887,987

restaurant in brighton?

info@restaurant-in-brighton.co.uk

Can you explain a bit more?

a restaurant in brighton

A restaurant, like a restaurant in brighton, prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money.

Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services.

Restaurants vary greatly in appearance and offerings, including a wide variety of the main chef's cuisines and service models.

While inns and taverns were known from antiquity, these were establishments aimed at travelers, and in general locals would rarely eat there.

Modern restaurants are dedicated to the serving of food, where specific dishes are ordered by guests and are prepared to their request.

The modern restaurant originated in 18th century France, although precursors can be traced back to Roman times.

A restaurant owner is called a restaurateur both words derive from the French verb restaurer, meaning "to restore".

Professional artisans of cooking are called chefs, while preparation staff and line cooks prepare food items in a more systematic and less artistic fashion.

In Ancient Rome, thermopolia (singular thermopolium) were small restaurant-bars which offered food and drinks to the customer.

A typical thermopolium had L-shaped counters into which large storage vessels were sunk, which would contain either hot or cold food.

They are linked to the absence of kitchens in many dwellings and the ease with which people could purchase prepared foods.

Besides, eating out was also considered an important aspect of socialising.

In Pompeii, 158 thermopolia with a service counter have been identified across the whole town area.

They were concentrated along the main axes of the town and the public spaces where they were frequented by the locals.

Food catering establishments which may be described as restaurants were known since the 11th century in Kaifeng, China's northern capital during the first half of the Song Dynasty (960 to 1279).

With a population of over 1,000,000 people, a culture of hospitality and a paper currency, Kaifeng was ripe for the development of restaurants.

Probably growing out of the tea houses and taverns that catered to travellers, Kaifeng's restaurants blossomed into an industry catering to locals as well as people from other regions of China.

Stephen H West argues that there is a direct correlation between the growth of the restaurant businesses and institutions of theatrical stage drama, gambling and prostitution which served the burgeoning merchant middle class during the Song Dynasty.

Restaurants catered to different styles of cuisine, price brackets, and religious requirements.

Even within a single restaurant much choice was available, and people ordered the entree they wanted from written menus.

An account from 1275 writes of Hangzhou, the capital city for the last half of the dynasty: "The people of Hangzhou are very difficult to please.

Hundreds of orders are given on all sides: this person wants something hot, another something cold, a third something tepid, a fourth something chilled; one wants cooked food, another raw, another chooses roast, another grill".

The restaurants in Hangzhou also catered to many northern Chinese who had fled south from Kaifeng during the Jurchen invasion of the 1120s, while it is also known that many restaurants were run by families formerly from Kaifeng.

Restaurants on Greek islands are often situated right on the beach.

Restaurants range from unpretentious lunching or dining places catering to people working nearby, with simple food served in simple settings at low prices, to expensive establishments serving refined food and wines in a formal setting.

In the former case, customers usually wear casual clothing.

In the latter case, depending on culture and local traditions, customers might wear semi-casual, semi-formal, or even in rare cases formal wear.

Typically, customers sit at tables, their orders are taken by a waiter, who brings the food when it is ready, and the customers pay the bill before leaving.

In finer restaurants there will be a host or hostess or even a maitre d'hotel to welcome customers and to seat them.

Other staff waiting on customers include busboys and sommeliers.

Restaurants often specialize in certain types of food or present a certain unifying, and often entertaining, theme.

For example, there are seafood restaurants, vegetarian restaurants or ethnic restaurants.

Generally speaking, restaurants selling food characteristic of the local culture are simply called restaurants, while restaurants selling food of foreign cultural origin are called accordingly, Depending on local customs and the establishment, restaurants may or may not serve alcohol.

Restaurants are often prohibited from selling alcohol without a meal by alcohol sale laws; such sale is considered to be activity for bars, which are meant to have more severe restrictions.

Some restaurants are licensed to serve alcohol ("fully licensed"), and/or permit customers to "bring your own" alcohol (BYO / BYOB).

In some places restaurant licenses may restrict service to beer, or wine and beer.

Restaurants, like a restaurant in brighton, offering ethnic food have increased in North America, the UK and Australia in the past few decades.

One of many Italian restaurants in the Heights commercial district of North Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada Restaurant guides review restaurants, often ranking them or providing information for consumer decisions (type of food, handicap accessibility, facilities, etc).

One of the most famous contemporary guides, in Western Europe, is the Michelin series of guides which accord from 1 to 3 stars to restaurants they perceive to be of high culinary merit.

Restaurants with stars in the Michelin guide are formal, expensive establishments; in general the more stars awarded, the higher the prices.

The main competitor to the Michelin guide in Europe is the guidebook series published by Gault Millau.

