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Kirstin Innes goes to Brighton, where, after a bit of
digging, she finds all the fun the city is famed for
he streets in Brighton don‘t make sense. You can be walking down an average grey shopping thoroughfare. kitted out with all the regulation high street brands. and come across the Moorish domes and spires of one of the city‘s significant landmarks. the Brighton Dome. An alley full of chi chi ladies‘ boutiques and designer interiors stores can suddenly smut up with window displays of discounted glass dildos. and even the most ordinary cobbled residential
terraces often conceal houses painted in zebra stripes ;
and the odd original Banksy mural. It wasn’t until we ditched the tourist—board approved
guidebooks that we really got stuck into this other ~
Brighton. though. We had no fixed plans for our long weekend beyond vague ideas about vintage clothes shopping and dancing. A pilgrimage to The Candy Bar. Brighton’s legendary lesbian pub. had also been requested. Beyond that. though. nothing. We were. after all. in one of the UK‘s most distinctive. off-beat. hip cities. Adventure was pretty much guaranteed. right‘.’ Perhaps we should have done our research better. After a few happy. stomach chuming hours amid the waltzers. flashing lights and teeth-rotting boardwalk shops of Brighton Pier’s funfair. we let the guidebooks take us to The Lanes. apparently the home of Brighton‘s independent shopping. For the first day of our holiday we trailed faithfully round this picturesque tangle of cobbled streets nestling close to the seafront. finding only rather dull upmarket boutiques. laddish chain bars and other puzzled-looking tourists doing the
same circuits at different paces. We were looking for i
the Brighton of legend. off-beat and dancing to its own drummer — what we found was manufactured ‘quirk‘. Fortunately. after some dedicated wandering. we realised we‘d been hanging out in all the wrong places. Brighton is made up of several ‘villages‘ (often just a few streets with similar vibes about them). Kemp Town is the city‘s gay hub. all sex shops and enough rainbow flag-draped pubs and cafes to keep two fifths of our
party happy for hours (including the bright pink
underground chasm of the Candy Bar. a tiny. porn—
bedecked girlie hangout with an intense atmosphere. 3 alternately friendly and frightening). Meanwhile. 1 Gardner Street in the hilly. North Laine village induced
satisfied ‘aaahhs’ from those of us who had come for the shopping. Rows of small. scuffed shops with
outsized sculptural installations for signs. selling lovely. cheap clothes by local designers. second hand books.
ribbons and the inevitable vibrators (Brighton is notable for its sex shops. you see). Adjacent is
Kensington Gardens. and the unadulterated pleasure of
Snooper’s Paradise. one of the biggest indoor fieamarkets in the country. selling everything from
bathroom tiles to Victorian nightgowns and vintage
Spiderman comics. The succession of cosy underground bars propped up
by people with excellent haircuts. and the tourist tat.
Brighton Rock and kiss-me-quick hats of the seafront area sit check by jowl with artists‘ studios and
experimental galleries. Elsewhere there’s a phalanx of i drag queens. a group of girls walking down the streets
in tutus and bovver boots. a woman dressed as Audrey Hepburn riding the Ghost Train. It‘s all still there —— you
3 just have to know where to find it.
‘WE QUICKLY REALISED WE'D BEEN HANGING OUT IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES'
Artists’ studios, experimental galleries and a cool bar and live music scene sit cheek by jowl alongside the tourist tat of the seafront and a lively gay scene
Get there Catch the train to London St Pancras from where trains leave for Brighton every 20 minutes. Single fares start from 9321 (Glasgow) and £23 (Edinburgh) when booked in advance at www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk
Stay at Paskins Townhouse offers eco-friendly living in a Regency setting (www.paskins.co.uk). Those seeking proper Graham Greene Brighton should head for the White House, an unpretentious. stylish B&B (www.whitehousebrighton.com)
Drink in The Mash Tun on Church Street plays good music. but is overrun by Skins wannabes at weekends. The Victory Inn on Duke Street is more laid back and hip. Three & Ten on Steine Street is a lovely straight-friendly gay bar, with roaring fires and board games.
Shop in The North Laine shops have their own collective website (wwnonhlainecouk); check out Snooper’s Paradise and the kitschy clothes store Mama San (www.mamasan.co.uk).
24 Apr—8 May 2008 THE LIST 17