The Knowhere Guide

Best and Worst in Brighton, East Sussex*

Brighton, East Sussex Triumphs and Tragedies

Favourite Building

• the west pier..the victorian town houses
• Embassy Court (an Art Deco Building on the seafront near the Brighton and Hove border)
• Stanmer House, Stanmer Park. Newly rennovated. Lovely relaxing walks and gardens.
• the pavilion isnt it every ones fave building?
• Boots
• Embassy Court on the seafront - everyone else seems to hate it but its being done up and heading for its old art deco glory. Class.
• The pavillion
• The Pav.
• The station. So many days taking shelter from the rain, and nights lying on a bench after you've missed the last train home and have to get in before you miss school (again).
• the new church rd brothell (i wish) na i like the concorde legendary music is played there and they dont charge extortionate prices
• the grand hotel
• west pier. unfortunately the uk planning policy is so ultra conservative, and no doubt run by a bunch of daily mail reading cretins, that i cant see a time when we have any decent architecture. dont blame the architects... i hope im wrong, but i aint.
• The West Beach Hotel in Kings Road, Brighton is a stunning Victorian-style listed building. www.westbeachhotel.co.uk
• the old pier - shame someone burnt it down
• brightons architecture sucks. i blame the planners. the west peir is fav building.
• hmmm... just add water cos of the smell! daffy
• the Pavilion at night. Or Concorde2 are playing a really great gig.
• Who is the idiot who described St Bartholemew's as 'horrifically evil'? Step inside you fool - absolutely beautiful, and you might even learn to be a bit less negative (well, we can always hope).
• the pavillion, I'm gonna buy it when I am a gillionaire and if anyone tries to stop me I'll just pay them off
• metropole or the grand.
• poor old west pier
• That special building with the red door half-way up Elm Grove.
• Embassy court.
• the Pavillion lit up at night
• pavillion
• The Pavilion is superb, as is the Dome next to it - if they'll ever !"£!ing finish the work they're doing to it! Churchill Square looks a million dollars since its overhall, as do those two horrible factory buildings overlooking Lewes Road - whoever thought up turning them from disgusting derelict factories into achingly desirable apartments using just a lick of paint is a genius.
• The Argus building. Shame on you Ternece Conran for turning it into loft apartments that no-one can afford. And what happened to its lovely clock?
• The West Pier. It's been left to rot for too many years and is supposedly being renovated at some point with lottery funding. For 6 quid you can take a tour of the shut-down building pier with a specialist guide; go to the hut at the entrance to the pier.
• You might want to put the web-site of S. Bartholomew's Church on your Links page. It has more than 50 pictures. Richard Jess
• Palace Pier, now renamed 'Brighton Pier'.
• Hove town hall, I don't expect anyone to agree especially if they work there.
• I know it is a little boring but The Pavilion...it is one of the few things that I miss about Brighton...there is nothing in Britain to compare
• anywhere with decent graffiti
• Tne public toilet in St.James Street.
• Go see Foredown Tower ( Hangleton ) - it has a camera obscura to view surrounding area - Town & Downs.
• The pier at night
• Not so much a building, but the pier is pretty cool, especially when its lit up at night.
• Varndean (Boys) School. Imposing with a fantastic view across Brighton to the sea.
• home.
• Western front Pub.
• Most of the seafront.
• St Bartholemew's church

