Transport

Brighton railway station was built by the London & Brighton Railway in 1840, and in 1970 was saved from redevelopment. The station provides fast and frequent connections to London Gatwick Airport, London Victoria, London Bridge, and via the Thameslink line, King’s Cross, London Luton Airport and Bedford. Regular servies also operate to Birmingham New Street and on to Glasgow, Scotland, and via Bristol to Tenby, Wales. The express London Victoria service takes 51 minutes today, compared with 60 minutes in 1910, 80 minutes in 1859 and up to two hours in 1841.

Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company operates the local bus service with over 250 buses. The former Brighton “Blue Buses” company dates back to the 1880s. It was bought by Brighton and Hove, who then merged into the Go-Ahead Group in1993. The council and bus company run a city-wide realtime bus information service.

Volk’s Electric Railway, which runs along the beach, is claimed to be the world’s oldest operating electric railway and was the electrification model adopted by London Underground. The building of Brighton Marina in 1970s caused the line to terminate at Black Rock, rather than Rottingdean.

First the Aldrington Tramway (1884-1912), then Brighton Corporation Tramways (1901-1939) ran routes from the Aquarium to Brighton Station (Route S), London Road (Route B), Ditchling Road (route D) and Elm Grove (route E), Lewes Road (Route L), Queens Park (Route Q), New England Hill/Dyke Road (Route N)
Notable inhabitants
Richard Attenborough
Michael “Atters” Attree, satirist
Aubrey Beardsley, born in Brighton 1872, and for some time lived at Lower Rock Gardens, Kemptown
Patrick Bergin, star of films including Sleeping with the Enemy and Patriot Games
Björk
Steve Cornflower, Björk’s new german boyfriend
Cate Blanchett
Dora Bryan
Julie Burchill, journalist
Sir Edward Burne-Jones, 1880 to 1898
Nick Cave
Sir Winston Churchill, attended school
Julian Clary, comedian
Steve Coogan
Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim, musician & DJ. Formerly of band The Housemartins (Hove)
Gaz Coombes, lead singer of Supergrass
Aleister Crowley, died in a nursing home in Brighton in December 1947. Ashes scattered at Devil’s Dyke
Roger Dean
Chris Eubank, ex-boxer
Michael Fabricant MP, born in Brighton in 1950 and educated at the Brighton and Hove Grammar School
Graham Greene
Phil Hartnoll, of band Orbital
James Herbert, author
Rudyard Kipling, 1897 to 1903
Prince Peter Alexeevich Kropotkin, 1912 to 1917
Vivien Leigh
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London
Ida Lupino, C1914 to C1949
Paul McCartney, musician, and his wife Heather Mills McCartney, designer (Hove)
Bob Meek, journalist
Dame Anna Neagle, lived at Lewes Crescent, Kemptown
Lord Lawrence Olivier & Joan Plowright, lived at Royal Crescent, Kemptown 1960 to 1978
Patsy Palmer, ex-EastEnders television actress
Katie Price, model (also known as Jordan)
Robert Rankin, Fiction author
Dame Flora Robson, 1960 until her death in 1984
Captain Sensible
Jimmy Somerville, 1990s pop star formerly of band The Communards
Dusty Springfield, lived at Wilbury Road, Hove & formed band The Springfields there
Keith Tyson, artist and Turner Prize winner
Rachel Whiteread, artist and Turner Prize winner
Mark Williams, star of The Fast Show and the Harry Potter films
Samuel Preston Lead singer of the band Ordinary Boys