Address | Kings Rd, Brighton. BN1 2GR |
---|---|
Location | Brighton, East Sussex, England |
Coordinates | 50°49′16″N0°08′46″W / 50.82111°N 0.14611°W |
Owner | Brighton & Hove City Council [1] |
Operator | Brighton & Hove City Council [1] |
Capacity | 4,270 (seated), 5,515 (standing) [2] |
Construction | |
Opened | 19 September 1977 |
Renovated | January 2012 |
Architect | Russell Diplock & Associates |
Website | |
www |
Brighton Centre is a conference and exhibition centre located in Brighton, England. It is the largest of its kind in southern England, [3] and is regularly used for conferences of the UK political parties and other bodies of national importance. The venue has the capacity to accommodate up to 5,000 delegates, [3] although rooms in the building can be used for weddings and banquets. [4]
It has also been used as a live music venue since it was opened by James Callaghan on 19 September 1977. [5] It was designed in a Brutalist style by architects Russell Diplock & Associates, who made extensive use of textured concrete. [6] The venue is situated in the centre of Brighton on the sea front and is within 200 metres of major hotels. In 2004, it was estimated that the centre generates £50 million in revenue for Brighton. [7]
Bing Crosby's final performance was at the Brighton Centre on 10 October 1977. He died of a heart attack four days later, while at a golf tournament in Spain. [8]
The Jacksons performed on 10 February 1979 as part of their Destiny World Tour. [9]
The Who performed on 10 and 11 November 1979 as part of their Who Are You Tour, and returned as part of their Face Dances Tour in 1981, and in 2006 as part of their Endless Wire Tour. [10]
Queen performed on 10 and 11 December 1979 as part of their Crazy Tour. [11]
Bob Marley and The Wailers performed on 8 and 9 July 1980 as part of their Uprising Tour. [12]
Between 1978 and 1995 it was the venue for the Brighton International tennis tournament, an annual event on the WTA Tour. Champions of the event included Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf.
From 29 to 30 November 1983, pop duo Wham! performed their final dates on their debut UK tour, titled Club Fantastic Tour.
On 11 December 1982, The Jam played their last gig in the Conference Room at the Brighton Centre.
From 9–15 September 1989, the Liberal Democrats held their first Liberal Democrat Conference, after the party's formation in the previous year. [13]
In 1991 and 1992, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) came to the venue as part of their 'World' and 'European Rampage Again' Tours. The promotion would return to the venue (as WWE) numerous times in the 2010s. [14]
In 2003 and 2004, it hosted the 2003 and 2004 British Open snooker, from 8–16 November.
On 17 December 2006 comedy rock duo Tenacious D performed as part of their Pick of Destiny Tour, Neil Hamburger was the opening act. [15] On 13 May 2024 they returned as part of their Spicy Meatball Tour opened by Dave Hill. [16]
In March 2003, there were proposals to demolish the centre at the end of 2005, and replace it with a new exhibition and conference centre by 2008. [17] The centre was given a £1 million renovation in 2012. [18] In November 2014, demolition proposals were made again, but these were to demolish the centre to extend the Churchill Square shopping centre, and then build a new 10,000 capacity exhibition and conference centre on derelict land near the Brighton Marina. [19] In November 2019, these plans were revisited. [20]
Brighton is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the city of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located 47 miles (76 km) south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods. The ancient settlement of "Brighthelmstone" was documented in the Domesday Book (1086). The town's importance grew in the Middle Ages as the Old Town developed, but it languished in the early modern period, affected by foreign attacks, storms, a suffering economy and a declining population. Brighton began to attract more visitors following improved road transport to London and becoming a boarding point for boats travelling to France. The town also developed in popularity as a health resort for sea bathing as a purported cure for illnesses.
Hove is a seaside resort in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove.
Tenacious D is an American comedy rock duo formed in Los Angeles in 1994 by the actors Jack Black and Kyle Gass. Their music showcases Black's theatrical vocal delivery and Gass' acoustic guitar playing. Critics have described their fusion of vulgar absurdist comedy with rock music as "mock rock". Their songs discuss the duo's purported musical and sexual prowess, their friendship and cannabis usage, in a style critics have compared with the storyteller-style lyrics of rock opera.
The West Pier is a ruined pier in Brighton, England. It was designed by Eugenius Birch and opened in 1866. It was the first pier to be Grade I listed in England but has become increasingly derelict since its closure to the public in 1975. As of 2024 only a partial metal framework remains.
The County Cricket Ground, known for sponsorship reasons as The1st Central County Ground, is a cricket venue in Hove, in the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The County Ground is the home of Sussex County Cricket Club, where most Sussex home matches since 1872 have been played, although many other grounds in Sussex have been used. Sussex CCC continue to play some of their games away from The County Ground, at either Arundel Castle or Horsham. It is one of the few county grounds to have deckchairs for spectators, in the Sussex CCC colours of blue and white, and was the first cricket ground to install permanent floodlights, for day/night cricket matches and the second ground to host a day/night match in England, in 1997.
