Brighton and Hove

Brighton and Hove is a unitary authority area and city on the south coast of England. It is England's most populous seaside resort. The unitary authority was formed from the unification of Brighton, the major part of the city with around 155,000 people of the 256,000 total population, with the nearby town of Hove in 1997, officially granted city status by Queen Elizabeth II as part of the millennium celebrations in 2000. "Brighton" is often referred to synonymously with the official "Brighton and Hove" name although many locals still consider the two to be separate towns. Brighton and Hove's urban area has a population of over 460,000 people. The city is famous for its history as a seaside town, and more recently for its reputation of having a large gay community and nightlife and arts culture. The city is also known for its football team Brighton & Hove Albion FC (commonly known as just "Brighton" or "Albion"). They currently play in the Football League Championship at the Amex Stadium, opened in 2011. The team predates the unification of Brighton and Hove by over 96 years.

Brighton and Hove forms part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation, the 12th largest conurbation in the United Kingdom. Along this area of the south coast, there is little or no gap of countryside between these large towns and city. Directly to the west is Southwick and then Shoreham-by-Sea, and a short distance to the east are Peacehaven and Newhaven. The city, district and urban areas of Brighton and Hove have the biggest populations in the South East England region.

Brighton and Hove themselves were results of amalgamations:

• Brighton was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1854, later becoming a county borough under the Local Government Act 1888; it covered the parish of Brighton and part of Preston
• Hove became a local board of health in the late 19th century, originally covering the parish of Hove
• In 1893 the parish of Aldrington was added to Hove local board
• Hove became incorporated as a municipal borough in 1898
• Hangleton, Preston Rural and West Blatchington were added to Hove in 1928
• Ovingdean, Patcham and Rottingdean were added to Brighton in 1928
• Portslade-by-Sea was added to Hove in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 : both Brighton and Hove became non-metropolitan districts of East Sussex

On 15 October 2004, Brighton and Hove was granted Fairtrade City status.