronze Age...
burials on the fringes of the central chalklands around Brighton, and a later cluster of Early and Middle Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
'rich graves' in the same area."
An important pre-Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
site is Hollingbury Camp. Commanding panoramic views over the city, this Celt
Celt
The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
ic Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
encampment is circumscribed by substantial earthwork outer walls with a diameter of approximately 300 metres. It is one of numerous hillforts found across southern Britain. Cissbury Ring
Cissbury Ring
Cissbury Ring is a hill fort on the South Downs, in the borough of Worthing, and about from its town centre, in the English county of West Sussex.-Hill fort:...
, roughly 10 miles (16.1 km) from Hollingbury, is suggested to have been the tribal "capital".
Roman occupation
The Romans built villas throughout Sussex, including a villa at Brighton. At the time of its construction in the late 1st or 2nd century ADAnno Domini
and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....
there was a stream running along what is now London Road. The villa was sited more or less at the water's edge, immediately south of Preston Park. The villa was excavated in the 1930s, prior to the building of a garage on the site. Numerous artefacts were found, as well as the foundations of the building. Locals remember that the garage owner had a small display of Roman statues and brooches on a shelf behind the till.
In Brighton museum, within the new Brighton and Hove Archaeological Society display (Autumn 2006), one can view two Roman figurines unearthed from the Brighton Roman Villa. In Stanmer Park, to the north of the city, is believed by the Society to have been a Roman temple.
A Roman road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
leads from Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea is a small town, port and seaside resort in West Sussex, England. Shoreham-by-Sea railway station is located less than a mile from the town centre and London Gatwick Airport is away...
through Hove
Hove
Hove is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a single conurbation together with Brighton and some smaller towns and villages running along the coast...
to Brighton, where it turns and leads north to Hassocks
Hassocks
Hassocks is a large village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. Its name is believed to derive from the tufts of grass found in the surrounding fields....
, a Roman industrial centre. No significant Roman settlement has been found in Brighton or Hove. However the presence of the Roman roads, the high number of Roman artifacts, and significant changes in geography (due to sedimentation and erosion) could mean that any possible settlement is either buried or may have been washed away by the sea.
Despite the Romano-British
Romano-British
Romano-British culture describes the culture that arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest of AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a people of Celtic language and...
construction of numerous shore forts along the south coast (significant extant examples can be visited at Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
to the West and Pevensey
Pevensey
Pevensey is a village and civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. The main village is located 5 miles north-east of Eastbourne, one mile inland from Pevensey Bay. The settlement of Pevensey Bay forms part of the parish.-Geography:The village of Pevensey is located on...
to the East) the battle to ward off Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
raiders was eventually lost after the official withdrawal of Roman resources in AD 410.
Saxons and a non-literate culture
A Saxon burial area has been excavated around the Seven Dials area.Middle Ages
After the Norman conquestNorman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
, King William I
William I of England
William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...
conferred the barony of Lewes
Lewes
Lewes is the county town of East Sussex, England and historically of all of Sussex. It is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district. The settlement has a history as a bridging point and as a market town, and today as a communications hub and tourist-oriented town...
to his son-in-law William de Warenne
William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey
William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, Seigneur de Varennes is one of the very few proven Companions of William the Conqueror known to have fought at the Battle of Hastings in 1066...
. The Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
of 1086 contains the first documentary evidence of a settlement on the modern site of Brighton. Located in the rape of Lewes and in the Welesmere hundred, the settlement was made up of three manors, the first being described as Bristelmestune.
The 12th century font in Brighton's old parish church of St Nicholas
St Nicholas' Church, Brighton
The Church of Saint Nicholas of Myra, usually known as St. Nicholas Church, is an Anglican church in Brighton, England. It is both the original parish church of Brighton and the oldest surviving building in Brighton. It is located on high ground at the junction of Church Street and Dyke Road in...
is described by Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
as "the best piece of Norman carving in Sussex".