Unlike the Michelin guide which takes the restaurant decor and service into consideration with its rating, Gault Millau only judges the quality of the food.

Its ratings are on a scale of 1 to 20, with 20 being the highest.

In the United States, the Forbes Travel Guide (previously the Mobil travel guides) and the AAA rate restaurants on a similar 1 to 5 star (Forbes) or diamond (AAA) scale.

Three, four, and five star/diamond ratings are roughly equivalent to the Michelin one, two, and three star ratings while one and two star ratings typically indicate more casual places to eat.

In 2005, Michelin released a New York City guide, its first for the United States.

The popular Zagat Survey compiles individuals' comments about restaurants but does not pass an "official" critical assessment.

In the United States Gault Millau is published as the Gayot guide, after founder Andre Gayot.

Its restaurant ratings use the same 20 point system, and are all published online.

The Good Food Guide, published by the Fairfax Newspaper Group in Australia, is the Australian guide listing the best places to eat.

Chefs Hats are awarded for outstanding restaurants and range from one hat through three hats.

The Good Food Guide also incorporates guides to bars, cafes and providers.

The Good Restaurant Guide is another Australian restaurant guide that has reviews on the restaurants as experienced by the public and provides information on locations and contact details.

Any member of the public can submit a review.

Nearly all major American newspapers employ food critics and publish online dining guides for the cities they serve.

A few papers maintain a reputation for thorough and thoughtful review of restaurants to the standard of the good published guides, but others provide more of a listings service.

More recently Internet sites have started up that publish both food critic reviews and popular reviews by the general public.

Their major competition comes from bloggers, particularly publishers of food blogs, also called foodies.

These writers and publishers represent the common dining aficionado rather than the gourmet, and thus do not provide "official" reviews, but nonetheless are capable of garnering large, loyal followings.

The first restaurant menus arose roughly one millennium ago, during the Song Dynasty in China - the only region of the world at the time where paper was abundant.

At this time, many merchants often congregated together in city centers and had little time or energy to eat during the evening.

Because of the large variation found in Chinese cuisine from different regions, the restaurants could no longer cater to the local palates, giving rise to the menu.

The word "menu," like much of the terminology of cuisine, is French in origin.

It ultimately derives from Latin "minutus," something made small; in French it came to be applied to a detailed list or resume of any kind.

The original menus that offered consumers choices were prepared on a small chalkboard, in French a carte; so foods chosen from a bill of fare are described as "a la carte," "according to the board.

" The original European restaurants did not have menus in the modern sense; these table d'hote establishments served dishes that were chosen by the chef or proprietors, and those who arrived ate what the house was serving that day, as in contemporary banquets or buffets.

In Europe, the contemporary menu first appeared in the second half of the eighteenth century.

Here, instead of eating what was being served from a common table, restaurants allowed diners to choose from a list of unseen dishes, which were produced to order according to the customer's selection.

A table d'hote establishment charged its customers a fixed price; the menu allowed customers to spend as much or as little money as they chose.

As early as the mid-20th century, some restaurants have relied on 'menu specialists' to design and print their menus.

Prior to the emergence of digital printing, these niche printing companies printed full-color menus on offset presses.

The economics of full-color offset made it impractical to print short press runs.

The solution was to print a 'menu shell' with everything but the prices.

The prices would later be printed on a less costly black-only press.

In a typical order, the printer might produce 600 menu shells, then finish and laminate 150 menus with prices.

When the restaurant needed to reorder, the printer would add prices and laminate some of the remaining shells.

With the advent of digital presses made by such companies as Canon, Kodak, Ricoh and Xerox, it became practical in the 1990s to print full-color menus affordably in short press runs, sometimes as few at 25 menus.

Because of limits on sheet size, typically no greater than 33 x 48 cm, larger laminated menus were impractical for single-location independent restaurants, and more restaurants began using menu covers to hold multiple sheets.

The use of covers also makes it possible to update one or more pages of the menu without discarding the entire product.

More recently, the advent of the Xerox iGen3 digital press allows sheet sizes of 36 x 57 cm, offering the option of larger laminated menus in press runs of as few as 100 copies.

The changing economics of offset printing in the early 21st century made it practical to produce press runs of as few as 300 menus, but some restaurants may want to place far fewer menus into service.

Some menu printers continue to use shells.

The disadvantage for the restaurant is that it is unable to update anything but prices without creating a new shell.

During the economic crisis in the 1970s, many restaurants found that they were having to incur costs from having to reprint the menu as inflation caused prices to increase.

Economists noted this transaction cost, and it has become part of economic theory, under the term "menu costs".

As a general economic phenomenon, "menu costs" can be experienced by a range of businesses beyond restaurants; for example, during a period of inflation, any company that prints catalogues or product price lists will have to reprint these items with new price figures.

