MUCH of city life revolves around celebrations.

That is certainly true in Brighton.

Whether it’s Pride, Burning The Clocks or the Christmas Day swim, each landmark in the year seems to come with a different way to celebrate it.

As these photos from The Keep archive in Falmer show, this has been the case for much of Brighton and Hove’s history, especially where cars are involved.

Take the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, a spectacular annual show of antique motors and the world’s longest-running motoring event.

Our picture on the bottom of the opposite page shows the race under way in Patcham in 1927, the run which transformed it into an annual fixture on Brighton’s calendar.

Technically the first London to Brighton Veteran Car Run took place in 1896, though it did not have that name.

It was known as the Emancipation Run, a celebration of a new law which upped the national speed limit from 4mph to 14mph and removed restrictions requiring all cars to be accompanied by pedestrian escorts with red flags.

Daimler founder Harry J Lawson organised the 1896 meeting at Charing Cross Hotel on the dreary morning of November 14.

At breakfast Conservative politician Lord Winchilsea tore a red flag in two to symbolise motorists’ new-found freedom.

Thirty three motorists set off from London accompanied by a throng of cyclists.

Only 17 arrived on Brighton seafront.

French inventor Leon Bollee was the first to finish, steaming to the seaside in three hours and 44 minutes.

His brother Camille took second place, finishing more than an hour behind him.

The run was not staged again until 1927, and became an annual event until Second World War fuel rationing put a stop to it in 1939.

The Keep is currently closed and cannot take orders for photographs. For more information visit thekeep.info.