Brighton

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brighton
Coordinates 50 ° 49 ′  N , 0 ° 8 ′  W Coordinates: 50 ° 49 ′  N , 0 ° 8 ′  W
OS National Grid TQ315065
Brighton (England)
Brighton
Brighton
Residents 273,400 (as of:)
surface 82.67 km² (31.92  mi² )
Population density: 3307 inhabitants per km²
administration
Post town BRIGHTON
prefix + 44- (0) 1273
Part of the country England
Ceremonial county East Sussex
Unitary authority Brighton and Hove
Website: www.brighton-hove.gov.uk

Brighton [ bɹaɪtn ] is a city on the coast of the English Channel, in the county of East Sussex . Together with the immediately adjacent Hove, it forms the Unitary Authority Brighton and Hove . The city is the largest and most famous seaside resort in the United Kingdom .

history

Brighton seafront heading east (marina), photographed from Brighton Pier

The Romans already settled in the area of ​​the later city. A Roman villa was uncovered during excavations . The current city of Brighton dates back to an Anglo-Saxon foundation in the 5th century. In the first documentary mention of the place "Beorthelm's-tun" (town of Beorthelm) is called, later "Bristemestune" and then Brighthelmstone in the 16th century , before the place is written Brighton for the first time in 1660 . Officially, this name has been in use since 1810.

In 1497 the first fortification tower was built near the village. Nevertheless, the fishing village was destroyed and burned to the ground in 1514 by the French navy during a war following the Treaty of Westminster ( 1511 ). The place was rebuilt and in 1580 400 fishermen and 100 farmers lived there, with their families so over 2000 people. Around 1660 Brighton is said to have had around 4,000 inhabitants, so it was by no means a village, as is sometimes claimed. In the 17th century, the fishing industry, on which the population mainly lived, was badly affected by wars between the French and the Dutch, as the fishing trawlers were often unable to sail.

In 1703 and 1705 the place was devastated by heavy storms. Not all the destroyed houses were rebuilt, because the economic crisis continued, and land was continuously lost along the coast because there were no dikes . At the beginning of the 18th century, Brighton only had about 1,500 inhabitants. 1750 the doctor published Richard Russell of Lewes a record of the health-promoting aspects of sea water, especially in Brighton. In 1753 he erected the largest building in Brighton at the time on the Old Steine property , in which he lived and also lodged his patients, and soon wealthy sick people were making their way to the coast. Around 1780 Brighton developed into a fashionable health resort. This development was accelerated when in 1786 the young Prince Regent (later King George IV ) bought a country house here to spend most of his free time there. He later had it expanded into the exotic-looking Royal Pavilion , the city's most famous attraction.

From 1770 to 1795, 635 new homes were built in Brighton. Around 1820, the Kemp Town and Brunswick Town quarters were built. 1823 the place became the first pier of the Chain Pier , 1866 was followed by the West Pier . Since 1841 there was a rail link to London . A large aquarium was inaugurated in 1872, an international attraction at the time. From Meyer's Konversationslexikon from 1898 you can learn:

“Brighton has three seasons during the year. In May and June it is almost exclusively visited by the families of the London petty bourgeoisie (tradespeople), in July and August by doctors, lawyers, artists etc., and in the autumn and winter months, when it is warm and sunny on the southern sea coast, it is teeming with lords and ladies returning home from the continent. The number of visitors who stay here for a long time is over 80,000 "annually .

In 1896, Brighton became the destination of one of the oldest continuously held car races in the world, today's London to Brighton Veteran Car Run . Only vehicles from the Edwardian era and the ancient days of automobility are allowed to take part in this race, i.e. vehicles that were built before January 1905.

In 1930, dikes were raised to stop the erosion caused by the swell. During the Second World War , Brighton, like London, was bombed by the German Air Force . Over 5,000 houses were damaged or destroyed.

The University of Sussex was founded in 1962. After Brighton calls its municipal polytechnic "University" and the county university of East Sussex has settled far away in the countryside, between the civil parishes of Stanmer and Falmer, but still in the urban area of ​​Brighton & Hove, the seaside resort is also a university town with two universities become. On the other hand, it is also a hectic resort with many antique and book shops , restaurants and amusement arcades . The city is sometimes called London by the Sea because of its atmosphere and the large number of visitors from London who flock to the coast, especially on weekends and during the summer holidays. During the summer, Brighton is home to thousands of young people from all over Europe who take language courses here .

The Brightons Convention Center on the seafront

In the convention center of Brighton, a place almost every year congress one of the three major political parties instead. On 12 October 1984 exploded Grand Hotel a bomb the IRA ; five people died. The then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher , who was staying there, narrowly escaped the assassination attempt. One of the ministers, Norman Tebbit , was slightly injured.

