Portslade Library

Portslade Library sits just outside Brighton, a proper working community hub rather than a tourist attraction dressed up as one. You'll find a decent collection of fiction and non-fiction, computers you can use, and staff who actually know their stock. It's the sort of place locals pop into on a Tuesday afternoon, not somewhere you'd plan a day around.

That said, if you're camping at one of the nearby parks - Pegs and Pitches is barely three miles away, or Foot of the Downs just under four - and you've forgotten a book or need to kill an hour when the weather turns, it's worth knowing about. Parents with young kids might find the children's section useful on a rainy afternoon. The building itself won't win any architectural prizes, but it's functional and welcoming.

Admission is free, obviously, and you can browse for as long as you like. The real draw here is that it's genuinely local - you'll get a sense of how Portslade works beyond the holiday park routines. If you're the type who enjoys poking around independent libraries rather than chain bookshops, there's something nice about that. Just don't expect it to compete with Brighton's larger cultural offerings down the road. It's a library, doing library things, well. Sometimes that's enough.