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Our starting point is 35 Old Steine, now The Royal Albion Hotel.

Formally a fishing village called Brighthelmstone, Brighton began to attract more visitors in the latter half of the 18th century. As a destination for those interested in their wellbeing, it could be said that Brighton, as we know it, was initiated by Dr Richard Russell.

Russell was interested in the benefits of drinking and bathing in seawater and even published a book on the subject. Historian Tim Carder writes:

“Russell was the foremost proponent of the ‘sea water cure’ which brought Brighton to prominence in the 1750s. This doctor was instrumental in reviving the fortunes of the poor fishing town of Brighton in the mid eighteenth century.”

Russell suggested to his patients that they visit Brighton to participate in the sea water cure. His reputation grew and the numbers increased to such an extent that in 1753 Russell felt it was worthwhile setting up in a house in the Steine facing the sea; currently the site of the Royal Albion Hotel.

From the hotel entrance, walk around the side of the building until you are facing the sea and continue West along the pavement with the sea to your right for about 3 blocks. Stop outside Queens Hotel.

 

The arrival of the railway in 1841 added to the numbers of visitors arriving in the town. One such individual was Sake Dean Mahomed – an Indian traveller, surgeon and entrepreneur who was one of the most notable early non-European immigrants to the Western World. He opened Vapour Baths on the site where the Queen’s Hotel currently stands.

In the Sake’s time even the more sophisticated homes did not generally contain rooms specifically for washing; as a consequence, the more affluent visitors to Brighton were introduced to the practice of shampooing via the Vapour Baths. The Indian Medicated Vapour Bath, according to Mahomed, was a cure to many diseases and giving full relief when everything fails; particularly rheumatic and paralytic gout, stiff joints, old sprains, lame legs, aches and pains in the joints.

The Vapour Baths became very successful and Sake Dean Mahomed was appointed as a shampooing surgeon to King George IV. George was so convinced by the benefits of bathing that he installed vapour and seawater baths in the Royal Pavilion. Having patronage from the King assisted Sake Dean Mahomed in gaining a reputation in Brighton, attracting an important clientèle that ensured prosperity not only for himself, but also for others involved in the bathing industry.

Continue West along Kings Road to the Old Ship Hotel. Using the pedestrian crossing at the traffic lights, cross over to the promenade and go down the ramp to the lower level. Stop at 191/193 Kings Road Arches (now The Arch night-club).

 

By the early 1980s Brighton was awash with music and performance. Outlandish clothes and eccentricity were commonplace and there was a generosity towards new ideas and new approaches.

The Zap Club’s founders, Neil Butler, Pat Butler and Dave Reeves, had all been students at Brighton College of Education and Sussex University in the early 1970s and had been involved in putting on a range of social events. They ‘scraped together all the money they could find, hired the basement of the New Oriental Hotel, and devised a programme.’

From 1982-84 around 200 people went every week to the New Oriental Hotel, then the Escape, and finally the Richmond for the Zap experience. It was always about ideas and ideology, always about providing alternatives to the established arts economy.

As the Zap became ever more popular, increased numbers meant the founders had to consider a larger venue. It moved to the Arches (191-193 Kings Rd) on the Seafront and for the next decade and a half it played host to an extraordinary array of performers, artists, DJs, dancers, bands, poets, Live Artists and comedians from across the world. It was a catalyst in the regeneration of Brighton’s beleaguered seafront in the mid-1980s, helped launch the careers of many young artists who have since become household names, and introduced a whole generation to a viable and stimulating alternative to mainstream culture.

After thirteen years in its permanent home beneath King’s Road, the Zap Club was sold to Webb Kirby Ltd in November 1997. During its time it played host to an eclectic array of performers, artists and musicians including Julian Clary, Rory Bremner, Mark Almond, Chemical Brothers, Sonic Youth, John Hegley, Blur, Paul Weller, Mark Steel, Stomp and Eddie Izzard to name but a few.

The alternative Live Art /performance culture that had, through the Zap, an ad-hoc start in Brighton has now become a recognised part of the fabric of the community.

Go up the ramp to the upper level of the promenade and cross over Kings Road using the pedestrian crossing by the Old Ship Hotel. Bear left, then turn right into Ship Street and continue past the Quaker Meeting House. Stop at Fabrica Art Gallery on the left, on the corner of Dukes Lane.

 

In March 1996, the former Regency Holy Trinity Church in central Brighton was transformed into Fabrica, a visual arts organisation founded by a group of artists from Red Herring Studios. The church had closed the following year and was at first intended to be repurposed as a local history museum. When this did not happen, the Red Herring artists, supported by several organisations including South East Arts and Brighton Borough Council, were able to use the space to realise their vision of a “focus for contemporary visual art practice.” Serving as one of the city’s only major exhibition spaces for contemporary art, Fabrica commissions “art installations specific to the building” and their first exhibition took place in 1996.