To avoid having to reprint the menus throughout the year as prices changed, some restaurants began to display their menus on chalkboards, with the menu items and prices written in chalk.

This way, the restaurant could easily modify the prices without going to the expense of reprinting the paper menus.

A similar tactic continued to be used in the 2000s with certain items that are sensitive to changing supply, fuel costs, and so on: the use of the term "market price" or "Please ask server" instead of stating the price.

This allows restaurants to modify the price of lobster, fresh fish, and other items on a daily basis.

An 1899 menu from Delmonico's restaurant in New York City, which called some of its selections entremets, and contained barely English descriptions such as "plombiere of marrons.

" The main categories within a typical menu in the US are "appetizers," "side orders and a la carte," "entrees," "desserts" and "beverages.

" Sides and a la carte may include such items as soups, salads and dips.

There may be special age-restricted sections for "seniors" or for children, presenting smaller portions at lower prices.

Any of these sections may be pulled out as a separate menu, such as desserts and/or beverages, or a wine list.

Children's menus may also be presented as placemats with games and puzzles to help keep children entertained.

Menus can provide other useful information to diners.

Some menus describe the chef's or proprietor's food philosophy, the chef's resume, or the mission statement of the restaurant.

Menus often present a restaurant's policies about ID checks for alcohol, lost items, or gratuities for larger parties.

In the United States, county health departments frequently require restaurants to include health warnings about raw or undercooked meat, poultry, eggs and seafood.

As a form of advertising, the prose found on printed menus is famous for the degree of its puffery.

Menus frequently emphasize the processes used to prepare foods, call attention to exotic ingredients, and add French or other foreign language expressions to make the dishes appear sophisticated and exotic.

Higher-end menus often add adjectives to dishes such as "glazed," "sauteed," "poached," and so on.

"Menu language, with its hyphens, quotation marks, and random outbursts of foreign words, serves less to describe food than to manage your expectations"; restaurants are often "plopping in foreign words (80 percent of them French) like "spring mushroom civet," "plin of rabbit," "orange-jaggery gastrique".

Brian McGrory quips that, when going to a high-end restaurant, he sometimes feels that he needs "an unabridged dictionary, a Biology 101 textbook, and a pile of Fun With Phonics just to figure out the meaning of gianduja ice cream, hazelnut financiers, yellow watermelon, and bulgur crackers just some of the inscrutable listings from the dessert menu".

Terry Pratchett satirizes this in his novel Hogfather, after a fancy restaurant has its stock of expensive foods replaced with mud and old boots.

The resulting menu features such items as Panier de la Pate de Chaussures (Mud mousse in a basket of shoe pastry), Cafe de Terre, and Spaghetti Carbonara (boiled boot laces).

Part of the function of menu prose is to impress customers with the notion that the dishes served at the restaurant require such skill, equipment, and exotic ingredients that the diners could not prepare similar foods at home.

In some cases, ordinary foods are made to sound more exciting by replacing everyday terms with their French equivalent.

For example, instead of stating that a pork chop has a dollop of applesauce, a high-end restaurant menu might state "Tenderloin of pork avec compote de pommes.

" Although the French term "avec compote de pommes" is an exact translation of "with applesauce," it sounds more exotic, and more worthy of an inflated price tag.

Menus may use the French term "concasse" to describe coarsely chopped vegetables or "coulis" to describe a puree of vegetables or fruit.

Another example is the French term "au jus," which means that meat is served with its own natural gravy of pan drippings.

In some fast food restaurants, each menu item has a number and patrons are asked to "order by number.

" Another phenomenon is the so-called "secret menu" where some fast food restaurants are known for having unofficial and unadvertised selections that customers learn by word of mouth.

Fast food restaurants will often prepare variations on items already available, but to have them all on the menu would create clutter.

Chipotle Mexican Grill is well known for having a simple five item menu, but some might not know they offer quesadillas and single tacos, despite neither being on the menu board.

In-N-Out Burger has a very simple menu of burgers, fries, sodas, and shakes, but has a wide variety of "secret" styles of preparations, the most famous being "Animal Style" burgers and fries.

This can also occur in high-end restaurants, which may be willing to prepare certain items which are not listed on the menu (eg dishes that have long been favorites of regular clientele).

Sometimes restaurants may name foods often ordered by regular clientele after them, for either convenience or prestige.

Menus vary in length and detail depending on the type of restaurant.

The simplest hand-held menus are printed on a single sheet of paper, though menus with multiple pages or "views" are common.

In some cafeteria-style restaurants and chain restaurants, a single-page menu may double as a disposable placemat.

To protect a menu from spills and wear, it may be protected by heat-sealed vinyl page protectors, laminating or menu covers.

