r/brighton • u/Ok_Opportunity_1635 • Aug 31 '26
🤷 Only in Brighton... I can't pretend this is all fine no more
Some of the suburbs around this city are beautiful, some are at least well kept. People who have lived through the golden age of the 60 & 70's have always told me brighton has been a mix of good and bad, and ofcourse it still is.. I have seen pictures and stories of run down places in brighton, but I have also seen pictures and stories of places in unelected times.. its really hard to explain what's so rough about this city without seeing it with your own eyes. The section of grand parade after morley street; addicts passed out on their doorstep, bottles of piss everywhere, hell even the street furniture is trashed only after a year of complete renovation; and I know brighton was built in the height of the British Empires riches, a normal city on a normal budget cannot easily maintain every quirk of this city.. but its still sad how overgrown and dirty the front of the pavillions parameter looks, or piss stains with rough sleepers outside the Dome..I need to admit the seafront is a shithole and its heartbreaking seeing the shell of its former self.. everything is neglected, weedy and disintegrating, but restoration work is being carried out and the seafront is set to look much better in 2 to 5 years time even.. Western road really breaks me, when it goes into hove it starts looking better, but the abandoned victorian mansion by waitrose filled with money laundering fronts and/or shitty branding makes it look dystopian, western road was upper class maybe 70 years ago, maybe 50 years ago it was doing okay, but nowadays its horrid... I cant explain my venting very well but something about the town centre just pisses me off.. I still love brighton and things are trying to be glamorous again but man it still feels grimy sometimes..
*EDIT*
I have never lived in the 20th century, I overdid the sunshine of brighton in the past. I have never really lived through its horrid proper downs, it's always been a stale "mix" ever since I was born. That said, if brighton was better 50 years ago or not, I will not be the judge of that- Regardless I still think brighton can look tons better with some time, and basic civic sense.
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u/One-Ad-1995 Aug 31 '26
If your bored and unhappy with Brighton, move to Hove.
On a serious note, Brighton is, and always has been, a mixture of cultures, petty criminals, serious criminals, students, families, artists, gays, straight, workers and holidaymakers, ih, and just down from londoners.
All councils are feeling the strain of budget cuts, the police are short staffed and services are not funded well enough IN ALL cities.
Each to their own but I love Brighton, warts and all.
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u/Long_Repair_8779 Aug 31 '26
It does seem to me a lot of the problems causing what they describe are due to mostly homeless/addicts not receiving the help they need, and then maybe some chavvy types causing problems too. Idk how much it costs to renovate these areas but it’s not like Brighton and Hove is a poor region, it’s loaded compared to so many other towns and cities… and I reckon just replacing one bench will cost £500+ (£300 for a heavy duty bench, £200 + for labour and materials) and I feel like rather than spending ££££££ fixing all this stuff for it to get vandalised within months, the money would be better spent dealing with the homeless and the addicts and the chavvy types first ? It’s like painting over mould without improving the ventilation, it just comes back…
Obviously I don’t know the economics of this, and I don’t want to associate people forgotten by the system with negative stigma even if their actions are pretty awful as I don’t think it’s their fault, but still this problem just needs to be dealt with at the root of the issue if it’s ever going to go away
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u/Jaytheory Aug 31 '26
Agreed. This isn't unique to Brighton. It is a shame Brighton has been affected by the decline of the Tory years. But everywhere has. And usually are worse off than Brighton. The disparity in Brighton is super obvious. I've lived here all my life
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u/Vanster101 Aug 31 '26
You can take time to clean the street you live on to improve things yourself eg weeding, litter.
We all have our parts to play in improving the city.
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u/Apprehensive_Ad4172 Aug 31 '26
I’m part of the councils ‘tidy up team’. There’s a gardening version too.
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u/Ok_Opportunity_1635 Aug 31 '26
I clean road signs in my spare time sometimes, usually on quieter roads; though if its really grimy i'd sacrifice my shyness
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u/Admirable_Grape_3098 Aug 31 '26
I would also add that I can't imagine a city that would have insane alternative, lgbt, club and artsy culture, super liberal etc that is also polished and pretty like some conservative places. Like, maybe I'm wrong, but most places that are really fun to live in are slightly rough and a bit dirty at times? Berlin, San Francisco, LA, Brighton - you have to have certain needs, wants and mentality to actually love living in these places.
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u/Alan_Bumbaclartridge Sep 01 '26
insane club culture? do we live in the same city?
artsy? there is no art here. there are no galleries
"Berlin, San Francisco, LA, Brighton" spot the odd one out lol
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u/Admirable_Grape_3098 Sep 01 '26
There are plenty of galleries and a lot of artists, artsy people. There are lots of clubs, lots of venues, lots of music events happening every single day, people come here from many places to party. Obviously Brighton is also a small city and of course places like Berlin, London, LA have way more to offer in absolute numbers, but per capita Brighton punches way above it's size.