St Peter's Church
St Peter's Church, Preston Village, Brighton
St Peter's Church is a former Anglican church in the Preston Village area of Brighton, in the English city of Brighton and Hove. The 13th-century building, standing on the site of two older churches, was restored in the late 19th century and again after a serious fire in 1906...
at Preston Village, Brighton
Preston Village, Brighton
Preston Village is a suburban area of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex to the north of the centre. Originally a village in its own right, it was eventually absorbed into Brighton with the development of the farmland owned by the local Stanford family, officially becoming a parish of the town in 1928...
, currently under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust
Churches Conservation Trust
The Churches Conservation Trust, which was initially known as the Redundant Churches Fund, is a charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk, those that have been made redundant by the Church of England. The Trust was established by the Pastoral Measure of 1968...
, is 14th century. A medieval fresco depicting the murder of Thomas Beckett was discovered under paint following a fire in the early 20th century. The fresco is among the oldest art in Brighton. Two elm trees in the grounds of Preston Manor
Preston Manor, Brighton
Preston Manor is the former manor house of the ancient Sussex village of Preston, now part of the coastal city of Brighton and Hove, England. The present building dates mostly from 1738, when Lord of the manor Thomas Western rebuilt the original 13th-century structure , and 1905 when Charles...
are the oldest English elms in the world. They are thought to be c.850 years old.
St Andrew's Church, the former parish church of Hove, has a 13th century nave. The exterior is entirely 19th century, or later. St Bartholomew's Priory stood on the site of the present town hall. A small dispatchment of Cluniacs
Cluniac Reforms
The Cluniac Reforms were a series of changes within medieval monasticism of West focused on restoring the traditional monastic life, encouraging art, and caring for the poor. The movement is named for the Abbey of Cluny in Burgundy, where it started within the Benedictine order. The reforms were...
established the monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
submitting themselves to a regular life under the Rule of St Benedict
Rule of St Benedict
The Rule of Saint Benedict is a book of precepts written by St. Benedict of Nursia for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. Since about the 7th century it has also been adopted by communities of women...
.
14th Century
In 1312 King Edward IIEdward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...
granted market rights to the village and the right to hold an annual fair on the eve, day and morrow of St. Bartholomew 23rd,24,25 August.
16th and 17th centuries
In June 1514, the fishing village (by then known as Brighthelmstone) was burnt to the ground by the French as part of a war which began as a result of the Treaty of Westminster (1511). Subsequently in 1545 the residents of the town petitioned the monarch for defensive cannon. Their petition featured an illustrated map showing the French raid, a copy of which can be seen in Hove Museum.This map is the earliest known picture of Brighton. It shows a site laid out in a rectangular shape about a quarter of a mile square. The lower town of houses on the foreshore can be seen with a series of sloping ways rising eastwards up the cliff. Middle Street came into existence during the 16th century and West Street, North Street and East Street were fully developed by the 16th century. However the interior between Middle Street and East Street remained undeveloped and was known as the Hempshares.
The lower town on the foreshore suffered from sea erosion. In 1665 there were 113 houses out of a former 135. However as only 24 of these houses paid Hearth Tax in that year, it is suspected that many of these dwellings were mere hovels.
Deryk Carver, a brewer from Black Lion Street, was arrested by the Sheriff, Edward Gage, for contradicting the dictats of state religion. Their readings were in English and they rejected the authority of the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
and its continuing role as an instrument of state power. Carver and others were dispatched for trial in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and ultimately executed at the county town of Lewes
Lewes
Lewes is the county town of East Sussex, England and historically of all of Sussex. It is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district. The settlement has a history as a bridging point and as a market town, and today as a communications hub and tourist-oriented town...
. Carver was stood in a barrel of pitch and burned alive.
Battle of Worcester
The Battle of Worcester took place on 3 September 1651 at Worcester, England and was the final battle of the English Civil War. Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarians defeated the Royalist, predominantly Scottish, forces of King Charles II...
, Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
escaped
Escape of Charles II
The Escape of Charles II from England in 1651 is a key episode in his life. Although it took only six weeks, it had a major effect on his attitudes for the rest of his life.-The fugitive king:...
to France through Brighton and finally Shoreham-by-Sea. This event is remembered annually by the Royal Escape yacht race, now organised by Sussex Yacht Club.