In 1997, Brighton and neighboring villages joined Portslade , Rottingdean and the city Hove to a city together with the status of a 2001 City received. In contrast to the old cities, "Millennium Cities" such as Brighton and Hove do not have all royal city privileges, such as a bishopric .

traffic

Brighton Station, completed in 1840, is a typical English terminus . The fastest steam train from London Victoria , Brighton Limited , took 52 minutes to Brighton. After electrification, the Southern Railway succeeded in reducing the time to 47 minutes, which no train has done since the legendary Brighton Belle was abolished in 1972. Recently, individual trains from Southern were able to do it again in 49 minutes. Since the privatization of the English railways in 1996 and 1997, around a third of the tracks in the passenger station have been taken out of service. The freight yard and the locomotive workshops were completely demolished by 2003 and a new quarter with luxury apartments has been built since 2005.

The three lines from Brighton lead to London (the old Southern line to London Victoria ; Thameslink from the 1970s to London Bridge and Blackfriars , London-Luton Airport ), the East Coastway Line to the south-west and to Eastbourne and Ashford as well as the west Coastway Line to Southampton . The quickest way to get to London Gatwick Airport from Brighton is with the frequent express trains operated by various companies. Brighton City Local Airport is west of Portslade in Shoreham.

More of a tourist attraction than a means of transport is the Volk's Electric Railway . It is the oldest electric train in Great Britain and runs along the beach between Brighton Pier and Kemp Town.

Furthermore, there was in Brighton, the " Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway ", popularly known as "Daddy Longlegs" ( " Weberknecht called"), a kind of tram at about eight meters high stilts that drove through a Nordseebucht. The railway was put into operation in 1896 and shut down again in 1901.

Bus services in the context of public transport in Brighton & Hove is of different bus transport companies offered. The largest is Brighton & Hove , a Go-Ahead group company that operates most of the city ​​bus routes, but also has lines to Eastbourne via Seaford (lines 12 / 12A / 12X / 13X) and Tunbridge Wells via Lewes (lines 28/29 / 29B / 29X). Sussex Bus operates the service from Brighton to Haywards Heath (lines 33, 40 / 40X), Stagecoach operates the line along the coast west to Arundel with a connection to Portsmouth (line 700).

education

Brighton is home to the University of Brighton (formerly Polytechnic) and the University of Sussex (outside on the hills between Stamner and the parish of Falmer), two universities and a medical college, the Brighton and Sussex Medical School . Brighton also shines with several English schools such as Regency College, Brightons School Of English and Embassy College.

The University of Brighton is spread over three main locations (Grand Parade, Moulsecoomb, Falmer) as well as several smaller institutions. It was founded in 1968 as Brighton Polytechnic through the merger of the Brighton College of Technology (at today's Moulsecoomb) with the Brighton College of Art (at today's Grand Parade). The Brighton Technical College existed as the forerunner of the Brighton College of Technology . In 1992, Brighton Polytechnic, along with the other polytechnics in the UK, was converted into a university by the Further and Higher Education Act and given its current name.

The University of Sussex was founded in 1961, making it the first of the new universities established in the United Kingdom in the 1960s because of the architecture of that era . It is also located at Falmer and is directly adjacent to the University of Brighton campus there.

Brighton and Sussex Medical School, a medical school founded by Falmer in 2002 , is based on a cooperation between the University of Brighton and the University of Sussex and the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust , which includes the Royal Sussex County Hospital and the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children in Brighton and the Princess Royal Hospital at Haywards Heath .

Brighton College is one of Brighton's oldest and best-known secondary schools .

Buildings

The Royal Pavilion

Royal Pavilion

The Royal Pavilion is a former royal residence that is a well-known landmark and landmark of the city. George IV had it built between 1815 and 1822. It resembles an Indian palace from the outside, while the interior is in the style of chinoiserie . It has been owned by the city since 1850, and today the Royal Pavilion is a museum .

Brighton Palace Pier at dusk

Piers

There were several piers in Brighton . The Brighton Palace Pier is the only one that is currently open. It was opened in 1899 and now houses an amusement park .

In 1866 the West Pier was built, on it stood among other things a concert hall and a theater. It was badly damaged by two fires in 2003 and 2004 and has not been restored since. The ruins still stand on the coast of Brighton today. The Royal Suspension Chain Pier stood from 1823 until it was destroyed by a storm in 1896.

