Brighton Timeline

A timeline of events in Brighton's history.

Before 1500

11th Century

Manor owned by Earl Godwin

Norman Conquest

granted to William de Warrenne, William the Conqueror's son-in-law

1260-1340

Gradual loss of over 40 acres of land from below the cliff

1313

Immigrant Fleming fishermen living in the lower town under the cliff become successful enough to build East Street and West Street in the upper town. Ship Street and Middle Street are built at around the same time.

1377

French attack

1500-1599

1513-1514

French attack and retreat

1545

French attack

1558

Block House built, as a fort. Gun Garden battery built at around the same time, along with town gates.

1580

Panic over a Spanish Armada false alarm

1600-1699

1645 to 1655

Encroaching sea destroys a further 22 tenements under the cliff over a period of about ten years

1651

Charles II escapes to France via Brighton, staying overnight, in disguise, on 13th October at an inn in West Street.

1666

Petition to Parliament for poverty relief due to loss of fishing vessels work, due to conflict with the French.

Population circa 3,000

1690

Surrounding parishes ordered to contribute to help the Brighthelmstone poor.

1700-1799

1703

Great storm of Sunday, December 27th 1703 causes damage

1705

Great storm of 11th August 1705 destroys all 113 remaining tenements in the lower town, remains of the land are washed away in the following years – the lower town is then effectively erased from the maps.

1732

Decision to build groynes to protect the upper town against further erosion. Royal brief allows fundraising across England, further fundraising twenty years later for repairs.

1750

Dr. Richard Russell moves to Brighton. Writes about the recuperative effects of seawater, Brighton becomes a destination for people visiting the doctor, and visiting the seafront to take the air. Brighton's economy takes an upturn as the visitors rent rooms and spend money. The town is later promoted as Doctor Brighton.

1783

The Prince of Wales (George IV-to-be) arrives in Brighton and acquires a farmhouse overlooking the Steine, to escape the pressures of his unpopularity in London.

1787

Henry Holland is hired to start turning George's farmhouse into The Marine Pavilion'

1800-1899

1803-08

George has some land around the Marine Pavilion turned into an extravagant domed home for his horses. This building later becomes the Brighton Dome and the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery.

1815

Now that his horses are living in a finer palace then he is, George has the Marine Pavilion remodelled and enlarged a second time, now by John Nash. It is fitted with an external shell with an embedded cast-iron frame to support additional extravagant building work and embellishments to eventually become the current Royal Pavilion.

1822

Thomas Read Kemp's workmen start laying out Kemp Town, a Regency-styled property development to the East of Brighton, designed by Charles Busby and Amon Wilde, and built on a consolidation of land inherited by Kemp in 1811. Building work finishes in 1855.

1823

The Royal Suspension Chain Pier is built. The end of the pier allows a boat service to France. It's increasingly realised that the pier itself is being seen as a tourist attraction, which suggests a business case for a more tourism-friendly pier.

1828

St Peter's Church consecrated (foundation stone laid in 1824).

1832

Completion of the current Brighton Town Hall (started in 1830).

1837

London and Brighton Railway Act passed on 15 July 1837

1840

Opening of the Brighton-Shoreham railway line, with a small station building at Brighton.

1841

Completion of the Ouse Valley Viaduct

Completion of the London Road Viaduct

Completion of the new Brighton Station, an Italianate building designed by David Mocatta

The London-to-Brighton railway line opens. The resulting flood of tourists causes Brighton's economy and population to boom.

1844

Queens Road is built as an extension of West Street up to the station. The road requires brick arches to raise the ground level in order to reach the station, but creates a new approach to the station that has a less severe gradient than Trafalgar Street, and is kinder to horses.

1848

St. Paul's Church, West Street, opens.

1850

Brighton Pavilion is sold to Brighton Corporation, partly because Queen Victoria disapproves of the building, and partly because of the new influx of tourists makes it difficult to maintain Royal privacy there.