The tomb of the boat-owner who was instrumental in the escape of Charles II, Nicholas Tettersell, is to be seen in St Nicholas churchyard, Brighton.
18th century decline and later prosperity
By the 1640s Brighthelmstone had a population of over 4,000 and was the largest settlement in Sussex. Its economy was dominated by the fishing industry.However this period of relative prosperity was followed by a slow decline into the 18th century due to a fall in the demand for fish and sea erosion. The Great Storm of 1703
Great Storm of 1703
The Great Storm of 1703 was the most severe storm or natural disaster ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain. It affected southern England and the English Channel in the Kingdom of Great Britain...
caused considerable damage to the town. Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...
reported that the storm:
A second storm in 1705 destroyed the lower town and covered the wreckage of the houses with shingle. The fortifications of the west cliff were destroyed in 1748. Proposed sea defences at a cost of £8,000 were described by Defoe as "more than the whole town was worth". By the mid-18th century the population had fallen to 2,000
Health resort and Royal patronage in the late 18th century
During the 1730s, Dr Richard RussellRichard Russell (doctor)
Richard Russell was an 18th century British Physician who encouraged his patients to use a form of water therapy that involved the submersion or bathing in, and drinking of, seawater...
of Lewes began to prescribe the medicinal use of seawater at Brighthelmstone for his patients. He wrote a tract advocating the drinking of seawater and sea bathing
Sea bathing
Sea bathing is swimming in the sea or in sea water and a sea bath is a protective enclosure for sea bathing. Unlike bathing in a swimming pool, which is generally done for pleasure or exercise purposes, sea bathing was once thought to have curative or therapeutic value. It arose from the medieval...
in 1750. In 1753 he erected a large house on the southern side of the Steine for his own and patients' accommodation.
In 1758, Dr. John Awsiter, another prominent local doctor, also wrote a paper advocating drinking seawater and seabathing.
Still another local doctor, Anthony Relhan
Anthony Relhan
Dr. Anthony Relhan was a medical doctor and fellow of the King and Queen's College of Physicians of Ireland, notable for writing a history of Brighton, and for promoting the drinking of mineral water.-Life:...
(ca. 1715–1776) published a tract in 1761 advocating the consumption of mineral waters and sea-bathing. This increased interest in the use of the local mineral waters for drinking and bathing. By 1769 the cornerstone of the Brighton Baths was laid.
After Dr Russell's death in 1759, his house was let to seasonal visitors including the brother of George III the Duke of Cumberland in 1771. On 7 September 1783 the Prince of Wales, (later the Prince Regent
Prince Regent
A prince regent is a prince who rules a monarchy as regent instead of a monarch, e.g., due to the Sovereign's incapacity or absence ....
, visited his uncle, whose taste for gaming and high life matched his own. The Prince's subsequent patronage of the town for the next forty years was central to the rapid growth of the town and the transition of the fishing village of Brighthelmston to the modern town of Brighton. Rex Whistler
Rex Whistler
Reginald John 'Rex' Whistler was a British artist, designer and illustrator.-Biography:Rex Whistler was born in Eltham, Kent, the son of Henry and Helen Frances Mary Whistler...
's famous cheeky satire The Prince Regent Awakens the Spirit of Brighton is on view at the Brighton Pavilion.
Currently enjoying restoration, Marlborough House
Marlborough House, Brighton
Marlborough House is a mansion in Brighton on the south coast of England. It is a Grade I listed building. Located at 54 Old Steine, it was built as a red brick building circa 1765 for Samuel Shergold, a local hotelier...
on the Old Steine was built by Robert Adam
Robert Adam
Robert Adam was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him...
in 1765 and purchased shortly afterwards by the fourth duke
George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough
George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough KG, PC, FRS , styled Marquess of Blandford until 1758, was a British courtier and politician...
