Discover Brighton

A Regency resort turned creative capital, on the Sussex coast

Brighton sits on the English Channel where the South Downs meet the sea, about fifty miles south of London and an hour by train from the centre of it. It grew from the fishing village of Brighthelmstone into a fashionable Georgian resort when the Prince Regent built his Royal Pavilion here, and it has kept the appetite for pleasure ever since. The compact old centre, the Lanes and North Laine, is best explored on foot, with the seafront, the two piers and the shingle beach a few minutes downhill from the station.

The reason Brighton rewards more than a day trip is the range packed into a small city. There is the Pavilion and the museums for a wet afternoon, the pier and the beach for a bright one, a food scene that runs from historic oyster bars to the vegetarian kitchens that made the city's name, and a nightlife and festival culture, capped by Pride each August, that few places its size can match. Behind it all rise the South Downs, with Devil's Dyke, Stanmer Park and the Seven Sisters cliffs all within reach, so the countryside and the coast sit a short bus ride from the seafront.