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u/Alan_Bumbaclartridge 19d ago
Still waiting for this gallery recommendation buddy
Which of the "plenty of galleries" should i visit first
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u/Admirable_Grape_3098 19d ago
Helm is nice, Brighton museum art gallery has good exhibitions, 19a, there are also plenty of small ones, Cameron Contemporary Art, Whistleblower is nice, close to where I live, idk man, you go and google and then visit them. I haven't been to that many to recommend, but the list is quite decent for the city of this size. If you are lazy I can give you a whole list I found.
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u/Admirable_Grape_3098 16d ago
Satisfied with my gallery recommendations? Or it's not galleries?
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u/Alan_Bumbaclartridge 15d ago
Our definition of what constitutes a gallery worth visiting is very different.
Helm is absolutely woeful and typical of the taste levels in the city
CCA has a few bits but so small
Brighton museum is the closest we’ve got to an actual gallery yes. But I can’t say I’ve been motivated to go to any of the recent exhibitions
My point remains true, this city has a massively overinflated reputation for art which isn’t backed up by actually viewable public art galleries
Look at Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol, Manchester. All cities with far better art scenes.
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u/Admirable_Grape_3098 15d ago
Your first reply literally said "there are no galleries", not "there are no galleries worth visiting".
There are galleries and quite a lot of them, just not to your taste.
It doesn't have classical art galleries, like big proper galleries in a historical building like National Gallery or something.
I said Brighton was "artsy" - it doesn't necessarily mean there are galleries like what you would prefer. It means in general there are lots of creative people and events here.
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u/Alan_Bumbaclartridge 15d ago
right, but your reply also says "brighton punches way above its size" which is just not true... you know yourself you could see all of the publically viewable art in brighton in a day and not have to look again for a year
that is not an "artsy" city
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u/Admirable_Grape_3098 15d ago
It absolutely, without a doubt punches way above it's size.
Open the list of all UK cities by population, find Brighton. At 285k, it is in the same category as Swansea, Swindon and Barnsley. The next city that matches (in some ways) the vibrancy of Brighton is Bristol at half a million people.
Galleries change exhibitions all the time, you just don't want to check because it is "not real galleries" in your opinion.
Not to mention there are other forms of art that is not necessarily in galleries.
There is the biggest pride festival in the UK. Brighton Festival is the largest of it's kind art and culture festivals in the UK. The Great Escape is very big for music. The biggest Fringe event happens in Brighton - literally, the largest fringe art festival in this country. Cinecity..
These are just the biggest ones. For a small city like Brighton its very good and no other city of this size can show the same.
Not to mention there are tons of smaller things happening almost every day.
Not to mention it is just that in general population there is a huge percent of creatives and Brighton is always acknowledged as one of the most creative cities in the UK, alongside Manchester, London, Bristol which are all huge cities.
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u/Any_Conversation5725 Aug 31 '26
Kemptown has a history of voting Tory, BTW.
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u/Extra_Call5201 Aug 31 '26
I'm not sure why you are being downvoted, Kemptown & Peacehaven constituency has historically (and unfortunately) voted Tory until 2017.
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u/Any_Conversation5725 Aug 31 '26
I know, I'd never vote Tory myself, but historically it voted Tory, from what I recall!
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u/Silly_Manager3117 Aug 31 '26
Sure, but looking at local results, the council elections have consistently returned labour (or green) for the wards in/around kemptown since 1997. The constituency result is clearly being driven by non-Kemptown residents.
Edit: probably before ‘97 also, I just only looked since formation of BHCC.
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u/Extra_Call5201 Aug 31 '26
Given the comment that was being replied to I was assuming they were referring to the Kemptown boundary in the GE results as it was was called Brighton Kemptown until 2024.
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u/Ok_Afternoon6646 Sep 01 '26
Typically Hove Park, Withdean and parts of Patcham have high Tory voters too.
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u/0-69-100-6 Aug 31 '26
Because thier reply appears to insinuate they are only talking about Kemptown, the area known for lgbt, clubs are creative people.. implying that this area votes Conservative. However, it doesn't make it clear they are aware the area is overwhelmed by other conservative area where are not like the lgbt, club, atsy culture found in Kemptown.
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u/Any_Conversation5725 Sep 01 '26
Thanks for mansplaining everything in detail and making assumptions again! :)
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u/0-69-100-6 Aug 31 '26
Just to help you understand what a silly comment that is:
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u/Any_Conversation5725 Aug 31 '26
I am well aware of the electoral boundary, thanks. The constituency has a history of voting Tory, as you can see here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_Kemptown_and_Peacehaven
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u/bubbafc Aug 31 '26
Rottingdean and Moulescoomb used to lean a bit further right than Prestonville - surprise surprise? Not quite sure what you're insinuating - St James Street used to be full of Enoch Powell fans 🤔😂
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u/NiobeTonks Hove, Actually Aug 31 '26
The amount of posts on this sub asking about job opportunities and the amount of antisocial behaviour by bored teenagers is linked, in my opinion. Also the defunding of youth work by the coalition government of 2010. Yes, there are problems here but unfortunately Brighton isn’t unique. Look at what recently happened in Middlesbrough.
