A Brightonian History

We have spoken about Charleston: the artistic and historical time capsule home to Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. The meeting point for years upon years of intimate gatherings of the intellectual Bloomsbury Group. But Virginia Woolf, one of the most central characters of the group was only briefly mentioned, referenced only as the sister of Vanessa, and the original person to suggest Charleston to her as a home away from London.   Being the literary genius she was - and being the enormous fan of Virginia Woolf I am, such a brief feature on my blog would never have sufficed. Luckily, she too had a country home only a stone’s throw from Brighton: and as such, she deserves her own feature as a significant person of Sussex, as does Monk’s House, her and her husband Leonard’s home, as a hugely significant landmark easily visitable for someone local to Brighton and Hove. The view of Monk's House from the garden Virginia Woolf, born Adeline Virginia Stephen in 1882, became one of the ...

The second Significant Visitor to be discussed on this blog will be a character from the opposite end of the scale to the previously featured Princess Diana (what scale I am referring to I’ll leave to the conclusion of the reader). When thinking of the so-called ‘Iron Lady’ in Brighton, there is likely one specific historic event that comes to mind for most: the infamous IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel. One could hardly tell these days, when walking along King’s Road and looking up at the iconic Victorian hotel, that it had ever been completely blasted open down its centre, with iron frame and debris jutting and dangling out in all directions, exposing the obliterated suites within.  Nor is it easy to wrap one’s head around either the forethought and cunning that went into the IRA’s plot, nor the uncanny timing of events that resulted in Thatcher surviving the attempted assassination. The Grand Hotel after the bomb. Picture source: Wikipedia Thatcher became a significant target for...

Think of your average visit to the South Downs: children running off into the woods to climb trees; Spaniels and Jack Russells roaming free off the lead, walkers marching along the hilltops, carefree and unassuming. It might be one of the most serene, risk-free activities available to a Brightonian, and only a short bus ride away. Sunny days at Devil’s Dyke; long walks along the Seven Sisters trail. As long as you stay away from the cliff edge, you really are at very little risk of encountering danger while enjoying the local nature of East Sussex. 

Sometimes Brighton, in all its uniqueness, can seem like its own little world, in some ways detached from the rest of England; a little bohemian pocket of society. As such it can be easy, when talking about Brighton’s cultural history, to talk only about the people it has produced, the brilliant artists, writers, politicians, and so on, who have emerged from it, sometimes forgetting the times similarly prominent figures from outside of Brighton have also left their mark on the town; often bringing with them scandal, crowds, and sometimes even disaster.   Therefore, I have decided to form a section on this blog dedicated to those Significant Visitors of the past, whose visits are worth remembering. Some of these visitors will be icons of popular culture (bands, singers, actors), while others will be those from one of the two central British Establishments, the monarchy and Parliament, for whom Brighton, at one time or another, has been worth leaving the bustle of Westminster f...

A train and a bus ride away, a twenty-minute drive, or, if you don’t mind mud, a ten mile walk from Brighton, on the green slope beneath Firle Beacon there lies Charleston House: an old farmhouse that was once home to two of the most influential artists of the 1900s. I consider it a blessing of living in Brighton to be able to, from within the crowded lanes and busy streets of our bustling town, cast our arms out wide over the quiet green of the surrounding country, to special little places like Firle, like Rodmell, like so many spots nestled amongst the South Downs, and claim them as our neighbours. While it may be obvious Brighton itself is well-saturated with British history - architecturally significant monuments, homes of prominent people, rich stories from a different time - it might be lost on many of us that on the hills just outside it there are places of just as significant importance. One of the most fascinating of these hidden gems is Charleston, the home of Vanessa Bell an...

Something one must accept when deciding to live by the coast is the inevitability of that familiar coastal wind. That is not to say that accepting it as a part of seaside living necessarily means the British people of Brighton and Hove must also refrain from complaining about it as it knocks them side to side as they walk along the seafront promenade. Despite its occasional intensity and the fact it is often more agitating than refreshing, the fervent breeziness of Brighton is really just another facet of its energetic charm, and one that allows for another easy topic of typically English conversation at the shop counter or barbershop: ‘gosh, isn’t it windy out there?’

Eight years, more or less, I have lived in Brighton, and only recently did I visit the Royal Pavilion for the first time. It is another of those immensely historic and beautiful attractions that sits in the middle of our city, regularly walked by or seen as emblems on bus seats or Brighton merchandise, yet so often under-acknowledged. It seems, when I’ve brought it up to friends, that many Brighton natives have been in at least once, but as young children taken by their parents, and not again since. But I think it’s time that changes; and in this piece I set out to encourage that change.   The building, first and foremost, is a breath-taking feat of architecture, both inside and out: but more of that sort of flattery later. Just as importantly, it represents a prominent era in British history, most notably housing, if be it only briefly, Queen Victoria herself. And lastly, but no less significantly, The Pavilion stands as yet another example of our incredible ability to conser...