Demolish It Now Building

• brighton centres just an eyesore to be honest
• The Zone Bar in Brighton
• the brighton centre
• Embassy Court. Its just Ugly.
• New England House: uninspiring, filthy, decrepit, depressing, isolated and worthy of immediate demolition. Some modernist or brutalist architecture from the 60's, 70's or maybe even the 80's can -it is difficult to believe, I know- carry some architectural merit. Erno Goldfinger’s Trellick Tower would be a fine example. But New England House is completely devoid soul, character and belonging. The building is a disgrace to the people of Brighton, Sussex and to anyone visiting by train. Next time you’re pulling into Brighton station glance to left as New England House leaps into view and tell me you didn’t feel a sudden compulsion to commit violent disorder.
• Vhurchill square
• The Odeon.
• The West Pier: it's a mess, and needs to be laid to rest with some dignity, not left like some pathetic toothless shell.
• The ugly faux-gothic thing with the gargoyles near the cinema. At least it's better black than it was purple...
• the pier (with all the chavs on it)
• the really shit one near the west pier
• John St. Police Station (with the coppers in it).
• the parking attendants building flattened with them all inside. the brighton peir detroyed complete with its pay load of dfl's "dahn from landan"
• church hill square
• The Council offices. Every church in Brighton blown up... but that`s my opinion \m/
• brighton centre
• I haven't been to Brighton fo a while, but I went on A sunny Sunday with some of my students. It was very nice except for the place with the chain stores, the Marks and Spencers and so forth which occupied a newish, square, brick edifice. It was ugly, closed, litter strewn and wind-blown. It looked like any other shopping centre of the like which can be found in every other town and city in the UK. These chain store sites do nothing for the locality in which they are located. Rather, they suck the life and character out of a place. Brighton doesn't need this. Demolish it now.
• The Block of flats on the seafront should be burnt down.Th
• the rusty old building outside the west pier uugghh - Daffy
• the West pier! whats the point of spending money on another pier that will never be used again?
• the Brighton centre and Jordan's House even though its not here anymore
• Hilton West Pier Hotel Odeon Brighton Centre
• the odeon. without a doubt. or hove town hall.
• Amex House, looks like the Dalek's headquarters from "invasion Earth 2025". Most people who work there have about as much charm/personality as Davros anyway.
• The Brighton Charter Hotel
• damn it the brighton pier- someone just burn it.. ok, someone just flatten it.
• Churchill Square!!
• churchill square
• london rd where 7 11 was
• St. Bartholemews and the brick church in Lewes Road are horrifically evil/ugly respectively, as is the Brighton Centre. It'd be nice if they either demolished or did up the West Pier too.
• That really scummy high-rise building on the seafront between Brighton and Hove - you can't miss it!
• down under hostel and the pub next to it...extend their visas: we don't want 'em...return to sender..etc
• The Brighton Centre is hardly a credit to the seafront.
• Churchill Square
• Brighton Uni, Falmer Site! It's all asbestos!!!
• The West pier. Its had it so why waste all that money?
• Cardinal Newman School and Hove Town Hall ...and well all of Hove too while you are at it...and could someone oblterate the abomination that is Hangleton
• Priory House and anything run by Brighton and Hove Town Council
• The Leveller's house
• All the flats in Brighton, and build some AFFORDABLE houses for people in Brighton to BUY. Who wants to live in a flat, surrounded by scummy students, and pay a fortune for it as well? Demolish Brighton and start again. Don't ever move to Brighton if you want to buy a house, there are none! It's all flats.
• The residential building along the seafront with all the paint peeling off, near the Brighton centre
• The old Top Rank building.
• hove town hall
• Outreach Centre

