'Brighton was to be likened to a ragged garment with a golden fringe. It certainly had a beautiful fringe, but the garment!'
Herbert Carden, Mayor of Brighton, 1919

	Oven Door from Belling Electric Cooker, stamped Property of Brighton Corporation Electricity Department, 1940s.

Where can you find cheap housing in Brighton? In Victorian times, the answer lay in crowded streets near the town centre.

Brighton Council began clearing slums in the 1840s. At first, the occupants were not re-housed. From the 1920s, people were moved into new housing estates on the outskirts of Brighton. The estates provided modern comforts, but rents were high, and there were no shops or pubs. As an alternative, the Council built twenty high-rise blocks nearer to the town centre during the 1960s and 1970s.

	Rent book, early 1930s.

For the private market, Victorian builders constructed Brightons rows of terraced houses, rented for £10-20 a year (about £500-£1000 in 2001). Developers later moved out of town, creating larger suburban villas and 'tudorbethan' estates, decorated in pebbledash and mock wooden beams.

Today, with little space to build new houses, many grand seafront buildings, have been split up into flats to provide Brightons cheapest 'bedsit' accommodation.

See objects on display in the Housing section of Exploring Brighton gallery