Insight Guides Great Breaks Brighton, Sussex & the South Downs

Insight Guides

• Publisher: Insight
• ISBN:
  9781780059983
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Ideal for on-the-spot use, Great Breaks Brighton, Sussex and the South Downs makes the perfect companion for both first-time and repeat visitors. The Top 10 section is designed to help you get the most out of your trip, highlighting the best the region has to offer, from fun-filled Brighton to the picturesque villages of Sussex. Carefully planned walks and tours take you on a journey through the lanes and beachfront attractions of the city and beyond to the nearby coastline and countryside. All routes are timed and accompanied by easy-to-follow maps with detailed information on transport and where to find the best locally produced food, plus fascinating facts and tips. Accommodation listings cover everything from family-friendly B&Bs and self-catering cottages to stylish boutique hotels. Containing beautiful full-colour photography and invaluable information, Great Breaks Brighton, Sussex and the South Downs is the perfect companion for any visitor to this delightful part of England.

About Insight Guides: Insight Guides has over 40 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce around 400 full-color print guide books and maps as well as picture-packed eBooks to meet different travelers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture together create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

'Insight Guides has spawned many imitators but is still the best of its type.' - Wanderlust Magazine

Tour 1: Central Brighton

Tap into the energy of the city by the sea on this walk around central Brighton, relaxing on the seafront, wandering through The Lanes and visiting the Royal Pavilion

Highlights

Royal Pavilion

Brighton Seafront

The Lanes

North Laine

Brighton Museum and Art Gallery

Brighton Dome

In Saxon times, Brighton – originally called Brighthelmston – was just a speck on the map, home to a few families of fishermen and farmers. Everything changed in 1750 after Richard Russell, a physician from Lewes, began expounding the health benefits of sea water. Visitors started flooding down from London, and that flood has never really stopped.

Brighton has always been a liberal, creative city. With historic architecture, low car ownership and a growing interest in low-impact living, it’s greener than most. It was the first place in Britain to elect a Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas, and it lies within the Unesco Brighton and Lewes Downs Biosphere Reserve, created in 2014 to conserve the landscape and develop an ecologically sustainable society and economy. You’ll find evidence of this everywhere, from cycle and bus lanes to eco-friendly businesses.

Hire a Bike

Parking can be pricey in green-thinking Brighton. The speed limits and one-way systems are merciless, too, so it makes a lot of sense to travel on two wheels instead. A public bike hire scheme is in the pipeline; for now, try Brighton Cycle Hire (tel: [phone]; www.brightoncyclehire.co.uk) under the station, or Brighton Beach Bikes (tel: [phone]; www.brightonsports.co.uk) near the pier, then feel like a local as you pedal around.

The entrance to Brighton pier.

Getty Images

Brighton Seafront

Start your tour at The Grand 1 [map] on King’s Road. If you’ve arrived by train, head straight downhill, following the sound of seagulls and the scent of the salty breeze. Queen’s Road leads you down to the Jubilee Clock Tower (for more information, click here); from here, continue along West Street, passing the early Victorian St Paul’s Church, and turn right at the end.

Lording it over the seafront, The Grand is a huge white wedding cake of a hotel. It hosts celebrations all year round and provides lodgings for politicians during the autumn party conference season: it was here, in 1984, that the IRA almost succeeded in assassinating Margaret Thatcher. Built in the 1860s in a style inspired by monumental Italian architecture, the building was impressive from the start; its lift was the first to be installed outside London.

The ornate facade of the Grand on King’s Road.

Steve Cutner/Apa Publications

Its sea views are hard to beat. Brighton Beach 2 [map], a nine-mile (14km) stretch of wave-washed pebbles, is in many ways the city’s raison d’être. Though not as soft underfoot as the dunes at West Wittering or as pretty as Eastbourne’s Victorian promenade, it’s the pride and joy of this part of Sussex. Like a lively public park, sports arena and festival site rolled into one, this is the ultimate urban meeting place – it welcomes all comers and there’s always something going on.

The Lower Promenade

If you gazed down from King’s Road in Regency and Victorian times, you’d see rows of bathing machines – little cabins on wheels – beside the lower promenade. These days, the 0.75-mile (1.2km) path from the West Pier Arches near Brighton i360 (for more information, click here) to Brighton Pier is lined with cafés, bars and shops, from the arty and quirky to the supremely tacky. By day, it’s family-friendly, with live events to keep everyone entertained; after dark, the mood hots up when classic nightspots kick into action.

The Fishing Quarter, around half way along, has clinker boats and tackle on display, a reminder that in its earliest days, the shore was a mackerel-fishing settlement. The industry has dwindled but Brighton Fishing Museum 3 [map] (tel: [phone]; www.brightonfishingmuseum.org.uk; daily 11am–5pm) conjures vivid memories of the past through artefacts and recordings of sea shanties. Outside, you can snack on crab or kipper sandwiches from Jack and Linda Mills Traditional Fish Smokers.

The part of the beach near the pier and the jaunty Victorian carousel is always the busiest; in summer, it can feel as if the whole world is holidaying here. The Artists’ Quarter 4 [map], a clutch of seaside studios and gallery shops in the seafront arches, adds a splash of colour; the resident painters, photographers and sculptors are often around and happy to chat.

Public Art in Brighton

Brighton is proud of its artistic heritage, with new site-specific installations appearing from time to time. Famous examples on the seafront include Passacaglia by Charles Hadcock, a dynamic curve of recycled cast iron, and the quietly subversive Kiss Wall by Bruce Williams, a set of six photographs reproduced by drilling dots into aluminium. For recent additions to the urban landscape, explore the North Laine and New England Quarter, epicentre of the street art scene.

The West Pier Arches, part of the Artists’ Quarter.

VisitEngland/Visit Brighton

Brighton Pier

For great views, candy floss and old-fashioned fun, head for Brighton Pier 5 [map], which has been drawing the crowds since 1899. In its early days it was called the Palace Pier, and had a bandstand, winter garden, waxworks and freak shows.

The pier reinvents itself every so often but it still has plenty of giggle-making rides and quirky side shows – you can test your mettle on vintage-style dodgems or scare yourself silly in the Horror Hotel, hook a duck for a prize or cheer on the contestants in the Dolphin Derby game.

Before it was built, the pier had a predecessor, the Chain Pier, which looked like four suspension bridges joined end to end. It served both as a promenade, with kiosks manned by fortune tellers, silhouette artists and souvenir sellers, and as a landing stage for passenger ships. However, it proved vulnerable to ligh...