Viva Brighton Issue #80 October 2019

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VIVA
B R I G H T O N
#80 OCT 2019
EDITORIAL
...........................
.......................
Viva Magazines is based at:
Lewes House, 32 High St,
Lewes, BN7 2LX.
For all enquiries call:
01273 488882.
Every care has been taken to
ensure the accuracy of our content.
We cannot be held responsible for
any omissions, errors or alterations.
Back in 2017, my experiment with ‘Dry January’
extended into a two-year period of total
abstinence from booze. It was only a tiny triumph
in the grand scheme of things, but it did give me
plenty of time to reflect on my relationship with
the grape and the grain.
I didn’t once miss the corner shop bottle of
generic New World red, or the so-so pints
of carbonated draft lager, but I did miss the
opportunity to raise a glass of flinty Sussex fizz
and to sip a carefully crafted Saison beer, full of
hedgerow-foraged flavours.
These days, I’m a much more discerning drinker.
I prefer to pay a little more and drink a little less
in appreciation of these finer things and to taste
the fleeting essence of the landscape.
So, in these pages, we’re raising a glass to the
local people who have elevated their offerings
to an art form, and whose reputation reaches
far beyond the county line. Just ask Greg Dunn,
Curriculum Manager at the Plumpton Wine
Centre, who’s traded New South Wales for the
South Downs and the UK’s rapidly expanding
wine business. Or Emma Inch, who knows just
about everything that there is to know about
beer. Plus, we learn about a long (long) line of
Sussex millers; hear from Oli Hyde, on the rise
and rise of The Flour Pot Bakery; find out why
gluten is giving some of us such a belly ache, and
much more besides.
So, here’s a toast to the local makers and their
masterful ways with the grape and the grain.
I’ll drink to that.

VIVA
B R I G H T O N
THE TEAM
.....................
EDITOR: Lizzie Lower lizzie@vivamagazines.com
SUB EDITOR: David Jarman
PRODUCTION EDITOR: Joe Fuller joe@vivamagazines.com
ART DIRECTOR: Katie Moorman katie@vivamagazines.com
PHOTOGRAPHER AT LARGE: Adam Bronkhorst mail@adambronkhorst.com
ADVERTISING: Hilary Maguire hilary@vivamagazines.com,
Sarah Jane Lewis sarah-jane@vivamagazines.com
ADMINISTRATION & ACCOUNTS: Kelly Mechen kelly@vivamagazines.com
DISTRIBUTION: David Pardue distribution@vivamagazines.com
CONTRIBUTORS: Alex Leith, Alexandra Loske, Amy Holtz, Ben Bailey, Charlotte Gann,
Chris Riddell, Galia Pike, Inky, JJ Waller, Jacqui Bealing, Jay Collins, Joda, Joe Decie,
John Helmer, Lizzie Enfield, Mark Greco, Martin Skelton, Michael Blencowe,
Nione Meakin, Paul Zara and Rose Dykins.
PUBLISHER: Becky Ramsden becky@vivamagazines.com
Please recycle your Viva (or keep us forever).

CONTENTS
...............................
Bits & bobs.
8-25. From toytronica to terroir, the
multi-talented Galia Pike is on the
cover; Forfars forefather Charles
Cutress is on the buses, and Alex Leith
settles into The Jolly Brewer. Elsewhere,
Alexandra Loske is entranced by
treasures from the Royal Collection;
New Note Orchestra is working on
their Kind Rebellion, and Carolyn Trant
celebrates British women artists. And
much more besides.
My Brighton.
26-27. Oli Hyde on the rise of The
Flour Pot Bakery.
Photography.
29-33. Emma Croman has a passion for
Emma Croman
On this month.
29
food (and knows how to capture it).
41-53. Ben Bailey rounds up his pick of
Columns.
the gigs; there’s an interactive exploration
of empathy at Lighthouse; Jess Phillips
35-39. John Helmer is under doctor’s
MP calls it how she sees it (and encour-
orders, Lizzie Enfield and friends drink
ages us to do the same) and Jonathan Pie
the cellar dry, and Amy Holtz gets
brings his Fake News tour to The Dome.
busted.
Also on this month, a Feast of Fools
at Brighton Early Music Festival; Roy
Will Blood
Orbison and Buddy Holly appear (holographically)
at the Brighton Centre and
the Theatre Royal serves up Nigel Slater’s
67
Toast. Plus, Elizabeth Hughes unearths
some interesting legacies at The Keep,
and ‘For the Birds’ creator Jony Easterby
is back with his latest woodland odyssey.
10
....6 ....

CONTENTS
...............................
Art & design.
55-67. A lifetime’s work in wood – David
Nash at Towner; Charleston celebrate the
radical beginnings and lasting legacy of the
Omega Workshops; Lexi Laine’s ethereal
underwater photography at the Sussex Art
Fair, and Will Blood’s craft beer can designs.
The way we work.
69-75. Adam Bronkhorst asks some of
Brighton’s publicans to step out from
behind the bar (and finds out what they
like to drink when they do).
Food.
77-81. Lizzie Lower has brunch at Back-
Wood, Joe Fuller has a feast at The Coal
Shed and we’ve got a recipe for onion
pakora from The Chilli Pickle.
Features.
83-95. We get a beginner’s guide to
gluten; talk to Greg Dunn – Curriculum
Manager at the Plumpton Wine Centre –
about the rapidly expanding English wine
industry, and Emma Inch – Beer Writer
of the Year, founder of Brighton Beer
Week and beer broadcaster – about her
favourite subject (beer!). Plus, we meet a
64
local co-op who've got plans to turn our
food waste into clean energy; go scrumping
with the Brighton Permaculture Trust
and meet a Sussex Uni professor who’s
on a mission to get us growing our own.
Plus, Paul Zara finds out about a recently
reimagined mural in Embassy Court.
Wildlife
97. Blencowe's hazy days of sloe hunting.
Inside left.
98. The draymen of Tamplin & Son,
c1920.
Lexi Laine
Galia Pike
8
77
....7 ....

