Essential English phrases

The reflexive correction when you describe somewhere in Hove as being in Brighton. Hove was a separate town until the 1997 merger and the joke has outlived the boundary by thirty years. Deployed with a straight face and rarely entirely as a joke.

Down From London. The label for people who sold a London flat and bought a Brighton house, and the shorthand for the pressure that puts on local wages and rents. Half joke, half grievance — and it will be applied to you.

The open space and road at the bottom of the city where every bus route converges. It is pronounced 'steen' — not stine, not stain. You will say it out loud in your first week, and how you say it is the fastest tell there is.

A narrow footpath between two walls or fences. The Sussex word for what Yorkshire calls a ginnel and Nottingham a twitchell. Hanover and Kemptown are full of them and no listing ever explains the term.

The independent shopping quarter north of the station — named for the medieval agricultural laines, not for a lane. The Lanes are the twisting alleys of the old fishing town further south. Two different places, and conflating them will get you politely corrected.

The beach is pebbles, not sand. Every year newcomers arrive with a beach towel and leave with bruises. Buy the rubber beach shoes; everyone who lives here owns a pair.

The park between London Road and Hanover, with the skate park and the fountains. It takes the definite article and it is a proper noun — 'meet me at the Level', never 'at a level'.

Kemp Town, two words, is Thomas Read Kemp's 1820s Regency estate of crescents and squares. Kemptown, one word, is the wider neighbourhood around St James's Street. Locals distinguish them, estate agents do not, and knowing the difference tells you which one you are actually renting in.

The local property tax, paid by the occupier and billed separately from rent. Brighton's stock sits in higher valuation bands than the northern cities, so this is a bigger monthly line here than most newcomers budget for.

Since 1 May 2026 every private tenancy in England rolls month to month with no fixed term. You can leave on two months' notice and there is no end date for a landlord to evict you at.

Brighton and Hove Albion, who play at the Amex at Falmer, out past the university. Also, separately, the actual herring gulls, which are enormous, protected and entirely willing to take food out of your hand.

The Sussex motto — 'we won't be driven'. It is on pub signs and county emblems and it explains the local temperament better than any guidebook: independent-minded, resistant to being told, and mildly proud of it.

999 for a genuine emergency. NHS 111 for urgent medical help that is not life-threatening. Both free from any phone, including a locked one.