Brighton, Brighton, Brighton. So good, they named it thrice.
I mean, where do you start? Brighton is a phenomenal city. Correction, Brighton & Hove is a phenomenal city. Sorry, Hove. But for the sake of brevity, let’s just call it Brighton – no offence intended.
Anywhat, let’s do a bit of fact checking on the old creativity front.
Brighton is big, bouncy and brrrilliant. We’ve got the South Downs, the beach, a buzzing city centre and a chilled attitude. The welcome mat’s out for everyone: young, old, gay, straight – if you’re up for partying and breaking a few rules, we’ll have you.
Young since forever
Even though we’re in the Domesday Book, this is a young city. 1 in 5 of us are in our 20s, and the average Brightonian is somewhere in their mid-thirties. Hang around long enough and you could be witnessing the world’s most impressive synchronised mid-life crisis.
We’ve got three Unis: The University of Brighton (which started out as an art school in the Royal Pavilion’s kitchens) has 18,000-ish students. The University of Sussex has about 20,000 students. Then there’s BIMM (a university for the creative arts), with another 8,000 of the little blighters.
You want art? We’ll give you art.
For a city of only 276,300 (National Statistics Census 2021), the arts scene here is bonkers.
We host around 60 festivals a year: Brighton Rocks, The Great Escape, Soundwaves, Brighton Live, Burning the Clocks, Brighton Digital, BrightonSEO, Brighton Pride (we were the first in the UK)… And then there’s the really big one, Brighton Festival and Fringe. Depending who you believe, this is either the UK’s biggest arts festival or a very close second to Edinburgh. Either way, it’s a whopper.
As for art galleries, I lost count at 30 something. And as you wander around The Laines, you get the feeling the whole city’s a work of art.
Creativity by the sea
There’s definitely something in the air down here, and being just down the road from The Big Smoke has made Brighton a magnet for us creative types. Painters, poets, photographers, writers, illustrators, actors, artists, designers and musicians have been flocking here for donkey’s.
Aubrey Beardsley, Cate Blanchett, Charles Dickens, James Herbert, Laurence Olivier… It’s mind-blowing who’s hung out in our little home by the sea over the years. If you really want to geek out, there’s a list at the end of this post that’ll bring you out in a creative rash.
The bands, DJs and musicians who grew up and found their groove here is pretty impressive too: Architects; Beats International; Birdeatsbaby; Blood Red Shoes; Brakes; Carl Cox; Darts; Dave Clarke; The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster; Electrelane; Electric Soft Parade; Evil Nine; Frazier Chorus; Freemasons; Fujiya & Miyagi; The Go! Team; The Kooks; Krafty Kuts; The Lambrettas; Levellers; Lovejoy; James Marriott; The Maccabees; Peter and the Test Tube Babies; Phats & Small; Rizzle Kicks; Royal Blood; Sea Power; Ed Solo; The Xcerts… who needs Glastonbury???
Creative sponges unite
Unsurprisingly, with all that creative juice sloshing around, the design and digital industries have mushroomed in Brighton. So much so, since the ‘90s, Brighton has earned the reputation of ‘Silicon Beach’ (as well as ‘London-by-the-sea’).
It’s difficult to be sure of the exact figures, but according to the council’s ‘Creative Industries Workspace in Brighton & Hove’ report, published back in 2008:
• In 2007, there were roughly 1,500 creative businesses in Brighton
• Of these, there were 120 design and 45 advertising agencies
• The creative industries provided nearly 16,000 jobs
• 10,000 were in fulltime employment
• 5,800 were freelancers/sole traders
Those numbers will have shifted since then of course (I’d guess up, not down), but any way you look at it, for a city of less than 300,000 souls, those numbers say a lot.
What did Brighton ever do for us?
Well, funny you should ask. Brighton:
• Was home to the world’s first public electric railway
• Has over 1,400 licensed watering holes
• Has the UK’s oldest purpose-built cinema (the Duke of York’s)
• Gave ABBA a leg up, when they won Eurovision ‘74, at the Dome
• Has the highest proportion of creative SMEs in the UK
• Is second only to London for start-ups per capita
• Is the UK’s unofficial gay capital
• Is where dollop is based (Hove actually, but who’s counting?)
Oh, and that list I promised? It’s a who’s who of the arty types who were born, lived, set up shop, or studied here:
Richard Addinsell – composer
Liz Aggiss – dancer and choreographer
Paul Alborough – musician
Honor C. Appleton – illustrator
ArrDee – rapper
John Roman Baker – playwright and novelist
Zoë Ball – broadcaster
Howard Barker – playwright
Bat for Lashes (Natasha Khan) – musician
Pauline Baynes – illustrator
Aubrey Beardsley – artist
Beardyman – musician
Ian Beck – illustrator and author
Benji Boko – DJ and record producer
Cate Blanchett – actress
Raymond Briggs – illustrator
Ray Brooks – actor
Dora Bryan – actress
George Burchett – tattoo artist
Nick Cave – musician and writer
Celeste – singer
Paul Cemmick – cartoonist
Gwendoline Christie – actress
Dave Clarke – techno DJ
John Constable – painter
Steve Coogan – actor and comedian
Gaz Coombes – singer
Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim) – DJ
Richard P. Cook – artist
Luke Cresswell – percussionist
Tom Davies – copywriter
Roger Dean – artist and designer
Alfie Deyes – YouTuber
Charles Dickens – writer
Polly Dunbar – illustrator and writer
E. S. Elliott – writer
Frank Finlay – actor
Genesis P-Orridge – performance artist
Dave Gibbons – comic book illustrator
Eric Gill – typographer, engraver, sculptor
Dave Gilmour – musician
William Gold – YouTuber and musician
Dave Greenfield – musician
Cyriak Harris – animator, artist, composer and author
Phil Hartnoll – musician
Elliott Hasler – film director
Michael Heath – cartoonist
James Herbert – author
Georg Hólm – musician
Rufus Hound – comedian and presenter
Jacksepticeye – YouTuber
Peter James – author
Nigel Kennedy – violinist
Mike Kerr – musician
KickThePj – YouTuber and film producer
Rudyard Kipling – author
Felix Kjellberg (PewDiePie) – YouTuber
Joan Lazzarani – sculptor, musician and performance artist
Joshua Le Gallienne – artist
Vivien Leigh – actress
Emma Lomax – composer and pianist
Garnt Maneetapho (Gigguk) – YouTuber
James Marriott – musician and YouTuber
Peter Mayle – author
Natascha McElhone – actress
Joe McGann – actor
Seán McLoughlin (Jacksepticeye) – YouTuber
Gary Moore – musician
Dame Anna Neagle – actress
Annie Nightingale – DJ
Laurence Olivier – actor
Patsy Palmer – actress
Joan Plowright – actress
Partho Sen-Gupta – film director
Ren – musician
Dame Anita Roddick – founder of The Body Shop
Clara Ross – composer
Captain Sensible – musician
Jimmy Somerville – musician
Ewen Spencer – photographer
Dusty Springfield – singer
Jordan Stephens – singer
Ben Thatcher – musician
Tommy Trinder – comedian
Doreen Valiente – wiccan and writer
Johnny Wakelin – musician
David Walliams – comedian, actor and writer
Rachel Whiteread – artist
Joe Wilkinson – comedian
Ralph Vaughan Williams – composer
Zoella – YouTuber
And that, my friend, is proof as far as I’m concerned, that Brighton is indeed the creative hotspot of the South East.
Oh, and if you want a loving spoonful of that creative goodness, all you gotta do is call.
dollop. creativity with splattitude
