Autumn is such a lovely time to visit – and be living in – Brighton. The summer crowds have thinned, the weather is still nice and mild and the colourful leaves are giving the city a different character.
The days are getting shorter, but are still long enough to get a lot in and there’s a sense of excitement for seasonal change in the air. It’s also a great excuse to buy a new jumper and scarf and bundle up for a brisk seafront walk.
From city leaf peeping and drinks in cosy pubs to ghost hunting and psychic readings, here’s some classic inspiration and alternative ideas for enjoying autumn in Brighton.
This guide was originally published in October 2021, but has since been revamped to keep it fresh.
where to find autumn colour in Brighton
What I love most about autumn in Brighton is the colour. The foliage is beautiful at this time of year, and there’s a lot of it around.
My favourite place to go leaf-peeping in the city is Preston Park. This is the city’s biggest green space which has two lovely cafes and a Victorian velodrome.
Opposite you’ll also find the Preston Park Rock Garden which is home to Brighton’s only waterfall. The latter has one of the most incredible displays of Virginia creeper on a little outbuilding (pictured above).
I’ve put together five self-guided Brighton walks for autumn colour that take you to some under-the-radar places in the city.
Spooky things to do in Brighton this autumn
Take a tour of Preston Manor, Britain’s most haunted house
For years, I overlooked Preston Manor. Its secluded setting surrounded by trees, means it’s easy to walk past without realising it. Even now, it always surprises me how few locals have been in.
When I finally visited, I discovered a pretty historic home with a stunning garden and hidden tea room run by Cafe Rust. It’s well worth a trip – especially in spooky season. This is because it’s said to be the most haunted house in Britain. Holy moly!
When I visited, two staff members told me about spooky encounters in certain rooms with a blonde woman dressed in white, and that several visitors had seen her too.
Find Preston Manor at Preston Drove, Brighton BN1 6SD. Book tour tickets here.
Find Brighton’s hidden city pet cemetery
After your spooky visit to Preston Manor, there are two curiosities in the grounds to discover, one inside the other.
The first is a stunning walled Edwardian garden, that’s free to enter, open all year round, and worth visiting alone to see it in all its russet and gold autumn glory.
To find the second, head into the south-west corner of the garden and you’ll find a row of tiny headstones lining the back walls.
It’s known as Preston Manor pet cemetery and reminds us of the time in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, when pets were buried in private cemeteries.
The gravestone people find most intriguing is inscribed ‘George the Pavilion Cat’, a shorthaired black and white cat who lived at the Royal Pavilion from 1965 to 1980.
Take a ghost walk of the Lanes
Actor Rob Marks as the eccentric Silas the Ghost Walker, or his fellow ghost walkers Jasper and Ebenezer, takes you on a 70-minute walk around Brighton’s famous Lanes to visit eight of the area’s most haunted sites.
For further spooking, book in for the walk followed by an atmospheric three-course dinner in the eerie underground cellars of 400-year-old hotel, The Old Ship.
Book your Ghost Walk of the Lanes here or here.
Follow a self-guided walk around Brighton’s biggest cemetery
On the fringes of Hanover, Brighton’s most colourful and hilliest neighbourhood, is Woodvale Cemetery, a mind-blowing 70-acre complex most people overlook.
It’s home to an intriguing Victorian burial ground with a romantic, but eerie 19th-century atmosphere all its own. The mossy overgrown paths are lined with wonky, ivy-covered gravestones.
Wandering around here feels like being in a mini city of unique mausoleums and intricate graves, some built with extraordinary detail. It’s an incredible secret Brighton place to celebrate autumn.
Despite how big it is, it’s likely you’ll only ever encounter a handful of other people while you’re here. There’s also a little garden for picnics near the entrance.
Find Woodvale Cemetery at Lewes Road, Brighton BN2 3QB and follow my self-guided walk here.
Drag brunch and CABARET nights IN A FORMER TOMB
Madam Lola’s is a cabaret show spot with an unusual setting in a Grade II-listed former tomb. It’s better known as the Sassoon Mausoleum, and you can’t miss it with its fancy oriental style structure with a pagoda roof.
It was once the resting place of Sir Albert Sassoon, a member of a prominent Victorian Anglo-Indian-Jewish family of entrepreneurs who founded the Sassoon & Co banking firm.
But don’t worry – you won’t be drinking next to his remains. His body was moved to a Jewish cemetery in London when his grandson, Sir Philip Sassoon, sold the house and garden.
Find Madam Lola’s at 83 St George’s Road, Brighton BN2 1EF
Hocus Pocus! Brighton MAGIC SHOPS and psychic readings
Whether you’re a seasoned occultist, or a newbie intrigued by the craft, there are several places in Brighton that will feed your aspiring inner Pagan. Start off with a trip to Gaia’s Magick on Sydney Street, loved for its collection of crystals, jewellery and spiritual books.