. By 1780, development of the Georgian terraces that characterise the classic Brighton streetscape had started, and the town quickly became the fashionable resort of Brighton. The growth of the town was further encouraged when, in 1786, the young Prince of Wales, later the Prince Regant and George IV
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
, rented a farmhouse in order to make a public demonstration of his new-found fiscal sobriety. He spent much of his leisure time in the town, where he set up a discreet establishment for his mistress Mrs Fitzherbert and constructed the exotic Royal Pavilion, which is the town's best-known landmark. The Kemp Town
Kemp Town
Kemp Town is a 19th Century residential estate in the east of Brighton in East Sussex, England, UK. Kemp Town was conceived and financed by Thomas Read Kemp. It has given its name to the larger Kemptown region of Brighton....
estate (at the heart of the Kemptown
Kemptown
Kemptown is a small community running along the King's Cliff to Black Rock in the east of Brighton, East Sussex, England.-History:The area takes its name from Thomas Read Kemp's Kemp Town residential estate of the early 19th Century, but the one-word name now refers to an area larger than the...
district) was constructed between 1823 and 1855, and is a good example of Regency architecture
Regency architecture
The Regency style of architecture refers primarily to buildings built in Britain during the period in the early 19th century when George IV was Prince Regent, and also to later buildings following the same style...
.
Nineteenth century
Brighton's popularity with the rich, famous, and royal continued in the 19th century, and saw the building of a number of imposing seafront hotels, including the Bedford HotelBedford Hotel (Brighton)
The Bedford Hotel was a hotel on the seafront in Brighton, England which has subsequently been renamed the Holiday Inn Brighton after becoming a part of the Holiday Inn business.-History:...
of 1829, the Grand Hotel
Grand Hotel (Brighton)
The Grand Hotel is a Victorian hotel in Brighton on the south coast of England. It is located on Kings Road, the main carriageway along the seafront; one of several major hotels along this road. Following the fashion to include a hotel's parent company in its name, it is also known as the De Vere...
of 1864, and the Metropole Hotel of 1890.
Gideon Algernon Mantell lived on the Steine close to the seafront in the early part of the nineteenth century; his residency is commemorated on a plaque at the house. Mantell identified the iguanadon from a fossilised tooth found locally and was an early theorist of a prehistoric age when the earth was ruled by giant lizards.
Brighton came to be of importance to the railway industry after the building of the Brighton railway works
Brighton railway works
Brighton railway works was one of the earliest railway-owned locomotive repair works, founded in 1840 by the London and Brighton Railway in Brighton, England, and thus pre-dating the more famous railway works at Crewe, Doncaster and Swindon...
in 1840. This brought Brighton within the reach of day-trippers from London, who flocked to peep at Queen Victoria, whose growing family were constrained for space in the Royal Pavilion; in 1845 she purchased the land for Osborne House
Osborne House
Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat....
in the Isle of Wight and left Brighton permanently. In 1850 the Pavilion was sold to the Corporation of Brighton.
In 1859 the municipal Brighton School of Art was founded, which became part of Brighton Polytechnic as the Faculty of Art and Design and is now the Faculty of Arts and Architecture
Faculty of Arts and Architecture (University of Brighton)
The Faculty of Arts in the University of Brighton is a centre of education in the creative arts, architecture, design and humanities. In 2009 it took its new name, replacing the former Faculty of Arts & Architecture, embracing new subject areas from departments in Literature, Languages and...
of the University of Brighton
University of Brighton
The University of Brighton is an English university of the United Kingdom, with a community of over 23,000 students and 2,600 staff based on campuses in Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings. It has one of the best teaching quality ratings in the UK and a strong research record, factors which...
.
In the latter half of the 19th century a large number of churches were built in Brighton. This was in large part due to the efforts of Reverend Arthur Douglas Wagner, a prominent figure in the Anglo-Catholic movement of the time. He is thought to have spent his entire fortune on building a number of churches including St. Bartholomew's
St Bartholomew's Church, Brighton
St Bartholomew's Church, dedicated to the apostle Bartholomew, is an Anglican church in Brighton, England. The neo-gothic building is located on Ann Street, on a sloping site between Brighton railway station and the A23 London Road, adjacent to the New England Quarter development...
