Brighton has always been exciting. In 1782 Fanny Burney described plunging into the sea here at 6am on a November morning “by the pale blink of the moon”, and two years later when “Prinny” (who later became the Prince Regent) first came to stay here with his fast-living uncle, the Duke of Cumberland (who ran a gaming house and started Brighton Races) he was smitten. The world and his wife followed him. Away from the formal strictures of court life in London, it was the feeling of freedom Prinny loved, in what was then a small town of old inns, winding streets and twittens around the Steine, an area of low ground with a stream (now a rarefied shopping centre). The home he built, the Brighton Pavilion, enlarged and enhanced over the next forty years in the form of an exotic mogul fairytale palace, reflected his passion for pleasurable indulgences as well as his defiance of convention.

Brighton was never judgmental. It still isn’t. It remains the most tolerant town in the land and one in which it is impossible to be a misfit…

Read more about Brighton in Candida Lycett Green’s new book Seaside Resorts, available now from The Oldie website for £14.99.
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