Meanwhile, Two Feathers over on Kensington Gardens stocks beautiful native American tribal jewellery, crystals, and other products like musical instruments like singing bowls and flutes. They also have a big section of incense, candles and oils.
Fancy a psychic reading? There are two places in the city with good reputations. Fiona Coffey of Tea and Tarot is a business psychologist and fringe theatre performer who loves reading tarot.
She offers individual readings or hosts tarot parties. Find out more, here and here. She also hosts tarot classes for budding readers, here.
Claire Petulengro, another famous Brighton tarot reader from a long line of clairvoyants also offers phone readings which you can book via her website. Two Feathers mentioned above also hosts readings. Find out more here.
Want to take your interest in modern witchcraft further? Then pay a visit to the former home of the pioneer of modern witchcraft, Doreen Valiente, at 6 Tyson Place, Grosvenor Street, Brighton marked with a blue plaque. She’s the first person to have spoken openly about the craft after it was made legal in 1951.
Cosy things to do in Brighton IN Autumn
Autumn date nights in Brighton
There are so many ways to snuggle up on a date night in Brighton. My favourite is to book a slouchy balcony sofa seat at the Duke of York’s Picturehouse. They come with cosy blankets and a little table for your drinks and box of popcorn.
As the weather gets colder, what’s better than snuggling up in a cosy Brighton pub or cocktail bar with a pint of Guinness, glass of wine, a martini or some dinner? Here are my picks for places in Brighton to escape the cold:
Lion and Lobster is a cosy, quaint pub in Hove which has been around for 500 years with warm wood interiors and fairy-lit corners. Expect a warming wine selection and hearty comfort pub food.
Wild Flor is one of my go-to city spots for a romantic dinner under candlelight in Hove, especially if you book a table fireside in the upstairs dining room.
For something sultry, The Plotting Parlour, tucked along a side street not far from the pier is one of my favourite cocktail bars in Brighton.
Autumn sauna sessions in Brighton
Brighton’s sauna scene is on fire with so many great options scattered around the city from the seafront to the Lanes. Having a sauna session is great at any time of year, but particularly magical in autumn as the nights draw in and the temperatures drop but aren’t freezing.
One of my favourites is the OG Beach Box Sauna Spa, a rustic spot on the beach at Kemptown. It replicates the traditional Scandinavian-style sauna experience with wood-fired saunas, a plunge pool, cold showers and a fire pit.
Their homemade treatments are divine, like rose facial scrubs and leaf whisking – it involves hitting yourself lightly with birch and oak twigs (‘whisks’) to promote better circulation or take a dip in the sea.
Other great places for a sauna in Brighton include Luna Hut, a sleek little spot further along the beach which replicates the Finnish sauna experience.
Their second Brighton spot, the Luna Hut Sauna Cafe, hides under the Victorian viaduct in the eclectic London Road neighbourhood, and is unique for its little street-facing cafe.
Autumn day trips from Brighton
Get into the Autumn spirit – head into the countryside!
Autumn is apple season! In Stanmer Park, a short bus ride north out of Brighton centre towards the South Downs, is a building called The Fruit Factory which is home to the Brighton Permaculture Trust Scrumping project.
Each year, they process up to 40 tons of fruit from local gardens and Sussex orchards into delicious apple juice, cider and other products. It’s open every weekend (11am-4pm) and they invite you to bring your own apples and pears for juicing.
Less than an hour from Brighton in Sussex, is the huge Middle Farm where you’ll find the Cider Barn, home to the ‘world’s largest permanent collection of cider and perry’. There are over 100 types of each which you can taste before you buy.
Other trips from Brighton in Autumn
Lucky for me, Brighton is on the doorstep of some of England’s most dramatic countryside for observing the turn of the season. One of my favourite places to soak up autumn colour is Wakehurst Place, home of the fascinating Millennium Seed Bank and 500 acres of wild botanic gardens.
Lewes bonfire night
Lewes in the South Downs National Park near Brighton is known as the ‘bonfire capital of the world’.
It hosts the UK’s most extravagant bonfire night which sees thousands of visitors coming to town to see effigies of Guy Fawkes and the year’s political villains burned.
Autumn festivals in Brighton
Every autumn, Brighton comes alive with several festivals, kicking off in September with the Brighton Cocktail Festival: for the cost of a ticket, you get to spend 10 days hopping around Brighton’s best cocktail bars sipping bespoke off-menu creations at reduced prices.
October then ushers in October Best which sees Brighton’s top restaurants serving special menus to showcase the diversity of the city’s independent restaurant scene.
November is time for CINECITY when the best in world cinema comes to Brighton and the surrounding area with a festival programme of premieres and previews, films from the archives, installations, talks and special events.
Then of course there’s Bonfire Night celebrated annually on the 5 November with fireworks throughout the city; a day that commemorates the failed Gunpowder Plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London in 1605.
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, would you consider buying me a coffee?
