Brighton beautiful on the big screen

I am standing in an unnamed alley just behind Brighton seafront. It's a bit damp and there's graffiti on the walls. It is the kind of place that most weekend visitors would strive to avoid. So why am I here? Because this is one of Brighton's most infamous cinematic shrines, known to those in its thrall as "Quadrophenia Alley".

Franc Roddam's iconic 1979 film Quadrophenia is as synonymous with the Sussex city as candy floss. It chronicled the Mods and Rockers "wars" of the Sixties which culminated in the "Battle of Brighton", a violent stand-off in which 3,000 or so youths tore through the streets and down to the seafront, leaving injury and devastation in their wake.

In one scene, the troubled Mod hero, Jimmy, and his girlfriend, Steph (above), seek sanctuary from the police in an alley before resuming their flight. The alley is as grimy now as it was in the film, though that doesn't stop the hordes from coming here and scrawling their devotion on the walls. "Rocker's Forever '59" and "We are the Mods!" are among the current tributes. One person has even drawn a target, once the insignia of the scooter-loving, parka-wearing Mod.

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Quadrophenia Alley is one of many monuments to the city's cinematic heritage, the remainder of which are considerably more fragrant and are featured in a new film tour.

You can banish all thoughts of minibuses and officious tour guides. This trail is done on foot at your own pace and with nothing but a map and an MP3 player for company. Visitors can download a podcast which will guide them through the prime film locations while providing a potted history of Brighton cinema.

What is immediately clear is that there's more to the city's film heritage than a few well-known movies. In fact, Brighton played a pivotal part in the invention of cinema. Some of the genre's Victorian pioneers – latterly called "the Brighton School" – lived and worked here. They included William Friese-Greene, who invented the chronophotographic camera, the early film-maker James Williamson, and his neighbour George Albert Smith, who masterminded one of the first camera and projector systems.

First stop, then, is the West Pier. Now it is a burnt-out husk, but in Victorian times it was in full working order and one of Brighton's biggest draws. In Easter 1896, the pier's owners imported a number of Edison Kinetoscopes from America. Each machine, about the size of a small pillar-box, allowed visitors to insert a coin and watch a 75-foot single strip of film. It was the first time Brightonians had seen moving images.

Later that year, over the road at Victoria Hall (now the Melrose Restaurant), the film-maker Robert Paul put on a show of 10 one-minute films using an early form of projector.

Brighton was crucial, then, to film's early technological advances, but what of the city as a location? Its chameleon-like ability to adapt to the needs of its patrons has long been celebrated, and it seems to have done the same for film directors. Whether looking for regency opulence or beach glamour, café culture or seaside sleaze, it was all here.

The most celebrated of all Brighton-based films is 1947's Brighton Rock, based on Graham Greene's tale of dark dealings in the criminal underworld. At the time of filming, the council refused permission for the Boulting brothers to use the local racecourse because of their film's association with gangs and crime, but elsewhere allowed them to roam free and, in the process, to create a lasting image of Brighton as a town of iniquity and doom.

In 1969 there was Oh! What A Lovely War, Richard Attenborough's adaptation of Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop play, which was hugely significant in terms of Brighton's image. The film also utilised the seafront, the West Pier and the railway station as well the theatre on Brighton Pier, while offering caustic comment on the folly of war.

Amble east along the seafront and you can revisit further scenes from Quadrophenia, notably the promenade railings from which a hapless mod was unceremoniously hurled, and the doors of the Grand Hotel, behind which lurked Ace Face. Played by Sting, he was the ice-cool Mod who turned out, to the disappointment of his followers, to be a bell boy.

The Grand also appears in the 1986 crime thriller Mona Lisa, and as The Cosmopolitan in Brighton Rock. With such high-end product placement, it's no wonder that it's still the daddy of all Brighton hotels today.

On to Brighton Pier and you can see where Kolly Kibber met an unfortunate end in Brighton Rock, while further down on Madeira Drive you can relive scenes from the car rally in 1953's Genevieve.

The glamorous Royal Pavilion, a beautiful palace, is immortalised in The End of The Affair, Brighton Rock and the Vincente Minnelli musical On A Clear Day You Can See Forever.

The final stop on the film trail is somewhat off the beaten track but crucial to get a complete picture of Brighton's cinematic heritage. The Duke of York's picture house is the best-loved cinema in Brighton, not only for its handsome façade, comfy seats and endless supply of cake, but also because it is one of the oldest purpose-built cinemas in Britain. Having opened in 1910, it was in the first wave of pre-war cinemas that hosted first-runs. Now it is a staunchly independent arthouse cinema that next year will celebrate 100 years in the business.

If the beach, the Grand, the Pavilion and the Pier form Brighton's film set, then the Duke of York's is a beacon of its history and its pioneering spirit. Long may it reign.

To download the film tour podcast and map, go to visitbrighton.com.

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