Restaurants weigh their positioning in the marketplace (eg fine dining, fast food, informal) in deciding which style of menu to use.

While some restaurants may use a single menu as the sole way of communicating information about menu items to customers, in other cases, the meal menu is supplemented with ancillary menus, such as: * An appetizer menu (nachos, chips and salsa, vegetables and dip, etc) * A wine list * A liquor and mixed drinks menu * A beer list * A dessert menu (which may also include a list of tea and coffee options) Some restaurants use only text in their menus.

In other cases, restaurants include illustrations and photos, either of the dishes or of an element of the culture which is associated with the restaurant.

An example of the latter is in cases where a Lebanese kebab restaurant decorates its menu with photos of Lebanese mountains and beaches.

Particularly with the ancillary menu types, the menu may be provided in alternative formats, because these menus (other than wine lists) tend to be much shorter than food menus.

For example, an appetizer menu or a dessert menu may be displayed on a folded paper table tent, a hard plastic table stand, a flipchart style wooden "table stand," or even, in the case of a pizza restaurant with a limited wine selection, a wine list glued to an empty bottle.

Take-out restaurants often leave paper menus in the lobbies and doorsteps of nearby homes as advertisement.

The first to do so may have been New York City's Empire Szechuan chain, founded in 1976.

The chain and other restaurants' aggressive menu distribution in the Upper West Side of Manhattan caused the "Menu Wars" of the 1990s, including invasions of Empire Szechuan by the "Menu Vigilantes", the revoking of its cafe license, several lawsuits, and physical attacks on menu distributors.

Some restaurants, typically fast-food restaurants and cafeteria-style establishments, provide their menu in a large poster or display board format up high on the wall or above the service counter.

This way, all of the patrons can see all of the choices, and the restaurant does not have to provide printed menus.

This large format menu may also be set up outside (see the next section).

The simplest large format menu boards have the menu printed or painted on a large flat board.

More expensive large format menu boards include boards that have a metal housing, a translucent surface, and a backlight (which facilitates the reading of the menu in low light), and boards that have removable numbers for the prices.

This enables the restaurant to change prices without having to have the board reprinted or repainted.

Some restaurants such as cafes and small eateries use a large chalkboard to display the entire menu.

The advantage of using a chalkboard is that the menu items and prices can be changed; the downside is that the chalk may be hard to read in lower light or glare, and the restaurant has to have a staff member who has attractive, clear handwriting.

A high-tech successor to the chalkboard menu is the 'write-on wipe-off" illuminated sign, using LED technology.

The text appears in a vibrant color against a black background.

Some restaurants, like a restaurant in brighton, provide a copy of their menu outside the restaurant.

Fast-food restaurants that have a drive-through or walk-up window will often put the entire menu on a board, lit-up sign, or poster outside, so that patrons can select their meal choices.

High-end restaurants may also provide a copy of their menu outside the restaurant, with the pages of the menu placed in a lit-up glass display case; this way, prospective patrons can see if the menu choice is to their liking.

As well, some mid-level and high-end restaurants may provide a partial indication of their menu listings, the "specials", on a chalkboard displayed outside the restaurant.

The chalkboard will typically provide a list of seasonal items or dishes that are the specialty of the chef which are only available for a few days.

With the invention of LCD and Plasma displays, some menus have moved from a static printed model, to one which can change dynamically.

By using a flat LCD screen and a computer server, menus can be digitally displayed allowing moving images, animated effects and the ability to edit details and prices.

For fast food restaurants, a benefit is the ability to update prices and menu items as frequently as needed, across an entire chain.

Digital menu boards also allow restaurant owners to control the day parting of their menus, converting from a breakfast menu in the late morning.

Some platforms support the ability allow local operators to control their own pricing while the design aesthetic is controlled by the corporate entity.

Various software tools and hardware developments have been created for the specific purpose of managing a digital menu board system.

Digital menu screens can also alternate between displaying the full menu and showing video commercials to promote specific dishes or menu items.

Websites featuring online restaurant menus have been on the Internet for nearly a decade.

In recent years, however, more and more restaurants outside of large metropolitan areas have been able to feature their menus online as a result of this trend.

Several restaurant-owned and startup online food ordering websites already included menus on their websites, yet due to the limitations of which restaurants could handle online orders, many restaurants were left invisible to the Internet aside from an address listing.

Multiple companies came up with the idea of posting menus online simultaneously, and it is difficult to ascertain who was first.

Menus and online food ordering have been available online since at least 1997.

Since 1997, hundreds of online restaurant menu web sites have appeared on the Internet.

Some sites are city-specific, some list by region, state or province.

a restaurant in brighton

Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove (formed from the previous towns of Brighton, Hove, Portslade and several other villages) in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain.

