‘You must remember that you had to be very discreet, you couldn’t come out in the open. There were a lot of elderly queans in Brighton who were comfortably off, who didn’t work. Those that did were very different in their places of work,. They might be serving in Hannington’s but they’d have to keep a certain amount of decorum. They could fire and sack you with a week’s notice, they’d only got to phone up the Labour Exchange. But if you were employed, like the majority of people, on a weekly or monthly basis, and you did something whereby the manager or the owner or the director got to hear of something that wasn’t quite right, he could come in to you on a Friday, if you were paid weekly, and say, ‘We shan’t be needing your services any more.’ Or you’d get a letter in your envelope at the end of the month saying please note that as from a certain date things have changed and you are no longer needed. Take a month’s notice. You had to be very much more diplomatic. You didn’t ever have to let the side down.’

‘Our first visit to a club, I had a skirt on. I’d never had a pair of trousers on in my life, I’d always worn skirts. I sat there fascinated, the whole night. I thought, ‘Well, next time I come back, I’ll have trousers on.’ So during the week I went into a men’s shop and bought a pair of trousers. Well, it was embarrassing. They wouldn’t let me try them on, which I took umbrage at, and I said, ‘Why can’t I try them on?’ and they said, ‘Well, they’re men’s changing rooms only.’ I said, ‘Well, that’s ridiculous!’ Nevertheless, I took a gamble, took them home, and all I had to do was turn them up.

I had fights with various shops. And I had the manager down in the men’s department of one large clothing store. I said, ‘This isn’t fair! If I want to buy men’s trousers, I should be allowed to buy men’s trousers and have the privilege of trying them on, like anybody else in this store. If you’re not going to let me into your men’s changing rooms then let me take the trousers up to the women’s changing rooms.’

So after a long argie-bargie, I was escorted by somebody from the men’s department up to the women’s department to go to the changing rooms. The next week I was back at the club in trousers and a men’s shirt which I’d bought off the counter from somewhere. And a coat. I felt much more comfortable.’

Continue along Hanningtons Lane, turn right onto Meeting House Lane and out onto the busy North Road. Cross the road at the traffic lights and walk up a few metres to Bond Street. Turn onto Bond Street and walk on the right hand pavement to the stage entrance of the Theatre Royal. This is where the next place of interest used to be.