Brighton

Brighton’s North Laine is the city’s bohemian heart — a lively mix of indie shops, vintage boutiques, street food, and creative energy. Its walls form an open-air gallery of bold graffiti and murals, including nods to Banksy, whose Kissing Coppers once helped cement the area’s street-art fame.

Stroll the colourful lanes, browse the quirky stores, and soak up the vibrant, expressive spirit that makes North Laine uniquely Brighton.

Brighton’s Royal Pavilion is the city’s most dazzling landmark — an exotic palace rising from its gardens with striking domes, minarets, and intricate Regency design. Built as a seaside retreat for King George IV, it blends Indian-inspired exteriors with lavish Chinese-themed interiors, creating one of Britain’s most distinctive architectural treasures.

Wander through its ornate rooms, stroll the surrounding gardens, and take in the Pavilion’s unique mix of grandeur and whimsy that perfectly captures Brighton’s flair for the extraordinary.

Brighton Palace Pier, opened in 1899 and designed by R. St George Moore, began as an elegant “marine palace” complete with reading rooms, dining areas, and a grand theatre added in 1901. Over the years it survived storms, wartime closures, and changing tastes, eventually evolving into the lively amusement pier seen today. Now Grade II* listed and Brighton’s only remaining historic pier, it blends classic seaside heritage with a cheerful, modern atmosphere.

Along the nearby seafront, two well-known public artworks add a contemporary touch. Afloat, created in 1998 by sculptor Hamish Black, is a bronze torus engraved with the world’s continents, framing the sea and sky through its circular opening. Kiss Wall, installed in 1992 by Bruce Williams, is a tall aluminium panel perforated with dot-screen imagery that reveals embracing figures when caught by the right light.

Together, the historic pier and these imaginative sculptures capture Brighton’s unique mix of nostalgia, creativity, and playful seaside charm.

West Pier opened in 1866, designed by engineer Eugenius Birch as a graceful Victorian pleasure pier stretching over 1,100 feet into the sea. It flourished through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with kiosks, a pavilion added in 1893, and a concert hall by 1916, becoming a hub for theatre, music, and seaside promenades. During this period, Victorian sea bathing was a popular pastime, and the pier was often visited by the Dippers, a group who helped the royalty and aristocracy immerse in the cold sea waters to take in the believed health benefits of seawater. Decline began mid-century, and it closed in 1975; fires in 2003 destroyed much of the remaining structure, leaving only skeletal metalwork that remains a hauntingly beautiful landmark. In a bold reimagining of Brighton’s seafront legacy, Brighton i360 opened in 2016 — a 162-metre observation tower rising near the remains of West Pier. Its gently ascending glass pod lifts visitors into panoramic 360° views over Brighton, the South Downs, and the Channel, calling itself a “vertical pier” and linking the Victorian tradition of seaside promenades with modern tourism. Together, the skeletal ruins of West Pier and the soaring i360 capture the contrast between fading history and contemporary ambition, allowing visitors to feel both the echoes of Victorian glamour and the excitement of a new era on Brighton’s coastline.