Brighton and Hove city centre

Last updated

Brighton and Hove city centre
Brighton Dome - geograph.org.uk - 2490412.jpg
The Brighton Dome
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town BRIGHTON
Postcode district BN1
Dialling code 01273
Police Sussex
Fire East Sussex
Ambulance South East Coast
List of places
UK
England
East Sussex

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.

Contents

Culture

The Royal Pavilion Brighton Royal Pavilion.jpg
The Royal Pavilion
The Pavilion Theatre Pavilion theatre brighton.jpg
The Pavilion Theatre

The North Laine area has a network of streets dubbed the 'Cultural Quarter', so called because of its concentration of theatres, galleries and small venues. This area covers New Road, the location of the Theatre Royal, and the Brighton Dome complex which includes the Pavilion Theatre, Corn Exchange Theatre and the Dome Concert Hall. Next to this is Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. Bordering New Road and the Dome is Pavilion Gardens which is home to the Royal Pavilion, former palace residence of King George IV. Opposite New Road is Jubilee Street, a modern redevelopment containing restaurant and cafe chains. It is also the location of the Jubilee Library, the city's central library.

On the seafront is the Fishing Museum and near Brighton railway station is the Brighton Toy and Model Museum. Old Steine Gardens and St. Peter's area is a large patch of green in the city centre which is the location of a war memorial, the Frankish St. Peter's Church and art galleries: the Phoenix Gallery and the University of Brighton gallery.

Shopping

Weekend shoppers flock to the city centre during the day. Crowds fringecity 5thmay07.png
Weekend shoppers flock to the city centre during the day.

Brighton is home to hundreds of shops and is renowned[ citation needed ] for its wealth of independent shops. Most of the chain stores can be found on Western Road and Churchill Square. The other major high streets are West Street, Queens Road, North Street, East Street, Duke Street and Ship Street.

The Lanes are the centre of Brighton's old town and consist of narrow streets and alleyways. The area is home to many jewellery and antique shops.

North of the Lanes is the North Laine, both a residential and major commercial area, and the location of most of the city's independent shops. The commercial area of North Laine is centred on Trafalgar Street, Sydney Street, Gloucester Road, Kensington Gardens, North Road, Gardner Street, Church Street and Bond Street. The area is also home to small art galleries and Komedia, a theatre, bar, comedy venue and cinema. The area is also home to Jubilee Square, home of Jubilee library and a number of restaurants.

Further east of the main high streets is Kemptown, home to many gay shops and other businesses. Its main shopping thoroughfare is St. James' Street, which has many cafés and restaurants.

Amusements

Brighton Pier at sunset (November 2006) Uk BrightonPierSunset.jpg
Brighton Pier at sunset (November 2006)

Brighton Palace Pier is home to many rides and other amusements such as fortune tellers and prize winning games. Near the pier is Sea Life Brighton, an aquarium. Near the aquarium is Volk's Electric Railway, a historic electric railway, providing transport to Brighton Marina. West Street is the city's centre for nightlife as home to a number of night clubs and late-night bars.

Transport

Brighton railway station Virgin Train at Brighton.jpg
Brighton railway station
Brighton and Hove Buses run regularly throughout the city centre Brighton to Shoreham along the coast 011.jpg
Brighton and Hove Buses run regularly throughout the city centre

The city centre is well served by public transport. Brighton and Hove Buses run regularly throughout the area with stops and stations at Churchill Square, Brighton Station, the Clock Tower, North Street and the Old Steine. Buses serve as the main mode of public transport in Brighton and Hove connecting all suburbs and outer areas to the city centre.

There are major taxi ranks located in Brighton Station and East Street.

Near the Old Steine is Pool Valley Coach Station which is used for intercity travel.

Brighton Railway station serves as the city's main rail terminus and has good links to London, Gatwick Airport and the south coast. Hove railway station serves the centre of Hove and can be reached from Brighton in less than five minutes. London Road railway station is near Preston Circus. The rail network in Brighton and Hove is not as extensive as the bus network, however certain suburbs and university campus are well connected to the centre of Brighton and Hove by rail.

Councillors called for a car-free city centre plan. [1]

Accommodation

The Grand Hotel, Brighton (January 2006) Grand Hotel - Brighton - 02082004.jpg
The Grand Hotel, Brighton (January 2006)

There are numerous hotels in the city centre, some of the more notable ones include The Grand, the Hilton Metropole, the Royal Albion and the Ramada.

See also

50°49′19″N0°08′13″W / 50.822°N 0.137°W / 50.822; -0.137

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brighton</span> Seaside resort on the south coast of England

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Sussex</span> County of England

East Sussex is a ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement is the city of Brighton and Hove, and the county town is Lewes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hove</span> Seaside resort in East Sussex, England

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Street, Sydney</span> Street in Sydney, Australia

George Street is a street in the central business district of Sydney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Laine</span> Shopping and residential district in Brighton, England

North Laine is a shopping and residential district of Brighton, on the English south coast. Once a slum area, it is now seen as Brighton's bohemian and cultural quarter, with many pubs, cafés, theatres and museums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Brighton</span>

The 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transport in Brighton and Hove</span>

Public transport in Brighton and Hove, a city on the south coast of England, dates back to 1840. Brighton and Hove has a major railway station, an extensive bus service, many taxis, coach services, and it has previously had trolley buses, ferries, trams, auto rickshaws and hydrofoils.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New England Quarter</span> Mixed-use development in Brighton and Hove, England

