The 1980s saw Brighton & Hove dominating the news. In October 1984, during the Conservative Party conference, the Provisional IRA detonated a bomb at the Grand Hotel. Five people were killed although Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escaped injury. This decade is also punctuated by a natural phenomenon: the Great Storm of 1987. The Level and Steine were decimated with many great elm trees lost, whilst The Royal Pavilion and the St Peter's Church suffered substantial damage.