For administrative purposes, Brighton and Hove is not part of the non-metropolitan county of East Sussex, but remains part of the ceremonial county of East Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex.

The ancient settlement of Brighthelmstone dates from before Domesday Book (1086), but it emerged as a health resort featuring sea bathing during the 18th century and became a destination for day-trippers from London after the arrival of the railway in 1841.

Brighton experienced rapid population growth, reaching a peak of over 160,000 by 1961.

Modern Brighton forms part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation stretching along the coast, with a population of around 480,000.

Brighton has two universities and a medical school.

In the Domesday Book, Brighton was called Bristelmestune and a rent of 4,000 herring was established.

In June 1514 Brighthelmstone was burnt to the ground by French raiders during a war between England and France.

Only part of the St Nicholas Church and the street pattern of the area now known as "The Lanes" survived.

The first drawing of Brighthelmstone was made in 1545 and depicts what is believed to be the raid of 1514.

During the 1740s and 1750s, Dr Richard Russell of Lewes began prescribing seawater at Brighton.

By 1780, development of the Georgian terraces had started and the fishing village became the fashionable resort of Brighton.

Growth of the town was further encouraged by the patronage of the Prince Regent (later King George IV) after his first visit in 1783.

He spent much of his leisure time in the town and constructed the Royal Pavilion during the early part of his Regency.

Although contracted forms of the name are attested since the 15th Century, it was not until this period that the modern form of the name came into common use.

The arrival of the London and Brighton Railway in 1841 brought Brighton within the reach of day-trippers from London and population growth from around 7,000 in 1801 to over 120,000 by 1901.

The Victorian era saw the building of many major attractions including the Grand Hotel (1864), the West Pier (1866) and the Palace Pier (1899).

Prior to either of these structures the famous Chain Pier was built, to the designs of Captain Samuel Brown.

It lasted from 1823 to 1896, and featured in paintings by both Turner and Constable.

After boundary changes between 1873 and 1952, the land area of Brighton increased from 1,640 acres (7 km2) in 1854 to 14,347 acres (58 km2) in 1952.

New housing estates were established in the acquired areas including Moulsecoomb, Bevendean, Coldean and Whitehawk.

The major expansion of 1928 also incorporated the villages of Patcham, Ovingdean and Rottingdean, and much council housing was built in parts of Woodingdean after the Second World War.

More recently, gentrification of much of Brighton has seen a return of the fashionable image which characterised the growth of the Regency period.

Recent housing in the North Laine, for instance, has been designed in keeping with the area.

In 1997 Brighton and Hove were joined to form the unitary authority of Brighton and Hove, which was granted city status by Queen Elizabeth II as part of the millennium celebrations in 2000.

Brighton is sometimes referred to as London-by-the-sea.

The Royal Pavilion is a former royal palace built as a home for the Prince Regent during the early 19th century, under the direction of the architect John Nash, and is notable for its Indo-Saracenic architecture and Oriental interior.

Other Indo-Saracenic buildings in Brighton include the Sassoon Mausoleum, now, with the bodies reburied elsewhere, in use as a chic supper club.

Brighton Marine Palace and Pier ( long known as the Palace Pier) opened in 1899.

It features a funfair, restaurants and arcade halls.

The West Pier was built in 1866 and has been closed since 1975 awaiting renovation, which faces continual setbacks,The West Pier is one of only two Grade I listed piers in the United Kingdom, but suffered two fires in 2003.

Plans for a new landmark in its place - the i360, a 183 m (600 ft) observation tower designed by London Eye architects Marks Barfield, were announced in June 2006.

Plans were approved by the council on 11 October 2006.

Created in 1883, Volk's Electric Railway runs along the inland edge of the beach from Brighton Pier to Black Rock and Brighton Marina.

It is the world's oldest operating electric railway.

The Grand Hotel was built in 1864 and the scene of the 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing.

Its nighttime blue lighting is particularly prominent along the foreshore.

The 11th century St Nicholas Church is the oldest building in Brighton, commonly known as "The Mother Church".

Other notable churches include the large brick-built St Bartholomew's, and St Peter's on an island between the Lewes Road and the London Road.

Brighton has one synagogue, the Middle Street Synagogue, a Grade II listed building built in 1874.

It is presently in the process of being gradually restored by English Heritage.

About 12% of the population of the Brighton & Hove conurbation are of Jewish ancestry, with a little less than half presently practising some form of Judaism, according to a 2007 study by the European Jewish Press.

Nevertheless, Brighton has become known as one of the least religious places in the UK, based upon analysis of the 2001 census which revealed that 66,955 people (27 per cent of the population) profess no religion, almost double the national average of 15 per cent.

As part of the Jedi census phenomenon, over 2 per cent claimed their religion was Jedi Knight.

The seafront has bars, restaurants, nightclubs and amusement arcades, principally between the piers.

Being less than an hour from London by train has made the city a popular destination.

Brighton beach has a nudist area (south of the easterly part of Kemptown).

Brighton's beach, which is a shingle beach up to the mean low tide mark, has been awarded a blue flag.

The Monarch's Way long-distance footpath heads west along the seafront above the beach.

Ohso Social is a former deck chair arch that has been transformed into a bar and restaurant.

Since the 1978 demolition of the open-air lido at Black Rock, the most easterly part of Brighton's seafront, the area has been developed and now features one of Europe's largest marinas.

However, the site of the pool itself remains empty except for a skate park and graffiti wall, and further development is planned including a high-rise hotel which has aroused debate, mirroring proposals for the King Alfred leisure centre in Hove, which were pulled in 2008.

In addition, part of the eastern side of the beach has been redeveloped into a sports complex, which has courts for anything from beach volleyball to ultimate Frisbee, and opened to the public in March 2007.

Brighton's art community is showcased once a year in an artists' open house event during the Brighton Festival.

On the seafront between Brighton's two piers is the Artists Quarter, a row of Victorian fishermen's workshops converted to small galleries and studio spaces, where artists, employing a variety of media and styles, publicly present their work.

In 2009 Anish Kapoor exhibited throughout Brighton as part of the Brighton Festival, for which he was also artistic director.

Brighton Museum and Art Gallery in Pavilion Gardens, part of the Royal Pavilion complex, provides permanent collections and temporary exhibitions.

Brighton has featured in a number of hit movies including Quadrophenia (1979), MirrorMask (2005), Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008), The Young Victoria (2009), Brighton Rock (2010 and 1947) and The Boat that Rocked (2009).

Brighton is considered by many to be one of the UK's premier night-life hotspots and is also associated with many popular music artists.

There are also live music venues including the Concorde2,Brighton Centre and the Brighton Dome, where ABBA received a substantial boost to their career when they won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest.

There are a large number of events and performance companies operating in the city.

There are over 300 pubs in the town.

"The Big Beach Boutique II": over 250,000 watched Fatboy Slim (July 2002) Each May the city hosts the Brighton Festival, the second largest arts festival in the UK (after Edinburgh).

This includes processions such as the Children's Parade, outdoor spectaculars often involving pyrotechnics, and theatre, music and visual arts in venues throughout the city, some brought into this use exclusively for the festival.

The earliest feature of the festival, the Artists' Open Houses, are homes of artists and craftspeople opened to the public as galleries, and usually selling the work of the occupants.

Since 2002, these have been organised independently of the official Festival and Fringe.

Brighton Festival Fringe runs alongside Brighton Festival, and has grown to be the second largest fringe festival in the world.

Together with the street performers from Brighton Festival's "Streets of Brighton" events, and the Royal Mile-esque outdoor performances that make up "Fringe City", outdoor spectacles and events more than double during May.

Other festivals include The Great Escape, featuring three nights of live music in venues across the city; the Soundwaves Festival in June, which shows classical music composed in the 21st Century, and involves both amateur and professional performers; Paddle Round the Pier; Brighton Live which each September stages a week of free gigs in pubs to show local bands; Burning the Clocks, a winter solstice celebration; and Brighton Pride (see lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, below).

The Kemptown area has its own small annual street festival, the Kemptown Carnival, and the Hanover area similarly has a "Hanover Day".

Beachdown Festival, started in 2008 has recently ceased operations due to financial difficulties.

An inaugural White Nights (Nuit Blanche) all-night arts festival took place in October 2008.

2009 saw the first Brighton Zine Fest celebrating zine and DIY culture within the city.

On 1 September 2007, competitors from the United Kingdom, United States, Germany and other countries convened for the World Beard and Moustache Championship.

Hosted by The Handlebar Club, categories include Dali moustache, goatee and full beard freestyle.

Additionally, Brighton is permanent home to notable moustache advocate Michael "Atters" Attree.

Brighton is the home of the UK's first Walk of Fame which celebrates the many rich and famous people associated with the city.

Brighton museums include Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Booth Museum of Natural History, Brighton Toy and Model Museum, and Brighton Fishing Museum the long established social epicentre of the seafront, which includes artefacts from the West Pier.

The Royal Pavilion is also open to the public, serving as a museum to the British Regency.

Theatres include the Brighton Dome, the expanded Komedia (also used as a music venue) and the Theatre Royal which celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2007.

There are also smaller theatres such as the Marlborough Theatre and Nightingale Theatre, both above pubs, which attract mostly local productions.

