AN EXTREMELY SHORT HISTORY OF BRIGHTON & HOVE
Prehistory
In the shadow of the Brighton Racecourse grandstand is the earliest evidence of life in what we now call Brighton: Whitehawk Camp is a Neolithic site, from around 3500 BC. And those ancient denizens were enjoying the sea air once more when a stone long barrow (a cross between a monument and a tomb) found at Waldegrave Road was used as hardcore to build nearby Balfour Road, and workmen kept finding human remains poking through the foundations. (I’ll rise above the temptation to say they were lending a helping hand).
Roughly 3000 years later, the Iron Age hillfort, Hollingbury Castle, was built, which estate agents of the time would no doubt have described as “enjoying panoramic views of the Downs to the north and the sea to the south.”
Roman and Medieval
Next to enjoy a stay in the city were the Romans, and remains of a Roman villa were found on the southern edge of Preston Park in the 1930s, when a garage was being built. Facing the dilemma of garage or Roman villa, the owner compromised: he built the garage and displayed Roman statues and brooches behind the till. Beat that for a USP, Shell.
Eventually though, as we all know, the Romans shat