— an imposing red brick building, built to the size and proportions of the biblical ark. Other notable Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
churches in Brighton include the Parish Church of St. Michael and All Angels
St Michael's Church, Brighton
St. Michael's Church is an Anglican church in Brighton, England, dating from the mid-Victorian era. Located on Victoria Road in the Montpelier area, to the east of Montpelier Road, it is one of the largest churches in the city of Brighton and Hove...
, which has stained glass windows by the pre-Raphaelites, William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
, Edward Burne-Jones
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company...
, Ford Madox Brown
Ford Madox Brown
Ford Madox Brown was an English painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his most notable painting was Work...
and Philip Webb
Philip Webb
Another Philip Webb — Philip Edward Webb was the architect son of leading architect Sir Aston Webb. Along with his brother, Maurice, he assisted his father towards the end of his career....
.
First World War
Between 1 December 1914 and 15 February 1916 the Royal Pavilion was used as a military hospitalMilitary hospital
Military hospital is a hospital, which is generally located on a military base and is reserved for the use of military personnel, their dependents or other authorized users....
for India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n soldiers with a total of 724 beds. It admitted a total of 4,306 patients. From 20 April 1916 until 21 July 1919, the Pavilion was designated the Pavilion General Hospital (for limbless men) and admitted 6,085 patients. The 2nd Eastern General Hospital occupied the boys' grammar school, elementary schools and the workhouse. Brighton was the location of the Third Australian Hospital and also the first hospital in Britain for shell shock
Shell Shock
Shell Shock, also known as 82nd Marines Attack was a 1964 film by B-movie director John Hayes. The film takes place in Italy during World War II, and tells the story of a sergeant with his group of soldiers....
cases. During the war 233 London, Brighton and South Coast Railway ambulance trains carried 30,070 patients to Brighton.
In June 1916 the sound of the guns firing at the Battle of the Somme were heard on the Brighton College
Brighton College
Brighton College is an institution divided between a Senior School known simply as Brighton College, the Prep School and the Pre-Prep School. All of these schools are co-educational independent schools in Brighton, England, sited immediately next to each another. The Senior School caters for...
playing field during cricket.
The Brighton War Memorial in Old Steine was unveiled by Earl Beatty
David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty
Admiral of the Fleet David Richard Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO was an admiral in the Royal Navy...
on 7 October 1922 bearing the names of 2,597 men and 3 women of the town who died in military service.
The Chattri is a memorial to the Indian soldiers who died at the Royal Pavilion hospital. It is situated on the Downs to the north of Patcham on the outskirts of the town. It is an octagonal monument built on the place of cremation and was unveiled by the Prince of Wales
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...
on 1 February 1921.
Post-war 20th Century
In many ways, Brighton's post-war growth has been a continuation of the "fashionable Brighton" which drew the GeorgianGeorgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
upper classes. The growth in mass tourism stimulated numerous Brighton businesses to serve visitors. Pubs and restaurants are abundant. An important post-war development was the 1961 founding of the University of Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
, designed by Sir Basil Spence
Basil Spence
Sir Basil Urwin Spence, OM, OBE, RA was a Scottish architect, most notably associated with Coventry Cathedral in England and the Beehive in New Zealand, but also responsible for numerous other buildings in the Modernist/Brutalist style.-Training:Spence was born in Bombay, India, the son of Urwin...
. The University acquired a strong academic reputation, and a certain reputation for radicalism. Brighton, with its vibrant cultural scene, is hard to imagine without the thousands of students from Sussex and Brighton Polytechnic, which was given the name University of Brighton
University of Brighton
The University of Brighton is an English university of the United Kingdom, with a community of over 23,000 students and 2,600 staff based on campuses in Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings. It has one of the best teaching quality ratings in the UK and a strong research record, factors which...
in 1992, but with its early roots in the Victorian-era Brighton School of Art.
Other post-war developments radically changed the centre of Brighton, in the name of creating much needed low-cost local housing. An example is the virtual replacement of Richmond Street to make way for tower block
Tower block
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, office tower, apartment block, or block of flats, is a tall building or structure used as a residential and/or office building...
s in the vicinity. A notable feature of this area was a fence at the junction of the present Elmore Road and Richmond Street which once stopped carts from running away down the steep hill.
