The southeast corner of England was traditionally where London
went on holiday. In the past, trainloads of Eastenders were
shuttled to the hop fields and orchards of Kent for a
working break from the city; boats ferried people down the Thames
to the beach at Margate; and everyone from royalty to cuckolding
couples enjoyed the seaside at Brighton, a blot of decadence in the
otherwise sedate county of Sussex . Of the three,
Surrey is the least pastoral and historically significant -
the home of wealthy metropolitan professionals prepared to commute
from what has become known as the "stockbroker belt".
The late twentieth century brought big changes to the southeast
region. In purely administrative terms the three counties have
become four, since local government reorganization split Sussex
into East and West. More significantly, many of the coastal towns
have faced an uphill struggle to keep their tourist custom in the
face of evermore accessible foreign destinations. To make matters
worse, Brighton , long known as "London beside the sea", now
matches the capital with one of the highest proportions of homeless
people in the country.
The proximity of Kent and Sussex to the continent has dictated
the history of this region, which has served as a gateway for an
array of invaders, both rapacious and benign. Roman remains
dot the landscape - the most spectacular are at Bignor ,
near Arundel - and many roads, including the London-to-Dover A2,
follow the straight lines laid by the legionaries. When post-Roman
Christianity spread through Europe, it arrived in Britain on
the Isle of Thanet - the northeast tip of Kent, although
older orders already existed among the Celts in the north and west
of the country. In 597 AD Augustine moved inland and established a
monastery at Canterbury , still the home of the Church of
England and the county's prime historic attraction. (Surprisingly,
Sussex was among the last counties to accept the Cross - due more
to the region's then impenetrable forest than to its innate
ungodliness.)
The last successful invasion of England took place in 1066, when
the Normans overran King Harold's army near Hastings
, on a site now marked by Battle Abbey . The Normans left
their mark all over this corner of England and Kent remains
unmatched in its profusion of medieval castles, among them
Dover 's sprawling cliff-top fortress guarding against
continental invasion and Rochester 's huge, box-like
citadel, close to the old dockyards of Chatham , power base
of the formerly invincible British Navy.
Away from the great historic sites, you can spend unhurried
days in elegant old towns such as Rye, Royal Tunbridge Wells
and Lewes , or enjoy the less elevated charms of the
traditional resorts, of which Brighton is far and away the
best, combining the buzz of a university town with a good time
atmosphere and an excellent range of eating options. Dramatic
scenery may be in short supply, but in places the South Downs
Way offers an expanse of rolling chalk uplands that, as much as
anywhere in the crowded southeast, gets you away from it all. And
of course Surrey, Kent and Sussex harbour some of the country's
finest gardens , ranging from the lush flowerbeds of
Sissinghurst to the great landscaped estates of
Petworth and Sheffield Park .