Brilliant Brighton: 10 facts you might not know about our wonderful city

Brilliant Brighton, which has been put together by historian Kevin Newman, appeared in the paper over two weeks earlier this month.

Have you ever wondered which Brighton pubs are haunted, which serial killer stalked the streets and where Laurence Olivier lived?

All will be revealed in Brilliant Brighton.

There is still a chance to buy the printed version of this supplement. Call us on 01273 544544 during office hours to order yours.

If you missed the first 20 facts, read them here:

• Brilliant Brighton 1-10
• Brilliant Brighton 11-20

21. A right old mayor...

A very cheeky Brightonian was our “mayor” in the 1600s – Nicholas Tattersell.

He helped King Charles II safely escape to France in the Civil War and was determined the one-time fugitive king should remember who had done it.

He was not only paid £200 (a fortune then) by Charles for the voyage but also more when Charles was crowned in 1660.

Tettersell bought the Ship Inn in Ship Street with his new fortune.

Tattersell was made a naval captain but was dismissed and returned to Brighton, becoming high constable and being generally unpleasant, persecuting non-conformists and bossing townspeople about.

22. The hotel that moved

The Pet Shop Boys once suggested we “Go West” but Brighton’s oldest hotel, which started in the 1500s as the Ship Tavern, has ignored that advice and gone south.

Not until 1794 did it expand to the seafront.

Tettersall’s fee from Charles II meant he could buy the old tavern in 1671 and since then the hotel has expanded.

It was a courthouse and a post office before the town hall, and hosted an auction house.

A century later, it was proud of the fact that as early as 1996 it was the first to give guests internet access.

23. The toughest of ancestors

Think you’re tough? Our ancestors were brave beyond belief.

The earliest inhabitants had to survive raids by the Saxons and then Vikings, the French and then endure batterings from the elements.

An old belief was that a first Brighton settlement was swept away and submerged in a great storm of 1278.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, one of our earliest history books records that Brighthelmstone faced “bad wind” in 1103, 1114, 1118 and 1121.

100 houses were destroyed in one night in the 1700s and much of Hove was washed away too.

24. Resort that never stands still... even the buildings

The Old Ship is not the only building to expand or move over the years.

The Grand has moved westwards towards the Metropole, while the Metropole has moved east so the two are now separated by Cannon Place.

The Royal Albion has moved both south and east, whereas the Royal Pavilion has shrunk.

Both universities have mushroomed. St Bartholomew’s Church is technically unfinished so millions of visitors to Brighton see its unfinished north side every year – 142 years after it was built.

25. Secret tunnels for a weighty royal

Brighton is rumoured to have numerous lost tunnels but there is one from the Royal Pavilion to the museum and Dome today which you can see – you can trace its route by skylights between the Pavilion and the museum.

This was so the prince could move about Brighton without people seeing how fat he’d become.

The Royal Pavilion used to do tours of the tunnel between it and the museum.

There were also two from the cellars of the Druids Head, blocked up and rediscovered in the 1960s.

The Market Inn behind the old Hanningtons store had a tunnel and was another of the prince’s mistress’s houses in the days when it was called the Three Chimneys.

26. Mecca for motorists

Considering that driving in Brighton can be so horrendous it should be a Top Gear challenge, Brighton and Hove has many links to motor cars.

Clarendon Mansions was designed by the father of Frederick William Lanchester (1868-1946), the name behind Lanchester, the first British car company to use a petrol engine.

Brighton was the destination for the country first planned motorway, but this never reached fruition.

As late as the 1960s, Brighton was assembling cars in the New England Quarter.

27. Perfect place for piers

Not only was Brighton good at transporting trains, we’re good at allowing people to walk above the water.

Brighton’s first pier, the Chain Pier was built by Samuel Brown, a naval captain and engineer, in 1823.

Piers were jetties to let boats unload goods. At one point, Brighton had three: the Chain Pier, Palace Pier and West Pier.

28. On track to destination of pleasure

Brighton was a pleasure destination for the masses with the arrival of the railway from London in 1841.

The route to Brighton from London allowed many to glimpse the sea for the first time.

Railways meant new towns along the line, commuters could live here and work in London and meant others could commute into Brighton.

Like other industrial era settlements, railways meant Brighton could expand and is why we have London Road, Preston Park, Moulsecoomb, Falmer and other stations to the west.

It shaped our city, making it possible to live completely surrounded by railways in one part (although they are below you so you don’t realise it).

Viaducts, once on the outskirts in fields, are now Victorian flyovers of the railway age, engineering marvels.

29. Did Jack the Ripper live here?

Brighton has not only hip and happening pubs but plenty of haunted ones too.

It isn’t surprising the Druids Head has several spectres as it’s an old haunt of smugglers with two suspected smugglers’ tunnels underneath its bar.

A hooded figure was seen briefly by the stairs in the 1970s by then landlord Derek Woods.

A far more glamorous ghost, wearing a red dress, was seen in the bar by one of the staff.

That spook also swiftly vanished after moving towards the stairs.

The Regency Tavern’s brightly coloured interior hasn’t put off poltergeist activity in the past, nor a tall and wispy female ghost who is said to have walked right through one member of staff.

The Cricketers is also said to be haunted... and it could be by none other than Jack the Ripper.

It is claimed by some the Ripper was an army surgeon, Roslyn D’Onston, who stayed at the pub in the Lanes.

He roused suspicion because he had the medical knowledge to cut up victims in the manner of the Ripper, was a known user of prostitutes and, chillingly, left Brighton to go and live in Whitechapel in 1888 just as the Ripper murders started in that very area.

It is alleged the ghost of D’Onston stalks the Lanes to this day.

30. We’re in business

Brighton became a conference and exhibition venue from the 1960s and brought much-needed revenue. Exhibitions brought many firsts.

The first “Disc Festival” – the type played by “disc jockeys” – took place here on August 21, 1962.

Technology meant Brighton could hold events organised from the US and delegates in the Metropole’s exhibition halls got to travel up and down Brighton’s first escalators.