Brighton history

 

Brighton & Hove history themes

PLACES
The tragedy of Brighton's lost theatres
      Once the south-coast centre of culture and entertainment, Brighton has allowed its dominance to slip away.

Hove's never-never theatres
      An account of the schemes to build theatres in Hove, not one of which materialised.

20 Middle Street
      The plaque placed on the house in 1951 was an act of hubris that failed.

The Westdene estate
      The history of the creation of the Withdean Estate West, now known as Westdene.

Pierless Hove
      An account of the schemes to build piers in Hove, not one of which materialised.

Twittens
      The history and etymology of the local (and not-so-local) word for a ginnel or snicket.

PEOPLE
Meet Brighton's most prolific builder
      George Burstow & Sons was the most proflic building firm in the city at a time of terrace building.

The 'Friese-Greene' house
      Identification of 20 Middle Street with William Friese-Greene is stretched too far.

CIVICS
Change and decay; or, Let it bleed
      The city's track record of leaving town-centre buildings and building sites to rot for years

Disease and Brighton's slums
      The campaign to control the spread of disease in the slums to the east of Brighton's town centre in the late 19th century.

Smallpox and isolation
      A brief history of infectious diseases in Brighton, their treatment, control and eradication, with the history of the isolation hospitals.

TRANSPORT
Abandoned railway projects
      As well as the famous Brighton line, a number of other projects to build railways were authorised by parliament before being abandoned

Bus services
      The beginnings of an account of the operators of the city's bus services

COMMUNICATIONS
Telecommunications
      The history of telecommunications in Brighton & Hove from 1326 to almost the present day

FILM
20 Middle Street: hardly Friese-Greene
      The celebration of 20 Middle Street as the place where cinematography was born is seriously misleading.

The first Brighton feature film
      Despite Hove being one of the centres of film-making in the earliest days of cinema, audiences had to wait until 1939 for the first genuine glimpse of Brighton in a feature films.

The lost studio of Whitehawk
      How the British National Film Studio never happened.


Page updated 27 April 2023