Brighton rock

Brighton rock is the seaside rock sold in Brighton: a hard stick of boiled sugar with the town's name running all the way through it. It is also the title of a novel by Graham Greene.

The sweet

Rock is a hard, stick shaped boiled sugar sweet, usually flavoured with peppermint or spearmint, and sold at seaside resorts. It is often known by the town where it is sold, as in Brighton rock or Blackpool rock. A stick is usually 1 to 2.5 centimetres across and 20 to 25 centimetres long, and the name of the resort runs through the whole length, so it can be read at both ends and wherever the stick is broken or bitten.

Rock like this is sold at resorts all around Britain, from Brighton and Southend on Sea to Southport, Scarborough, Llandudno and Blackpool. For how the letters get inside, see how do they get the letters in rock?

The novel

In 1938 Graham Greene published Brighton Rock, a murder thriller set in 1930s Brighton, later made into films and a stage play. It follows Pinkie, a 17 year old gang leader, and was the first of Greene's books to explore Catholic themes and moral questions.

The title is a play on the sweet. At the most obvious level, Brighton rock stands for the seaside town of the 1930s where the story takes place. But the image goes deeper. Just as the name runs right through a stick of rock, the title suggests a character who cannot be changed.

Brighton and Blackpool

Brighton rock and Blackpool rock are made in the same way, by hand, with the letters built from strips of coloured sugar and stretched out into long sticks. Blackpool rock is usually thicker, at least 2.5 centimetres across: see Blackpool rock.

More about rock

For the history of seaside rock and how it is made, see seaside rock and where does seaside rock come from? And if your rock has gone soft and sticky, see why does seaside rock go soft?

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