THIS MONTH’S COVER ARTIST
.......................................................
Galia Pike has what you might describe
as a portfolio career. She is one half of the
‘toytronica’ duo Psapp, who write music for
TV shows and commercials and have
released critically acclaimed
albums. The “parallel
Psapp universe” that
Galia created, “filled
with monochromatic
cats, imaginary
keyboards and
friendly monsters”
appeared on
merchandise and
in the band’s
animated
videos before spinning off into all sorts of
commissions. Postcards, album covers, posters,
flyers, tattoos, comic strips, prints and even a
range of condom packaging followed, as did
murals, art installations and exhibitions in
London and Paris.
She has also created a range of jewellery and
homewares and has been illustrating lesson
plans and collaborating on songs for The
Big Think who are doing great things to
promote wellbeing, social responsibility and
empowerment in primary schools. And she
writes the hugely popular ‘Dogs of Lewes’
column and draws the ‘Craig’ cartoon for our
sister magazine Viva Lewes.
Galia’s portfolio, it occurs to me, is more
....8 ....

GALIA PIKE
......................................................
varied and expansive than most. “I just really
like making stuff,” she says “and it’s not always
important to me what it is...”
She and her husband Adrian (who also worked
in the music business) have recently turned
their creative talents to winemaking, taking
over the running of the Westwell Wines
Estate in Kent in 2017. Adrian is in charge of
the winemaking while Galia takes care of the
branding and marketing.
“I didn’t know much about it,” she tells me,
“so I started a blog called Sussex Uncorked and
went around all the local vineyards interviewing
people about winemaking. It’s been great – if
you want to know something about something,
start a blog.”
The couple have doubled the size of the
vineyard and are experimenting with different
grape varieties and fermentation methods,
gathering a growing reputation for creating
interesting and unusual single-estate wines as
they go. They recently married grape and grain
in a collaboration with master artisanal brewers
Burning Sky, whose ‘This Land’ saison was
aged with Pinot Noir and Ortega grape skins
from Westwell. By all accounts it was delicious (it
all but sold out as soon as it was announced) and
another brew is in the pipeline.
Galia has been busy designing a new label
for Westwell's sparkling wines. So far, their
labels have sported her intricate line drawings
of the soil structure, macerating grape skins
and a microscopic cross section of a vine,
“acknowledging the beauty of the vineyard
and referencing back every part.” They are
meticulously detailed and refined – quite a
departure from her space-cat Psapp aesthetic. I
wonder what she has planned for our October
'grape & grain' cover?
“Sometimes I’m very intricate and
other times I’m quite cartoony”
she explains. “I’m often really torn
about what will work, but there’s an
immediacy about a cartoon and I do
love anthropomorphising things, so
I’ll probably do something with
that…” she muses. “There are lots of
different elements to what I do.”
From where I’m sitting, that’s
quite the understatement. See for
yourself at monstrouspencil.co.uk;
sussexuncorked.wordpress.com;
psapp.net; westwellwines.com and
the-big-think.org. Lizzie Lower
....9 ....

ADVERTORIAL
VIRTUALLY
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They may be in the cloud, but
digital assets are assets all the
same. To make sure your executors
can access all your assets, an
element of ‘old school’ might be
required, as Kerry Young explains.
The “paperless office” is for some a clutter free
nirvana; others prefer the physical certainty of
paper and books.
The reality for most of us is that we are running
evermore aspects of our lives online, via digital
devices. Providing families and executors
with access to our digital assets after death
is essential for both financial and sentimental
reasons.
The starting point is to list what assets you
hold digitally, accessed by an online account
(e.g Facebook, Apple, emails, photos, bank
accounts, investments and utilities), and to make
a written record of the logins and passwords
for the accounts and your devices (particularly
important for Apple). Ensure this record is stored
securely – consider depositing the list with
your Will in your Solicitor’s strongroom, or use
a password manager. Review and update the
record regularly and let your executors know
where to find it, but don’t give them a copy.
As an extra safeguard, you might consider
printing hard copies of key documents, or
downloading family photos onto a USB stick.
Read the terms and conditions of your online
accounts so that you know what happens to
those assets on death. Some internet service
providers will permanently destroy your assets
after a specified period of inactivity. Facebook
and Google allow you to name an account
nominee, and Facebook allows a deceased’s
account to be “memorialised”.
There are two certainties in life – death and
taxes. Your executors will need the information
about your digital estate in order to fulfil
their obligations to HMRC – to account fully,
accurately and promptly for all assets in your
estate. Failing to do this can lead to fines for
non-disclosure of assets and/or interest on tax
that is paid late.
Paperless or not, we all cherish the mementos
of loved ones who are no longer with us; it really
is worth taking time to plan how you wish your
mementos to be preserved and accessed.
Kerry Young is a senior associate
at DMH Stallard’s Brighton office.
You can contact her on 03333
231580. dmhstallard.com

BITS AND BUSES
ON THE BUSES #54: CHARLES CUTRESS ROUTE 5
The Cutress family worked as millers in the Brighton and Hove area
as early as the Stuart period, according to hovehistory.blogspot.com.
We know more about their culinary lineage from the 19th century
onwards however: Edward Cutress owned a bakery in London Road
in the 1870s, while Charles Cutress purchased Port Hall Mill in 1874,
and Round Hill Mill on Ditchling Road in 1879 (later known as Tower
Mill and Cutress’s Mill). Charles Cutress died in 1912, aged 83, but his
work was taken up by his grandson, Charles Cutress Junior. Charles
Junior’s son, John Stephen Cutress, was born above one of the family’s
bakeries in Ditchling in 1920. In 1936, the Cutress family took over
Forfars, which ran two businesses: breadmaking and outside catering. After serving as an apprentice
baker at John Barkers in London in 1938-39, John returned home to work at Forfars.
Charles Junior’s other son, Tony, focused on the bakery side of the business while John Cutress
focused on the family’s hotel, restaurant and catering businesses. This included running the Pump
House, Eaton restaurant and Courtlands Hotel, as well as catering for events in the Royal Pavilion
(for as many as 3,000 people at times). In 2012, Forfars ran ten bakeries across Brighton and Hove,
including premises in Hassocks, Rustington and Lewes. The long-running local chain was put into
liquidation in 2015. Joe Fuller
Illustration by Joda (@joda_art)
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JOE DECIE
...............................
....13....

CURATOR’S CITY
...............................
An 1820s view of the Music Room, showing the pagodas, uplighters and mantelpiece garniture that will return to the Pavilion.
Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
YOU WERE ALWAYS ON MY MIND
A PRINCE’S TREASURE: FROM BUCKINGHAM PALACE TO THE ROYAL PAVILION
By the time this issue of Viva Brighton goes
to print six of the state rooms of the Royal
Pavilion and the King’s Library will be filled
with more than 120 spectacular objects, including
clocks, cabinets, candleholders, oriental
porcelain, Chinese nodding figures and 16-feet
tall porcelain pagodas, most of which were
originally made or purchased for the Pavilion
during George IV’s lifetime. They are coming
to us from Her Majesty the Queen’s Royal
Collection on a two-year loan basis, directly
from Buckingham Palace. They were removed
by Queen Victoria in 1847-48 following her
decision to cease using the Pavilion as a royal
residence. In the new east wing, or ‘Blore
Wing’ (after the architect Edward Blore) of
Buckingham Palace, Victoria and Albert reused
and reinterpreted the exotic interiors of the
Royal Pavilion, creating several rooms in the
Chinoiserie style they had admired in Brighton
(despite not liking the place in general). It
could be argued that many of the Pavilion’s
interiors only survive because they liked the
style so much.
Many original objects were returned over the
years by Victoria and other monarchs, such as
the spectacular chandeliers in the Banqueting
Room and the paintings on the Music Room
....14....

CURATOR’S CITY
...............................
walls, but many others became part of the fabric
of Buckingham Palace and are rarely on public
view. They are now returning to their original
location (although in some cases the story is
more complicated than that) as part of a major
reservicing project at Buckingham Palace. It is
fair to say that among them are some of the most
beautiful objects in the Royal Collection.
At the time of writing, our two teams of experts –
comprising curators, project managers, conservators,
administrators and other staff from the
Royal Pavilion and the Royal Collection Trust
– have been working on A Prince’s Treasure for
many months and we are now at the beginning of
the end of a complex and exhilarating journey.
Over the years I have read, talked and written so
much about the Pavilion that I have in my mind
created a near perfect vision of how it looked in
the 1820s. The recent Saloon restoration project
gave me a real sense of the splendour created by
George and his architects and designers, but I
never dreamt I would see the state rooms of the
Royal Pavilion return to their almost complete
1820s glory, with so many of the original
decorative objects and fittings brought back. It
is hard to describe what this means to me, as I
have been walking through George’s rooms in
my imagination for so long. This exhibition is
a unique opportunity to see and experience one
of the most important, exuberant and carefully
designed interiors of the early 19th century. Once
the Royal loans are all in place, I guess I will feel
like local writer Richard Sickelmore, who noted
in c1825 that ‘it is scarcely in the power of words
to convey an accurate idea of [the Pavilion’s] rich
and glowing magnificence’.
Alexandra Loske, Art Historian and Curator
A Prince’s Treasure – From Buckingham Palace to
the Royal Pavilion. The Royal Collection returns
to Brighton. 21 September 2019 to Autumn 2021,
Free with Royal Pavilion admission.
brightonmuseums.org.uk/royalpavilion
A Chinese porcelain vase in the shape of two carp, set on a French Rococo
glit bronze mount. Royal Collection Trust © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth
II 2019
A magnificent Chinoiserie clock from one of the mantelpieces of the
Banqueting Room. Royal Collection Trust © Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II 2019
A purple speckled Chinese porcelain vase with gilt bronze mounts from
the Music Room Gallery. Royal Collection Trust © Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II 2019
....15....

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BITS AND BOGS
...............................
MAGAZINE OF THE MONTH: NOBLE ROT
If you are walking down
Lamb’s Conduit Street in
London you are likely to
work nearby, have a particular
guide book in your
hand, have a literary bent
or a friend who has tipped
you off. It’s not exactly
out of the way but it’s not
central either. On the edge
of Bloomsbury, about five
minutes from Clerkenwell
and parallel to the Grays Inn
Road that leads up to King’s
Cross, it’s a street that feels
secret even after multiple visits.
Within a short distance, you can visit the
Charles Dickens museum, buy some very fashionable
clothing, buy a wonderful book reprint
from Persephone Books and have a pint at a very
good pub. You can also have a good meal with
some fine wine at a restaurant called Noble Rot.
(In case you think I got all of this from Google, I
used to work around the corner.)
The people who run the restaurant also produce
a magazine of the same
name. Noble Rot is mostly
about the grape rather than
the grain. This is no amateur
effort from people who
like wine and drink a lot
but a really good mag from
people immersed in different
aspects of the wine trade all
the time. Which also means
that they can pull some pretty
impressive contributors.
In the current issue, Alistair
Little argues for taking good
olive oil rather than poor
wine to your next supper, Simon Hopkinson
writes about cooking with cognac, and Ruby
Tandoh writes about fantastic feasts. But, amongst
the 24 authoritative articles, you can read why
low-alcohol wines are often better than their high
alcohol counterparts, explore the Loire Valley’s
best wine fair and find out about the new wine
stars from Portugal. And that’s only the first sip.
The perfect autumn companion to the next bottle
you open. Martin Skelton, Magazine Brighton
TOILET GRAFFITO #57
So true! Life can be tough – and, if we crash out of
Europe on the 31st, it might get even harder – but
you’ve got to keep on keeping on. You can do it. (We
tell ourselves.)
But where did we find this powder room pep talk?
Last month’s answer: Pavilion Garden's public toilets
....17....

The Montpelier Inn is a place
where we like to do our best to
make everyone feel at home. Our
newly renovated pub is a very
unique place, with its rich history
and our friendly atmosphere.
We show all the sports and also
host live acoustic jazz, as well as
a monthly throwback disco event.
We also serve a variety of foods
with our international Street
Food menu.
Join us and get a pint and main
for £10 with this advert!
Plus, bookings of 3 or more
people receive a complimentary
bottle of house wine.
7-8 Montpelier Place | Brighton BN1 3BF | 01273 640195