The Best Things

• summer! the different vibe it has to anywhere else... the numbe of different people all doing different things. its just a happy place to be always brings a smile to my face. many days spent sitting on brighton beach
• north laines
• All the juggling, poi and other circus skill arts that are demonstrated daily throughtout Brighton. You see these people all over town, particulally on the sea front and the level. And even the most cynical have to accept that when it's done well it looks amazing....keep up the good work brighton!
• Fairly safe City, Friendly people, Party attitude, Lots to do and see and of course - Ovingdean Beach!
• Butlers Wine Cellar on Queens Park Road. Great staff, great wine.
• the music and people on the seafront in the summer!
• Gulliver's Hotel on the road they call New Steine. Comfy, clean room, good rates and totally gorgeous and very friendly, helpful staff. Go for the vegetarian breakfast, I did and my tummy thanked me for it.
• Beer
• the lanes, all the people doing amzing things on the beach at dusk- buskers, break dancers, pois, fire throwing, so beautiful, its just like being at a festival
• Sun Sea and sauciness
• Cosmopolitan population (some who can actually speak English...) The Sea, the sea AND, the sea. Week days along the shore, minus the bloody rubbish-leaving day-trippers.
• The Brighton Charter Hotel. Fun, friendly and cheap. PS. Fit Bar staff too!!
• The whole atmosphere that seems to make Brighton Brighton. The fact that it has such a huge range of people, places and shops and always seems to be able to cram a few more people onto it's pavements than you think should be possible.
• The food, the people, the weather, and most of all the Sea. It changes colour every day.
• allnighters on brighton beach and around that area
• cool atmosphere
• the winter when the town is returned to its residents the summer when its buisy.
• The West Beach Hotel in Kings Road offers comfortable, cheap rooms, friendly staff and has an nightclub on site too! www.westbeachhotel.co.uk
• There is a goob kebab house in Brighton, so good that two of my Turkish friends use it, that is Delight Kebab in Preston Circus. My boss who is a kitchen manager and a previously a kebab chef says it is the best kebab he has had in a long time
• going out on week-day night
• summer
• The seafront,the pier and the lanes
• skating, punks (hell yeah we aint dead!), music and the neverending supply of dope from the basketball courts lol! - Daffy
• the atmosphere in Brighton is vibrant, fiesty, varied and never fails to bring a smile to the face!
• Topless bathing The Train Station to London The Thistle hotel
• Its got loadsa cool little shops for the skate community and loadsa good independent music shops.
• Brighton & Hove Albion!
• Sea World
• Swimming in the sea.
• Sundays
• The beach in summer!!!
• hot skate/hiphop/ dread men grrrrrrrr
• brighton by the see
• Everyone who visits Brighton likes it.
• cod and chips on the pier...food's not bad for england. and hove's just up the road.
• The Pussycat Club, 176 Church Road, Hove. Fantastic girls, great entertainment.I guarantee it will put a smile on yuour face!!
• -Chilled out atmosphere! -Friendly locals -The beach!!!
• The beach in the evening, can we say communal!
• The Record Shops, the Sea, the Downs
• Brighton Station Carpark...all day for £3.50 (or less if the barriers are up!) The shops Choice of pubs and clubs
• Nightlife best outside London. Great women and great men too!
• The high quaklity and number of nice cheap restaurants
• Restaurants The Lanes jewellery shops.Better than Hatton Garden or Bond street! Even better than Antwerps Diamond district! Hanningtons old fashion dept.store. Easy going streets.
• The clubs, the pubs, the care-free, student friendly atittudes (hardly any dress codes). The North Laines are superb for shopping and the pier is always good for wasting your cash on.
• The nightlife is amazing, there's just so many clubs, and because of this there is loads of competition, and therefore loads of cheap drinks. Shopping in Brighton is also completely tops.
• seaside, easy going atmosphere, countryside, plenty pubs, walking distance to ,ost places
• To happen, you're my world. you're the best thing.
• The crusties, arty types, thesps, students, oldies, londoners, all having an icecream on the seafront all together.
• It's about the only Southcoast town that's still alive & (around the lanes) kicking!
• Pretty much always something to do.
• Nightlife, food, the sea, the surrounding Downs.
• There's paragliding on the hills nearby!

