Brighton

The first settlement in the Brighton area was Whitehawk Camp, a Neolithic camp on Whitehawk Hill dated to between 3500 BC and 2700 BC. Digs have found four rings of ditches and mounds, broken in many places.

Brythonic Celts arrived in Britain in the 600s BC. From the 200s or 100s BC, Hollingbury Castle on Hollingbury Hill was an important Celtic settlement, ringed by earth walls about 300 metres across.

From the 1st century AD, the Romans built a number of villas in Brighton, and Romano-British Celts farmed in the area. In 2006, two Roman figurines found at the Brighton Roman Villa went on show in Brighton Museum.

Anglo-Saxons arrived in the late 400s, and the area became part of the Kingdom of Sussex, founded in 477 by King Ælle. A Saxon burial area from the 500s–600s has been excavated around Seven Dials.

The Domesday Book of 1086 is the first written evidence of a settlement on the site of Brighton, then called Bristelmestune. It was a fishing and farming settlement of about 400 people, and one landholding paid a rent of 4,000 herrings.

In 1312 King Edward II granted the village market rights and the right to hold an annual fair. By the 1300s Brighton had a parish church, and its first town constable had been elected in 1285.

In June 1514, French invaders under Admiral Prégent de Bidoux sacked and burnt the town. The earliest picture of Brighton, a painting from about 1520, shows the attack. The town recovered strongly, thanks to a thriving mackerel-fishing industry.

Fishing was so important that in 1579, at the Privy Council's request, leading residents had the fishermen write down how they worked and shared out their catches and profits. It was published in 1580, when Brighton's fleet of 80 boats and 10,000 nets was the largest in southern England and employed 400 men.

The grid of streets in the Old Town (today's Lanes) grew quickly, and the population rose from about 1,500 in 1600 to around 4,000 in the 1640s. Brighthelmstone was then the largest settlement in Sussex.

The name 'Brighton' was first seen in 1660, as an informal short form of Brighthelmstone. It was in general use from the late 1700s, but Brighthelmstone stayed the town's official name until 1810.

More foreign attacks, storms (especially the devastating Great Storm of 1703), a declining fishing industry and the rise of nearby Shoreham as a port hurt the town. A second storm in 1705 destroyed the lower town and covered the wreckage with shingle. By 1730 'it was a forlorn town decidedly down on its luck'.

The first sea defences were built in 1723, and from the 1730s Brighton's fortunes rapidly improved. From the 1760s boats left here for France, the road to London via Crawley became a turnpike in 1770, and physicians such as Sake Dean Mahomed and Anthony Relhan opened spas and indoor baths. From 1780 Georgian terraces were built, and the fishing village became a fashionable resort.

The Prince of Wales, later King George IV, first visited in 1783, and his patronage helped the town grow. From 1787 a seaside retreat was built for him, in stages: the Royal Pavilion.

Between 1815 and 1822 the architect John Nash redesigned and greatly extended the Royal Pavilion in the Indo-Saracenic style, with Mughal-inspired features such as bulbous domes and minarets. His work is still visible today.

The Royal Suspension Chain Pier, Brighton's first pier, opened in 1823. It appears in paintings by both Turner and Constable. A storm destroyed what was left of it in 1896.

The London and Brighton Railway arrived in 1841, bringing Brighton within reach of day-trippers from London. The population grew from 7,339 in 1801 to 46,661 in 1841, and to more than 120,000 by 1901.

After George IV died in 1830, William IV also stayed at the Pavilion. Later the government planned to sell it, and in 1850 the town bought the Pavilion for £53,000.

The University of Brighton began in 1859 as a school of art in the kitchens of the Royal Pavilion. It became a university in 1992.

The Grand Hotel was built in 1864 and the West Pier in 1866. The pier has been closed since 1975, and two fires in 2003 and other setbacks ended plans to restore it.

On 3 August 1883 Magnus Volk opened an electric railway a quarter of a mile long, between the Swimming Arch and the Chain Pier. It was extended in 1884, and it is the world's oldest operating electric railway.

The first pile was laid in 1891, and the Palace Pier was officially opened by the Mayoress of Brighton on 20 May 1899. It cost a record £27,000, including 3,000 lights, and was meant to replace the Chain Pier but became a pleasure pier instead.

In the early 1900s, Otto Pfenninger developed one of the earliest methods of colour photography in Brighton's parks and on its beaches.

From December 1914 to February 1916, the Royal Pavilion was a military hospital for Indian soldiers, with 724 beds. In 1921 the Maharaja of Patiala unveiled a new Indian-style gateway to remember the Pavilion's role in treating them.

On 2 July 1940, Second World War defence preparations closed Volk's railway. Brighton Corporation rebuilt it after the war, and it reopened for passengers in 1948.

The University of Sussex, designed by Sir Basil Spence, was founded in 1961 as the first of the 'plate-glass' universities.

On 6 April 1974, Brighton hosted the Eurovision Song Contest, and ABBA won at the Brighton Dome with their song 'Waterloo'.

In the 1970s the North Laine area was threatened with demolition, but was saved after planning officer Ken Fines stepped in.

In 1997 Brighton and neighbouring Hove joined to form Brighton and Hove, which Queen Elizabeth II granted city status in 2000 as part of the millennium celebrations.

DJ Fatboy Slim has held several concerts on Brighton beach. The 2002 one, Big Beach Boutique II, was the largest outdoor party ever held in the UK, with 250,000 people.

On 29 March 2014, the Royal Pavilion hosted one of the first legal same-sex marriages in the United Kingdom.