English seaside resorts don’t get much more iconic than Brighton. It has regency-era buildings, excellent entertainment venues, and an important arts scene. But best of all, it is home to Brighton Beach, one of the most famous stretches of shingle in Britain.
Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach & Pier
When the sun’s out and the weather’s warm, there’s no better place to be than Brighton Beach. Grab an ice cream from the Kings Road Arches, pick out your spot in the sand from over five miles of beach real estate, sit back and relax in the sun. Grab one of the beach’s 600 million pebbles and skim it across the surf. Or, if you’re feeling more active, then you can enjoy all kinds of watersport action, including kayaking, windsurfing and paddleboarding.
Of course, you can pay a visit to the world-famous Brighton Pier that brilliantly bisects the beach and has been one of the leading attractions of the south coast since it first opened in 1899. At 525m long, it’s a beast of engineering consisting of over 85 miles of planking, 67,000 light bulbs, and takes three months to paint – and it gets a fresh coat every year!
Over the years, Brighton Pier has become iconic in British culture and features in classics such as Brighton Rock and Quadrophenia. Today, Brighton Pier welcomes more than four million visitors a year, thanks to its amusement park of fairground rides and roller coasters, making it Britain’s most popular tourist attraction outside of London.
On the seafront, you’ll find some of our favourite Brighton entertainment venues. You can’t really miss the Brighton Centre, which holds the title for being the biggest purpose-built events venue in the south of England, thanks to its whopping 5,000-person capacity. However, there’s also Patterns, a former Art Deco hotel that’s been turned into a hotbed of the best new music, delicious cocktails and notorious DJ nights. Or, you could make your way to the multi-award winning Concorde 2, which is practically on the beach, housed in a stunning 600-capacity Victorian building once described as “the perfect venue” by Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame.
Whether you’re simply sunbathing, or you choose to make the most of the huge amount of things you can see and do around Brighton Beach, at some point, you’re going to get peckish. The good news is that some of our favourite places to eat in Brighton can be found close to the seafront, including The Gingerman, which is a real hidden gem of a bistro.