Brighton

UK Hub

Brighton East Sussex

Approximate Population: 263,464

The Royal Pavilion is a former royal palace built as a home for the Prince Regent during the early 1800s and is notable for Indian architecture and Oriental interior design. The building and grounds were purchased by the town in 1849 for £53,000.

Brighton Pier (originally and in full “The Brighton Marine Palace and Pier”, and for long known as the Palace Pier) opened in 1899.   It features a funfair, restaurants and arcade halls.   The funfair has been criticised for its prices, with rides costing up to £8. Brightonians refer to it as Palace Pier in protest at the commercialisation.

The West Pier was built in 1866 and has been closed since 1975 awaiting renovation, which faces continual setbacks, in part because the owners of the Palace Pier, the Noble Organisation, have opposed plans.[12] The West Pier is one of only two Grade I listed piers in the United Kingdom, but suffered two fires in 2003.   Plans for a new landmark in its place – the i360, a 183m (600 ft) observation tower designed by London Eye architects Marks Barfield – were announced in June 2006. Plans were approved by the council on 11 October 2006.  As of early 2009, construction had yet to begin.

Created in 1883, Volk’s Electric Railway runs along the inland edge of the beach from Brighton Pier to Black Rock.   It is the world’s oldest operating electric railway.

UK Hub Brighton East Sussex

Hove

Hove East Sussex UK Hub

Approximate Population: 91,900

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. As part of local government reform Brighton and Hove were merged to form the borough of Brighton and Hove in 1997. In 2000 the conjoined towns officially attained city status.

The town centre received substantial renovation in the late 1990s when the popular George Street was partly pedestrianised. These small shops have recently been joined by the centre’s first large supermarket (a Tesco), built on the site of a former gasometer in what has traditionally been an area populated by small locally-owned businesses and smaller branches of national chains. Some concern about the development and its impact was expressed by residents, the local newspaper The Argus, and small locally-owned shops.

Hove is home to a number of schools, and three major places of secondary education: Cardinal Newman Catholic School, Hove Park Secondary School and Blatchington Mill Secondary School.

Brighton, Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College (BHASVIC), formerly Brighton, Hove & Sussex Grammar School, is a dedicated place of further education, along with the Connaught Centre, Hove Park Sixth Form Centre and Blatchington Mill Sixth Form College. It has around 6 primary schools: St. Andrew’s C.E. School, West Hove Junior School, Benfield Junior School, Goldstone Primary School, Hangleton Junior School, Cottesmore St Mary’s Catholic School, Mile Oak Primary School and Sommerhill Junior School.

A notable feature of Hove is the number of schools for foreign students of the English language.

Much 1950s housing redevelopment in Hove took place on the outskirts of west Hove, Hangleton and the Knoll estate. This was mostly in the form of terraced and semi-detached council housing.

Hove’s seafront and beach, particularly the area starting on the west side of Brighton’s West Pier (actually the first 300 metres are in Brighton) have recently become fashionable after some years of decline during the 20th Century. The same is certainly true of the houses of the developments mentioned above, most of which now command relatively high prices, having been in some cases very run down during the 1950s and 1960s.

Hove East Sussex UK Hub

Brighton

Brighton East Sussex UK Hub

Approximate Population: 155,919

Brighton is a town in East Sussex on the south coast of England and, with its neighbours Hove and Portslade, forms the City of Brighton and Hove.

The ancient settlement of Brighthelmston dates from before the Domesday Book (1086), but it emerged as a health resort during the 18th Century and became a destination for day-trippers after the arrival of the railway in 1841. Brighton experienced rapid population growth reaching a peak of over 160,000 by 1961. Modern Brighton forms part of a conurbation stretching along the coast, with a population of around 480,000.

Eight million tourists a year visit Brighton. The town also has a substantial business conference industry. Brighton has two universities and a medical school.

In the Domesday Book, Brighton was called Bristelmestune and a rent of 4,000 herring was established. In June 1514 Brighthelmstone was burnt to the ground by French raiders during a war between England and France. Only part of the St Nicholas Church and the street pattern of the area now known as “The Lanes” survived. The first drawing of Brighthelmstone was made in 1545 and depicts what is believed to be the raid of 1514. During the 1740s and 1750s, Dr Richard Russell of Lewes began prescribing seawater at Brighton. By 1780, development of the Georgian terraces had started and the fishing village became the fashionable resort of Brighton. Growth of the town was further encouraged by the patronage of the Prince Regent (later King George IV) after his first visit in 1783. He spent much of his leisure time in the town and constructed the Royal Pavilion during the early part of his Regency.

Brighton East Sussex UK Hub