QUEER THE MARLY: “a venue run by and for the Brighton queer community”

The Queer The Marly campaign began in the summer of 2021, when the pub’s future was uncertain. Hundreds of testimonials were collected from the community and the building was granted status as an Asset of Community Value (ACV). Due to this status, the community has been given first notice of intent to sell, now that the owner is putting the building up for sale!

To buy the building the campaign needs to raise £400,000. This would allow Queer The Marly CIC to secure a mortgage and to protect the building’s future as a venue run by and for the Brighton queer community.

The building, still fondly known by many as ‘The Marly’, is of historical importance for Brighton’s LGBTQ+ community. The testimonials collected for the ACV in 2021 showed how much meaning the space has to the people of Brighton – “I wasn’t made to feel like an outsider,” wrote one. “It was inclusive in ways other spaces never even tried to be,” said another.

Many community groups form and meet there, since originally hosting the Brighton & Sussex Gay Liberation Front groups and the Brighton Lesbian Group in the 1970s. It has also been a place for trans organising, for Navigate and #LwiththeT, and played a key role in Europe’s first Trans Pride in 2013.

A place from which queer artists and performers have gone on to reach international audiences. Performers include: Mae Martin, Kuchenga Shenjé, Juno Dawson, Alok Vaid-Menon, Subira Joy and Travis Alabanza, among many others. It has been a hub of community arts, many queer writers, artists, poets, musicians, actors, dancers and producers have used both the bar and the “little theatre” above it to entertain, educate and express. One testimonial wrote: “We told stories no one else would platform.” Another said: “There was room for play, risk, and joy.”

For 12 years, the theatre above the pub was home to Marlborough Productions. Under their management, it reconnected with queer theatre and musical legacies, such as rebuilding partnerships with both the Brighton Festival, and Brighton Fringe Festival, established by the AIDS Positive Underground Theatre (1990s). Their collaboration and support was foundational for many queer cultural heritage projects, including Museum of Transology, Coast is Queer Festival and the LGBTQIA+ History Club.

The pub and theatre space enabled many projects to blossom, by offering community groups free and low-cost venue space. This support included the men’s and women’s groups for Campaign for Homosexual Equality and GLF (1970s); Friends of The Earth and Siren lesbian theatre (1980s); Aputheatre (1990s); Artists, Models, iNK, and the Sussex Uni LGBT Society (2000s); Clare Project and Trevor Project (2010s); and, Queer AF Brighton and Black Brighton Market (2020s).

One of the only explicit safe spaces for the QTIBIPOC community to work, create, care, and share together. Many such events are produced through Radical Rhizomes, QTIPOC Narratives Collective, AZIZ, and Brighton & Hove Black Anti-Racism Community Organisation (BARCO). The venue is also home to the Caribbean Kitchen.

‘The Marly’ has provided queer homeless support as a distribution point for sleeping bags, clothing and period products, hosted assemblies on reclaiming empty buildings, supported local artists to access government grants, and provided temporary employment opportunities during Pride season. The venue also champions community initiatives around HIV prevention, treatment and care, mental health support, neurodivergence awareness, and gender affirming care.

Today, The Actors remains a place for community and the arts, hosting almost daily events where LGBTQ+ people come together to express themselves and connect. These regular events include music and poetry open mics, Brighton Black Market and Dyke Night.

It’s more than a multi-award winning pub – for decades, the building has been a place for community, an arts venue, a cultural site, a place to organise for human rights, and a place to find belonging. ‘The Marly’ has been many things, and it could be many more as a community-owned space. By protecting the building’s future, we can protect a piece of Brighton’s history, the heart of its queer community, and a vital part of Brighton’s arts scene for decades more to come.

To donate to the ‘Queer The Marly’ campaign, CLICK HERE

All pics by Emily Whitty Photography