Brighton and Hove Albion

The Seagulls are playing the Tractor Boys this evening. The last time the two met, back in September, they played out a goalless draw, and Ipswich picked up their second point of the season. Brighton and Hove Albion (@OfficialBHAFC) have a very straightforward badge – but there's a lot more to it than meets the eye, along with a great backstory. So, let's do the South Coasters the honour and #GetTheBadgeIn.

Let's get straight to the point – why a Seagull? Clearly, there are a lot of seagulls in Brighton, but it actually derived from their long-standing rivalry with Crystal Palace. Playing them in the '70s, the Palace fans would chant ‘Eagles’. In response, and perhaps in jest, the Brighton fans began chanting back ‘Seagulls’. The name stuck, and a few years later, it made it to the badge.

That rivalry itself is worth looking at, as it's probably one of the strangest in football: Known as the "M23 derby," it originated in the mid-1970s, fueled by a series of intense matches, including five in one season, and the personal competition between managers Terry Venables of Crystal Palace and Alan Mullery of Brighton. The conflict between the two sets of fans was so fierce that the animosity has stuck and become entrenched as part of both clubs’ identities.

Prior to this, the team had actually tried to adopt a more fan-friendly nickname, and ‘The Dolphins’ was adopted after a fan poll – but it never really clicked.

So that’s the badge and the club. Let's look a little closer at the legacy of the towns they represent (both of them – Brighton and Hove, which are now basically just one giant urban blob, with the same council).

Firstly, Brighton’s real beef should be with the French, not Palace fans. In 1514, French raiders burnt much of Brighton (then known as Brighthelmstone) to the ground and the place had to be more or less rebuilt from scratch.

In 1651, Brighton again was at the forefront of international relations when, during the English Civil War, Charles II, having just seen his father's head get chopped off, escaped to the port and caught a boat to France for safety. This event is still commemorated every year with the ‘Royal Escape Yacht Race’ that starts in Brighton and ends in Fécamp, France.

But it was in the 18th and 19th centuries that Brighton really took off. Like many seaside resorts (think: Southend, Felixstowe, etc.), the arrival of the railway opened up the town to wealthy day-trippers from London. Brighton’s tourism boom was also helped, in part, by the belief, like in Bournemouth, that the local waters were good for health. An industry in health spas blossomed to cater to the mental and physical health of the prim and proper (and people complain today about people being woke... try a health retreat in Brighton in the 19th century, proper quack stuff going on).

Brighton became the favoured health retreat of the Royals, beginning with King George IV, who loved parties, women, and palaces – and accordingly commissioned Brighton’s famous Royal Pavilion as his holiday home (although it was under Queen Victoria that it was refurbished to include the beautiful oriental style frontage of pillars and domes).

During the First World War, the Royal Pavilion was transformed into an army hospital for Indian soldiers from the Commonwealth who were serving on the Western Front. Almost 140,000 Indians served in the trenches alongside the Brits during the First World War – their sacrifices are today honoured by The Chattri war memorial in Brighton.

Throughout the twentieth century, Brighton shifted away from tourism and more towards academics, hosting two large universities. Hundreds of thousands of students, added to Brighton’s existing industry of health resorts, created a climate with a lot of long-haired people pushing the boundaries of society 

. As such, the local politics of the town have reflected this. There is a famously large LGBT community in Brighton, and since 2010, it has been home to Britain’s only Green MP, Caroline Lucas (despite the Greens actually receiving millions of votes, the voting system keeps them shut out in most places across the country, so it is nice that they at least get one voice in Parliament).            

The seagulls come to Town today representing a history of seaside squabbles, sumptuous spas and sacrificing Sikhs. Let’s welcome them to Town while politely hoping they leave empty handed.

Uppa Towen.