Brighton - Landmarks

Landmarks

The Royal Pavilion is a former royal palace built as a home for the Prince Regent during the early 19th century, under the direction of the architect John Nash, and is notable for its Indo-Saracenic architecture and Oriental interior. Other Indo-Saracenic buildings in Brighton include the Sassoon Mausoleum, now, with the bodies reburied elsewhere, in use as a chic supper club.

Brighton Marine Palace and Pier (long known as the Palace Pier) opened in 1899. It features a funfair, restaurants and arcade halls.

The West Pier was built in 1866 and is one of only two Grade I listed piers in the United Kingdom. It has been closed since 1975. For some time it was under consideration for restoration, but two fires in 2003, and other setbacks, led to these plans being abandoned. Plans for a new landmark in its place – the i360, a 183 m (600 ft) observation tower designed by London Eye architects Marks Barfield – were announced in June 2006. Plans were approved by the council on 11 October 2006. As of early 2009, construction had yet to begin, but the area has been cordoned off.

Brighton clocktower, built in 1888 for Queen Victoria's jubilee, stands at the intersection of Brighton's busiest thoroughfares.

Created in 1883, Volk's Electric Railway runs along the inland edge of the beach from Brighton Pier to Black Rock and Brighton Marina. It is the world's oldest operating electric railway.

The Grand Hotel was built in 1864 and the scene of the 1984 Brighton Hotel Bombing. Its nighttime blue lighting is particularly prominent along the foreshore.

The Brighton Wheel opened with some controversy, directly north east of the Brighton Marine Palace and Pier in October 2011 after a previous attempt to locate it in a more central location near the Metropole Hotel, at which time it was to have been the "Brighton O" — a special spokeless design rather than the traditional spoked wheel eventually purchased from its previous home in South Africa.