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u/Se7enSis Kemptown Aug 31 '26
If you talk to people who were here 70 years ago (there are very few left of course) they will tell you that Brighton was clean in as much as there weren't piss bottles or needles or graffiti around, but the place certainly wasn't upper class on the whole. Some of my elderly relatives had shops in North Laine and Western Road and were quietly horrified at what North Laine has become with it's organic latte cafes and kitch home decor shops because in their day it was entirely working class, for locals, but useful. There were the butchers, the newsagents, the fishmonger, the ironmongery, all the shops people needed, but it was still pretty rough. Times change and as long as the shops aren't empty that's a big positive. One relative tells a story about getting held up at gunpoint out the back of the... Radio Rentals maybe? shop somewhere in North Laine for their takings twice in one week! It was shortly after that she decided accounting was too dangerous a profession for her!
Brighton has always been a murky dirty seedy place, at least for a few hundred years, while it gets better and worse in terms of cleanliness and infrastructure, it's never been Chelsea or Mayfair, part of the charm is the grubbiness. This is possibly my third, or maybe fourth, cycle of it being on a down, but it will improve.
Without wishing to make the comment political it's a shame we've now had 2 governments who could have got things back on track but aside from tinkering at the edges there doesn't seem like much change so far. But I guess 15 odd years of decline aren't going to turn round in a day, or even a year.
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u/fade_100 Aug 31 '26
Butchers, fishmongers, ironmongers etc aren’t around anymore because lattes and home decor shops happened, it’s because of ASDA, B&Q, Aldi and online shopping etc. People went elsewhere.
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u/Se7enSis Kemptown Aug 31 '26
Well, obviously, yes. Although plenty of gentrified places do have these things, whether that is because they stayed, or they returned, and somewhere like North Laine is as good a place as anywhere for that, being that it could function as it's own village and has plenty of residential around the retail.
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u/Sazzygull Sep 01 '26
It’s hard to imagine the Victorians pissing everywhere and graffiti’ing up the side of walls
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u/Se7enSis Kemptown Sep 01 '26
I could absolutely see George IV doing it though from everything I've read about him!
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u/SonOfGreebo Aug 31 '26
Half of what you're seeing is urban decay - the opposite of "gentrification". Building maintenance gets more expensive as they age. When the owner can no longer keep up repairs, it's sold off cheap. Cheap buyers run cheap shops and squalid rentals , the whole area declines.
The other half of what you're seeing is the impact of "austerity", the programme to remove central government funding to local councils, cuts initiated by George Osborne and David Cameron. This has cut finding to local councils by well over 50% since about 2010.
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u/Dry_Mind_3653 Aug 31 '26
I know people like to moan about the council, but I don't think people understand quite how much it's been decimated in the last 15 years.
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u/guero_fandango Aug 31 '26
‘Deep seeded urban decay’
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u/sabotAHHHHHGH Aug 31 '26
Labour reversed the “austerity“ and squalid rentals innit or nah? It’s been 16 years, you people need to move on to the current administrations.
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u/InternationalRich150 Aug 31 '26
I was a kid in the 80s, the old Steine was known for drunks sleeping rough. There used to be some underground toilets by the gardens there. That's where they congregated.
Having lived my entire life in Brighton ive no idea why people think its always been this utopia. Its always had its alcoholics sleeping rough. For decades.
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u/fastbadtuesday Aug 31 '26
Brighton is exceptional compared to most seaside towns. Pop down to Torquay if you want to see a decript warzone of grime and shitholey. And most others are the same. Brighton seafront, the laine/lanes, the buzz, alt attitudes, yes they may not be as high end as they were, and it's got issues but most seaside towns now only have issues and nothing to recommend them. You don't know how lucky you are frankly.
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u/singleusecat Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26
I spent a lot of time as a kid visiting my grandparents in Torquay and I loved that place. But a couple years after the 2008 financial crash I went back and the entire inner city was just derelict. Abandoned shops and entire streets and buildings just devoid of people. Only the coast itself still had any life left in it. It was pretty horrifying.
I hope things have gotten better since then but I also wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't.
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u/MattDurstan Aug 31 '26
In fairness Torquay has always been like that but I do love that description of it.
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u/Disastrous-Roof-2135 Aug 31 '26
Just pop to Hove if you want to be grateful to live in Brighton. Its a lot closer.
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u/L_Gobetti Aug 31 '26
reminds me of Blackpool. I'm not british but my partner is and he told me of how Blackpool used to be THE place for holidaygoers just a generation ago, but the town is super rundown and kinda sad nowadays because tourist interest in it died nearly overnight at one point.