Brighton also has a history of involvement with the film industry, and the Duke of York's Picture House at Preston Circus has been in operation since 22 September 1910.

There are multiplex cinemas at West Street and the marina.

Brighton is well known for having a substantial LGBT community (one in three people) served by shops, bars and night-clubs in addition to support organisations.

It is often referred to as "the gay capital of Britain".

The Gay Pride carnival every August attracts thousands.

It consists of a carnival parade and a party and funfair in Preston Park.

Brighton has a high density of businesses involved in media, particularly digital or "new media", and since the 1990s has been referred to as "Silicon Beach".

According to the Boho Britain creativity index developed by United States economic regeneration expert Richard Florida, Brighton and Hove ranked sixth of 66 British new cities when measured against the three criteria of his index.

Florida states the index measures the appeal of cities to the new "creative class" and is an indicator of a city's health.

American Express has plans to build a new headquarters building on John Street, behind its current headquarters in Edward Street.

It employs around 3000, the largest private employer in the city.

"The Lanes" form a retail, leisure and residential area near the seafront, characterised by narrow alleyways following the street pattern of the original fishing village.

The Lanes contain predominantly clothing stores, jewellers, antique shops, restaurants and pubs.

The North Laine area is a retail, leisure and residential area immediately north of The Lanes.

Its name derives from the Anglo-Saxon "Laine" meaning "fields".

The North Laine contains a mix of businesses dominated by cafes, independent and avant-garde shops, bars and theatres.

Churchill Square is a shopping centre with a floor space of 470,000 sq ft (43,663 m2) and over 80 shops, several restaurants and 1,600 car-parking spaces.

It was built in the 1960s as an open-air, multi-level pedestrianised shopping centre, but was rebuilt and enlarged in 1998 and is no longer open-air.

Further retail areas include Western Road and London Road.

Brighton & Hove City Council is responsible for 80 schools, of which 54 are in Brighton.

The University of Sussex established in 1961 is a campus university between Stanmer Park and Falmer, four miles (6 km) from the city centre.

Served by frequent trains (to Falmer railway station) and 24-hour buses, it has a student population of 10,563 of which 70% are undergraduates.

The University of Brighton, the former Brighton Polytechnic, has a student population of 20,017 of which 80% are undergraduates.

The University is on several sites with additional buildings in Falmer, Moulsecoomb, Eastbourne and Hastings.

In 2003, the universities of Sussex and Brighton formed a medical school, known as Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

The school was one of four new medical schools to be created as part of a government programme to increase the number of qualified NHS doctors.

The school is also based in Falmer and works closely with the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust A range of non-university courses for students over 16, mainly in vocational education subjects, is provided at the further education college, City College Brighton and Hove.

More academic subjects can be studied for 16,17,18 year-olds at Brighton Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College (BHASVIC) in the Seven Dials area.

Varndean College in North Brighton occupies a commanding position.

The 1920s building is celebrated for its facade and internal quads.

The college offers academic A levels, The International Baccalaureate and vocational courses.

There are state schools and some faith schools.

Notable state schools include Longhill High School, Varndean School, Patcham High School, Dorothy Stringer High School, Blatchington Mill School and Sixth Form College, Hove Park School and Sixth Form Centre, Brighton Aldridge Community AcademyPortslade Aldridge Community Academy and Cardinal Newman School (a large Roman Catholic secondary school, which also caters for the children of the large Coptic Orthodox community).

There are also a number of private schools, including Brighton College, Roedean School, Steiner School, BHHS and a Montessori School.

As with the state schools, some independents are faith-based; Torah Academy, the last Jewish primary school, became a Pre-K/Nursery School at the end of the 2007.

In spring and summer, thousands of students from all over Europe gather to attend language courses at the many language schools.

Brighton and Hove is part of three constituencies in the British Parliament: Brighton Kemptown, Brighton Pavilion, and Hove.

These three seats are all marginal constituencies.

They were held by Labour from 1997 to 2010.

At the 2010 British election, Brighton Kemptown and Hove both elected Conservative MPs, Simon Kirby and Mike Weatherley respectively, while Brighton Pavilion elected Caroline Lucas, the first Green MP ever elected to Westminster.

Lucas won 16,238 votes (31%), compared with Labour's 14,986 votes (28%) and the Conservative's 12,275 votes (23%).

In European elections, Brighton is part of the European Parliament constituency of South-East England.

The political campaigning group Justice? and its SchNEWS newspaper are based in Brighton, at the Cowley Club libertarian social centre; also operating from the town is the Brighton and Hove Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

The presence of a British subsidiary of the United States arms company EDO Corporation in Moulsecoomb, Brighton, has been the cause of protests since 2004.

Brighton's citizens have developed a reputation in recent years for their readiness to challenge the views of the council's planning department.