To reflect the spirit of creation that they wanted to be the space’s founding principle, the name Fabrica, which means “factory” in some European languages, was chosen for its etymological connections with the English “fabricate” and French “fabriquer”, meaning “to make”. As well as offering a space and support for artists to create daring work, Fabrica encourages “an open dialogue between artists and visitors.” They also endeavour to facilitate audience access, engagement and understanding of the work showcased through workshops, talks and screenings as part of “an integrated programme of education and audience development activity.”

Continue North up Ship Street to North Street and cross the street at the pedestrian crossing. Walk westwards up the hill towards the Clock Tower. Before you reach the Clock Tower, turn right into Windsor Street and walk to the end. At Church Street, cross over and go into the small gardens of the Brighthelm Church and Community Centre. Stop outside the centre’s main entrance.

 

 

A looming presence on North Road, The Brighthelm Centre is now a United Reformed Christian Church and a popular community space, but its unassuming façade hides the secrets of a tempestuous history.

The Punk movement of the late 70s was engulfing central Brighton. Openly disapproving of the folk music and hippie counterculture that was being nurtured in the outskirts of the city, local punk rockers sought out a venue to express their radical opinions. They finally decided on the underground space below former Presbyterian Church, The Brighthelm Centre, to be their stamping ground.

Named The Vault, the punk rehearsal and gig space was “a 150-year-old crypt with a series of intact tombs” that lay deep underneath what at the time was the Brighton Resource Centre. Initially, the live music crypt “hosted gigs and must have been the nearest thing to the Liverpool Cavern Brighton is ever likely to see.”

Quickly the alternative venue was “developed into rehearsal studios constructed by the bands themselves.” The unmonitored DIY and frequency and sheer volume of the music being performed created vibrations that began to damage and corrode the walls of the crypt. Combined with casual vandalism and the constant renovation for more working space, cracks appeared which caused “bones and pieces of coffin belonging to the Huguenot refugees (who had died of plague in the 1800s) to emerge from the walls.”

The council quickly intervened and shut down the venue. Though the unorthodox sub-culture soon depleted in numbers with the changing times of the late 80s and 90s, their alternative legacy does still live on in the recesses of Brighton.

Cross North Road at the traffic lights, go down North Road and take the first left into Frederick Street. Continue to the end of the street and stop at the shop on the corner at number 50 Gloucester Road.

 

In a location that so freely supported the expression and publication of alternative voices, it comes as no surprise that Brighton had a reputation for a plethora of radical and unconventional bookshops.

In 1966 an American named Bill Butler opened Unicorn Bookshop on 50 Gloucester Road. Raunchy and subversive, Mr. Butler welcomed visitors asking, “Can I help you locate some filthy books.” The Unicorn Bookshop catered for all things underground: posters, hippy beads, bells, US beat poetry magazines and contemporary fiction. This was one of the first and very few places where a reader could peruse from America the Evergreen Review, Kulcher, the Los Angeles Free Press, Olympia press publications, the writings of William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Bill, a cultural icon himself, swiftly moved into publishing a “considerable number of books and pamphlets on subjects as varied as macrobiotic cookery, alternative Brighton, survival techniques, magic, esoterica and comics”, using the shop as his literary base. The shop owner also wrote poetry and science fiction for many years. He ran a small printing service on the behalf of commissioning customers keen to make their own posters, fliers, and newspapers.

The store’s exterior was nearly as infamous as the literary diversity it guarded inside. John Upton’s large mural depicting moon, stars, rainbows and the rising sun spilled across the face of the building, and from the second floor of the shop a projected cavorting unicorn inspired life into the grey pavement below.

In its later years, The Unicorn was involved in a number of controversies with local police for stocking “obscene” material and Butler was drawn into an expensive legal suit. Yet empathic friends, fellow writers, academics and shop regulars continued to support and rally alongside Bill, with a circulated letter of appeal later turning into the 1970 collection For Bill Butler edited by Eric Mottram and Larry Wallrich.

Behind the scenes financial issues plagued the business, eventually forcing Bill and his Unicorn co-owners to call it a day. The group left Brighton and moved to a remote cottage ‘Nant Gwilw’ in Wales, running a little commune and publishing books from their rural barn. Bill died on the 21st October 1977 in his Shepherd’s Bush flat. The shop in Gloucester road “spluttered on until 1975” under new ownership, but eventually disappeared under the council remodelling at the western end of the street.

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From the shop turn westward to walk up towards Queens Road and take the first right into Frederick Place. Continue North and stop at the corner of Trafalgar Street at the Prince Albert Pub by the Railway bridge.

 

During the mid-1980s, Brighton was establishing itself as a key location on the UK street art scene as the phenomenon began to take off in urban areas across the country.