The Worst Things

• The chip on the shoulder about London that Brightonians have. It borders on the comical.
• when its windy on the beach
• Brighton is full of junkies, tramps and hoodies just like any other provincial city. Hove to the West is full of middle aged estate agents and their bottle blonde, big haired, false boobed wives driving round in jeeps with blacked out windows thinking they look like gangsters. Don't buy into the hype - it's a toilet.
• Brighton has many beauty spots ,with carparks but because of the so called dogging scene , if you now park near the devils dyke , in one of the parking areas , it is not safe , perverts prowl these areas , not safe for children, police are aware, be warned.
• Having visited Brighton for the first time last week, I found it the most dissapointing town I've ever visited. Not the worst, just don't believe the hype about this place. It's like any other town except it happens to have a beach and a more appropriate name for it would be Hemel Hempstead on Sea.The parking is the most abissmal of any town I've visited and the majority of shops and eateries are a complete rip off. In fact this is capital of Britain rip off town. The pubs and clubs are decidedly average and full of chavs.
• Too many:- Tramps, Taxes, Traffic Wardens and Tourists!
• Contributors to Knowhere Brighton referring to the area roughly bounded by Trafalgar Street, Grand Parade/Old Steine, North Street and Queens Road as 'the north lanes' or ‘northern lanes' or even 'north laines'. The name of the area is ‘North Laine’. The area has nothing to do with The Lanes to the south and is certainly not a northern counterpart to it. The word laine has nothing to do a lane, a road, a path or a street. Laine is a 17th century term for field. In the days before ignorant folk determined to submit comments about their own town on a website North Laine simply meant the north field. As I suppose it still does. Come on, call yourself local. I’ve only lived here for a year, and I know this.
• the seafront in winter too cold!!!
• The Brighton Charter Hotel. Up four flights of ridiculously steep stairs only to find a bed so saggy it's like hippos have been shagged by rhinos on it nightly for the past 20 years. Whip off the sheets and encounter a mattress more full of sperm than Ulrika Jonnson. Seriously there must have been DNA from thousands of people right there. I was afraid I'd get pregnant sleeping on it - and I'm a man. Woke up in the middle of the night to find rainwater coming through the roof onto me. The bath running full tilt produced only a trickle of lukewarm water. Still, it gave me plenty of time to look at the shit caked all over the toilet bowl right next to the bath - not surprising really as there was no toilet brush. Dirty crockery sat festering on broken furniture blocking up communal dusty hallways. Staff were totally uninterested in any of the above, or, indeed, life, by the look of their zombie eyes. Breakfast was totally cack too. Sullen minge of a waitress refused to take uncooked fried egg back and bring me a cooked one. In conclusion, AVOID THIS FESTERING SHAGHEAP.
• Wine
• brighton in the winter may be one of the worst things on the planet, theres nothing more depressing than a sea side town in the winter
• The horrendous expense of the place. It is more expensive than London to drink, eat out, etc. THIS AINT RIGHT. I blame the wave of dull white collar workers who moved here because they couldn't hack living in London.
• Chavs seem to be rather abundant in central town...
• The average aged 25 year-olds who think they know it all; drinking their livers into oblivion: let them look in the mirror in 30 years... Posers at pavement tables (enjoying the vehicle fumes outside Barney's in Western Road) and another lot of plonkers paying over the odds in the North Laines cafes... Karaoke drunks piercing the night air and drunken 40-something men shouting bravado remarks as women walk by. unsmiling, and I MEAN to the point rudeness shop assistants who shouldn't be let near the public: this town takes the biscuit. All the fakers in the pretend 'alternative' therapies (Taro cards et al) who are up their own arse without any real knowledge but ripping off the gullible public who need a quick fix: these people should be regulated.
• The gangs of chavs that hang around West Pier at night.
• Black bin bags left out for the seagull to make a mess with; not good.
• CHAVS !
• Chavs
• The walk up the hill to the station from Churchill Square where the buses seem to stop... especially in winter
• Having a partner who thinks it's great and wants to visit every weekend.
• Finding a place to live and rental prices!
• the labour conference the council seagulls ripping all the trash up the bolshevic bin men the council dfl's ('down from london' pronounced as scumbagly as you can)
• going out friday and saturday when all the chavs decend on the town
• chavs
• traffic wardens, and the council for introducing the most agressive parking control in the country. theres just no need for it.
• The seagulls
• townies, they just create pointless trouble and look like idiots, trouser too short for them, all wear hats TN?? whats that about?? (Total Nobs)! they si around all day smokin theyre stupid fags and wearin the most expensive repulsive clothes imaginable, dudes chill
• centre of town on a Friday or Saturday night-drunken idiots throwing up everywhere.
• Regardless of this deadend seaside town being rewarded city status. It is actually a inbred shit hole! It consists of small minded racist tossers who give Dick Van Dyke a run for his money on fake cockney accents. Decpred pensioners who are a constant pain in the backside. Fatboy Slim The Education authorities are secret members of the Nazi party, get the point. The girls are the biggest tacky tarts you will ever see.
• pricks and prickettes
• Stuck up locals and students with their heads up their own arses. Too much traffic and locals who can't drive.
• empty shops opposite st peters london road
• The Brighton Charter Hotel One bathroom on each floor and someone had decided to have a cr*p in the bath. There was urine stains on the carpet in our room and semen on the bed covers. All for the fantastic price of 60 quid a night, oh yeah and they had the cheek to ask us to sign a declaration that we wouldnt smash our room up. Looked like someone had beaten us to it when we opened the door...