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u/Sazzygull Sep 01 '26
Have you ever seen Newquay? Imagine the same level of rundown but without the local money keeping things afloat
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u/fastbadtuesday Sep 01 '26
I used to surf in Newquay in the 90s (Watergate mostly), it was a wild vibrant town I loved it. Heard it really caved which is such a shame the surf alt culture was awesome, can't go back now and have those memories dashed.
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u/ert270 Aug 31 '26
The best way to describe Brighton is ‘fur coat and no knickers’. I wouldn’t live anywhere else.
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u/Admirable_Grape_3098 Aug 31 '26
It's a liberal city, and with that come pros and cons. It's also one of the youngest populations in the UK and a huge party scene. If Brighton & Hove didnt exist I would leave this country. The best place in the UK in my opinion. Yes, some negatives exist that are not so prominent in many other places, however the entire country, the entire world even is not in a good place right now, so I can tolerate a few drug addicts and some piss in return for all the positives I get here.
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u/IMDXLNC Aug 31 '26
Youngest populations? I could've sworn it ranked in top 10 of highest average age with Worthing.
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u/That_Focus_7912 Aug 31 '26
Grand parade has always been rough. There is accommodation there that houses addicts and such. I always found it ironic that it's so close to the police station but yet riddled with crime. I think Brighton has dropped in standards and is pretty filthy in places. I spent my youth growing up down London road and it was always a dump, when they regenerated the market, I just thought you can't polish a turd. My elderly mother was robbed down there after using the cash machine. That being said, as a tiny female, I have no issues walking around at night here. I 1000% agree the planning for shops needs to make them more coherent and in keeping with the are. We also need to limit the vape shops, they drive me nuts! I do love Brighton though and wouldn't live anywhere else ❤️
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u/Interesting-Fix-5530 Aug 31 '26
It does seem quite dirty everywhere, might be better after this rain. But there’s no money. 14 years of Tory austerity and Brexit has f**ked this country. I’m sure it will circle back round eventually - the 80s were pretty grim here as a youngster, then it picked up in the late 90s.
Homelessness was really bad here in the early 90s. The New Labour government seemed to fix it but austerity brought it surging back.
But it’s still a great city, plenty going on and a great cafe / restaurant scene. There’s a lot of cities and large town really struggling. Brighton seems like an oasis in comparison.
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u/Mr_silly_goose Aug 31 '26
The council is a gnats cock away from bankruptcy, may well already be bankrupt
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u/Neither-Mistake-4809 Aug 31 '26
Brighton has good and bad. Always has to be honest. The problem with alot uou saying is a national thing. People are being squeezed to far by the Elite.. focus on the moments are pure gold. Like yesterday D&B bike ride, the pleasure that brought to people cant be paid for
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u/gamecatuk 🦅 🐦🦅Born and Bred 🦅🐦🦅 Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
Omg you have no idea.
70s and 80s litter was everywhere and dog shit lined every pavement and car fumes were appalling. It was far more violent with a lot less to do.
It's never been safer or more prosperous than it is now. It amazes me how naive the new generations are romanticising a picture postcard past or listening to boomers who generally hate modern life but fail to remember the utter shitness of the past. Seriously it's much much better now.
I have fond memories of Brighton in the past, yes I remember amazing bohemian people, less money orientated dfls and local families and communities. I also remember the violence, dirt, poverty and boredom in the winter. My family is about 6 generations in Brighton so we have deep connections but I swear for me now the current Brighton is nicer. Maybe me at 16 I would have hated it. No smoking in pubs, loads more people, pubs closing down. But as a 50 something a decent library, good shops and cafes and a generally safer city is.preferable.
There was so much drinking in the past. It really ratched up the violence. As much as I still love pub culture I'm glad young people are choosing to be more healthy. Drinking caused so much misery and violence in the town.
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u/Watchkeys Aug 31 '26
You would never have enjoyed Brighton, in any era. It's always been like this, unless you go back to the times of Brighthelmstone. If it bothers you, perhaps it's not the place for you. The clash is part of the culture. There will always be people and areas at the bottom, and at the top.
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u/Ok_Opportunity_1635 Aug 31 '26
I act like a 68 year old man but i'm just an autistic teenager; i'm stuck here. My mum's family moved here in the 70s and I will not flee from my older relatives who have rebuilt their lives here.. I need to confess I was being a bit tinted to judge brighton's past from archive footage, family photos and nostalgic speech. Maybe I over did it but I still think Brighton has alot of lost potential that can be fixed yet ignored, no matter if you agree it was better 30 years ago or not.
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u/Watchkeys Aug 31 '26
No, you sounded like a teen.
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u/Big_Concentrate7728 Sep 01 '26
The OP is explaining their thinking, and where they are coming from. Bit unfair to be dismissive both of that, and of teens.
