Early Establishments

St James Street has a long and interesting history. It was the first area developed outside of Brighton old town to service the growing Kemp Town, and became known as the Little Laine.

It was positively swanky when the Prince Regent was in town (roughly 1790–1820), bustling with shops and services for wealthier residents. It has been suggested that the overwhelming number of tailors in the area during this period was possibly the birth of Brighton’s ‘gay village’…

However, as delightful as the thought of swishy outfitters arranging furtive assignations is, the development of anything we would recognise as a queer space would not come until the 20^th century. The first of those we know of is the public bar of the St James Hotel, known as Pigott’s Bar after the proprietor Frederick Piggott and still operating now as the Saint James Tavern. There are reports of it being accepting of a gay old crowd from the 1920s to the 1950s.

But, as anyone who grew up in a small town knows, one friendly pub does not a gay scene make. From the 1950s into the early 1980s there was a clear concentration of gay pubs and clubs in Brighton, and that was in The Lanes: West St, Middle St, Ship St and the King’s Rd.

Somewhere a little closer to St James St that was very gay friendly in the 1970s is The Marlborough at 4 Princes Street. When most of the gay pubs and clubs in town were avoiding those pesky political types, and any activity that might attract an opportunistic police force, the Marlborough opened its doors. First in June 1974 to allow the Sussex Gay Liberation Front to hold its meetings there, and then in the spring of 1975 Brighton Campaign for Homosexual Equality began doing the same. Alternate weeks, obviously.

The 1970s and 80s: Discreet hotels and the first gay venues

Most people assume that the modern scene in St James Street started when The Bulldog opened in 1978. Just to confuse matters (and historians), the building which dates back to 1875 and was at one time a mortuary was originally called the Saint James’s Tavern, but sold the name to the pub opposite. 

Sugar behind the bar at The Bulldog - video still from Cruising Monthly 1993

Back to modern times – while The Bulldog was probably the first openly gay pub, it was a bloom of gay guest houses and hotels towards the upper end of St James Street that came first. From the mid 1970s numerous discreet little businesses began providing safe accommodation for queer tourists to Brighton. They had solid no-nonsense names like Braeside and Bellver House Hotel. Indeed, such was the number in Egremont Place, as well as Upper and Lower Rock Gardens, that by the early 1980s that stretch of road was referred to locally as Vaseline Alley. 

In the mid 1980s another smattering of gay venues opened. Villagers club and bar at 74 St James Street, which became synonymous with gay leather bikers the Sussex Lancers, who started meeting there in 1984. The Queens Arms, which is a long-standing old Brighton pub at 7 George Street, opened as a ‘cabaret venue’ in 1985. And in 1986 The Aquarium Inn began serving drinks at 6 Steine Street (now The Plotting Parlour), opposite a decidedly bijou member’s club at 5 Steine Street called Secrets.

1992 The Aquarium by Gordon Rainsford - courtesy of the Bishopsgate Institute

As a little aside, a clothes shop opened in 1986 at 47 St James Street called, wait for it… Tops and Bottoms. What’s notable is that Gay News reported it being opened by DJ/comedian Kenny Everett, “in the heart of Brighton’s ‘gay village’ on St James St.” By this point discrete names were going out the window – in the same year a private hotel opened at 22 Devonshire Place called Scandals! 

1988 saw two venues open to support and care for the growing number of locals succumbing to HIV/AIDS. One was Open Door, the home of Father Marcus Riggs at 35 Camelford Street which he opened to anyone in need. The other was The Sussex AIDS Centre at 3 Cavendish Street, opened by actor Ian McKellen, who had only come out at the start of that year. Such was the fear around HIV/AIDS, the business used a PO Box number for correspondence rather than give out its address.

The 90s Explosion: Clubs, cafes, and community in the ‘Gay Capital of the UK’

The start of the 1990s saw comparisons between Brighton and Manchester, and discussions about who was the unofficial Gay Capital of the UK. Brighton may have had more venues, but Manchester had a specific area, Canal Street, that possibly gave it the edge. However, some significant venues around the entrance to the St James St area were about to open, adding to the sense of a concentrated gay village feel in Brighton.

The first was The Queen’s Head pub, tucked away at 10 Steine Street, which would later gain some attention for using a portrait of Freddie Mercury as the pub sign above the door. The next was Zanzibar at 129 St James St. It made quite the impact when it opened in 1991, lauded as Brighton’s first club-bar, the underground location giving it an air of intrigue and excitement.