Right this Town/City thing once and for all

[8ace]

Julie Burchill makes some interesting points about why Brighton is not a city in her book Made in Brighton.

Where was Burchill born?

 

[The Spanish]

The City of St David's - population 1,797 - smaller than Rottingdean.

looks a bit like it as well to be fair.

i might start a campaign to get rottingdean city status and then talk about it on internet forums like it is up there with the great victorian industrial centres of britain without any sense of irony - its been done before.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Some of the locals were fairly pissed off about the place being called a mere "city", when once upon a time it had been the Republic of Montalcino. The best known book about the place is written by an Australian, who calls it a village. But what does she know?

I watched that Michael Palin New Europe thing last night. The best known book about Moldavia BY FAR was written by an Irishman, one Bram Stoker.

 

[Acker79]

its about the desperate need to refer to where you live as something more important than it actually is.

With the definition of City changing depending on eras, I don't see living as a city as much of a bragging point, and doubt many do. I suspect that your interpretation is only correct for a small minority of cases.

I think the majority are simply pedants who like correcting people, and in some recent cases simply using it to somehow make fun of certain posters who seem to act as if they are the font of knowledge of Brighton and Hove, the gate keepers to everything Brighton and Hove, yet they seem so ignorant of the current status of Brighton and Hove as a City.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

well its debatable that a town 45 minutes from the EUs largest city plays some pivotal regional role in any major sense. apart from it being where they go for a day out.

the town doesnt have feelings its ok you can be honest about it. its not downgrading its status its just being a bit less f***ing deluded, in myopinion.

London overshadows so much in this country that it over shadows cities much further afield. Brighton operates as the retail, leisure education and cultural centre for the county. I'm just wondering whether you believe Chichester deserves to be a city?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Where was Burchill born?

Bristol.

 

[Hunting 784561]

I expect the same people would have grizzled like f*** when Brighthelmstone upgraded from village status to a town back in the 18th Century.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Do folk in the City of Stoke on Trent bang on about it not being a proper city, because it's "really" six towns, called Burslem, Tunstall, Stoke-upon-Trent, Hanley, Fenton and Longton?

And I'm not even going to mention Newcastle-under-Lyme and Wolstanton.

 

[NUFC1892]

Not relevant to Brighton but up here I've never heard anyone refer to Newcastle as 'the city', it's always 'I'm popping into town' or 'Toon'.

 

[alan partridge]

IMHO Julie Burchill is vastly overrated and has a damn sight more in common with her icon Jordan, literary-wise, than she thinks she has. Shallow word-play, big on middle-England shock value, low on IQ. In short, Not All That. Parsons is by far the better writer. Having said that, my copy of 'the Boy Looked At Johnny' signed by the pair of them in their NME kinder-bunker days is a much-treasured possession.

I read large chunks of her auto-biography when I worked ina book shop once. If you took out the amount of times she pointed out she was working class the book would have been half the size.

 

[AuntAgonist]

If you live in the city (of Brighton, Hove and environs) it's meaningless to say "I'm popping into the city" as you're already there. So "town" would be the city centre, but it sounds silly saying "popping to the city centre" so common sense prevails. But the whole place is still a city, comprised of various towns.

At least people don't call it a "Millennium City"...

 

[8ace]

Bristol.

Without wanting to sound like Timmy, hardly "Made in Brighton" is it?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Wells? Oh but that has a cathedral. Depends what constitues a city I guess.

I believe the cathedral thing was a myth. It's certainly not the case now. As far as I'm aware you just need a charter from the Queen.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Where was Burchill born?

Pluto? Mars?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I read large chunks of her auto-biography when I worked ina book shop once. If you took out the amount of times she pointed out she was working class the book would have been half the size.

Quite.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I read large chunks of her auto-biography when I worked ina book shop once. If you took out the amount of times she pointed out she was working class the book would have been half the size.

Are you suggesting she has a chip on her shoulder?

 

[AuntAgonist]

I believe the cathedral thing is a myth. As far as I'm aware you just need a charter from the Queen.

Yep, that's how it works now. The cathedral city (mmm, cheese) is more an 'istoric thing. But they still have city status.

 

[The Spanish]

I read large chunks of her auto-biography when I worked ina book shop once. If you took out the amount of times she pointed out she was working class the book would have been half the size.

the same principle applies if you take out mentions of being married to japanese women in tony parsons scribblings.

 

[alan partridge]

Are you suggesting she has a chip on her shoulder?

she ate that.

No, I'm suggesting that she's a self publicising bore

 

[alan partridge]

the same principle applies if you take out mentions of being married to japanese women in tony parsons scribblings.

they should get together