The Brighton Belle

To travel on the Brighton Belle was to travel in style, a style more closely associated with the Orient Express on extended ventures overseas than a journey between London and Brighton that took less than an hour. Businessmen used it, but so too did many people in radio, television and the theatre. Indeed it was a campaign to keep it running organised by a group of celebrities that saved it (albeit not for long) from the axe in the mid-1960s. It last ran on the last day of April 1972, by which time its magic had faded to some extent, but it is still remembered with affection today.