Georgian Brighton [Hardcover]

After a brief visit to Brighton, I purchased this book to understand its history better, since the Georgian period was when it underwent its greatest transformation from fishing village to urban centre. And I was intrigued to discover the source of its reputation as a place set apart from all others, or - to put it another way - how it arrived at the point where Peter Brandon (in his book `Sussex') can write, "no place in Europe has been so receptive to the spirit of whoopee." William Wilberforce would meanwhile describe Brighton in 1815 as "Piccadilly by the seaside."

This attractive book - the publishers made a smart move by including a reproduction of a colourful contemporary bird's-eye view on the dustsheet - was published in 2005 and consists of an introduction and seventeen chapters. It is extremely well-illustrated, a measure on which I comment in the penultimate paragraph. The introduction consists of just one page and I immediately had trouble with its grammar that meant I often had to re-read each sentence. This was not an auspicious start. The author's own acknowledgments make reference to support from the publisher in making the text clearer and more readable, but in the rest of the book one occasionally still comes across sentences that make little sense or are self-contradictory. Here's an example (from page 18): "The first phase [of development] was one of exploration, when visitors experimented with sea bathing but were insufficient to make an impact on the town's economy for they used some rented accommodation and local shops and markets." In the interests of fairness, it should be made clear that such examples are fortunately not common.

The author identifies two key themes for understanding this period in Brighton's development: the building of new suburbs and the provision of supplies and services. Both, of course, relied on each other, but each required a source, a kick-start to set them in motion. The book's look at this development ends not in 1830, as its title might suppose, nor in 1811 and the onset of the Regency, but halfway between in 1820, just before the town made further leaps and bounds into what became Kemp and Brunswick Towns. She writes, "By 1820 the lifestyle and the scale of the architecture were both on the threshold of an enormous change. Brighton lost the intimacy of the small and densely populated Georgian resort."

The author's chapters are a combination of chronology and themes. In her first, she delves into the origins of the later development from Elizabethan times. Her narrative raises as many questions as it answers, not helped by the dearth of records for this period. (With its compact North, West, and East Streets there are hints here of a deliberately-planned medieval new town.) The author implies that geography and the decline in the village's fishing and seafaring industries in the early-eighteenth century were the sources of its later success, concluding that, "The combination of access to the sea, cheap accommodation and proximity to London compared with most other declining ports helps to explain Brighton's emergence as a seaside resort."

The author has little time for laying the praise (or blame) for Brighton at the feet of the Prince Regent. The book makes plain that she has conducted a detailed analysis of its social and economic development. Whilst the Prince certainly attracted more visitors, "claims that he either converted a fishing village into a resort by his presence or that he regenerated a decaying town, although discredited a long time ago, are still repeated. The Prince [rather] was attracted by the town's reputation as a fast-growing resort and by the presence of people he knew." The author provides much evidence for the former, but little for the latter; the social life of the Prince Regent receives little attention in this study, although one chapter is devoted to the creation and development of the Royal Pavilion.

Some chapters review the town's social facilities, its transport links, and the accommodation it could offer, whilst others analyse the physical growth of the town into the surrounding open fields, the form of roads and terraces governed by the sale or lease of individual strips or furlongs. As I read through the book I became more impressed with the comprehensiveness of the author's study, with virtually all angles of the town's life in Georgian times probed and assessed, even if the results are often (but not always) presented in a dry manner. And I could not help feeling that the chapters at the book's end - on the town's government and religious life - should not have appeared much earlier, since they are essential in understanding the times.

The publishers have been very generous in allowing the inclusion of some fantastic illustrations from the times. These include topographical views (many in full colour), street scenes, drawings and engraving of buildings. Without wishing to denigrate the author's study, it is these that bring the book magically to life. The book also includes some excellent maps, reproductions of contemporary street plans as well as modern ones commissioned for this book, to show the spread and development of the surrounding laines. All the same, it would have been useful to have had a street map of the modern city superimposed on the Georgian town to aid the reading visitor (and resident) to find his bearings. It would also have been useful to have had the origins of the names `Steine' and `Laine' explained in their topographic context, since both play major parts in the story of the town.

Endnotes, a bibliography, and an index occupy the book's last pages.