BITS AND PUBS
...............................
PUB: THE JOLLY BREWER
I get a bit lost looking for the Jolly
Brewer, and ask an old fellah for directions.
“I’m going that way, follow me,”
he says in a gruff Glaswegian accent.
“A couple of years ago I’d have advised
you not to go in, but now…”
When I see the pub, rising high on a
street corner on Ditchling Road, I realise
that it’s that odd-looking mosquelike
building I’ve seen from cars and
wondered about. It is, unmistakably, a
former Tamplins pub, and not just because
the defunct brewery name is writ
large on the wall: it’s crowned with a
splendid dome like the Grand Central,
or the Alibi.
I immediately feel at home when I walk
through the ornate doorway, and not
just because my wife is already sitting
at a table inside. We’ve arranged to
meet at 7.30pm; I’m ten minutes late.
I’m taken by the pub’s unlaboured
flea-market-furniture feel, the dim
lighting, the way the clientele look as
if they’ve settled in for the night. “We
have a vast array of delicious crisps,”
the cheerful barmaid says, when I ask if
they do food. “Or you can order takeout,
and eat it here.”
They have a wide array of delicious
beer, too, it turns out. I order an Abyss
Brewery Dank Marvin; Rowena goes
for a Gun Pale Ale. We phone in pizzas
from PizzaMe, and decide, from the
pile of games in the corner, to play
Scrabble rather than Trivial Pursuit, because
we don’t want to fight in public.
We’re onto our third pint by the time the pizzas arrive, and
I realise that we’ve settled in for the night, too. I get chatting
to a guy on my intermittent trips to the smoking yard: it
turns out he works in the pub, but he’s come on his night
off because he likes it so much. He lives around the corner,
but he never used it before it got taken over: it was a right
roughhouse. It’s a sister pub, of sorts, to the Hand in Hand
in Kemp Town, where the landlord used to work. That’s my
local chatting pub: another good sign.
We finally spill out at ten thirty. Naturally, considering our
beer-fuelled mood, we chat to our taxi driver, who knows
the pub well. They do quiz nights, and live music, and the
beer’s great, he tells us. “It’s a far cry from a couple of years
ago…” Alex Leith
174 Ditchling Road
Illustration by Jay Collins
....19....

BITS AND BOBS
...............................
CHARITY BOX #42: NEW NOTE ORCHESTRA
“Kindness is so important
in terms of recovery
from addiction,” Molly
Mathieson says. “Addicts
have to consider what it is
that made them spiral out of
control and what they need
to do to stay sober. Often a
big part of that is being kind
to themselves and to others.” We’re talking about
Kind Rebellion, the latest work by Brighton’s New
Note Orchestra, which was founded by Mathieson
in 2015 to help people recovering from drug
and alcohol addiction. The music, composed by
artistic director Conall Gleeson in tandem with
the 22-strong orchestra, is set to be performed
at ACCA on November 13 as part of a collaboration
with the University of Sussex, which has
an entire research department dedicated to the
study of kindness. Playing live is a big deal for the
orchestra, which rehearses every Tuesday at St
Luke’s Church on Old Shoreham Road. “It’s the
thing we all work towards,” explains Mathieson.
The former TV producer founded New Note on
the back of her 2014 Channel 4 TV show Addict’s
Symphony, which followed a group of addicts as
they were invited to perform with the London
Symphony Orchestra. “As I was watching the
show unfold, I was so moved by the process,” she
says. “It was clear that music really helped people
with addiction issues. That was it really. We had
just moved to Brighton and I decided to set up an
orchestra.”
After taking a course with the School of Social
Entrepreneurs, she held a one-day pilot in Brighton.
“I expected about four people to show up but
there were 20. So there
was obviously a need for
it. Then I did an extended
pilot to look at whether
people would commit to
coming every week and
whether the music we created
would be good enough
to put on a performance. It
was yes, yes, to all those things. There are three
core orchestra members who were there at the
very first session back in 2015 and they’re still
with me today. It’s felt like this thing we’ve built
together.”
Members come to the orchestra in a number
of ways: “Sometimes a support worker will
recommend us; sometimes people find out about
us through someone already in the orchestra.
But a lot of our members have just walked in
one evening.” Members are not required to have
any prior musical training. “The only criteria for
joining are being in recovery and wanting to stay
in recovery. Hardly anyone in the orchestra reads
music when they come to us. But there’s a high
aspiration, and commitment is important – it’s
something to turn up for every week, and people
will expect you to be there.” The group does
not talk about addiction or recovery. “But you’re
with people who have all been through the same
things as you. That peer-to-peer support is very
powerful. Then there’s the confidence boost that
comes with learning and playing music; everyone
is given the chance to shine. People come in feeling
like addicts and leave feeling like musicians.”
Nione Meakin
newnote.co.uk
....21....

JJ WALLER
...............................
‘Cocktails came to mind’, writes JJ Waller when he first heard this month’s theme.
‘An early Friday evening stroll along the front (Hen Party arrival time) soon
offered up this colourful encounter with matching straw and nails, that I couldn’t
resist photographing. A snowball on a scorching hot day is a thing of great beauty.’
....23....

BITS AND BOOKS
...............................
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: VOYAGING OUT
BY CAROLYN TRANT
Sylvia Pankhurst, daughter of Emmeline, was
a political activist and campaigner for women’s
rights. She was also an artist. ‘Her art’, writes
Carolyn Trant in her new book, Voyaging Out,
‘became her way of bearing witness, showing the
monotony of the repetitive work done by women,
from packing fish to stooking corn; enduring the
heat of the mills or cold in the fields.’
The book’s packed with fascinating life stories
of British women artists over the last 150 years:
how they did and didn’t manage to work, how
they organised their lives, who they lived with,
who they worked with; and how that work was
then received – or not – by the establishment of
the day.
The effect of this “narrative non-fiction” is
compelling, and cumulative: all these lives
lived, and lost – and the extraordinary art that
emerged. The pictures dotted throughout are
an education. And Carolyn is herself, of course,
an artist, not historian: the emphasis stays firmly
with the work.
The idea for the book came, Carolyn tells me
when I visit her in Lewes, after she wrote and
published her 2004 life of Peggy Angus. Peggy,
born to a mining family, one of 13 children, was
always an outsider when it came to the art establishment,
and deliberately so. “She was being
an outsider definitively, so she could say what
she thought”, says Carolyn. “This could seem
intimidating, but she was totally fearless.”
Carolyn knew Peggy well – from the age of eleven,
when Peggy was her art teacher at her North
London school. They remained close until
Peggy’s death in 2004. “And there were so many
other women artists I encountered through
her. I wanted to write about her wider group of
friends. That was the seed. This book grew from
there. At one stage it was three times the size!
And of course it was a joy writing it because I
know a lot of the next generation: they’ve been
so generous.”
She was also politically motivated. “I’d been
part of a group called Women In Print. Of
course, I’ve cared about how women have been
overlooked for simply being women. And the
relevance today is important. We’re at a period
where we’re rethinking what art is. Grayson
Perry – who I think is brilliant – is Peggy Angus
today. It’s to do with looking at art as something
you do as part of life – nothing to do with
galleries etc.”
Throughout this account, of course, women
juggle their art with other roles and constraints:
financial, class, marriage, security, children, the
kitchen sink. Their courage and determination
shine through these potted histories. And
Carolyn also thinks that politically and socially
we have things to (re)learn. “Now is so like the
1930s – with the rise of fascism. These women
were so inspiring, had such integrity.
“Perhaps they didn’t have so much to lose”, she
says. “But they lived by their beliefs, and they
stood up for things. Today, we could do with
remembering this.” Charlotte Gann
....25....

