HOST CITY BASIC FACTS

BIRMINGHAM • It is the most populous British city outside London. • Shopping streets lead to regal Victorian town squares. • To the west lie the boutiques and cafés of the Jewellery Quarter. • Go to Cadbury World, where you can trace the history of the first chocolate bar and take a Willy Wonka-style tour. • StarCity is an entertainment venue with activities such as indoor adventure golf, a 25-screen cinema, five-a-side football and two 12-metre climbing walls. • Birmingham was central to the Industrial Revolution. Inventions appeared from the area that basically changed the way the world works such as the steam engine and the light bulb. • The author J. R. R. Tolkien was brought up in Birmingham. • Birmingham has more miles of canals than Venice! Discover locks and wharfs, wonder at restored industrial buildings and explore green and peaceful suburbs on city-centre canal boat cruises.

BRIGHTON • Vibrant Brighton is just 50 miles south of London. • It developed in popularity as a health resort featuring sea bathing during the 18th century. • Brighton has an 8.7 km expanse of shingle beach. • This beachside destination sits on the edge of East Sussex and the rolling chalk South Downs. • Experience the traditional seaside Brighton Pier, with its old-school dodgems, helter skelter and carousel – also pink candyfloss and sticks of colourful Brighton rock. • The Brighton i360 observation tower is expected to be completed in 2016. At 162 metres high, the i360 will be Britain’s highest observation tower outside London – taller even than the London Eye. • For a birds-eye view of this south coast there’s the Brighton Wheel. • Abba won the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo at the Brighton Dome in 1974.