From large murals covering the whole side of a building to more subtle motifs tucked away in alleyways, and telephone junction boxes decorated by Cassette Lord, people are bound to encounter street art in some form or another on a short walk through the city.

Amongst the work adorning the walls and spaces of the city are those by Banksy, Waleska and Vanessa Longchamp. The work of key Brighton street artists, including SNUB, Minty and REQ, can be seen across the city.

Within minutes of arriving in Brighton, visitors can hardly miss the rainbow coloured Prince Albert Pub on Trafalgar Street as they walk down from the station. The side wall of the pub is adorned with REQ’s mural entitled Icons – a giant tribute to some of the biggest names in music. It is also the original location of Banksy’s infamous Kissing Policemen, which is currently displayed in replica form, since the original was sold in 2014.

The narrow streets between Queen’s Road and London Road are some of the best places to see street art; Gloucester Road, Kensington Street, Orange Row, Regent Street and North Road feature numerous wall murals. Other key locations for graffiti artists include The Level skate-park, which has been a hub of artistic activity since the 1980s.

In spite of the local council’s clampdown on tagging during the 1990s, tags and throw ups are still seen frequently today. The authorities have provided some semi-legal locations for artists, too, including the sponsored mural on Kensington Street.

Walk East down Trafalgar Street and turn right into Tidy Street. Continue South along Tidy Street and cross Gloucester Road into Kensington Gardens. You’ll need to bear left slightly before turning to Kensington Gardens. Walk down a little way down on the left side of the street and stop outside number 22.

 

Another innovative woman who dared to be different and made her mark on the city was Anita Roddick, who started The Body Shop chain in Brighton. Anita was interested in shampoos and cosmetics made of natural materials that did not irritate the skin or harm the environment.

The very first store was opened by Roddick on the 27^th March 1976 at 22 Kensington Gardens. From this tiny space in one of the town’s oldest shopping areas, Roddick went on to create a global chain of stores.

At the beginning it only sold a range of 25 different products with an emphasis on natural ingredients that were ethically sourced and cruelty free. Customers were encouraged to take the plastic bottles back to be re-filled. Roddick promoted this practice as recycling; in truth she started it because she did not have enough plastic bottles!

Continue South down Kensington Gardens. Cross over North Road at the pedestrian crossing and stop outside Infinity Foods.

 

Many visitors who come to Brighton for the day are attracted to the wide range of food establishments, but back in the 1970s there were not that many options for vegetarians outside major cities. Fortunately, that was about to change.

Back in 1970, two friends – Ian Loeffler and Peter Deadman – opened a macrobiotic café at the University of Sussex called Biting Through, which led to a demand for the ingredients they were using in their cooking. The following year, Peter, along with Jenny Deadman & Robin Bines, opened a small shop called Infinity Foods in a converted terraced house in Church Street, Brighton. Here they sold basic vegetarian whole foods and freshly baked products. The business grew and by 1973 needed to expand. The store gained a wider reputation when it moved sites as more people became aware of the foods it sold and the ideals used to keep it running.

Infinity Foods was considered the alternative food venue of Brighton, stocking grains, beans, and things hard or impossible to obtain elsewhere. It also sold delicious home-made peanut butter and a limited supply of organically-grown vegetables.

Infinity Foods has been a workers co-operative since 1979 and is jointly and democratically run by its members.

Continue South into Gardener Street and stop outside Komedia at numbers 44-47.

 

Brighton’s post-Zap mainstream fringe venue Komedia was established in 1994, and soon became internationally renowned.

Inspired by their experiences of European Café Theatre venues, Colin Granger, Marina Kobler and David Lavender, who was involved with the Nightingale during the 1980s, converted a Grade II-listed Georgian billiard hall in Kemp Town into a theatre and cabaret bar. The venue offered people from all walks of life a place to enjoy comedy, cabaret and music while having a meal and a drink, an experience not available to British people back in the early nineties.

Komedia has played a key role in establishing the comedy careers of many household names, including Graham Norton, Mel and Sue, Michael McIntyre, Sarah Millican, Jenny Éclair and Omid Djalili.

Rapidly gaining popularity, Komedia moved to a larger space in the former Tesco supermarket in Gardner Street in 1998. This enabled the development of its programme of live entertainment, music, comedy, cabaret and theatre shows, as well as attracting big names such as Arctic Monkeys, the Mighty Boosh, Steven Berkoff, Julian Cope and Harry Hill.

As its national reputation grew, Komedia became involved in Edinburgh Festival Fringe. When in 2000, Richard Daws, formerly of Victoria Real television production company, joined, Komedia Entertainment was founded to manage and produce new comedy acts.

Komedia has since opened a second European Café Theatre style venue in Bath and formed a creative partnership with Picturehouse. This partnership has seen the art house cinema group opening Duke’s at Komedia, a two-screen state of the art cinema within Komedia Brighton and a screen in Komedia Bath.

You have now completed this walk.