Hablot Knight Browne 'Phiz'

The Victorian illustrator Hablot Knight Browne, who worked under the pen name 'Phiz', left his mark all over Sussex, and Brighton makes a logical base for anyone keen to track down where this prolific artist lived and worked. He's best known for his illustrations to Charles Dickens' novels - Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield, Bleak House - and his sketches defined how generations visualized those characters. You won't find a grand museum here, but rather a connection to the man himself through local sites and records in the Brighton area.

This appeals most to literature enthusiasts and Dickens fans rather than casual tourists. If you're staying at one of the nearby parks - Foot of the Downs, Eastern Sands, or Beach Park are all within a few miles - and you've got a soft spot for 19th-century illustration and storytelling, it's worth half a day's poking about to piece together his local connections. The real pleasure is in the detective work, following the threads of where he lived and how he worked.

Brighton itself is proper worth a visit regardless, so pairing a Phiz pilgrimage with the seafront, the Lanes, and the pier makes sense. Bring a good Dickens biography or look up his work beforehand - seeing the original illustrations and then walking streets he actually walked gives the whole thing real texture. It's not a formal attraction with opening hours, more a personal journey through a corner of Sussex history that most visitors completely miss.