Brighton before the Pavilion

Brighton is generally associated with being a seaside resort with the Royal Pavilion as its centre piece.  Dr Geoffrey Mead’s talk looks at Brighton before leisure pursuits and the royal family stamped that image on the place; a town of fishermen and small farmers on an unforgiving storm-wracked coast with steep hills as its backdrop.  He will look at the physical landscape of chalk downlands and shingle shorelines and why, even pre-George IV it was an important town.

Picture: Brighton 1779 (credit: Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove)