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.

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.

Flyer for Zanzibar, collection of Darren Wallace

Talking of clubs, the big news, and I mean massive news, was the transformation of Club Savannah at 32–34 Old Steine, the ‘80s venue with two floors and occasional live bands, into a gay club! Revenge opened in the summer of 1991 and was like nothing the town had seen before in terms of scale. And like the building itself, the fact that it catered to a gay crowd 7 days a week was huge.  

Now what else does a ‘village’ need? A buzzing café / shop with all the gossip, a travel agent with your needs in mind and a bookshop catering to your niche pleasures. In 1993 Scene 22 moved from its original home across town at 22 Preston Street to 129 St James St – right next to the entrance to Zanzibar. What had been more of a traditional shop became a funky coffee bar, information exchange and community hub.

Freddie Bateman outside Scene 22 - from Freddie's collection

That was followed in 1994 by Gayeria Travel at 2 George Street, which I’m not sure needs any further explanation (it was a gay travel agent); and then the town’s first dedicated LGBT bookshop/emporium Out! Brighton tucked round the corner at 4/7 Dorset Street. Oh, how could I forget, that same year The Fitness Camp Men’s Sauna opened at 90 St James St. I shouldn’t really comment but it does feel like the word ‘Fitness’ was totally superfluous in that name.

As you can tell, queer businesses were opening left right and centre at this point. In 1995 Jackson’s Barbers opened at 52 George Street offering a cut and a giggle to the latest club sounds. Every town needs an army surplus style shop (apparently), and Rough opened in the same year at 36 St James St providing everything you would expect, as well as supplying Scene 22 with its selection of poppers. They used to have poppers ‘tasting’ sessions down at Zanzibar some evenings, which must have been hilarious.

Flyer for Rough, collection of Paul Duncan

And finally in 1995, The New Europe Hotel opened at 31–32 Marine Parade, providing a rare outside space for socialising in the summer months, huge glass windows meaning you could actually see who was inside (quite a daring feat back then), as well as a sizable basement club called Legends.

Making quite a splash when it opened in May 1999 was Amsterdam at 11–12 Marine Parade: a bar, hotel, sauna and store. Besides all that, it also offered outside seating, a much sought-after asset by sun-loving gays.

The Noughties and Beyond: Shifting scenes and iconic venues

Another group of significant venues opened around 2000, the same year Brighton became a city. The Candy Bar was possibly the most revolutionary of them – a dedicated lesbian bar at 33 St James St. Before that there had been The Longbranch at 75 Grand Parade in the 1970s, and Sappho at Yazz’s in the same venue in 1988. Then The Marlborough for many years afterwards, but the newcomer in town, sorry city, caused quite a ripple of excitement through Brighton’s lesbian scene.

The closure of Brighton’s long-running rock and metal club The Hungry Years at 8 Marine Parade also raised a few eyebrows that year, the surprise being its transformation into a gay club just a stone’s throw from Revenge, soon to be well known as Charles Street. And slightly controversial was a regional branch of the London ‘adult shop’ Clone Zone at 32 St James St, seen by some as an indicator of the gentrification of Gay Brighton.

The following decades saw lots of familiar venues changing hands. Around 2002 Secrets closed and reopened as Storm, aimed at a younger raunchier crowd than before. Zanzibar also closed and Candy Bar swifty moved into its sexy subterranean space. In 2005 The Zone opened on the previous location of The Candy Bar, providing a watering hole with live acts that has remained popular with locals to this day.

Regular uses of the St James St Convenience Store at 112–113 St James St may have had quite a shock that same year, when it reopened as the adult entertainment store Prowler. The competition proved too much for Clone Zone, or maybe it was the trek required further up the street. It ceased trading in 2009. 

The Queen’s Head ran until about 2006, reopening as the not very gay Three and Ten, changing hands again in 2014 to become Bar Broadway. Gay backstreet boozer The White Horse had quietly opened in 2000 at 30–31 Camelford Street, but its popularity soared in 2010 when it relaunched as The Camelford Arms and branded itself as Brighton’s bear bar. 

It has to be said, the corner of St James St and Steine Street must be some sort of queer hotspot – the amount of LGBT businesses in that little section of road over the years is phenomenal. In 2012 the kinky club Subline opened its doors on Steine Street reusing the same underground space that Zanzibar / Candy Bar had been in, but offering a more discreet entrance for those in fetish wear.

It's become hard to tell precisely what opened after what in that cramped huddle of buildings, but I think the space previously occupied by Scene 22, which was followed by another gay cafe The Hub became the bar Poison Ivy in 2012, and the Affinity Bar (originally Infinity) in 2018.

So, the development of St James St into the main drag of Gayland has been a gradual process involving a cast of thousands. And every time we gather in that area, for Pride, a pint or a peach bubble tea, we keep this wonderful unique area of Brighton alive. And long may it remain so.