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Notorious Brighton

Published on Sep 11, 2013

 

The Party Scene

When you think of having a night out there’s only one place for it; Brighton. Brighton has been skillfully crafted to adapt to its guests and appears to have turned nocturnal along with them, with hundreds of bars, pubs and clubs it’s never a dull night on the town and there’s somewhere new to explore every time! 

As I mentioned before, there are hundreds of venues in Brighton to suit all kind of characteristics and personalities, as you can imagine Brighton is pretty diverse so it’s important for the city to keep everyone happy and entertained. Brighton hosts a variety of different themed nights depending on where you want to go and what date you’re visiting. For example Thursday is infamously known as student night, where students take to the town and flood the clubs in the latest craze – Lola Los’ Tom Foolery is usually a big hit most Thursdays… The local Wetherspoons is usually packed in the early evening due to the low prices and renowned offers, but this then progresses onto a bar (such as Revolution or Oxygen) where the guests can begin to feel the music and then eventually moving onto one of Brighton’s notorious clubs for the full party experience, i.e. Shooshh (Brighton’s only Superclub) or Oceana (Brighton’s biggest club with a maximum capacity of 2500 people!).

Another reason to visit Brighton, the gay capital of Europe, is for the welcome of the GLBT community! A touchy subject for most, but Brighton deals with this factor perfectly with several gay bars and clubs dedicated specifically to the sexuality, i.e. Charles St. & Revenge.

Being in the height of my youth I have been spending nearly every weekend venturing into the heart of Brighton and fighting through the plague of promoters that are trying to smooth-talk you into their clubs… Don’t get me wrong, they offer superb deals and a brilliant excuse to get on the guest list, but when you’re set on a venue, the stream of hurdles just become plain annoying. Although most cities will have promoters reigning the night, Brighton has taken this to another level, but even so, this is a minor fret within a fantastic night out!

Adventure Connections offer a brilliant service that provides a VIP, hassle-free entrance to multiple clubs and pubs for a small fee!

 

Brighton Pride

The parade could be seen as the headline event, with hundreds of people expressing their sexuality through the use of colourful floats, costume and props, the parade is an extraordinary sight and is great fun for everyone of all ages! Featuring idols and heroes from the LGBT community the parade will be a brilliant event that will bring out the lighter side in everyone!

The Art exhibition is a new feature of the Pride weekend featuring Pop Icons of the twentieth century as well as Gay Icons. The Gay Icons art exhibition includes a number of recognised artists and photographers that have been grouped together by art director Hizze Fletcher. The Pop Icons exhibition, on the other hand, is a display celebrating the most influential music artists of the twentieth century such as David Bowie and the Beatles!

The Brighton Big Screen is a reoccurring classic at the Pride weekend, showing a variety of different movies each night, the free, outdoor cinema (on the beach!) is a perfect way to top off a night in Brighton! This year’s films include “Priscilla Queen of the Desert,” “Top Gun” and this year’s hit musical “Les Miserables!”

The notorious parties are what Brighton Pride is all about, with enormous names such as Paloma Faith, MKS (The Original Sugababes), Lucy Spraggan, The Mend, Stooshe, Class A, Miss Dynamite and Freemasons all playing you’d be mad not to visit! With almost every club moulding into the Pride spirit, there’s no escaping the fun of Brighton Pride!

Pink Fringe is a Brighton based producing organisation that supports and promotes Queer and LGBT performance. This includes a range of entertainment such as theatre, cabaret, comedy, dance, immersive art and entertainment which is all going to be part of Brighton Pride!

 

The Brighton Piers

In 1823 the Old Chain Pier (now Brighton Pier) was used as a dock for boats travelling to and from France’s Dieppe. However the owners soon realised the commercial value and began to charge 2d for entry and started building confectionary stands, fortune tellers and souvenir kiosks for it’s eager customers. However the Chain Pier was beaten by numerous storms between 1824 and 1834 which caused irreparable damage and lead to its eventual buy out from the Marine Pavilion and Pier Company (the same organisation that owned the Royal Pavilion) in 1889. The Pier was then completely wiped out in December that year due to a mighty storm.

However whilst the Chain Pier was standing on its last legs a new pier was being constructed, the marvellous West Pier! Built in 1866 by Eugenius Birch the West Pier was the talk of the town, standing tall next to the wreckage of it’s sister; the West Pier was undergoing what seemed like constant improvements, this lead to a pavilion and concert hall being added to turn Brighton into the new seaside tourist resort!

In 1899 the brand new Palace Pier was re-opened after a whopping £27,000 reconstruction! With a fantastical 3000 lights illuminating the new building, the pier was back in it’s prime! In 1905 video games (such as “The Lady Palmist” and Punch Ball machines) were installed and then in 1911 a concert hall and bandstand was constructed to bring in more profit. In 1940 the pier was closed for national security reasons because it was seen as potentially useful for foreign sea invasion forces, for this reason the pier was put under constant protection by the national guard.

In 1975 the West Pier came to an end due to deterioration and was forced to close, the bridge across was later removed in the early 1990’s for safety reasons and then the fire in 2003 ended all hope of restoration by burning the remaining section of the West Pier. It is said today that it will be replaced by the state of the art i360 tower later this decade but still remains 1 of 2 of the UK’s last remaining grade 1 pier.

During 1971 the Palace Pier was upgraded to Grade 2 and 1984 brought a new destiny to be renovated under new ownership. This included free admission, deck chairs and a classic fish & chip restaurant.

Today the Palace Pier is the place to be in Brighton, a key landmark and a world-famous attraction. Attracting dozens of celebrities every year (ranging from Jonathan Ross to Katie Price) and hosting it’s own arcade featuring newly released gaming consoles, a variety of food kiosks and it’s very own rides, the pier is a fantastic site to visit, whether you’re from Brighton itself or from afar!

 

The Next Big Thing

The West Pier was constructed in 1866 and gave Brighton the perfect landmark that gives it’s citizens another perspective of the marvelous city. Perspective is the key to all great attractions, from the London Eye to the Empire State Building, people simply like to view the city like no other. However in the 70’s the West Pier closed to the public and has sat in it’s ruins since, however in 2011 a new attraction was constructed in Brighton – The Brighton Wheel.

The temporary Brighton Wheel was manufactured in Germany and later transported to South Africa for the 2010 Fifa World Cup. It was then moved to Brighton in September 2011 to serve as a tourist attraction, holding a maximum of 284 people at once. The ride consists of 3 rotations lasting at around 12 minutes and is a fantastic opportunity to view Brighton in a completely different perspective! The location was very contoversial as it’s blocking ocean views and bringing in more tourists into a relatively quiet point on the seafront… However the wheel only has planning permission until 2016 and as the structure is fully transportable it’s operator, Paramount, claims that it can be closed and ready to move within 2 weeks!

There have been plans to build a new landmark in Brighton that follows the spirit of the West Pier in that it ables its guests to “walk on air” as well as giving them another brilliant perspective of the city! i360 is a tourist observation tower that will allow visiters to view the whole of the city from above and dine in the restaurant below. Located at the shore side of the West Pier wreckage and designed by the husband and wife team of David Marks and Julia Barfield (the same pair who designed the London Eye) the i360 should be a brilliant addition to an already fantastic city! Offshore construction has already began in the Netherlands but an opening date is still to be confirmed!