INTERVIEW
..........................................
Photo by Adam Bronkhorst
....26....

INTERVIEW
..........................................
MYbrighton: Oli Hyde
Founder/Managing Director of The Flour Pot Bakery
Are you local? I moved to South East Asia
when I was 17, lived in Hong Kong for three
years then moved to Brighton about 93/94.
Some guys that I caught up with in Hong Kong
who were in Brighton invited me down for a
weekend… I ended up sleeping on their sofas
for six months.
What do you do? I am the founder and
managing director of The Flour Pot Bakery
and The Flour Pot Kitchen. We are a Brightonbased
business, started here from scratch. We
began about seven years ago supplying about
a dozen croissants a day to the Small Batch
group. We currently employ about 130 people
in the summer months, over seven sites and our
production facility in Portslade.
Most recently we opened on the border of
Portslade and West Hove on Portland Road
(pictured). I teamed up with fifth generation
florist Matt Gunn and we’ve connected the
two shops. At the end unit I’ve put in a young
designer called James Wilson and a young
jeweller called Charlie Carr-Gomm. They use it
as a workspace, and for retail.
What do you like about Brighton? I like
the seasonality. Probably of all the places I’ve
been in the UK, you get the best of everything
here. The sun sets over the sea in the winter.
The long summer days can make for the best
days out.
I’ve been working with Varndean College’s
business course for the last four years,
mentoring students. One thing I always tell
them is that it’s a bit of a microclimate here.
You can develop your idea, and if you can make
it work in Brighton, you can make it work
anywhere in the UK.
I think Brighton’s a really good testing ground
for young enterprise. Its proximity to London
means that there’s more money here than in
most seaside towns. We’ve got higher visitor
numbers – in excess of eight million a year.
We’ve got a population of 250,000 people which,
in term time, can be 25% students. We’ve got
foreign students throughout the city all summer
long, bringing new energy to the streets.
What would you like to change about
Brighton? A little underinvestment down in
Madeira Drive kind of winds me up. We’ve
probably all, at some point, thrown £20 into one
of the many fundraising exercises on Facebook
or what have you, but nothing seemed to
happen. It’s such a shame to let that go and
for the council not to consider the Regency
Seafront of enough value. Especially with all the
events we put on down there in the city.
What’s next for The Flour Pot? I’ve been
talking to a local brewer about using waste
bread to make beer. What happens is, you take
the waste bread, you slice it, you use the latent
heat to dry out the bread (which is energy
efficient) and in the process of making beer,
the starch is turned to sugar. So it’s an exciting
opportunity for us to use waste bread in a clever
way, and to make beer, which most of us like.
And we’d like to continue to open Flour Pot
shops as well. Interview by Joe Fuller
theflourpot.co.uk
....27....

PHOTOGRAPHY
....................................
Emma Croman
Foodie photographer
How did you come to
be a food photographer?
I used to be a picture
editor for magazines,
and after I packed that
in, I decided to become a
nutritional therapist and
did a three-year course.
I had a car accident, and
taught myself how to use
a new camera while I was
recovering. So food was a
natural subject for me. It’s
not the only thing I do – I
take a lot of portraits, for
example – but a lot of
my work is food-focused
editorial.
Can you sum up your
philosophy? I like to see
a natural scene in a frame. Some people shoot
very conceptual food shots, and it looks nice, but
it doesn’t happen in real life. I like all the asides:
close-ups, individual ingredients, prep shots,
someone putting a record on, empty plates at
the end of the meal, that sort of thing.
Is a good food photo more about the photographer’s
eye, or the equipment they use?
It’s two-thirds the photographer’s eye, I’d say.
You can take a good food shot with an iPhone if
you know what you’re doing. A lot of the shot is
about the styling, and framing.
Everyone’s a food photographer nowadays…
It’s great that food is encouraging people to
get creative. And it helps me that everyone
puts their dinner on social media. My clients
want pictures that are better than they see on
Instagram: as long as I keep upping my game, I
can provide that.
What camera do you generally
use? I use a Canon
Mk 4, with a 50mm lens.
It hits the sweet spot – you
can go as wide or as tight as
you like. I always shoot on
manual: for close-up shots
I’ll shoot on an f5.6 aperture
and adjust the shutter
speed accordingly.
Does the food generally
get cold while you’re at
work? Do you get to eat
it? Some foods, like soup, or
freshly cooked meat, need
to be shot while they’re hot.
Most other dishes go cold
during the shoot, and you’d
never know. You can get to
eat them afterwards if you
want, but usually they’ve been prodded around
with so long, you don’t want to.
Are you a cook yourself? By no means a chef,
but a home-cook, yes. I love cooking in the
evening, with my partner or for dinner parties.
Big spreads with lots of different dishes. My
favourite chefs are Yotam Ottolenghi – I love
his Simple cookbook, and the Persian cooking
of Sabrina Ghayour. Luckily, we have Taj, so the
ingredients are easy to find!
Do you ever meet food producers? I often go
out and shoot them at work. It’s a real pleasure
working with such passionate people, and an
education seeing the source of the food that
ends up on our plate.
Give us a top tip… You’ve got to know what
you want to communicate with the image before
you even pick up the camera. As told to Alex Leith
emmacroman.com
....29....

PHOTOGRAPHY
....................................
Photos by Emma Croman
....30....

PHOTOGRAPHY
....................................
Photo by Emma Croman
....31....

PHOTOGRAPHY
....................................
Photo by Emma Croman
....32....

PHOTOGRAPHY
....................................
Photos by Emma Croman
....33....

