Twin towns with a fascinating history, they constitute the Sussex resort that, to mark the Millennium, the Queen declared to be a City. A giant step from the Neolithic camp built on Whitehawk Hill in the fourth millennium B.C. The author, who since 1950 has worked as a planner in Brighton, has now produced the first integrated history of the two towns. His sense of humour is evident on every page of an entertaining and richly illustrated narrative, through prehistoric downsmen to the trippers and the technocrats of today's proud City.
During the course of the 19th and 20th centuries Brighton grew from a small fishing village on the Sussex coast to a large thriving city, popular with residents and visitors alike. Much building work went on during this time, but sadly many of the theatres, cinemas, dance halls and churches that were such a part of life in these earlier times have either been made redundant or converted for other uses or demolished. One of the iconic buildings of the city is St Peters Church. When it was first built it stood at the entrance to the main part of Brighton, on the road that goes past the Royal pavilion to the Palace Pier. It was the first important design that Sir Charles Barry created. He later became one of the foremost architects of Victorian times being responsible for the Houses of Parliament and Highclere Castle (now known to millions of television viewers as Downton Abbey). St Peters is a fine example of Barrys work, but this book will record how a chancel was added to the north of the building seventy-five years after the original structure had been completed. We will also see how the incumbent of St Peters became Vicar of Brighton which put him at the centre of the building and development of other churches throughout the town. In the twentieth century St Peters continued to be the spiritual hub for civic life in the town, but there was one occasion when the vicar failed to get to the church for the Sunday morning service. Later on the church suffered an arson attack, and the century ended with an extraordinary impromptu time of reflection in the early hours of 1st January 2000. However as the new century began, it was recognised that falling attendances and failing masonry could lead to St Peters going the same way as other older buildings in the city. The church authorities did not have the financial resources to cover all the expenses that this grand old building was requiring, and thus St Peters came under the threat of closure. This horrified the inhabitants of the city who saw St Peters as being just as much a part of the cityscape as the Pavilion and the Pier. To the great delight of all, the church was eventually saved through the last minute intervention of Holy Trinity Brompton Church in London. This book documents the story of a church that, amid many ups and downs along the way, has come to be much loved in Brighton, Hove and Sussex.
The result of an oral history project, which began in 1993, to record the lives of those involved in the Brighton Fishing Community. It is a living record of the way in which some members of the community remember their own past, and shows the traditions kept alive by the fishermen and their families.
A comprehensive historical reference on metropolitan Chicago encompasses more than 1,400 entries on such topics as neighborhoods, ethnic groups, cultural institutions, and business history, and furnishes interpretive essays on the literary images of Chicago, the built environment, and the city's sports culture.