In the same area of the town there have been further developments, with student accommodation at the bottom of Southover Street being built in the early 1990s near the site of the Phoenix Brewery. An adjacent housing association
Housing association
Housing associations in the United Kingdom are independent not-for-profit bodies that provide low-cost "social housing" for people in housing need. Any trading surplus is used to maintain existing homes and to help finance new ones...
development at the bottom of Albion Hill, behind the Phoenix Gallery, incorporates the houses once known as "The Peoples State of Trumpton" which was first squatted by Martin and Suzie Cowley in an effort to halt the demolition of the cottages, one being the smallest cottage in Brighton, it was twinned with The Peoples State of Chigley which was a squatted area in Brigg in Humberside, formerly a long-term squatted
Squatting
Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....
dwelling, its colourful appearance much in fitting with the area's Bohemian demographic. The Peoples State of Trumpton arose alongside the politics of the Brighton Justice?
Justice?
Justice? was part of a direct action campaign, based in Brighton, England, arguing against a bill in the British Parliament which was to become the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994....
movement and the creation of a social space in a nearby squatted former courthouse.
The period of the 1970s and '80s saw much of the town becoming somewhat dilapidated. At the same time, a major investment was being made into the Brighton Marina
Brighton Marina
Brighton Marina is an artificial marina situated in Brighton, England. The construction of the marina itself took place between 1971 and 1979, although developments within it have continued ever since. The marina covers an area of approximately...
, which encountered stiff opposition from many local people. Opposition to the way the town was being run was also voiced by the semi-anarchist newspaper Brighton Voice
Brighton Voice
Brighton Voice was an alternative or underground newspaper published in Brighton, England in the 1970s and 1980s.-History:Brighton Voice was one of the many alternative local newspapers that sprung up in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and 1970s. With a launching statement describing its aim as...
. The seafront, in particular, was much less developed than today. There was notorious sub-standard rental accommodation run by slum
Slum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
landlords. High levels of unemployment in the central districts led to a strong unemployed counter-culture involving squatting, drugs and summer festivals, very much at odds with the mainstream population. Whilst a minority of the population, they had a strong and visible presence, often with brightly dyed hair or dreadlocks, and were overtly political, vocal in their hatred of the Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
government.
Elm
Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus Ulmus in the plant family Ulmaceae. The dozens of species are found in temperate and tropical-montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ranging southward into Indonesia. Elms are components of many kinds of natural forests...
trees lost. The Pavilion and the Church of St. Peter suffered substantial damage.
Embassy Court
Embassy Court
Embassy Court is a radical Grade II* listed residential building in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Designed by Wells Coates, it was one of the first modernist buildings to be constructed in Britain and also featured the first penthouse suite anywhere in the country...
is one of the most unusual buildings on the seafront at Brighton and Hove, although the reasons for this have differed over the years. When built in 1935, designed by architect Wells Coates
Wells Coates
Wells Wintemute Coates OBE was an architect, designer and writer. He was, for most of his life, an ex-patriate Canadian architect who is best known for his work in England...
, the building contrasted sharply with the more sedate and ornamental architecture of King's Road, and was suggested as a prototype for a proposed total redevelopment. However, by the 1990s the structure drew comment because of the state of its decay. The building made the local press after chunks of render and windows fell from the building onto the street below, and it appeared until recently that it might suffer the same ignominious fate met by the nearby West Pier
West Pier, Brighton
The West Pier is a pier in Brighton, England. It was built in 1866 by Eugenius Birch and has been closed and deteriorating since 1975, awaiting renovation...
, which all but succumbed to the elements and suspected arsonists in early 2004. Eventually this fate was avoided: a consortium formed by residents and owners were able to wrestle the freehold of the building from the then management company, and restoration began in 2004, being completed by autumn 2005.
Social change during the 20th Century has seen many of the 19th Century townhouses converted to flats, along with the mews buildings which once served many of them.
Other resources
- My Brighton and Hove: A Living History Site. http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/
- The James Gray Collection - extensive collection of old photographs (owned by the Regency Society)