Award-winning independent
3 screen cinema
Next to Lewes station
Pinwell Road, Lewes BN7 2JS
01273 525354
lewesdepot.org
BEXHILL ON SEA
EAST SUSSEX
FREE EXHIBITIONS
Renee So, Woman I, 2017, Stoneware. Photo: Angus Mill.
Courtesy of the artist and Kate MacGarry, London
LIVE
EVENTS
RENEE SO: ANCIENT AND MODERN
Saturday 28 September – Sunday 12 January 2020
In partnership with West Dean College of Arts and Conservation
CERAMIC AND TEXTILE WORKS
MIKHAIL KARIKIS: I HEAR YOU
Saturday 28 September – Sunday 19 January 2020
A new co-commission with Project Artworks
MOVING IMAGE INSTALLATION
CALEXICO AND EXPLOSIONS IN
THE LIGHTNING
IRON & WINE THE SKY
SEEDS
PLUS LISA O’NEILL 20TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR JOLLIFICATION 25TH ANNIVERSARY
Sunday 24 November Tuesday 11 February 2020 Friday 20 March 2020
Charity number: 1065586
Viva Lewes - half page ad.indd 1 12/09/2019 18:21:35

COLUMN
...........................................
John Helmer
Gripe and Groan
Illustration by Chris Riddell
“Is this a good moment to talk?”
“Given that I'm waiting at baggage reclaim
and my suitcase hasn’t yet shown up, as good a
moment as any.”
“It’s about your test results...”
This is never a good opening to a telephone
conversation with a healthcare professional.
“Should I be sitting down?”
“Actually, you should be sitting down less.
Ideally you need to be doing as much exercise as
possible… But come in to see me when you get
back home and I’ll run you through it...”
It seems I’m pre-diabetic. I have high blood sugar
levels – as well as high blood pressure and high
cholesterol. All three cherries.
I’m allowed to eat cherries, by the way, since
although fruit contains a lot of sugar, it also
comes with fibre, which is good. But cherryflavoured
yoghurt is out, as are any number of
cherry-oriented puddings or the sort of cakes
that typically come with a cherry on the top.
No more Mr Kipling’s Cherry Bakewells for me
then, (other brands of life-shortening snack are
available). And, of course, I should drink less. Has
anybody over fifty ever been to a doctor about
any complaint at all and not been advised to
drink less? If such a person exists, I don’t want to
go to their dinner parties.
I’m entered in a programme which is going to
encourage me to make lifestyle changes. Since I
already exercise a fair bit and am not overweight,
the main thrust of this is to steer me away from
roast potatoes, little pastries at 11am and all the
sweet things of life, and towards wholegrains,
porridge groats, dark, heavy German bread and
brown rice. It seems like cruel but, perhaps,
fitting revenge for all those jokes we used to
make in the Eighties about the customers of
health shops: “Have you seen those people in
Infinity? None of them looks remotely well…”
I lose a stone and start running more regularly
and soon feel bursting with health. Eating
smoked salmon on pumpernickel bread for lunch
actually doesn’t seem too grave a punishment for
a life of chips and carb overload. And something
I learn when I start to tell people about my
condition is that just about everybody in my
friendship group and extended family is in the
same boat. It’s just that they maintain a stoic
silence while I like to whinge. “We’re
those old gits in the corner we
always hated,” I say to a friend,
“discussing their ailments”. From
rock and roll to gripe and groan.
But these are First World
problems. Meanwhile
British politics are
in meltdown and
the Amazon is
on fire, and my
wife informs me
that our next
jaunt to the
continent will
be by train,
not plane (no
more baggage
reclaim, at
least). It
seems a lot of
us are going
to be making
lifestyle
changes soon.
....35....

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COLUMN
.........................
Lizzie Enfield
Notes from North Village
Illustration by Joda (@joda_art)
This feels a bit like going to the doctor and
having to fill out one of those forms: the
ones where they ask you how much you
drink and smoke. It's for your own good – if
the doctor knows your drinking habits, he
may be able to save your liver. But you can't
quite face the ‘you might want to cut down
on the amount you drink’ admonishment. So
you tick the box that says ‘no more than one
glass of wine a week’.
In reality, it is no more than one a day – most
days. You go out for a few drinks, every now
and then, and there's always wine in the
fridge. In fact, there is always wine in the
fridge of everyone you know. They pick it
up in the supermarket, along with bread and
milk, so there’s always something to offer
guests, expected or unexpected – except for
when it gets very late and you realise the
wine has stopped flowing and the corner
shop is closed.
We recently had dinner with neighbours.
We brought two bottles with us, because one
between two people is never quite enough.
There seemed to be a lot of wine when we
arrived, but by the end of the evening it had
run out.
Our host began rooting around in cupboards.
“I knew there was a bottle somewhere,”
he said, producing a dusty one, which he
uncorked and poured.
By that stage of the evening, wine
appreciation was not really on anybody's
mind but at least one person commented,
“This is very good.”
No one else thought anything of it, until the
hosts took a sip and remembered where the
bottle came from.
Very old friends had brought it when they
came for the weekend. It was their wedding
anniversary. They’d told them it was a very
good wine that they’d been saving to drink
with very special friends. But they’d put it to
one side and forgotten to serve it, promising,
when the friends left, to save it and drink
with them the next time they saw each other
(the friends had been a bit put out by its nonappearance).
“I'm sure you can replace it.” Another guest
produced his phone and an app that tells you
the nearest stockist of a particular vintage.
It was apparently in Mayfair, which should
have alerted us to just how good the wine
was.
“Here they have one in!” said the wine app
man, triumphantly.
And then a slight look of consternation
passed across his face.
“It was nice wine,” he said handing his phone
to our host.
“Not that nice,” said the host, who was
already sitting down but looked as if he
needed to lie down – despite the sobering
fact that the wine we’d just drunk cost
£300…
....37....

Giants of Steam
11th - 13th October 2019
Special Guests
‘Duchess of Sutherland’ and ‘Britannia’
join a line-up of home fleet locomotives for the Autumn Gala
Footplate Experience Britannia
A unique opportunity to fire and drive the Giant
Dine Behind Britannia
5 course silver service gala dinner as you
journey through Sussex Countryside
©John Whitehouse
Monday 14th October 2019- see website for details
26th October -
3rd November 2019
Calling all Witches and Wizards
For a gathering at Horsted Keynes Station this October half term
A week of Halloween fun and games.
Fancy dress competitions, crafty fun and much more.
Lost your broom?
Catch the train from Sheffield Park or East Grinstead Stations.
www.bluebell-railway.com
01825 720800
Special offer applies on 26-30 Oct & 1-3 Nov. Discount available on advance bookings
Adult, Child and Family Rover tickets only. Offer may not be used in conjunction with
any other offer. Full terms and conditions available on our website.

