The lost Lower Town of Brighthelmstone: the back story

Long before the Regency, Brighthelmstone was two towns. On the cliff top stood the grid of streets that became the Lanes; below it, on the foreshore, lay the Lower Town of fishermen’s cottages, capstans and the market house. Storms in 1703 and, decisively, 1705 destroyed it, and shingle covered what was left.

Brighton’s oldest neighbourhood is not in the Lanes at all, but under the shingle in front of them.

Two towns

The first fishing settlement grew up in Saxon times on the foreshore below a chalk cliff, and came to be known as the Lower Town. Above it, on the cliff top, a rectangle of streets about a quarter of a mile square took shape: West Street, Middle Street, North Street and East Street, with a south street along the cliff edge.

They were largely built up by the early 16th century, around an open field in the middle, the Hempshares, where hemp was grown for nets and ropes.

Life under the cliff

The Lower Town lived by the sea. Brighthelmstone’s fishing fleet was among the most important on the south coast, and the vicar took a share from every boat that came home. Under the cliff stood shops, cottages and the places where boats were hauled up by capstan: in 1665, 113 of a former 135 were still standing, and the old market house stood there too.

The raid of 1514

In June 1514 the French admiral Prégent de Bidoux landed by night and set fire to the town. Beacons brought help, and he was wounded before he reached his galley; Brighton & Hove Museums say the raid destroyed almost every building in the town.

The storms

The sea had been taking the land for centuries: in 1340, forty acres of farmland were said to have been lost in under fifty years. The storm of 1703 stripped a great many houses and overthrew two windmills, and the storm of 1705 demolished what remained of the Lower Town under the cliff. The old market house was washed away, and a new one was built in 1734 between Black Lion Street and East Street.

Walk down Middle Street or Black Lion Street to the beach, and you are walking from the old upper town towards the vanished one.

Hard times and the cure

The early 18th century was the poorest time in the town’s history. By 1700 about 1,400 to 1,500 people lived there, under half the number of 1580, and in 1744 most householders were too poor to pay rates. Rescue came from the sea itself: Dr Richard Russell, who came to Brighton around 1747, published his treatise on the use of sea water in 1750, and the sea-bathing visitors who followed made Brighthelmstone fashionable.

Our advice: walk the twittens of the Lanes, the old upper town, then go down to the beach between the piers and look back at the cliff line that once stood above the Lower Town. Brighton Museum and The Keep hold the town’s early maps and records.