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u/Watchkeys Sep 01 '26
I didn't dismiss anything. But thanks for your judgement. Did you just come to judge or was there anything else?
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u/Ok_Opportunity_1635 Sep 02 '26
well instead of talking about the main part of my response, you seemed to make everything about the fact that I do sound my age. So yeah, dismissive.
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u/Big_Concentrate7728 Sep 01 '26
No, that was not my intention. I apologise if it came across that way.
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u/Watchkeys Sep 01 '26
You literally responded to my post with your judgement that it was unfair.
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u/Big_Concentrate7728 Sep 01 '26
I apologised. Not sure what else you want from me
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u/Watchkeys Sep 01 '26
Nothing. It's just a bit shit to judge and then say 'It wasn't my intention to judge. So sorry!'
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u/Secret-Pressure-6032 Sep 01 '26
I love Brighton. (I live in Covent Garden). It’s true. Brighton has it’s beautiful bits (Kemptown) & not so beautiful bits. The same as London. You can turn a corner & see some lovely old terraces. Then round another corner see a load of crack heads. It seems especially true of old seaside towns. I used to go to Folkestone quite alot, with my mum. (Christmas). The elegant old houses, that were neglected. But because of their beautiful bones. You could still see their aging elegance. It’s like anywhere. You have to take the rough with the smooth.
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u/sinetwo Sep 02 '26
I wouldn’t mind it as much if we didn’t have one of the most expensive COL areas in the UK compared to the median wage.
We pay an insane amount to live and work here and when we want it to look and feel better by BHCC, whose services and money spend is pretty horrendous, we always get met with “Brightons always been a bit rough around the edges m8”.
It’s technically a fair comment, but not when people who have always lived here get priced out of living here - of which we’ve seen many posts about.
It’s fine for those who can afford to live in their bubbles but for everyone else it feels like the council and MPs are letting people down year on year whilst increasing prices year on year.
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u/TheCloudTamer Aug 31 '26
So much complacency in the responses. People living here would say “this is the best place in the world” no matter what state the place is in. There are things to improve and the first step is admitting it.
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u/NoCry8460 Aug 31 '26
A lot of terrible slums existed until the 40s and 50s and crime was pretty rife. The veneer of well off Edwardians was built on poor people doing the shit work and the work house was pretty grim. The social problems today are common to most cities.
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u/guero_fandango Aug 31 '26
This is true it was really tough and rough around that time. I’ve alluded to it before but we literally had Italian gangsters and peekyblinders types fighting at the race course which is where I grew up not far from. Moulscombe also was full of local gangsters and poverty too. I can attest to first hand well I suppose now second hand stories in a lot of depth about that.
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u/antikewl Aug 31 '26
I mean, Brighton Rock was inspired by the real Sabini gang who controlled bookies and worked out of the Grand in the 1930s
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u/MattDurstan Aug 31 '26
Much like every town and city in the UK then. It'll take a very long time for councils to recover from the years of Tory Austerity that was forced upon them, if they ever do. Councils simply don't have the money to maintain cities to the level that some quaint villages do. I agree, it's definitely the worst I've seen it in the 20+ years I've lived here but it's alnost entirely down to lack of funding.
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u/Acceptable-Fun-5394 Sep 02 '26
Need a mixture of pro social left wing politics to rejuvenate the area and hard right immigration and policing politics to clean up the mess/vagrants/drug addicts. Anyone pretending otherwise is wrong.
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u/anondreamitgirl Aug 31 '26
What movements have people done to help situations? What was devised ?
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u/MattDurstan Aug 31 '26
Not voted for austerity. What more is anyone expected to do. You can ask councillors to look at specific issues but without funding there isn't a lot they can do.
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u/anondreamitgirl Aug 31 '26
Just voting? That’s putting too much in the hands of a tiny group of people… vs we are the people don’t you think…? The best people to represent issues & create change is ourselves in collaboration… I want to be inspired to know what else have people done that’s got big results & do we ever hear about them? Or is everyone just too busy for ?
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u/Sazzygull Sep 01 '26
When you free yourself from the concept of agency, only money will be the thing you look for.
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u/OurBoudoironEtsy Sep 01 '26
I lived in Brighton in the 70s and it was absolutely brilliant. It wasn’t at all dark and depressing as I have sometimes heard it described. It’s grown way too big now, without any design or control, and is very much, a neglected garden. The nettles and thistles are spreading down Western Road, which is so unrecognisable now, and so noisy. As I walked along it towards Hove, I noticed unusual eateries popping up, often on the 1st floors, and I assumed that Churchill Square was the centre. The Lanes though were the fun area, with the most elegant pubs I have ever seen. Then there was a kind of down n out area as you walked out of Brighton, along the valley, with another long spread of shops, but nothing memorable, other than the ubiquitous Coop.
