Brighton and Hove

Brighton & Hove (or Brighton and Hove) is a unitary authority and city in East Sussex on the south coast of England. It was formed as a unitary authority on 1 April 1997 by the merger of the East Sussex districts of Brighton and Hove. It immediately applied for and was granted borough status, which was followed by an award of city status by letters patent in 2000, as the joint winner of a competition to mark the Millennium. The city, district and urban areas of Brighton & Hove have the biggest populations in the South East England region.

Brighton and Hove form part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton (sic) conurbation, the 12th largest conurbation in the UK. Directly to the west is Shoreham-by-Sea, and a short distance to the east are Peacehaven and Newhaven.

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 added to Hove in 1928 • Ovingdean, Patcham and Rottingdean added to Brighton in 1928 • Portslade-by-Sea added to Hove in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 : both Brighton and Hove became non-metropolitan districts of East Sussex

The football team, Brighton & Hove Albion F.C., predates the unification of the two boroughs by several decades.

On 15 October 2004, Brighton & Hove was granted Fairtrade City status. It is sometimes referred to as the "Gay Capital" of the UK, with many gay-oriented and owned business and services existing to serve a diverse and lively community.