Railway statioin - 1842

For me, the excitement of Brighton starts at the railway station. The train pulls into one of the most beautiful of all Victorian railway stations with the most charming curve to the platforms and roofs. As you step outside on to the road that leads to the sea, you are at once struck by the air; it has often been compared to champagne. It sparkles, it invigorates.


Railway statioin - 2003

It was for this air that the town was nicknamed Doctor Brighton, and it was the cause of its growth and fame. The eighteenth century discovered the benefits of sea bathing and sea air. Brighton was kick-started into high fashion when the Prince Regent (later George IV) decided the place had a beneficial effect on that grossly abused organ, his liver. He got the architect Nash to turn an uncomplaining little farmhouse into a charming little neo-classical palace in order to take benefit of the newly discovered benefits of sea-air.

The Pavilion

Where the prince led, society followed, and the fishing village was swiftly changed into an elegant regency town. But then the spirit of Brighton (then known as Brighthelmstone) took over. Under its influence, the Prince swiftly transformed Nash’s elegant designs into the present mock-oriental Pavilion, possibly the most excessive building ever to have been erected in the country. Its combination of raffish vulgarity and exquisite workmanship could be considered to be one of the first expressions of High Camp.

But with the next generation came change. The staid Victoria disliked the pavilion, (or was its riotous Chinoiserie too much for the sober-minded Albert?) and royalty deserted the town. It never went out of fashion, but it was a new sort of fashion, more honest perhaps. The charm of its faded glories and the practical proximity to London led to it being dubbed London-on Sea. Or less charitably Sodom-on-Sea. For it not only became noted as a place for a dirty weekend, it also attracted an artistic crowd. If Brighton can now justly lay claim to be the gay capital of the United Kingdom, then this is not merely on account of the very large number of gay and lesbian people who live here, but also because it has a long standing tradition of welcoming gay people that stretches back into the nineteenth century

Brighton now is a wonderful layer cake in which separate Brightons co-exist in harmony but independence. There is the vibrant gay city with some of the best and most popular clubs and pubs outside London; there is the seaside resort with its beaches, its pier and its Sea Life; there is the artistic city, fed by the two universities and by the long standing tradition of actors and actresses makimg their home here; there is the graceful architecture of Georgian Brighton and there is the modern vibrant city, a place of excellent shops and first class restaurants.