You've shopped 'til you've dropped. Or you fancy somewhere peaceful and green to eat lunch. Where do you go for a quiet drink?

What about those times when you'd kill for a relaxing cuppa and a nice piece of cake? Here are some ideas and links to useful sites. Go forth and chill!  

Parks and Secret Gardens

• Emmaus Secret Garden - Emmaus Brighton - a lovely, peaceful, secret garden plus café, second hand goods and social interaction with the people who live and work on site.
• The secret garden behind St. Leonard's Church in Hove. Locals are working on a garden with a wildlife pond, barbecue area, benches, willow structures and features for children to enjoy, so pop along and see how they’re doing.
• Brighton and Hove Open Gardens -More than 70 beautiful and fascinating private gardens and community spaces across Brighton, Hove and surrounding areas to explore.
• City Parks – You’ll find a list of all our lovely parks here, including St. Ann's Well Gardens:  small, secluded and very pretty.

The seafront

Locals know the best places to go for peace and quiet on the city’s seafront. As a rule, the further you get from the bottom of West Street, going either east or west, the quieter it gets. There’s usually loads more space towards Kemptown – which is where the Nudist beach is – and at the very far end of Hove promenade.

The Undercliff Path is quieter during the week and on cloudy days than sunny weekends, and you can almost always find empty stretches of beach to enjoy along its route, fewer when the tide is high.

Eating and drinking in peace

As you’d expect, the quieter watering holes and eateries tend to be away from the city centre and seafront. But there are exceptions.

The Regency Tavern, in Regency Square, is down a little alleyway and is a lovely place to sit and muse in peace. It’s at 32/34 Russell Square, Brighton BN1 2EF. Fab décor and lush carpets mean there’s no annoying echo.  

Stoney Point is a small but perfectly formed quiet cafe at 15 Montpelier Place, Brighton (BN1 3BH if you use satnav, it’s a bit awkward to find). It’s right in the middle of town, good to know there’s somewhere laid back but still in the thick of things.  

Walking in the Green Stuff

Try these walk and trail guides for the city and the Downs – take to the peaceful Sussex countryside, never far away wherever you are in the city and an easy bus ride.

Garden House Brighton

The Garden House Brighton is brilliant, an excellent example our city’s green and pleasant culture. As their website says, it’s “A place of energy and inspiration that encourages sustainable living, and where people can learn about horticulture, share information and get creative!”. Fantastic.

Places of Worship

• Buddhist – You can drop in and meditate at Brighton Buddhist Centre, 17 Tichborne Street, Brighton BN1 1UR . See their website for details. You can also drop in at Hove’s International Kadampa Meditation Centre.  
  
  
• Mosques – We’re fortunate to have four places where Muslims can find peace and enjoy quiet contemplation. They are the Al Medinah Mosque, Masjid Al Quds,   Shahjalal Masjid (Hove)and the Aggie Muslim Student Centre.
  
  
• Synagogues – For the city centre Middle Street Synagogue, contact the Synagogue office on  01273 888 855. It’s at 66 Middle Street, Brighton BN1 1AD. You’ll find the Hove Hebrew Congregation at 79 Holland Road, Hove BN3 1JN, tel. 01273 732 035.
  
  
• Churches – See the Wikipedia entry for churches in Brighton and Hove, which includes photos. Many have lovely churchyards to sit quietly in. For example the ancient Norman St Nicholas Church at the city centre end of Dyke Road. It’s churchyard is beautiful and there’s also a gorgeous secret community space to relax in on the other side of the road, walled and green and quiet, once part of the original graveyard.

St. Bartholomews Church, off London Road,is stunning inside, genuinely breathtaking. And in Hove, St. Andrew's Church has 12^th century origins, rebuilt in neo-Norman style during the 1830s. Both beautiful, both tranquil.

Your recommendations

Where are your favourite quiet places in Brighton and Hove? 

Thanks to Simon Carey,who licensed the lovely image for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.