1866

New West Pier opens, designed by Eugenius Birch, and described as "the finest pier in Britain".

1869

Kemp Town Railway Station opens. The line appears to be motivated as a "spoiler" by the LBSCR to block other potential competing railway routes to London.

Work starts on turning the protective rubble at the base of the seawall into a new road, Madeira Road (now Madeira Drive). This protects the base of the seawall from erosion, making it safer to build near the top. The work also produces Brighton Aquarium.

1872

Opening of Brighton Aquarium, designed by Eugenius Birch.

1874

St. Bartholomews Church opens.

1883

Magnus Volk fits the Pavilion Estate with experimental electric lighting.

Volks Electric Railway opens, designed and built by Volk.

1884

Brighton Bandstand built.

1888

Jubilee Clock Tower built at the bottom of Queens Road, to mark Queen Victoria's Jubilee.

1893

New steel-framed Pavilion and Concert Hall added to the West Pier.

1896

Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway (a.k.a. the "Daddy Long-Legs") opens in November.

Royal Chain Pier destroyed by storm on December. By this time it is already earmarked for demolition once the Palace Pier, its adjacent replacement, is finished.

The same December storm wrecks the new "Daddy Long-Legs" Rottingdean extension to the Volks Railway, only weeks after its opening. The extension and car are repaired and reopen.

1897

Victoria Gardens opens.

1899

The Palace Pier has an opening ceremony (although its building works aren't yet finished).

Twentieth Century

1901

Statue of Queen Victoria, Grand Avenue, Hove.

Erosion defence "groynes" built along the beach, intersecting the Daddy Long-Legs track, permanently ending the service.

Rebuilding of the Market area, including the construction of Brighton's Floral Hall. *

1912

Peace Statue (a.k.a. "The Brighton Angel") erected by the Brighton/Hove boundary.

1922

Brighton War Memorial unveiled.

1934

S.S. Brighton Swimming Stadium opens on West Street – the world's largest covered seawater pool.

1935

The Art Deco-styled Embassy Court block of flats opens on Brighton seafront, containing Britain's first penthouse apartments.

The S.S. Brighton is reinvented as the Brighton Sports Stadium ice rink.

1937

The Fish Market moves from the seafront to Circus Street.

1938

Saltdean Lido opens.

1947

Film "Brighton Rock" released, based on Graham Greene's book, and starring Richard Attenborough.

1957

Factory opens on the Brighton Works site producing Isetta bubblecars. *

1960s

The original Churchill Square Shopping Centre opens.

1969

Release of Richard Attenborough's film "Oh What A Lovely War", based on locations along Brighton seafront (Palace Pier and Brighton Bandstand)

1978

Brighton Marina opens in 1978, with an official opening in 1979.

1979

Film "Quadrophenia" released, with major scenes set in Brighton

1984

The IRA bomb The Grand Hotel, in an attempt to assassinate the then PM, Margaret Thatcher.

1994

Brighton Fishing Museum opens

1997

Brighton and Hove councils combine to form the Brighton & Hove Unitary Authority.

1998

Churchill Square Shopping Centre reopens in its current (covered) form.

Twenty-First Century

2001

Brighton & Hove officially becomes a city.

2002-2004

West Pier Concert Hall partially collapses Dec-Jan 2002/3, two arson attacks during 2003, Concert Hall total collapse in 2004.

2005

Jubilee Library opens

Max Miller statue erected in Pavilion Gardens.

2011

Brighton Wheel opens, as a temporary attraction.

2013

Refurbishment of The Level.

2016

Brighton Wheel removed and the i360 viewing tower, designed by Marks Barfield, opens to the public.

Snow Dog sculptures displayed around Brighton.

2017

Saltdean Lido reopens.

2018

Volks Electric Railway reopens after a year closed for renovations and the building of a new Volks Visitor Centre.

Astoria Theatre demolished.

2021

Projected public opening of The Dance Space.