David Lepper

Labour Party | Brighton Pavilion

“Standing still isn’t an option.”

An article on Brighton and Hove and tourism which appeared in an abridged version in Parliament’s “House Magazine” 24th July 2006

David Lepper. Labour and Co-operative Party MP for Brighton Pavilion.

Location, adaptability, ensuring our heritage is part of daily life and a diversified economy are what make Brighton and Hove successful.  

Location: between the South Downs and the sea, within easy reach of London by rail,  30 minutes from Gatwick and close to the Newhaven ferry port.

But if location alone were enough there’d be many south coast Brightons.

Unlike some resorts, Brighton, and now Hove, embraces change  - since the late 18th century when the rich came for sea bathing and the Prince Regent built his Palace, the Royal Pavilion. 

First the fashionable 19th century seafront terraces and ferries to France from the Chain Pier. Then from 1841 the railway brought day-trippers and holiday- makers -  broadening the social range of Brighton’s visitors, as reflected in the West Pier (1866), the Aquarium (1872), the seafront Volks Electric Railway (1883) and the Palace Pier in 1899.

Later Brighton adapted quicker than other resorts to the 1950s and 60s decline of the  seaside family holiday: promoting short breaks, hosting thousands of English language students and, perhaps most important, from the 1970s becoming an international conference venue with one of the first purpose-built centres. And there was the first phase of the Marina. And building- and then securing rebuilding of  - a sub-regional shopping centre – Churchill|Square

In 1966 came the Brighton Arts Festival - now second only to Edinburgh and based in the magnificently refurbished, regeneration-funded Dome Concert Hall and Corn Exchange, sharing a building with the showpiece new museum and art gallery, just across the road from the award winning three-year-old Jubilee Library.

All this, plus lively street cafés and restaurants, make us the UK’s 10th most popular destination for overseas visitors. While also hosting the stag/hen trade, as well as being an international gay holiday location. Brighton Pride, the UK’s largest free LGBT festival is a major summer event and Brighton is the most popular place outside London for civil partnership ceremonies.

Few changes were uncontroversial but the impetus for change crosses party political lines – as does opposition to it. Current hot topics are Frank Gehry’s plans for Hove seafront’s King Alfred site and proposed new building at the Marina.

Meanwhile heritage lives. (Although there is a lobby which wants to fossilize it.) You can visit the council-owned Royal Pavilion (and get married there), the seafront terraces, the Aquarium (now the Sealife Centre) and the Palace Pier and ride Volks Railway. Shopping in the Lanes and the North Laine you follow their 19th century or earlier street plans, with many businesses in the original buildings. And you can visit the fishing museum, part of a major 1990’s seafront refurbishment linking our surviving fishing industry to modern café culture. However, despite the availability of £14m  Lottery funding, the West Pier became a victim to neglect, arson and the weather. But its shore end should soon be marked by the 21st century 1-360 tower.

The pace of change in the last 10 years shows confidence in the city by government and EU through regeneration schemes and by private finance.

In part because of Brighton’s willingness to diversify its tourist appeal and its economy, never banking everything on tourism.

A working fishing port, then a railway town. 1900s Hove was the world centre of the new movie industry. Brighton became a home for one of the 1960s most popular New universities, its second university, developing from its further education colleges, 30 years later. Until the late 1980s up to 10,000 people worked in engineering. Its end  brought the need for regeneration money. We became a financial services and health services centre. Then for the new media industries ….

Success means jobs. But also high house prices. Securing more affordable housing from the next series of developments - near the station, the King Alfred and the Marina - is the current challenge. Standing still isn’t an option.