England
Things you probably didn't know about Brighton
The seaside escape that became a byword for the British coast.
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1823 — fact 1 of 4
An Indian palace on the English coast
The Royal Pavilion, George IV’s exotic seaside pleasure palace, is one of the most astonishing buildings in Europe.
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1897 — fact 2 of 4
Some of the world’s earliest films were made here
George Albert Smith’s Brighton studio pioneered film techniques in the 1890s — now called the Brighton School of filmmaking.
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1964 — fact 3 of 4
Mods, rockers and bank holiday chaos
The 1964 clashes betweenmods and rockers on the seafront made national headlines and entered pop history.
See what 1964 was like → -
1899 — fact 4 of 4
The pier that keeps being reborn
Brighton’s Palace Pier (1899) has survived fires, storms and film villains for over a century.
Our Brighton collection is part of a growing local-history library — more cities and facts are being added.