Brighton

The settlement of Brighthelmstone appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as a fishing and farming village of about 400 people that paid a rent of 4,000 herring. The town grew in the Middle Ages as the streets of the Old Town, today's Lanes, were laid out, but in the early modern period it declined, battered by foreign attacks, storms — above all the Great Storm of 1703 — a failing fishing industry and competition from the port of Shoreham, and its population fell to about 2,000 early in the 18th century. The short name Brighton, first recorded in 1660, was in general use by the late 18th century, though Brighthelmstone remained the official name until 1810.

Its revival began with the fashion for drinking and bathing in seawater as a cure, promoted by Richard Russell of nearby Lewes, who sent many patients to take the cure in the sea at Brighton. The Prince Regent, later King George IV, first visited in 1783, spent much time in the town and built the Royal Pavilion, and Brighton became a highly fashionable resort. The population grew from 7,339 in 1801 to 46,661 in 1841, the year the railway arrived from London and brought day-trippers within reach; by 1901 it had passed 120,000. The West Pier opened in 1866 and the Palace Pier in 1899.

By the 1970s Brighton had a reputation as a retirement town with an elderly population. The West Pier closed in 1975 and was largely destroyed by storms and fires in 2002 and 2003. In 1997 Brighton and Hove were joined into a single unitary authority, which was granted city status in 2000 as part of the millennium celebrations.

Brighton has a large and lively cultural, music and arts scene. Every May it hosts the Brighton Festival, the second largest arts festival in the UK after Edinburgh's, alongside the Brighton Fringe, one of the largest fringe festivals in the world; street performers and outdoor shows more than double in the city during the month.

The city is renowned for its large LGBT population and is often called the "unofficial gay capital of the UK". In the 2021 census, the first to measure sexual orientation, 11 per cent of residents identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual, against 3 per cent nationally. Brighton Pride, held in the first week of August, draws an estimated 500,000 people for a parade through the centre and a festival in Preston Park, and since 2013 the city has also held Brighton Trans Pride, the first and largest of its kind in the UK. Kemptown has its own small street festival, the Kemptown Carnival, though it has not been held since 2019, and the Hanover area holds Hanover Day.

Brighton is one of the least religious places in the country: in the 2021 census 55 per cent of residents said they had no religion, against a national average of 37 per cent. Its politics lean to the left: in the 2024 general election Brighton Pavilion elected the Green Party's Siân Berry and Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven elected Labour's Chris Ward. Brighton & Hove Albion is the city's professional football club.

The district of Brighton and Hove had an estimated population of about 284,000 in 2017, and the wider conurbation about 475,000 at the 2011 census. Tourism contributes about £380 million to the economy and employs 20,000 people directly or indirectly; 11.4 million tourists visited in 2024. The largest private employer is American Express, whose European headquarters are in the city, and the social media monitoring company Brandwatch has offices near the station. In 2012 about 1,500 of Gatwick Airport's 21,000 workers were reported to live in the city.

The city's prosperity is uneven. A 2016 report ranked East Brighton, Queen's Park, and Moulsecoomb and Bevendean in the top ten per cent nationally for deprivation, and homelessness is a serious problem: Shelter counted about 3,580 people experiencing homelessness in Brighton and Hove in mid-2024, almost 40 per cent of them children. In 2021 Brighton and Hove became the first UK city to adopt the Homeless Bill of Rights.

Daily life mixes students, commuters, families and visitors. The seafront fills on any fine day, especially at weekends in summer, while residents' neighbourhoods climb the hills behind the centre towards the South Downs.

Brighton began as a fishing village, and fish remains part of its seaside eating, from seafood stalls on the seafront road to fish and chip and seafood restaurants; the traditional Blessing of the Fisheries is marked by eating barbecued mackerel on the beach. Beside the Palace Pier, stalls sell crêpes, doughnuts and ice cream through the season.

The city has about 250 restaurants and is known for its many vegan and vegetarian restaurants; a 2022 analysis found it had the highest density of vegan restaurants in the UK. Its most famous vegetarian restaurant, Food for Friends, is in the Lanes, and vegetarian pubs and Indian vegetarian restaurants can be found elsewhere in the centre. Many takeaways serve pizza, Chinese, Mexican and Indian food.

Preston Street, on the border of Brighton and Hove, has a string of low- to mid-priced restaurants from many countries, and a stretch of Western Road has Middle Eastern and North African restaurants. North Laine is well served with independent cafés, coffee shops, restaurants, bars and pubs. Vineyards are common in Sussex, and Sussex wine is a Protected Designation of Origin in the UK; most English wine is sparkling.