Detail from clock-tower in Brighton.

Completed in 1888.

From Wiki: Local inventor Magnus Volk-responsible for Britain's oldest surviving electric railway, an eccentric sea-based railway line, a pioneering electric car and Brighton's first telephone link-designed a time ball for the clock tower soon after it opened. The hydraulically operated copper sphere moved up and down a 16-foot (4.9 m) metal mast every hour, based on electrical signals transmitted from the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. The feature was disabled after a few years because of complaints about the noise it caused.

The boat points towards Kemp Town, another "village" in Brighton, with independent shops, cafes, bars etc.