Brighton Pavilion contains most of Brightonís town centre, the big hotels and the Conference Centre.
It runs westward from the Palace Pier along the Marine Parade towards Hove, and then inland to the South Downs at Devilís Dyke.
Inland suburbs, such as Preston and Patcham, have large proportions of London commuters. Sussex University is situated in this constituency, in Stanmer Ward.
Brighton is now firmly on the map as a trendy, rival cultural centre to London in the South, with a large, vocal gay community.
The inclusion of the staunchly Labour Hanover ward from Brighton Kemptown in the 1995 boundary changes helped Labour to take this seat for the first time in 1997.
Labour now holds six of the nine Brighton and Hove Council wards that fall in this seat. Only Westdene and Patcham are Conservative, and St Peters has three Green councillors.
The Conservatives need a 13.5% swing to regain this seat, lost by the former solicitor-general Sir Derek Spencer to Labourís David Lepper in 1997.