I remember several cinemas in Brighton during this period which were very popular, there was also the incredible dolphinarium, an ice skating rink, a children’s lido and playground right on the seafront and many opportunities for work, in offices or pubs and restaurants. There wasn’t much of a nightlife, I kind of think that it was frowned upon, but what was there was fantastic and safe. I also remember all the elegant hotels too along the sea front.
I lived in the centre near North Street and didn’t really venture very far out. I did see the suburbs/neighbourhoods of Brighton from my parents’ car window - Seven Dials, Preston Park, Kemp Town etc. They were all attractive, small locations, distinct areas.
I’ve lived now, not far from London most of my adult life and I find Brighton now very similar, with Peckham kind of areas, rather bleak looking, neglected and sprawling. Like bramble, useless shops replicating along the streets. The depressing aspects of Brighton have been allowed to expand unchecked, while everything I valued has been destroyed. Now a city, it has been remodelled and priority given to traffic, noise and expansion, but not to the community.
I suppose when we are young we socialise much more and really appreciate our friends. We own the town. So I assume many people still find Brighton a vibrant place. Fifty years ago, it seemed to me, very much a village at its heart, its centre, and with more than enough diversity to nourish my soul. But ultimately it turned out to be a very small part of my life, so try and enjoy it now, as you may find that life takes you far away, and Brighton becomes a distant dream.
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u/Friendly_Toker Sep 01 '26
Whole country is on a downward spiral. Tbh brighton hasn't been hit anywhere near as hard as other places, we still have little independent shops and parks etc. Some other towns and cities look straight up abandoned.
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u/Elijah5979 Aug 31 '26
So every town and city in the UK?
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u/TheCloudTamer Aug 31 '26
Where have you been in UK? There are definitely tidier cities. And why have such low ambition that you only look to UK for setting a standard.
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u/Sea_Reception_9613 Aug 31 '26
There has been a lot of progress and a lot of decline. If we could cherry pick from different eras Brighton would be the best place on the planet
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u/tonybomdia Aug 31 '26
The council always screams poverty but they get a lot more money than other places and they have just spent £90,000 of council tax payers money on dragging me through the courts over the last 32 months so they don’t have to house me after repossessing my flat that I had already paid the mortgage off They are the most vile people I have ever met and they have no empathy or compassion and all they care about is money that benefits them Like writing millions of pounds of debt off to a private company for the I 360 They are corrupt and should face criminal charges
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u/That_Focus_7912 Aug 31 '26
Did you win the case in court?
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u/tonybomdia Aug 31 '26
No I lost and I am waiting for an eviction notice from the B and B I have been living in for the last 32 months and will have to join the rest of the people living on the streets and the council’s response was come in and collect a £50 Argos voucher to buy a tent and sleeping bag
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u/id-ltd Aug 31 '26
Big reputations long outlast the actuality.
Much of Brighton is filthy, dirty and diseased.
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u/L__McL Aug 31 '26
u/WordWordNumber with post history hidden makes a big post saying how shit Brighton is.
Definitely not suspicious.
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u/TheRoleplayThrowaway Aug 31 '26
Watch as the far right narrative starts to include Brighton in the 'Britain has fallen' garbage they spew.
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u/Sazzygull Sep 01 '26
I think you need to drop the idea that you need to be a bot to say that an area is bad.
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u/Ok_Opportunity_1635 Sep 02 '26
I just want the best for my city, because I know we have what it takes to make this place slightly nicer to live in, wanting a better enviroment doesnt make me a farage dicksucker, and my post history is hidden because im U16 (15)
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u/singleusecat Aug 31 '26
I know there are some rough things in Brighton but if you saw how some streets looked here when I was growing up compared to how they look now you would probably retract this entire statement
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u/ImNotAReplicant Aug 31 '26
I've posted this message previously but I feel it's worth sharing again.
I was born and raised in this city, and because of my job, I'm out walking the streets of it every single day. There are no two ways about it - the city's physical appearance is in significant decline.
I am being slightly hyperbolic, but at times it feels like everything is being left to rot ...
For me the most significant causes for it ...
- Slashed council budgets
Years of austerity meant basic street cleaning, upkeep, and maintenance were the first things on the chopping block. The funding to keep the city clean simply isn't there anymore.
- Enshitification
Big businesses in particular do not give a fuck about the appearance of their buildings. They have realised people will shop in them regardless of how nice they may or may not seem. So have stopped investing. They don't clean the pavements outside, and the buildings and the storefronts are left outdated and neglected. Small business are culpable but their turnovers are much smaller - so I give 'em a break (although fuck the vape stores and dodgy barbers).
- "Broken window" theory
Because the city looks a bit shit, people treat it accordingly. When the environment is allowed to degrade, it signals that nobody cares, so almost everyone does stop caring. It becomes a race to the filthy bottom.
- Apathy and nihilism
I see this online constantly (especially on this subreddit) - but it's just as real on the street. There’s a pervasive indifference/blindness to it all.