COLUMN
...........................
Amy Holtz
The truth is, I’m a Minnesotan
It all started because my
partner was watching
something called ‘cricket’ on
TV. From what I can tell, no
one scores points and this
one guy keeps taking off his
face cage and wiping down
his glasses with the speed and
concentration of someone
restoring a Rembrandt,
so everyone else is just
meandering around on the
grass in little hats, like zombies.
“What are those stupid caps? And why does the
Australian commentator keep saying ‘Bumble?’”
I grouse to my partner, sculling my wine. He’s
very absorbed, though, just like the men in the
stands. So, I turn my attention elsewhere.
Most of the houses and flats across the street
have Victorian bay windows – and I perk up
when I spy a man leaning over the sash on the
top floor with a cup of tea and, my eyes narrow,
a biscuit. Custard cream, I think, nodding. The
flat’s been empty for ages, no curtains to hide
its bareness and, from what I can tell, squinting,
the wall behind him is in the process of being
exposed from its tired blue wallpaper. Leaning
against it is a ladder. The window to the left
is frosted, and a shadowy figure stands there,
immobile.
“Hey, look,” I say, slapping my partner’s
shoulder. “There’re people up there.”
I’m about to Rear Window this business only to
realise that, sadly, I don’t own binoculars.
I pull out my phone.
“That’s not creepy at all.”
Nor, it turns out, is it useful in terms of
espionage. Technology hasn’t made everything
better – as my phone’s camera zoom just makes
everything blurry. With cricket
on, it’s hard to keep my gaze
from that window, but, as I say, it
was only the beginning.
‘What are they doing today?’
I think the next day, settling
into my spot on the couch – the
perfect perch for neighbourwatching
with a coffee or, the
next day, a beer. Today, I’ve got
Horlicks, and they’re tearing
at the paper, a giant spotlight
persistently focussed on the north-facing wall as
dusk descends.
Other times they’re sitting there, late into the
night, the ladder silhouetted at the same angle as
that first day. Mug in hand, leaning out of that
window, or washing up behind the frosted glass.
Some days pass without a word, others with just
an affectionate tug of their paint shirt. Honestly,
who needs Netflix when you’ve got real-life DIY
romance on demand?
“They’re not making much progress,” I say, one
Tuesday. The walls look distressed, tattered
and sad. I wonder if this reveal will seem more
satisfying than on TV, since I’ve invested so
much time in it. Time, I huff to myself, is
ticking.
“Maybe they’re working on the floor. Or
another room.”
Suddenly, the man’s head turns sharply – down
and right. He’s looking my way, eating his
biscuit in a slow, deliberate fashion.
I squeak an expletive. I’ve been rumbled.
“Do you honestly think they’ve not spotted you
before, Jimmy Stewart?”
“Grace Kelly, please.” I retort, yanking at our
curtains, face aflame.
“You’d make a terrible spy.”
....39....

METAMORPHOSIS
Join us for 35 events
across Brighton &
Hove featuring 700
years of music, from
concerts, dance and
drama to a modern
take on the medieval
Feast of Fools.
Full programme and ticket booking at
bremf.org.uk or 01273 709709
BREMF
brightonearlymusic
brightonemf
BRIGHTON
DIGITAL
FESTIVAL
2019
#ACCADIGITAL
ELECTRONIC MUSIC & AUDIOVISUAL ART

MUSIC
..........................
Ben Bailey rounds up the local music scene
CIEL
Tue 1st, Green Door Store, 7.30pm, £10/8
It’s always intriguing to hear of the appeal that
Brighton has for musicians from elsewhere.
Dutch singer and multi-instrumentalist Michelle
Hindriks decided to stay here after a decade of
trips to the city convinced her it was the place to
put down roots – not that it’s stopped her band
CIEL going back to play festivals and tour supports
in the Netherlands. The trio have recently
been recording the follow-up to their 2017 EP
which situated Hindriks’ breath-like vocals in a
pleasantly upbeat dream-pop bubble. They’ve
been booked by Melting Vinyl here as support
for Brooklyn alt-rockers TEEN, alongside Brighton
shoegazers HANYA – another likeminded
trio out to make a FULL-CAPS statement with
their band name.
ARXX
Mon 28th, Hope & Ruin, 7.30pm, £5/3
Arxx can expect a proper
homecoming party at
this show after being on
the road for two months
touring in Europe and
the UK. The ‘gal pal’
duo have been going in
their current form for just a couple of years, but
they’ve already honed a powerful sound that
bristles with the kind of confidence that only
comes from incessant gigging. Their latest single
Y.G.W.Y.W. (You Got What You Want) is even
more strident than the last, channelling the angst
of early Hole into what could genuinely be called
an anthem of empowerment. Like the rest of
their set it’s heavy on the riffs and easy on the
ears, but only in the sense that the drums and
distortion never get the better of the melody.
COLLATERAL LANGUAGE
Tue 29th, Komedia Studio
Bar, 7.30pm, £5/3
This Halloween charity
special showcases music
from three young Brighton
acts ranging from hip
hop to grunge and R&B,
but the line-up seems to
make a certain sense in
that we’re assured they’re
all ‘local witches here to ward off evil spirits with
their wicked songs’. Boudicca (pictured) has
come up strong in the last year or so, delivering
fiercely political rhymes with mischievous melodies
that have won her freestyle battles as well as
some decent support slots. Tilda Allie brings her
determined fusion of pop, jazz and electronica,
while the punchy fuzz of Kids R Kruel rounds
off the night as only a ‘shed punk farm family’
know how.
BUFFO’S WAKE
Thu 31st, Rialto Theatre, 7pm, £10/7
Buffo’s Wake are a homegrown gypsy punk gang
who have toured all over Europe and beyond,
but rarely play in Brighton. Here they’re expanding
into an eleven-piece orchestra for one
night only to celebrate the release of their second
album and lament the country’s supposed
break from the EU. The band’s fondness for the
continent is clear both in the Balkan influences
that drive their raucous cabaret folk and the anti-Brexit
shtick of their launch party theme (DJ
Brexit Banger Bus will be hosting the afterparty
with a pun-addled playlist). Get there early to
catch some jubilant banjo shredding from Dr
Bluegrass and a high-energy brass workout from
Town of Cats.
....41....

