Driving around Central Brighton, ie from the BR Station 'Buckingham' ward, up to the seafront, with a half-mile arc from Marina on the East, to Hove on the West, is not dissimilar to driving around London's most expensive districts - Kensington, Notting Hill, Holland Park etc.
Cramped, windy streets, endless traffic control measures, bus lanes, pinch points, no-turn junctions etc. Perhaps this is why it got the 'London by the sea' moniker, together with the white fronted Edwardian and Victorian terraces. A driver who has lived or spent a reasonable amount of time in both Central London and Central Brighton, will quickly realise that parking in Brighton is worse. I would describe it as prohibitive to cars. Cambridge could also be described like this, but Cambridge imposed its limitations on cars and then planned the town centre and transport systems accordingly, Brighton has not - it simply traps visiting drivers into a web of extortionate parking charges. There is no escape.
The NCP car park on North Road, heading south from the station to the seafront, will charge you a flat £25 if you park for 1 minute over 4 hours. After that, you can stay for the remaining 20 hours free, although you'll be mad if you did.
If you decide to live in Central Brighton, in a street with residents only parking (they all are) you'lll join a waiting list of approx. 1 year from moving in to getting a sniff of a residents parking permit.
Brighton has always looked permanently filthy to me, especially the vicinty around the hideous, tasteless Brighton Royal Pavilion, easily the worst historical monument in the whole of the British Isles. But then it was commissioned by a madman.
Edited by Sulphur Man on 02/10/2012 at 18:27
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