This walk is based on the QueenSpark book, Brighton’s Unsung Heroes, available to buy here.
The starting point of this walk is the Viaduct in Preston Road (near Preston Park). It will take you along the London Road, through the North Laines, the Pavilion Gardens and the centre of Brighton to the seafront. It is mostly on the flat and ends at Brighton Fishing Museum. There is a major road to cross, but there are pedestrian crossings. The walk should take around an hour.
This walk is based on the QueenSpark book Brighton’s Seaside Stories, available to buy here.
Seaside Stories heritage walk will guide you eastward along the lower esplanade of Brighton’s world-famous sea front. Hear about the West Pier in its heyday, The Great Omani’s seaside stunts and strange things hauled up in fishing nets. This easy stroll is packed with stories, wartime memories and, of course, happy childhood recollections from those whose feet have trodden this route long before us.
This walk has 8 points of interest and should take you around 50 minutes to complete. It’s mainly flat except for a short but steep ramp up from the lower esplanade shortly before the Palace Pier.
This walk will explore some of the key locations in the QueenSpark book Daring Hearts, available to buy as an e-book here.
Drawn from taped interviews with forty lesbians and gay men speaking openly about their lives in and around Brighton in the 50s and 60s – collected by Brighton Ourstory Project, and published by QueenSpark Books – this walk will take you on a journey back in time to experience some of their favourite haunts. And relive some of their cherished memories.
Through their eyes you will see why the town became such a magnet for queer people. We also hope it will give you an insight into the prejudice they faced in the years before decriminalisation.
The full walk should take around an hour to complete.
This walk is based on the QueenSpark book Brighton’s Alternative Spaces, available to buy here.
Brighton’s Alternative Spaces Heritage Walk guides you on a gentle stroll around Brighton’s seafront and The Laines to explore how the city earned its reputation as a haven for alternative culture.
From sea water cures to street art, fair trade shampoo to punk gigs in burial chambers, discover the city’s origins and pioneers who have helped mould Brighton into the unique, open-minded, creative place it is. The walk has 10 points of interest and should take about an hour. The walk starts off fairly flat but goes uphill slightly into the Laines. Many of the streets have narrow pavements and can get crowded during weekends and public holidays.
This walk will explore some of the key locations in the QueenSpark book, Brighton Behind the Front, available to buy as an e-book here.
Beginning in the Preston Park area overlooking the town, the route will wind down the hill via Lewes Road and through central Brighton. You will see some of the city’s most walked streets and well-known landmarks through the eyes of the town’s wartime citizens.
Please note, this walk includes some steep hills. The first few stops on this walk will focus on some areas and landmarks affected by Air Raids in Brighton. Some of the stories and experiences recounted may be upsetting.
The third stop on the walk (Downs Junior School) is an optional stop. The school is home to the only original WW2 air raid shelter open to the public in the South of England, however, the shelter is only open for private tours or during certain culture and heritage festivals.
There are some busy roads, so take care as you follow the map along.
This walk is based on the QueenSpark book Behind The Façade, available to buy here.
This 60 minute walk will take you on an insightful journey into the lives of the working classes of Brighton who lived between the Georgian period to the mid 1900s, we’ll hear direct testimony of life, work and play. Beginning in the West among the imposing grand town houses of Hove, we’ll promenade along the coast, meandering through Brighton to explore the area of Churchill Square where slums once stood. We’ll end at the Royal Pavilion, a pleasure palace built for the Prince of Wales (who became King George IV), its architecture is inspired by the romance of India and China.
Tireless Work ………………………….. Everyone who knew Harry tells a story of The Guv’nor’s tireless work in the neighbourhood. They remember Harry organizing outings for the poor kids of Southover St., finding furniture for old people moved in a slum clearance, or standing up to the Board of Guardians to get more money for an out-of-luck family.
Mrs Williams was a neighbour of the Cowleys: “Anything you wanted, go to Mr Cowley, he’d help you, if you was in trouble, no matter what trouble. Probably hadn’t got the money himself, but he’d find something to help them with. He used to have big concerts and do all this, that and the other so little kiddies could have a good Christmas. He’d give the old people 10s notes, pound notes; what he thought they most needed. And then, when the children was in want of any boots or shoes, if the authorities wouldn’t give it to them, Harry Cowley got round. I remember my dad when he had nothing, he come to us and give us all shoes, and there was eight of us.”
These bread-and-butter needs were the core of Harry Cowley’s politics. His organized campaigns for the unemployed and for better housing were simply an extension of this determination to improve the lives of his working-class neighbours. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WHO WAS HARRY COWLEY?
He addressed the unemployed men with fierce determination: “Well now boys, it’s no good of us messing about with the Labour Exchange. Let’s go where we can get a job. There’s only one place we can go in this town and that’s down the Town Hall. I’ll go down and I want you to come with me.” Confronted by the police for disturbing the peace, Harry cheekily replied, “They’re nothing to do with me. They’re following me about.”
Harry won this first battle with the authorities. He secured work for 600 men on the widening of Ditchling Road. But he was not happy when he discovered that ‘his boys’ were receiving below the union rate: “I said, ‘Well down tools boys, and straight down to the Town Hall.’ I went before the Council and put the case and got the trade union rate.”
A men’s unemployed centre in Tichborne Street was one successful result of these protests. The club gave unemployed men a respectability that they were fast losing as the vacant days crept by. They organized lively campaigning marches, where banners were waved and bugles blown.
Despite the high unemployment rate, these men were accused of being unskilled and lazy. When a Brighton councillor announced, “Harry Cowley is the leader of a bunch of unemployables,” Harry and ‘his boys’ set out to prove him wrong by marching along the Sussex coast looking for work. Day after day the column of unemployed tramped from one Sussex town to the next. By day they badgered employers, at night they slept in barns and sheds.
After a couple of weeks they were back in Brighton….“Now,” said Harry, “you dare call us unemployables again.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WHO WAS HARRY COWLEY?