Marina

To the east of Brighton is the marina . The marina was originally just a port, which was upstream below the chalk cliffs. However, since it was not being used sufficiently, part of the port facility was drained. Now in the marina there is a supermarket , a cinema and lots of pubs and restaurants next to the actual harbor .

Other structures

On August 4, 2016 , the 173-meter-high British Airways i360 observation tower was opened on Brighton's sea beach, in the immediate vicinity of the West Pier . With an attainable platform height of 138 meters, it is the second highest publicly accessible observation deck in the United Kingdom and the tallest structure in the County of Sussex .

Culture

Ferris wheel next to the pier

music

Brighton is home to many musicians, including Architects , Passenger , The Kooks , Fatboy Slim , Blood Red Shoes , The Go! Team as well as the mirrors . Brighton is considered to be the founding city of the big beat .

Festivals

The Brighton Festival is held every May. It is the largest arts festival in the UK after Edinburgh. The festival offers almost everything the UK art scene has to offer and it attracts around 500,000 visitors to Brighton annually. With the so-called “Artist Open House” concept, artists open their own houses to the public and exhibit their art objects.

Museums

The Lanes

There are several museums in Brighton. These include the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, the Booth Museum of Natural History, the Brighton Toy and Model Museum, and the Brighton Fisheries Museum on West Pier . The Royal Pavilion also houses a museum.

Theater and cinema

The city offers a diverse cultural program. These include the Brighton Dome Theater, the Comedia and the Theater Royal. There are also other smaller theaters such as B. the Marlborough Theater or the Nightingale Theater.

lifestyle

Because of its cosmopolitan atmosphere, Brighton is also known as "London by the Sea". Because of the relaxed attitude and unconventional way of life in Brighton, the seaside resort is also becoming increasingly popular with homosexuals. Brighton has one of the highest homosexual populations in Great Britain. The scene is concentrated in the Kemp Town neighborhood, so this is known as Brighton's Gay Village. Most of the clubs and pubs of the LGBT scene, also mentioned in the travel guide, are located on St. James Street and Old Steine.

Sports

Brighton & Hove Albion football club is based in the city.

Facilities

East Sussex Fire Brigade

The East Sussex Fire Brigade is a fire brigade organization that provides fire protection and general aid in their county. It was formed in 1974 from the former brigades Brighton, Hastings, Eastbourne and East Sussex. One of the two divisional headquarters is in Brighton. The staff consists of full-time and part-time firefighters.

particularities

  • Due to the extensive LGBT community and the annual “Brighton & Hove Pride”, Brighton is often referred to as the “Gay Capital UK” (alongside London).
  • Brighton was the scene of a murder in the Sherlock Holmes tape " The Valley of Fear ". It was mentioned as a small place that has recently increased in population.
  • The Swedish band ABBA won the Grand Prix d'Eurovision (today: Eurovision Song Contest ) in Brighton in 1974 .
  • The four-piece indie band The Kooks was formed in Brighton.
  • The metalcore band Architects also comes from the southern English city.
  • Brighton is the hometown of the successful Celtic folk punk rock band The Levellers , who also run their own studio The Metway there.
  • Thanks to the “Big Beat Boutique” club founded by Fatboy Slim , Brighton is considered the founding city of Big Beat .
  • Another globally successful musician who was born in Brighton is Matt Redman . He is probably the most famous worship leader in the Christian music scene.
  • Brighton was the location of some scenes from the British film Quadrophenia from 1979.
  • Brighton has a special racecourse for horse races up to 1.5 miles. The course is U-shaped (to the left) and increases slightly towards the destination. It is located in the middle of a residential area and is crossed by a public road that is closed during the race. Since the course is on the hills, you have a good view of the lower town and the sea from there.
  • The "Roy Grace" books by crime writer Peter James are always set in and around Brighton and Hove.

Personalities

Lives in Brighton

Born in Brighton

Web links

Commons : Brighton, East Sussex  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Brighton  - Travel Guide

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frendy.de - Brighton . Retrieved July 16, 2012.
  2. ↑ David Arscott: Brighton. A Very Peculiar History . Salariya, 2019, p. 14 .
  3. ↑ David Arscott: Brighton. A Very Peculiar History . Salariya, 2019, p. 120 .
  4. ↑ David Arscott: Brighton. A Very Peculiar History . Salariya, 2019, p. 116 .
  5. ^ Franz-Josef Sehr : East Sussex Fire Brigade . In: Florian Hessen 4/1989 . Munkelt Verlag, Wiesbaden 1989, p. 31-32 . ISSN 0936-5370 .  
  6. ^ David Gilmour's mansion on Hove seafront is rapidly taking shape - here's what the neighbors think. Retrieved January 2, 2020 .