Brighton's iconic beach and pier is popular with families and sunseekers. Photo / Getty Images
Brighton's iconic beach and pier is popular with families and sunseekers. Photo / Getty Images
With culture galore, Brighton is the perfect spot for vinyl fans, vintage hunters, and foodies, writes Graham Reid.
The city of Brighton on England's southeast coast is less than an hour by train from central London. This means on Fridays the station – just a few minute's walk from the centre's narrow streets and the even narrower Lanes – delivers sightseers, hen parties, stag-do guys, shoppers looking for bargains or eccentric goods in the numerous markets.
Brighton's eclectic shops are full of vintage and retro finds. Photo / Getty Images
The small town centre of hip, vibrant and accommodating Brighton is where retro-clothing, Mod culture, graphic novel and anime shops, secondhand clothes and records, old books and maps, fine dining and cheap eats all come together within easy walking distance of each other.
Brighton is gay-friendly, liberal, fun and – on weekends, especially in summer – can be packed.
Our tip: arrive earlier in the week and explore at leisure, and here are 10 places to go including some you might otherwise miss.
FINE DINING
The Flint House: 13 Hanningtons Lane
This stylish and modern bar-cum-restaurant occupies a bright corner that affords views of the passing parade. Better than that though, it has a superb kitchen and wine list. And best of all a cocktail menu, which includes the spectacular Gold, a blend of burnt butter vodka and espresso. It's the drink St Peter will have on the tray when he greets you at the Gates of Heaven. flinthousebrighton.com
Booking is essential, but if you can't get in for lunch or dinner you certainly aren't stepping down if you get into the nearby, plush – dress-for-dinner – Ivy in the Lanes, where the decor is overwhelmingly lush. theivybrighton.com
On the edge of the gay district to the east of the town, this intimate, dark and slightly exotic bar and restaurant is the ideal place to meet up before a night out. Or even for cocktails and dinner.
A tip: book for slightly earlier in the evening, especially on a weekend, because later means you might have to encounter the shouty hen-parties and stag-lads. Check out the downstairs bar of course, but the first floor is small and has lovely lighting. theplottingparlour-brighton.co.uk
SECONDHAND ROWS
Snoopers Paradise: 7-8 Kensington Gardens
It looks like nothing from the outside, just a doorway, but once inside you're in vast series of passageways between almost a hundred small, independently operated stores that have vintage clothing, antique maps (who knew Vietnam was once called Far East India by cartographers?), kitsch and chintz and chic, books and records, retro posters and photographs, odd art, vintage radios and cameras, toys, and magazines.
If you can't find it here, it probably never existed. Although that doesn't mean you shouldn't try any of the many other secondhand shops in Brighton. snoopersparadise.co.uk
CULTURE AND HISTORY
Brighton Museum and Art Gallery: Royal Pavilion Gardens, Pavilion Parade
Life isn't all about shopping and eating, so take time out for this handsome museum and gallery where you will encounter Salvador Dali's Mae West couch (shaped like her lips), chairs by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Charles Eames, old portraits and contemporary exhibitions (one on The Jam runs until early October), the history of Brighton in photos and paintings, and so much more. Two minutes walk from the extraordinary Royal Pavilion (more on that soon) and not to be missed. brightonmuseums.org.uk
The Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, located in the Royal Pavilion garden, is a cultural hub of the city. Photo / Getty Images
SKY HIGH
British Airways i360 Tower. King's Road
You can hardly miss this, it stands more than 160m above the main waterfront road – an easy 15-minute walk from central Brighton – and the jape is that you are taking a vertical flight with British Airways. You buy your boarding pass for your flight from crew members in uniform and are slowly taken to the top in the doughnut-shaped viewing platform (with a bar at the centre).
From the top you get a commanding view of the orderly street layouts of Brighton and Hove far beneath. Any time is a good time to go up (unless it is bucketing down) but just before sunset there is high demand for the flight. A must-do, if touristy thing. But then again, you're a tourist, right?
When you walk back, go down to beach level and see all the funky shops underneath the roadway. britishairwaysi360.com
CRATE DIGGERS
Across the Tracks, corner Gloucester Rd and Sydney St.
DJ, record collectors and archivists have no end of options for digging through boxes of pre-loved records that have made their way to Brighton. Abba may have won the Eurovision Song Contest here with Waterloo, but these days the place is better known for locals like DJ Fatboy Slim and Nick Cave.
Being the pernickety bunch they are, collectors and DJs will argue over their favourite shop. This one is central and allows for an enjoyable time spent saying to yourself as you thumb through, "got it, got it, don't want it, got it, yuck, got it, hey wow!" acrossthetracksrecords.com
It can't all be history, secondhand and bric-a-brac shops, so how about some downtime at a luxurious, small cinema in the centre of town?
The Komedia bills itself as the younger sister of Brighton's better-known and historic Duke of York Picturehouse, which is one of the world's oldest cinemas (it opened in 1910 and has been in continuous use since).
But Komedia, with just two screens, large and comfortable seats, a bar, kitchen, and lovely decor is a quiet retreat into arthouse or blockbuster movies when you just need to escape from Brighton's haste. picturehouses.com/cinema/duke-s-at-komedia
MEXICAN-UPON -SEA
Tlaloc at the Old Pier, 135 Kings Rd
And why wouldn't this cosmopolitan city have a terrific and authentic Mexican restaurant that specialises in modern Mexican beyond the familiar beans 'n' rice and tacos. They also do fine cocktails (some with tequila of course) and with a sea view across the road, this is a place for an afternoon lunch and then a leisurely walk back into town.
It's also just a few minutes from the British Airways i360 Tower so you could tick two things off in one afternoon before a night on the town. lalocbrighton.co.uk/bookings
Yes it's Dave's but the bigger sign on the front of the two-storey building in the centre of town is The Graphic Novel Shop. And it delivers on that promise.
Here are literally thousands of graphic novels of all persuasion, and pop culture aficionados will be right in their element. davescomics.co.uk
The colourful and quirky shopping lanes, featuring Dave's Comics. Photo / Getty Images
But Brighton has many such places, like Timeslip for cult classic DVDs and videos (90 Trafalgar St), and the nearby Burst Gallery at 24 Sydney St selling photos of rock and pop stars from the young Beatles and Stones through Joni Mitchell and Grace Jones to Iggy Pop and the Ramones. You don't have to walk far to get a tattoo, a Mod's Union Jacket or posters of King Kong hanging off the i360.
THE BEST FOR LAST?
The Royal Pavilion, 4/5 Pavilion Buildings
Just a few minutes' walk from the fun, kitsch and merry-go-round entertainments of the famous Brighton Pier is the breathtaking Royal Pavilion, built as a holiday home for George, the Prince of Wales (later George IV), in the early 1800s.
The must-see Brighton Royal Pavilion. Photo / Getty Images
It's a riotous mixture of Indian and Islamic architecture, ornate ceilings and domes, magnificent lights and carpets, and a dining room that could cater for just 40 or 50 close friends. Understatement doesn't live here, but in places, the chinoiserie style has also taken up residence.
Ornate furnishings inside the Royal Pavilion. Photo / Graham Reid
A tour of the building is a must-do in Brighton, and be sure to wander around it at night when it's illuminated and looks absolutely spectacular.