The Brighton Palace Pier, commonly known as Brighton Pier or the Palace Pier, is a Grade II* listed pleasure pier in Brighton, England, located in the city centre opposite the Old Steine. Established in 1899, it was the third pier to be constructed in Brighton after the Royal Suspension Chain Pier and the West Pier, but is now the only one still in operation. It is managed and operated by the Eclectic Bar Group.
Brighton i360 is a 162 m (531 ft) moving observation tower on the seafront of Brighton, East Sussex, England at the landward end of the remains of the West Pier. The tower opened on 4 August 2016. From the fully enclosed viewing pod, visitors experience 360-degree views across Brighton, the South Downs and the English Channel.
Brighton Fringe is an open-access arts festival held annually in Brighton, England. It is the largest annual arts festival in England and one of the largest fringe festivals in the world. The programme of 2018 included 1008 events at over 166 venues across 4 weeks, in May and June.
The original Medina House in Hove, Sussex, was the eastern of two seafront buildings, located on either side of Sussex Road, which together comprised Hove Baths, later to become more popularly known as the Medina Baths. The western building housed the men's baths, and the eastern building housed the women's baths.
The King Alfred Leisure Centre is a leisure centre on Hove seafront in the city of Brighton and Hove in England. The complex, which includes a ballroom, sports halls and swimming pools, is owned by Brighton and Hove City Council and operated by Freedom Leisure. The centre is colloquially known by some locals as the "Devil Tower".
Embassy Court is an 11-storey block of flats on the seafront in Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It has been listed at Grade II* by English Heritage. Wells Coates' "extremely controversial" piece of Modernist architecture has "divided opinion across the city" since its completion in 1935, and continues to generate strong feelings among residents, architectural historians and conservationists.
Brighton and Hove City Centre is the commercial and cultural centre of the city of Brighton and Hove. Geographically, the so-called city centre is located in an easterly part of the Brighton and Hove urban conurbation.
Sussex Heights is a residential tower block in the centre of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built between 1966 and 1968 on the site of a historic church, it rises to 102 m (335 ft) and has 116 flats. As of August 2022, the tower is the 125th tallest building in the UK, and until 2005 it was the tallest residential tower in the UK outside of London. Until 2015, it was the tallest structure in Brighton and Hove, however it has now been exceeded by the Brighton i360, which stands at 162 metres; the tower is still Brighton and Hove's tallest builidng, as observation towers do not meet the definition of a building.
Brighton and Hove, a city on the English Channel coast in southeast England, has a large and diverse stock of buildings "unrivalled architecturally" among the country's seaside resorts. The urban area, designated a city in 2000, is made up of the formerly separate towns of Brighton and Hove, nearby villages such as Portslade, Patcham and Rottingdean, and 20th-century estates such as Moulsecoomb and Mile Oak. The conurbation was first united in 1997 as a unitary authority and has a population of about 253,000. About half of the 20,430-acre (8,270 ha) geographical area is classed as built up.
Brighton Hippodrome is an entertainment venue in Brighton, England. It was built in 1897 and closed in 2007.
Brighton Town Hall stands on Bartholomew Square in Brighton, East Sussex, England. The town hall contains a number of police cells which were in use until the 1960s, and which now form the Old Police Cells Museum. The town hall is a Grade II listed building. It was formerly the headquarters of Brighton Borough Council and is still used for some meetings of the successor Brighton and Hove City Council.
Courtenay Gate is a block of serviced apartments on the seafront in Hove, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Situated in a prominent position next to the beach and overlooking Hove Lawns, the six-storey block is Neo-Georgian in style and dates from 1934. It is in a conservation area and is a locally listed building. Built to replace a terrace of early-19th-century houses which had been demolished more than 30 years earlier, the "imposing" gault brick building has a "palatial" appearance and is a landmark on the seafront.
SEA LIFE Brighton, known originally as Brighton Aquarium and then from 1969 until 1991 as Brighton Aquarium and Dolphinarium, is an aquarium attraction in Brighton, part of the English seaside city of Brighton and Hove. Opened as Brighton Aquarium in 1872, it is the oldest continuously operating aquarium in the world, and the main tank was the largest in the world at the time. The attraction was bought by SEA LIFE in 1991.
Madeira Terrace, Madeira Walk, Madeira Lift, and Madeira Shelter Hall are an 865 m long, Victorian cast iron stretch of seafront arches and walkway, with integral former shelter hall and a 3-stage lift tower, on Madeira Drive in Brighton, UK. The complex was built between 1890 and 1897 and designed by the Brighton Borough Surveyor, Philip C. Lockwood. The various structures have a common design style and colour scheme, and form a unified whole. Madeira Terrace, Madeira Walk, the lift tower and related buildings are listed Grade II* on the National Heritage List for England, having been upgraded in 2020.