‘Queer the Marly’ campaign succeeds in keeping the Marlborough pub in the hands of the queer community

Organisers of the Queer the Marly campaign have announced that Brighton & Hove City Council has approved the Marlborough pub, and its theatre now renamed The Actors, in Brighton as an Asset of Community Value.

Brighton’s legendary Marlborough pub has spent many generations as the natural home of Brighton’s queer community. It’s a sanctuary for those marginalised elsewhere in Brighton – where the trans community meet, where disabled people feel safe, a home-from-home for queers of all shapes and sizes.

Michelle Steele, co-chair of the campaign, said: “Thank you to everyone for the large response we had in order to provide evidence of its community and historical status.

“This campaign aimed to put ownership of the pub into the hands of the community that uses it. Having been pushed out of so many public spaces – by rising rents, by inaccessible architecture, by chasing straight people’s profits – Brighton has become poorer for queer folk on the margins.

“The Marlborough has long since bucked that trend, and so much more. It’s a place for activism, theatre, music. A place to drown your sorrows, meet your new best friends, and in so many cases, a place for the unsure and unsteady to tell the world who they authentically are.

“During Covid-19 we’ve been bereft of this community space, and we’re here to say that the Marlborough is an indispensable community asset for Brighton’s innumerable queers and their wonderful allies. The pandemic will not keep us quiet and alone.”