One of the main campaigning organisations is savebrighton, founded in 2007 to oppose the overdevelopment of Brighton Marina.

Savebrighton has also been active in opposing other planning applications for developments it has regarded as excessive, out of context or otherwise inappropriate.

Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club is the city's professional football team.

After playing at the Goldstone Ground for 95 years, they were forced to sell it in 1997 to pay off debts.

The club spent two years ground-sharing at Gillingham before returning to the town as tenants of the Withdean Athletics Stadium.

However, in 2011 the club moved to a permanent home at Falmer at the start of the 2011/12 season, with the first match happening in July 2011.

The new stadium, the Falmer Stadium, was built by The Buckingham Group, who also built the MK Dons stadium.

The club's notable achievements including winning promotion to the Football League First Division for the first time in 1979, staying there for four seasons, during the last of which they reached the FA Cup final and took Manchester United to a replay before losing 4 nil.

Notable former managers of the club include Brian Clough, Peter Taylor (born 1928), Peter Taylor (born 1953), Jimmy Melia, Liam Brady, Jimmy Case, Steve Gritt, Brian Horton, Steve Coppell and Mark McGhee.

Notable former players include Gareth Barry, Dave Beasant, Justin Fashanu, Dennis Mortimer, Gordon Smith, Frank Stapleton, Howard Wilkinson and Bobby Zamora.

Brighton and Hove is also home to the Sussex County Cricket Club based on Eaton Road in Hove.

Brighton is also the home of one of the oldest Rugby Clubs in England; Brighton Football Club (RFU).

Throughout the year many events take place on Madeira Drive (a piece of roadway on Brighton's seafront), which was constructed in order to host what is commonly held to be the world's oldest motor race, the Brighton Speed Trials, which has been running since 1905.

The event is organised by the Brighton and Hove Motor Club and normally takes place on the second Saturday in September each year.

There is also an annual beach soccer competition in a temporary stadium on imported sand on the beach.

The inaugural contest in June 2002 featured football stars such as Eric Cantona and Matt Le Tissier.

Brighton has a horse-racing course, Brighton Racecourse, with the unusual feature that when the full length of the course is to be used, some of the grass turf of the track has to be laid over the tar at the top of Wilson Avenue, a public road, which therefore has to be closed for the races.

There is a greyhound racing circuit in Hove, run by Coral, at which Motorcycle speedway racing was staged in 1928.

Basketball team Brighton Bears were in the British Basketball League before dropping out at the end of the 2005/06 season.

Their home venue was at The Triangle Leisure Centre in Burgess Hill.

Brighton Ultimate, an ultimate Frisbee team was set up in 1985.

Brighton Tsunami American Football Club was started in 2000 for students of the University of Brighton.

It plays at the university's Falmer site, between November and March.

The Brighton and Hove Petanque Club runs an annual triples, doubles and singles competition, informal KOs, winter and summer league, plus Open competitions with other clubs.

The club is affiliated to Sussex Petanque, the local region of the English Petanque Association, so they can also play at a Regional and National level.

The Peace Statue terrain is the official petanque terrain situated on the seafront near the West Pier.

There are yachting clubs and other boating activities run from Brighton Marina.

Brighton has two competitive swimming clubs.

Brighton SC formed in 1860 claims to be the oldest swimming club in England.

Brighton Dolphin SC was formed in 1891 as Brighton Ladies Swimming Public transport dates back to 1840.

There are several railway stations, bus services, taxis, and coach services.

A Rapid Transport System has been under consideration for some years and in the past it has had trolleybuses, ferries, trams and hydrofoil services.

Frequent trains operate from Brighton Station.

Many Brighton residents commute to work in London and destinations include London Victoria, London Bridge, and Gatwick Airport, with trains continuing to Bedford.

The fastest service from London Victoria takes 51 minutes.

Lines from Brighton serve stations to Worthing, Portsmouth and Southampton in the west and via Lewes to Newhaven, Eastbourne, Hastings and Ashford, Kent in the east.

A wider range of long-distance destinations was served until 2007/08 when rationalisation caused the ending of services via Kensington Olympia and Reading and beyond to Milton Keynes, Birmingham and Manchester.

Twice-daily services remain, however, on the line west to Bristol.

Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company operates 300 buses.

There is also a limited night service.

Brighton buses are often named after famous local figures.

Brighton also has buses that run on recycled bio-fuel, obtained from locally-sourced used cooking oil; The Big Lemon runs from the University of Sussex into the centre of Brighton regularly.

Countryliner operate regular services to the surrounding areas such as Burgess Hill.

Brighton seafront is the home of Volk's Electric Railway, the world's oldest electric railway.

sitemap
Last Updated: 2012/02/22