Underdog Brighton

Hill, Rocky (Denis)

Published by Iconoclast Press, 1991

About this Item

Unread and unopened! (Hard to list as 'New' when it's 31 years old). Slight partial bend in lower front cover. Hardly noticeable, see photo. PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF BRIGHTON. Riveting. Could not put it down. Dennis Hobden, former Kemp Town M.P and ex-Mayor of Brighton. Most of this book is not concerned with the flighty follies of the aristocracy. It does not dwell on the splendours of Regency architecture. It is about the ordinary people who spent their lives in the shadow of the minarets. While the rich and the famous dined within the Royal Pavilion the paupers were rounded up and deported to other areas. A history book need not be as dry as dust. This one certainly isnt. It includes several startling revelations. Brighton very nearly did not get hold of the jewel in its crown. Such was the opposition to the high-handed manner of the towns government-appointed Commissioners that a local poll came within an ace of letting the Royal Pavilion be destroyed or sold to private developers. The story is told of how soldiers gave out food to the starving poor in Lewes and Newhaven, how local residents smuggled in comforts when the soldiers were on trial in Brighton, and how two soldiers bravely faced a public firing-squad in Hove. A body of churchwardens emerged to challenge the local bureaucracy. Organised as The Vestry, they denounced the cruel oppression of the day, called for electoral reform, and organised help for the Chartists. In later times, this book reveals how dead babies were to be found in the gutters of Brighton streets, how men worked a 96-hour week for a pittance, how domestic-servants were allowed out only for 6.30 a.m. Sunday services, how Surrey Street was once awash with home-brewed ale sold from every house, and how girls taken in by a religious charity were forced to kneel in submission to their betters. Dealing with the more modern period, this book carries the first-hand confession of the man who sabotaged a Mosley meeting at Brightons Dome; the reason for the collapse of the first Co-op; how hoteliers squeezed subsidies from the towns ratepayers; the rise and fall of local Communists; the truth about the Marina controversy; and the long battle between the trade unions and the middle-class. Labours climb to power, Salvation Army militants rampaging through the streets, the early churches, workhouse life, the town being taken over by outsiders - its all here. This is a most unusual account of the town that the outside world knows nothing of. Even Brightonians will find much that is new. It is truly an alternative history. 278pp. Seller Inventory # 880016

Bibliographic Details

Title: Underdog Brighton

Publisher: Iconoclast Press

Publication Date: 1991

Binding: Paperback

Condition: As New

Edition: First Edition.