Introduction
I went for a weekend in Brighton in November (because reasons). Weather-wise it was probably not the best time to visit, although the wind strength was quite impressive for the South of England. But it was an interesting short trip.
Friday
From the station we walked through rain toward the guesthouse, which turned out to be near an enormous unfinished viewing tower. This looked rather ominous as we approached - it wasn’t dark by that point but because of the rain the tower itself was invisible until we got close, leaving a baleful disembodied red light glowing high in the sky. It reminded me of the Eye of Sauron and, appropriately, the tower will be called the ‘i360’.
After checking in at the guesthouse, we walked back in a very roundabout route toward a restaurant.
Saturday
We walked toward Hove, initially along the seafront.
Across the whole area, all of those telephone connection box thingies in the street appear to have been painted with artwork - sometimes officially, but other times I’m not sure.
I walked back to Brighton, stopping to take photos of the remains of the West Pier, which has been set on fire so many times it‘s now pretty much the West Scaffolding Island. There‘s no chance of restoring it now.
Around the construction site for the giant viewing tower, the hoardings are full of very impressive street art. (It was done with permission in an August event. Nice works though.)
I continued a little further along the seafront, past the surviving pier and the local Ferris wheel, one of those low-rent London Eye clones.
The Volks electric railway, which starts nearby, sadly doesn’t run outside the season. So I left the sea behind and wandered around the Lanes for a bit (and ate lunch in the rain).
I headed back to Hove...
Toward the end of the afternoon, the sun actually came out!
From Hove we walked back into Brighton again.
We walked out onto Palace Pier, which seems little changed from when I visited as a child.
Sunday
We spent most of the day visiting Brighton Pavilion, which is basically a stately home. It has various royal connections, and a slightly inordinate number of dragons in the pseudo-Chinese decorations. After that (and afternoon cakes in a tearoom) it was nearly time to head back to the station.
