Brighton & Hove: The City By The Sea
Brighton was a town, but Brighton and Hove together are a city. Strange
but true. The two towns grew up together and have been physically and
geographically part of the one conurbation for over a century. In 1997
the two town councils merged to become the one Brighthton and Hove Council.
Then in 2000 the new entity was awarded city status by the monarch. Most
people talk of Brighton when they mean the whole conurbation, but strictly-speaking
it is Brighton & Hove.
So Brighton is a two-town city!
Brighton is 'the City by the Sea' - the marketing phrase coined by the
council took off and is widely used both inside and outside of the city.
The Place to Be
The place to be was the name of the campaign
to achieve city status. It was chaired by Simon Fanshawe, local resident,
journalist, stand-up comic, and front-runner for the title, Mr Brighton.
The campaign was a rolling succession of initiatives and events, designed
to display the creative flare and drive of the community. One such was
the 100 Faces of the New Millennium project,
which sought out local residents, one born in each year of the
twentieth century, to represent the community at the turn of the millennium.
Like "the city by the sea", the phrase "the place to be" has stuck and
is widely used.
Brighton Rock
In
the days when a holiday meant a trip to the seaside, a visit to Brighton
involved the purchase of one or more sticks of rock - the hard,sugary sweet.
Brighton rock was as famous as Brighton.
Then in 1938 Graham Greene published his novel, set in
Brighton, called Brighton Rock, a novel whose central character
is the small-time gangster, Pinkie. The success of the novel led to a film
of the book in 1947, directed by John Boulting, and starring a young Richard
Attenborough. The fame of the book and of the film added to the fame
of Brighton.
Today, sticks of rock are somewhat out of fashion, rightly so from the
perspective of dental care. But thanks to Greene the phrase Brighton
Rock is still very much with us, and the novel and film belong to
our cultural history.
