I can tell you your friend made an excellent choice. Apart from being just 10 k's from the city, it has a good mix of cultures/migrants both working class and those more comfortable, great variety of restaraunts and services.
Brighton is full of snobby two-bob millionaires, has about as much culture as a bottle of 'yakult' and a shopping strip that no-one bothers to shop in because there all scrooge mcduck with there money. I know because i worked in the street.
Ok so there near the beach with bigger homes but as far as liveability goes it has nothing on Carnegie.
