Kemptown is Brighton's eastern village: a grid of Regency terraces running back from the seafront that has long been the city's LGBTQ+ neighbourhood. St James's Street is the social spine, with bars, cafes, and independent shops taking up the ground floors of handsome nineteenth-century buildings. Marine Parade overlooks the Channel and has some of the grandest Regency architecture in Brighton.
The neighbourhood has a lived-in, unpolished quality that the Lanes lack. The pubs here are local rather than tourist, the restaurants cheaper and less self-conscious. Tucked behind the terraces is the hidden sculpture garden the obscura writers call the "Kemptown Secret Garden" — a private communal garden with sculptures, accessible occasionally on open days. The area grades seamlessly into Hove to the west and becomes progressively quieter heading east toward the Marina.