LGBTQ+ historian tells story of Brighton’s forgotten gay bikers in new exhibition

A new exhibition at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery is shining a light on the Sussex Lancers, a pioneering gay leather motorbike club whose story reflects community, identity and resilience in the face of prejudice and the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Developed by Alf Le Flohic, LGBTQ+ historian and University of Brighton digital communications officer, The Sussex Lancers: Tailor-made Leather Lovers traces the rise of a Brighton-based club active throughout the 1980s and 90s.

The exhibition explores how its members forged a resilient community at a time of widespread discrimination, social stigma and the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS. Beginning with the influence of two notorious Bond Street tailors in the 1960s, the exhibition charts the emergence of leather culture in Brighton and its role in shaping identity, visibility and belonging.

During his research, Alf unearthed rare photographs, personal memorabilia and newly uncovered archival material. The exhibition uses these discoveries to offer an intimate portrait of everyday life within the club, revealing friendships, care networks and moments of joy that existed alongside activism and loss.

Alf Le Flohic said: “At the end of the last century it was a common sight to see groups of men in leather, arms around each other, moving between the bars in the St James’s Street area of Brighton. The image was ultra-masculine, but some of the candid photos I’ve uncovered show them having picnics on the Downs and taking tea at Amberley.

“Unfortunately, the official archive of the Sussex Lancers was destroyed around ten years ago, so this exhibition has been pieced together from personal collections and archive material held at the Bishopsgate Institute. We hear a lot about Brighton’s Mod scene - this is a chance to celebrate some bikers.” 

The exhibition also features new photographic work by Antony Edwards, documenting the contemporary group Leathermen South, drawing a line between past and present expressions of leather culture and community in the city, and is presented as a companion piece to Gender Stories, which runs concurrently at the museum.

A spokesperson for Brighton & Hove Museums said: “This exhibition captures an important but often overlooked part of Brighton’s social history. By bringing together personal collections, archive material and contemporary photography, it highlights the city’s long-standing role as a place of community, resistance and self-expression. We are delighted to host it in our Prints and Drawings Gallery at the Museum.” 

By foregrounding lived experience and community memory, The Sussex Lancers: Tailor-made Leather Lovers adds depth to Brighton’s cultural record, offering visitors a powerful reminder of how subcultures can foster resilience, solidarity and pride in the face of adversity.