Brighton’s development as a seaside resort – causes and consequences

Brighton was a declining seaside town which regenerated as a seaside resort. Four more declining coastal towns also benefited from seaside tourism but Brighton outgrew them and has remained the most important resort of this quintet.

We will explore why Brighton was fashionable before the arrival of George, Prince of Wales (whose influence on the resort has been overstated) and then examine the very significant impact of being on the front line during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815). From 1815 Brighton was transformed to such an extent that a visitor who knew it in 1780 would have found much of the townscape unfamiliar. We will look at how this happened.

The talk will be illustrated with some of the rich collection of images of it during this period, a collection that is currently undervalued as a resource for the marketing of the resort’s important surviving buildings to the many people interested in towns with an historic ambience as is clear from the popularity of Bath, Edinburgh and York as well as Lewes, the small town near Brighton.

Sue Berry is a historian who has published many articles on Brighton and Sussex in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. A number of her articles have appeared in the Georgian Group Journal. She published Georgian Brighton in 2005 and has also published about the resort’s history in the Sussex Archaeological Collections.

The talks starts at 6.30pm. Joining details will be sent to attendees the day before.