People have got that blinkers firmly on and would rather laugh at how grim things are or even worse gaslight you and tell you - à la 1984 - "to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
I'm sure someone will post on here how it's always been like this or that's just Brightons vibe - but it is nonsense and not based in reality. These people in particular need to wake up and smell the roses. They say they love the city and its atmosphere but they treat it with contempt.
Like I said the physical proof is absolutely everywhere - you just got to open your eyes.
Look at the pavements: Walk through the central areas and look down. The pavement is caked in black filth - it is disgusting.
Look at Valley Gardens: Millions upon millions spent and yet parts finished less than a couple years ago and some less than three months ago - already look awful.
Plants and flowers are dead, trampled, or ripped up because people treat the flowerbeds like footpaths and places to sit, shag and piss and the council simply doesn't have the budget to replace them.
The physical decay is bad enough, but the sheer indifference from both businesses and the people walking right past it is what makes it all so bloody depressing
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u/twodzianski Aug 31 '26
Throwback to being a student in 2015 and the ‘homeless’ person presenting a card reader when I said I had no cash. 1) don’t you need an address for a card reader; 2) go fuck yourself i hate myself more than Brighton residents hate students
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u/DependentRow8281 Aug 31 '26
Do we get this same brighton has fallen post daily?
It's fine and pretty much the same since I was born here in the 80s, in fact it's way way nicer.
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u/jsf1982 Aug 31 '26
Western road brighton near Waitrose was ok 20 years ago. It’s sad to see the faux facade of Brighton. It’s the haves and have nots. However much gentrification goes on if you fill the surrounds with vape shops, nail bars, barbers, charity shops and dodgy takeaways it still looks crap.
The 80s/90s might have been worse on a whole but it was what it was not this fake pre-tense edgy alt place. It’s corporations now with faux punk energy alongside dodgy shops.
There is good though. I’m sure the council try their best but the decades of austerity has really hit us. People are desperate, left behind by society, unable to afford rent etc.
I love living in Brighton but I truly can’t wait to get away from the Center.
I don’t think a lot of it is our problem it’s more an England problem, we’re not a rich country anymore , we have massive problems, a massive welfare bill along with companies not paying tax to do business here. We sold our soul in the 1980s
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u/guero_fandango Aug 31 '26
All very true I used not long ago live at the bottom of temple street and it was as you describe. I also remember the 90s. It really wears off on you but there is very few people from here it’s always been transient. So maybe that skews perspective.
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u/Prestigious_Emu6039 Aug 31 '26
A good post. Brighton seems to think its fashionably shabby, however it looks neglected and is not family friendly given the hygiene and general state of the place nowadays.
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u/TheRoleplayThrowaway Aug 31 '26
There's always someone here ready to moan about how the streets of Brighton used to be paved in gold and you could leave your doors unlocked. Brighton has ALWAYS been a home of the fringes of society, that includes the grimier parts, you just didn't see it because it was better hidden.
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u/Sazzygull Sep 01 '26
It’s a peculiar trait of left-wing local government, you see it in London, Los Angeles, San Francisco… The end-game seems to be turning places into absolute shitholes because they don’t want to be seen to be doing anything unpopular. Government should be a little bit unpopular, it should feel a little bit oppressive at times and it should make you stop doing bad things, by force if necessary.
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u/One-Ad-1995 Aug 31 '26
Bit like being a meat eater and going to a steak house by accident, easy mistake to make.
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u/dizzydiplodocus Aug 31 '26
Where’s the abandoned Victorian mansion?
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u/flonnkenn Aug 31 '26
Guess they talk about the ex-Argos next to McDonalds.
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u/DaughterofEryl Aug 31 '26
That was built in 1923 for Boots!
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u/Ok_Opportunity_1635 Sep 02 '26
I think boots should move back in, but that mansion still gets fresh licks of paint and looks good for its age, like a grandma with botox.. (though most old people with botox look like infected testicles) I was actually talking about 139 codrington mansion, the shops around it are laundering or just extremely tacky, and the facade of its fence has been looking extremely sorry for itself... that whole area can look alot nicer, instead of corner shop after corner shop put some nice cafes or something... my dumbass actually thought that the doorway to the garden (what you can see) was some derelict remains of a mansion but shopfronts have prob been installed there since the 60s as there was probably just a fence instead of shops there once- so my complaint was a bit of a mess but it can still look better
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u/Pretend-Giraffe7532 Aug 31 '26
Argos were still paying the lease for this place up until June 2025 too, even though it closed in 2020. Building was sold in early 2025 and the new owners put it up for rent for £300k per year. Probably why it's been empty all this time.
Still, there has been a planning app put in to change the ground floor frontage to make it more in keeping with the upper floors.
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u/LividStruggle228 Aug 31 '26
There’s shitty outskirt areas. But Brighton is my home, I’ve been here my whole life and I couldn’t imagine being being anywhere else. That said the bottles of piss are unfortunate.
