Queer The Marly - Help Us Buy Our Historic Community Space

Queer The Marly CIC is organizing this fundraiser.

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Help Keep Brighton’s Historic Pub & Little Theatre Queer!

We need to raise a mortgage deposit so that we can turn our cherished venue into a permanent queer cultural centre, owned by and for the LGBTQIA+ community. So we've set up a CIC run by volunteers to do it!

If everyone reading this, plus one ally, can give as little as £5 each, then we could buy our queer community space together. If we are successful, we will ensure it's run by and for the LGBTQIA+ community in Brighton.

What is The Marly? - Why do we want to buy it?

For over 60 years, The Marlborough Pub and Little Theatre — affectionately known as The Marly — has been a cornerstone of Brighton’s LGBTQIA+ life. From hosting Gay Liberation Front meetings in the 1970s, to being a hub for lesbian organising in the 90s, to helping launch the UK’s first Trans Pride in 2013.

Built as an inn in 1787, our little corner of Brighton has been many things to many people. More than a pub, this building has been a community tavern, an arts venue, a cultural site, a space to support human rights, and a place to find belonging.

What did our community say about the building?

The Marly community champions anti-racism, and the building has been an integral place for QTIBIPOC to work, create, care, and share together.

The Marly cares about queer wellbeing, and find ways to improve accessibility in the space.

The Marly has supported homeless queers as a distribution point for warm clothing and bedding.

The Marly has provided free and low-cost space to support grassroots groups, community meetings, personal fundraisers and safe space in some scary times.

The Marly has been there for our community. Now, it needs us to be there for it!

The Marly is at risk of being lost, but we can save it together!

You can help us get that one step closer to buying our little community space with 240 years of history — and a vital future.

Here’s how you can help...

We would love for you to give whatever you can today, because your support matters to our queer community. Whether you have £5 or £50,000 spare in a sock drawer, any generosity will help us to reach our goal faster.

We'd be incredibly grateful if you could help spread the word about this campaign. You can encourage people to follow us on social media or even connect us directly with someone who you know could support.

Reach out if you can volunteer to help us with the campaign, or run a fundraising event.

Who are we anyway?

After closing during the COVID lockdowns, the building’s future became uncertain. So hundreds of queer people and organisations came together (some seen below) to protect it. By 2022, thanks to all the community support, we successfully registered it as an Asset of Community Value - a legal recognition of the building’s cultural importance. Now, the landlord has announced plans to sell the building - currently trading as The Actors (who still fly the queer flag) - so we’ve been given the first chance to buy it for our community.

[ Please note: We are the community, not the currently operating business, which is why we refer to the community use name, ‘The Marly’. The Actors Pub operates on a lease under a local pub company, of which we have been informed there are several years remaining. If we successfully purchase the freehold on the building we would plan to honour that lease. We love what the team at The Actors do to keep our queer community culture and heritage alive. We hope that by bringing the building under community ownership we will be able to ensure our shared cultural values can thrive long into the building’s future. Any questions relating to the current lease, staffing or operations should be addressed directly to The Laines, not to Queer The Marly. ]

We’ve formed Queer the Marly CIC, as a not-for-profit organisation led by passionate volunteers from our community. The CIC will act to raise the funds needed to purchase the freehold and to secure The Marly’s future, for LGBTQIA+ people and our marginalised allies for generations to come.

Our exclusive opportunity expires as early as late May 2025, so we need to raise as much towards the mortgage as we can before it goes on general sale. We will keep raising funds until we have secured a mortgage for our bid. If we are not able to buy it then we will refund your money through GoFundMe. We will keep you updated as the project unfolds.