A holiday town on the south coast of England about an hour outside of London, Brighton has long been a gay ‘hub’ with a dynamic LGBTQ social scene that includes both locals and visitors. Brighton has been a destination for queer men and women visiting from London or travelling from further afield since at least the 1940s, with an infrastructure of hotels and B&Bs, clubs and other spaces that welcomed this clientele. More recently, Brighton has had a strong activist presence and today hosts one of the largest Pride events in the UK.

Queer Beyond London has teamed up with Historic England’s Pride of Place initiative to map LGBTQ heritage across England. Use the map below to explore Brighton’s queer past, and add your own locations.

 

 

Partners and Resources

 

Screen Shot 2016-01-14 at 5.35.47 PM The Keep is a world-class centre for archives that opens up access to all the collections of the East Sussex Record Office (ESRO), the Royal Pavilion & Museums Local History Collections and the internationally significant University of Sussex Special Collections.

 

Brighton Ourstory was set up in 1989 to collect Brighton’s lesbian, gay and bisexual past – and present – and to make sure that these experiences are preserved for the lesbian, gay and bisexual community. Ourstory is no longer active, but its records are deposited at The Keep.

 

Screen Shot 2016-02-08 at 5.32.48 PMFunded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Brighton Trans*formed records, in their own words, the lives and experiences of Brighton & Hove’s Transgender community. Using writing, memories, oral histories and photography, the project offers a snapshot of the rich variety of Trans lives.

 

Screen Shot 2016-02-08 at 5.38.25 PMQueer in Brighton was a year-long heritage learning project celebrating and promoting the rich cultural life of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) community in Brighton & Hove.

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