Railway Sleepers
Brighton East Sussex
Approximate Population: 263,464
The Royal Pavilion is a former royal palace built as a home for the Prince Regent during the early 1800s and is notable for Indian architecture and Oriental interior design. The building and grounds were purchased by the town in 1849 for £53,000.
Brighton Pier (originally and in full “The Brighton Marine Palace and Pier”, and for long known as the Palace Pier) opened in 1899. It features a funfair, restaurants and arcade halls. The funfair has been criticised for its prices, with rides costing up to £8. Brightonians refer to it as Palace Pier in protest at the commercialisation.
The West Pier was built in 1866 and has been closed since 1975 awaiting renovation, which faces continual setbacks, in part because the owners of the Palace Pier, the Noble Organisation, have opposed plans.[12] The West Pier is one of only two Grade I listed piers in the United Kingdom, but suffered two fires in 2003. Plans for a new landmark in its place – the i360, a 183m (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.
Created in 1883, Volk’s Electric Railway runs along the inland edge of the beach from Brighton Pier to Black Rock. It is the world’s oldest operating electric railway.