• All the tosspots who move there to study because they think it makes them alternative and interesting, as though they're living in a UK San Fran, with every intention of getting a nice safe job a mortgage and a couple of grandchildren for your darling parents.
• Move to Brighton and work for £4 an hour with some late twenty something ex-graduate failed DJ/Actress because there are no decent jobs as big companies locate all their call centres there because the town is full of losers who only aspire to earn enough to pay for their squalid room in a shared slum, travis haircuts, beer and rizla papers.
• Yuppies and their expensive habits.
• Mondays
• wetherspoons
• west street saturday night bish bash bosh Barbies and kens
• the vagrents
• too many townie bastards!
• Brighton has a reputation for two types of people: Gays and Tramps. You wouldn't notice any gays except for the Gay Pride festival every summer - it's not in your face like some people fear it would be. However there are bloody homeless people everywhere - I don't mind people who don't have a place to live but when they LINE THE !$#%ING STREETS asking me for money or parade up and down Western Road shouting abuse you start to wonder why the dogs haven't been called in. Also there are simply too many Big Issue sellers and people petitioning for money up North Street and Western road.
• The tourists!
• the down under hostel near the beach...as an australian tourist, i refute it completely as unrepresentative. full of the neds we send back to mother's hairy arm-pits...and what's more russell crowe is a kiwi!
• Moulscombb. Its fucking disgusting. The rotting council houses filled with pikeys who set fire to the police station and any passer by very frequantly are bloody mouldy. My gran lived 2 miles from it and now has to have councilling just because she walked near it a few times. Knock it down please, the whole estate was built in the 20s/30s and has been neglected ever since. And its only on the outskirts of town!
• Fighting and drunk lads tussling on West Street at eleven on a Saturday night.
• the fact that your partner will go there a nice normal person , become obsessed with the place for some unknown reason, become an alcoholic, develop homosexual tendancies and eventually dump you for some scummy minger because they are as deluded as each other that it is the best place in the universe. SAD!!
• -The freshers -The water, unswimmable!
• stupid fucking groupies of the Levellers whos biggest dream is only to move to Brighton (because the levellers live here) and only then will they be "cool". Shoot them on entry, PLEASE!!!!!!!!
• The townies looking for a fight on a saturday night!
• Constantly getting stopped in the street by people collecting for charity,aggressive beggars, market researchers etc. Try getting a cab after 6 in the evening Fri to Sun. House prices/rent
• Fake Irish pubs.
• The People
• The council Parking in Brighton No Hungry Years No HVR
• Seagulls. Students who actually left uni 5yrs before. Boy racers.
• "S.I.T.A " the compant Brighton Council employ for rubbish collection - take a tip from the Continent - Shouldn't we invest in nightly street washing. Seagulls- open shooting season should be declared.
• Brighton is a dirty, filthy place, with dirty, filthy people; a never-ending collection of crusties, drop-outs, drunks, beggars and worst of all, those people who were students once and have now decided they're going to be students forever - get a life! Ten years ago, Brighton was a nice, clean place - now the streets are littered with filth, rubbish and general scum. Brighton in the anus of the UK: all the sh*t ends up there, before dropping out. Move to an inner-city, northern location - it's cleaner and nicer, and there's no filthy people messing up the street as they stay at home (too scared to go out in case they get beaten up for being scum - good!!).
• New Stein and Regency Square hotels all full up most summer Sats Suns. Even more full up during a triple conference week. Beach totally empty when skies are overcast
• Hotels all full up all summer every Saturday Sunday. Big shortage of hotel space rest of time too unless you want to spend a grand.
• Zel pubs. Full of vacuous Brighton trendies, and there are virtually no other pubs left.
• dog shit - everywhere
• damm tourists!!
• Trying to rent a flat in Brighton or Hove off Satanic Estate agents.
• Pollution on a hot Summer's day - and bird shit.
• an unending number of 'Big Issue' sellers and a very sex mad amosphere means if your girlfriend goes there she wont come back

The Knowhere Guide started out as a list of places to skateboard in the UK. It is a compilation of (unedited) information and views supplied by users like yourself. It is not a conventional tourist guide!

In most cases, the information in each section has been submitted by more than one contributor (the credits at the bottom of the page list some, but not all, of the contributors) and some of it dates back to the 1970s.

We make no claims as to the accuracy of the information in the Guide - our only purpose is to provide a forum for users to share their knowledge and opinions. So please keep a large bag of salt handy and be prepared to read between the lines!

If you disagree with a comment, or information is out of date, please submit an update! The contributors come from all walks of life, and their opinions are bound to be subjective, so if your view isn't represented, please speak up and contribute to the balance of the Guide. See below in the 'Have Your Say' section for how to add your voice.

If we have helped you out or made you laugh you can buy us a pint.

Have Your Say...

You can tell us more about Brighton. This is also the method to use if you want to correct some of the information already here. (But please remember you're not mailing the person who actually wrote whatever-it-is.)

You can use the add an event form to tell us about events happening in Brighton.

Or, if you'd just like to leave a message for other users of this site, take a look at The Knowhere Board (handy if you're just trying to get in touch with someone).

Credits

Last updated: 2008-04-11