Kemp Town is the eastern district of Brighton, which is home to grand seafront crescents, churches, elegant squares, numerous shopping venues, galleries and cozy pubs. The area is also known as the largest spiritual home of the city's gay and lesbian community. Next self-guided tour will lead to the most interesting and prominent places in this lively area.
1) St George's Church
St George's Church is an Anglican church in the Kemptown area of Brighton. It was built at the request of Thomas Read Kemp, who had created and financed the Kemp Town estate on the cliffs east of Brighton in the early 19th century, and is now regarded as the parish church of the wider Kemptown area. It is a Grade II listed building. Busby designed St George's Church in a Neoclassical style, with simple, clean lines and strong symmetry. The exterior consists of yellow brick with some stucco work, regularly-spaced tiered pairs of round-headed windows, and a deep cornice with no ornamentation. Inside, there are galleries on the northern, southern and western sides, reached by curved staircases. St George's also acts as one of Brighton's largest venues for alternative and folk music concerts.
Image Courtesy of Wikimedia and The Voice of Hassocks
Sight description based on wikipedia
2) Brighton Framing Gallery
Brighton Framing Gallery is an independent framers and art gallery. Located on Saint Georges Road, it focuses on quality framing and contemporary art. It displays original artwork created by local artists. Here you will see textile art, jewelry, handmade books, enamel and metal works, as well as other interesting things.
Image Courtesy of Flickr and iwona_kellie
3) Malarkey
Malarkey is probably the best card shop in Brighton, situated on Saint Georges Road near the Brighton Framing Gallery. It offers an extensive assortment of postcards, posters and prints. The shop is also an ideal place to get cheap gifts.
Image Courtesy of Flickr and Muffet
4) Royal Crescent
Royal Crescent is a crescent-shaped terrace of houses on the seafront in Brighton. Built in the late 18th and early 19th centuries as a speculative development on cliffs east of Brighton by a wealthy merchant, the 14 lodging houses formed the town's eastern boundary until about 1820. It was the seaside resort's first planned architectural composition, and the first built intentionally to face the sea. The variety of building materials used includes black glazed mathematical tiles—a characteristic feature of Brighton's 18th century architecture. English Heritage has listed the crescent at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
Image Courtesy of Wikimedia and The Voice of Hassocks
Sight description based on wikipedia
5) St John the Baptist's Church
St John the Baptist's Church is a Roman Catholic church in the Kemptown area. It was the first Roman Catholic church built in Brighton after the process of Catholic Emancipation in the early 19th century removed restrictions on Catholic worship. Located on Bristol Road, a main road east of the city centre, it is one of 11 Catholic churches in Brighton and Hove. The church is Classical in style, with a stuccoed exterior and a large pediment above the entrance. The shallow roof is made of slate. The entrance porch is flanked by two columns with accompanying pilasters, and there are two more pilasters at the corner of the building. Blind doorways between the two sets of pilasters have small pediments and two deep-set windows above them. Below the main pediment and dentil cornice is a Latin inscription: DEO SUB INVOC. S. JOANNIS BAPT. ("To God, under the invocation of St. John the Baptist.")
Image Courtesy of Wikimedia and The Voice of Hassocks
Sight description based on wikipedia
6) Brighton Flea Market
Brighton Flea Market is a shopping venue on Upper St. James’s Street. Housed in a colorful building in Kemp Town, it offers glassware, silverware, mirrors, tables, chairs and other original things from the Victorian era to the 90s, for pretty good prices.
Image Courtesy of Flickr and DaveBleasdale
7) Paros Antiques
Paros Antiques is an antique shop, situated at 34/35 Upper St. James's Street. Here you will find a wide range of antique objects, including bronze figurines, china, glass, clocks, furniture, jewelry, lamps, posters, collectable and rare books, etc. The shop is closed on Tuesdays.
Image Courtesy of Paros Antiques
8) Metrodeco
Metrodeco is located at 38 Upper St. James's Street and is a tea shop, which also offers two floors of chic 20th century furniture for sale, created by renowned designers. Here you will find decorative furniture from the Art Deco period including chairs, tables, glass, ceramics, mirrors, lights, dining suites, ornaments and figurines.
Image Courtesy of Metrodeco