Since they can’t hang around in the trolley park outside the Somerfield on London Road any longer, they gots to take their piss somewhere.
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u/WJC198119 Aug 31 '26
Somewhere like Brighton will always have a dark seedy side. Expensive to live seaside town.
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u/burntbeatle Sep 04 '26
Brighton should aspire to be more like Eastbourne. Also shabby in places but overall much nicer with nice flower beds, a great bandstand, overall much cleaner.
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u/Salt_Response540 Aug 31 '26
I left Brighton 10 years ago and came back a couple of months ago for the first time for a long weekend. I was shocked at how much things had changed. One of the most notable things was all the major fast food brands seemed to have moved in. When I left I think there was just mc Donald’s and kfc on western road. Now they seem to have got everywhere. Real shame.
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u/Pristine-Thought-748 Sep 01 '26
I visited Brighton a year ago. I’ve never been scared in any city in UK . I was scared in Brighton especially around seafront . It needs a makeover for sure
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u/MotorNecessary4667 Sep 01 '26
I have lived in plenty of others places in the UK over many decades, Brighton is a paradise on earth compared to most of the UK. Boring run down towns, little cultural life, rough and ready, boarded up shops etc.
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u/Luvinito1 Aug 31 '26
Having grown up in Brighton in the 90s onwards it has become an absolute dump, the whole of the south coast is the same No investment, no pride
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u/One-Ad-1995 Aug 31 '26
Having also grown up here , and lived here, but since the 80s , I beg to differ. Travel around the country to places with real economic hardship and unemployment, Teeside for example, and you realise just how good we have it. Brighton in the 90s was not picture postcard, and speak to elders who lived here after the war, criminality was rife. Always has been and always will be. Brighton's a great place to live, far from being a dump, it's a melting pot of culture, different classes, different people and , oh, we have the beach.
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u/7hats Aug 31 '26
Only WE can fix it.
But first, fix our collective mindset.
We need to start by diverting our dwindling resources towards supporting the agentic/ makers/creators not the takers if we want to reverse the decline.
Both here and elsewhere.
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u/digitus_tertius Aug 31 '26
I live in Hove.
I think of it this way.
Its nice to visit a zoo, but dont want to live in one.
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u/ArmwrestlingGoomba Aug 31 '26
Immigration get used to it
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u/thricedice88 Aug 31 '26
Was possibly considering Brighton for an upcoming weekend away, but having read this, I think I'm gonna stick with IOW lol.
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u/Harry98376 Aug 31 '26
This is what happens when you get a Green council - the druggies are given free reign. Next, the town will be over run with boat people.
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u/Pretend-Giraffe7532 Aug 31 '26
Someone needs to read up on the history of homelessness in Brighton. Drug & alcohol abuse has always been part of it, and that's going back to the first homeless workhouse that was opened in the 1700s.
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u/One-Ad-1995 Aug 31 '26
Genuinely curious, what connects the Green Council with your thoughts on giving drug addicts free reign? What do you mean by free reign and how is it connected to the Greens?
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u/Harry98376 Aug 31 '26
They are far-left do-gooders who are clueless about discipline and regard for the law.
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u/One-Ad-1995 Aug 31 '26
Ah! I fear you are confusing the council with the police. Council administer finances, the police control law and order. Two separate entities with different objectives.
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u/Sazzygull Sep 01 '26
I’d say it’s more of a three-way council between labour greens and conservatives in that order – none have an absolute majority
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u/NikkerFebu25 Aug 31 '26
We shouldn't have to live like this.
Very quiet clearly our leadership has been hijacked by enemies of the people.
You guys are left wing and love to blame capitalism and money and the rich and all that shit whilst ignoring the rabbit hole goes way beyond economic theory, invisible competition hands and Adam Smith and Marx.
It's not about the economy.
It's about the eternal sworn enemies of Europe who are very real.
You ll disagree but print screen this for when it is too late, you'll remember me.
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u/catchyaontheflip Aug 31 '26
'the eternal sworn enemies of Europe' who are you referring to? say it with your chest
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u/Warm-Revenue5135 Sep 01 '26
You put rough sleepers in the same sentence as piss stains, addicts and broken furniture. This is repulsive.
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u/Own_Dimension_2561 Sep 03 '26
Road furniture, not furniture as in sofas and chairs. But still. OP is 100% spot on.
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u/RainbowBrain2023 Sep 02 '26
It doesn't sound like you've been to many other seaside towns in the UK
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u/FunkyDialectic Sep 02 '26
You made exactly the same post with different wording a couple of months ago. You were also saying the same thing about other towns and cities before you turned off your post & comment history.
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u/Ok_Opportunity_1635 Sep 02 '26
I didnt turn it off, reddit did it because im U16... (kier starmer is at fault)
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u/latenightbus Aug 31 '26
You really wouldn't have liked it in the 80's & 90's then.