The New England Quarter is a mixed-use development in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. It was built between 2004 and 2008 on the largest brownfield site in the city, adjacent to Brighton railway station. Most parts of the scheme have been finished, but other sections are still being built and one major aspect of the original plan was refused planning permission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clock Tower, Brighton</span> Historic site in East Sussex, England

The Clock Tower is a free-standing clock tower in the centre of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built in 1888 in commemoration of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria, the distinctive structure included innovative structural features and became a landmark in the popular and fashionable seaside resort. The city's residents "retain a nostalgic affection" for it, even though opinion is sharply divided as to the tower's architectural merit. English Heritage has listed the clock tower at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buildings and architecture of Brighton and Hove</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Steine</span> Street in Brighton

The Old Steine is a thoroughfare in Brighton city centre, East Sussex, and is the southern terminus of the A23. The southern end leads to Marine Parade, the Brighton seafront and the Palace Pier. The Old Steine is also the site of a number of City Centre bus stops for Brighton buses. The Royal Pavilion is located immediately to the north of the Old Steine.

Clayton & Black were a firm of architects and surveyors from Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. In a career spanning the Victorian, Edwardian and interwar eras, they were responsible for designing and constructing an eclectic range of buildings in the growing town of Brighton and its neighbour Hove. Their work encompassed new residential, commercial, industrial and civic buildings, shopping arcades, churches, schools, cinemas and pubs, and alterations to hotels and other buildings. Later reconstituted as Clayton, Black & Daviel, the company designed some churches in the postwar period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Pavilion Tavern</span> Historic site in Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom

The Royal Pavilion Tavern, commonly known as the Pavilion Tavern or Pav Tav and since February 2022 as The Fitz Regent, is a pub in the centre of Brighton, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Converted from a house into the Royal Pavilion Hotel in the early 19th century, its original role soon changed from a hotel to a pub, in which guise it remained until its closure in September 2019. It reopened under its new name, but still in the ownership of the Mitchells & Butlers chain, on 13 February 2022. The building was also used as a court for several years early in its history, and prominent local architect Amon Henry Wilds was responsible for its redesign as a hotel and inn. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance, and it stands within a conservation area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prestonville, Brighton</span> Suburb of Brighton, East Sussex, England

Prestonville is a largely residential area in the northwest of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It covers a long, narrow and steeply sloping ridge of land between the Brighton Main Line and Dyke Road, two major transport corridors which run north-northwestwards from the centre of Brighton. Residential development started in the 1860s and spread northwards, further from central Brighton, over the next six decades. The area is characterised by middle-class and upper-middle-class housing in various styles, small-scale commercial development and long eastward views across the city. Two Anglican churches serve Prestonville—one at each end of the area—and there are several listed buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elm Grove, Brighton</span>

Elm Grove is a mainly residential area of Brighton, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. The densely populated district lies on a steep hill northeast of the city centre and developed in the second half of the 19th century after the laying out of a major west–east road, also called Elm Grove. Terraced houses, small shops and architecturally impressive public buildings characterise the streetscape: within the area are a major hospital, two churches and a former board school, as well as Brighton's oldest council houses and an interwar council estate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Libraries in Brighton and Hove</span>

The English coastal city of Brighton and Hove has a long and varied history of libraries going back over 250 years. Subscription libraries were among the earliest buildings in the resort of Brighton, which developed in the late 18th century; by the 1780s these facilities, which were more like social clubs than conventional book-borrowing venues, were at the heart of the town's social scene. The Brighton Literary Society, its successor the Brighton Royal Literary and Scientific Institution and its rival the Sussex Scientific Institution between them established a "very fine collection" of publications by the mid-19th century, and these books were donated to the town when a public library was founded in 1871. Neighbouring Hove, originally a separate village, established its own public library in 1890.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pubs in Brighton</span>

Public houses, popularly known as pubs, are a significant feature of the history and culture of the English seaside resort of Brighton. The earliest pubs trace their history back to the 16th and 17th centuries, when present-day Brighton was a fishing village. Several coaching inns were founded in the 18th century as transport improved and communications with other towns developed, and around the same time other pubs became established in the fashionable Old Steine area in Brighton's early years as a resort. Many new pubs, originally beerhouses, were established after an Act of Parliament in 1830 loosened restrictions; two of these "Beerhouse Act" pubs remain in business. In the following decade the opening of Brighton's railway station provided another major boost to the pub trade, and by the late 19th century there were nearly 800 licensed venues in the town. Numbers declined gradually—as late as 1958 there was said to be "one pub for every day of the year"—and by the early 21st century around 300 pubs were still trading, with others having closed but surviving in alternative use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public services in Brighton and Hove</span>

Brighton and Hove, a city and unitary authority in the English county of East Sussex, has a wide range of public services funded by national government, East Sussex County Council, Brighton and Hove City Council and other public-sector bodies. Revenue to fund these services comes partly from Council Tax, which is paid annually by residents: this tax provides the city council with nearly 20% of its income and also helps to fund the local police force, Sussex Police, and the county's fire service, East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service. Some of Brighton and Hove's utilities and infrastructure are provided by outside parties, such as utility companies, rather than by the city council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brighton & Hove Breeze routes</span> Series of Brighton & Hove bus routes

Breeze is a brand name given to a group of three tourist-oriented bus routes, numbered 77, 78 and 79, operated by the Brighton & Hove bus company. The routes operate under the slogan "breeze up to the Downs and beyond" and link the city of Brighton with three popular countryside destinations within the South Downs National Park – respectively Devil's Dyke, Stanmer Village and Ditchling Beacon.

References

  1. "Car ban moves closer to reality with plans for new 'liveable city centre'". The Argus. 21 January 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2024.