ART
.............................
Brighton Digital Festival
Exploring empathy
“Empathy is about finding echoes of another
person in yourself”. Brisbane-based multimedia
artist Georgie Pinn employs this quote – from
Indian novelist Mohsin Hamid – to illustrate
her intention in creating Echo, one of the
works in Alternate Realities, a free exhibition at
Lighthouse as part of Brighton Digital Festival.
Georgie explains that upon sitting in her photo
booth installation, visitors will be greeted by
Echo, “a female AI character that recognises
that you’ve entered. She says ‘I am your echo; I
can help you connect.’ Her character forms out
of pixels and then dissipates. You never quite
see her. She takes your photograph and wants
to really look at your face, and understand your
expressions.”
A touch screen will then offer visitors a menu
of people’s faces to choose from, each one
telling a different story. “It then glitches out,
this person appears and they’re looking at you
in life scale. They start to tell you a story of
their life: all are about four minutes long. As
their story slowly rolls out, the face starts to
glitch… by the end, the storyteller transforms
into you. Ending with them uttering the last
words of their story with your mouth, and
blinking with your eyes. It’s a slow, subtle
transition: you almost don’t realise that the
transition of identity is happening.”
Georgie has been exploring interactive forms
of technology throughout her career. One of
her previous works, Electric Puppet, utilised
motion tracking in an interactive installation
for children. “Kids could create kind of robot
characters with found objects. The head
might be an old TV, the arms from a deer, the
body a Transformer.” The child could then
dance as they saw fit, seeing the character on
screen move in time: Georgie was moved by
how their faces would “light up” after seeing
their characters coming to life. “There was
this beautiful emotional connection with the
content.”
Georgie grew up in an “unusual environment”,
living in remote places in 25 different
countries. “For me to survive in different
environments I had to learn how to shape
shift, so this is the driving force of my creative
practice”. She was therefore excited when she
discovered facial tracking, used in Echo to
create the transition of identity.
After watching another person’s story, visitors
will be given the opportunity to tell their
own. “As it’s travelled around the world it has
slowly built this archive of personal stories…
experiences that change your life and make you
reflect on who you are, or change your value
system or perspective on things.” Joe Fuller
Lighthouse, 11-20th, 12-7pm (closed Mondays
and Tuesdays)
....42....

TALK
.........................
Speaking Truth to Power
Jess Phillips calls time on bulls**t
I’m scheduled to speak with
Jess Phillips MP about her new
book Speaking Truth to Power:
7 Ways to Call Time on BS, but
the phone hasn’t rung. I’m not
surprised. It’s the morning after
one of the most momentous days
in British politics and Jess has
given an excoriating speech in
the House of Commons calling
out the Prime Minister for
playing a “bully boy game” over
his plans for Brexit, declaring
that there was “literally no distance” that she
would trust him on anything and shaming the
“cowardly” members left on the Conservative
benches for sitting silently by as 21 of their
colleagues were suspended for rebelling against
the PM. Delivered with righteous rage, it was a
masterclass in calling time on BS.
Since taking office as MP for Birmingham
Yardley in 2015, Jess Phillips has developed a
reputation for calling it how she sees it. Her
plain-speaking is a refreshing change from
parliamentary in-speak. (“Let’s just call it
shutting down parliament. I literally hate
the word prorogation” – another thing she’s
bloody angry about.) But it’s won her plenty of
enemies as well as supporters. In the book, she
reveals that she sleeps with a panic button next
to her bed, installed after her close friend and
colleague Jo Cox was murdered by a far-right
extremist. She is constantly threatened for
speaking out and viciously trolled on social
media with vile and hateful comments. I can’t
help but wonder if the price of speaking up is
too high?
Of course, she admits, the backlash is
distressing and the most
difficult part of speaking truth
to power. ‘Backlash usually
means you have hit a nerve.’ she
writes. ‘It can be terrifying and
tiring and you should expect it
and prepare for it, but it is also a
force we can use for good if we
learn what to amplify and what
to ignore.’
As well as how to channel
the fear, the book is full of
practical advice for getting
your message across in the most effective way
and with the maximum impact and – in case
you’re thinking your voice is too small to make
a difference – interviews with ordinary people
who were compelled to speak out. People
like Zelda Perkins who blew the whistle on
Harvey Weinstein, Sarah Rowbotham who
refused to be silenced having discovered the
child exploitation scandal in Rochdale, and the
families of Grenfell United campaigning for
safer social housing.
It’s an inspiring and emboldening read. A battle
cry as well as a ‘how to’ manual. A reminder
that, if you want to be heard, you’ve got to
speak up. If you’re not ready to start a onewoman
crusade just yet, Jess advises that we all
start with not being a ‘bystander to bullshit’.
As world politicians continue to behave in
unspeakable ways, it falls to us to call them out.
‘If you don’t speak back to the bully, the bully
always wins.’
Lizzie Lower
Jess Phillips MP will be discussing her new book
on Thurs 3rd October at the Brighthelm Centre,
7.30pm. Visit city-books.co.uk/events for tickets.
....43....

Live at Brighton Dome
Nina Conti, Lou Sanders,
Jessica Fostekew and Glenn Moore
Comedy | Sat 5 Oct
Trope
Francesca Beard, Rosy Carrick,
Connor Byrne and Amber Burgoyne
Spoken Word | Tue 15 Oct
Mithras Trio
Classical Music | Sun 20 Oct
The Unthanks
Contemporary Music | Mon 21 Oct
Theatrical Makeup Workshop
Workshop | Mon 28 Oct
WILL YOUNG
Wed 9 Oct
THE GREATEST LOVE
OF ALL
Fri 18 Oct
Drag Queen Story Time
Children & Family | Tue 29 Oct
Giselle by Dada Masilo (pictured)
Dance | Tue 29 & Wed 30
brightondome.org
ROY ORBISON & BUDDY
HOLLY HOLOGRAM TOUR
Tue 22 Oct
THE NEXT STEP
Fri 25 Oct
box office 0844 847 1515 *
www.brightoncentre.co.uk
*calls cost 7p per minute plus your phone
company’s access charge

COMEDY
.............................
Jonathan Pie
Fake News tourist
Jonathan Pie has been a constant and
entertaining presence on social media ever
since things started getting weird in 2016.
Tom Walker, the man behind the character, is
bringing his wayward newsreader to Brighton
Dome this month on his Fake News Tour.
This show is about Pie coming to terms
with the fact that he’s spent his whole life
shouting. And we all seem to be guilty of
that these days. We don’t listen anymore. If
someone voted differently from you, they must
be a bigot. They must be! And you don’t win
an argument like that, you know. It’s about Pie
beginning to realise that it’s not helpful.
Look at the referendum and the Trump
vote. It was keep things as they are – or
kick the system up the arse. And we were
all amazed when the working classes, who
haven’t had a pay rise in a decade, voted f**k it.
What people were voting for was change. And
that was something Hillary and the Remain
campaign were not offering. In
hindsight it’s hardly surprising, is it?
Writing this show has been
a cathartic exercise. A lot has
changed for me personally. I
mean, I was a struggling actor and
suddenly I became this...
um... leading political
satirist. Which is
something I never
signed up for, but
I went with it! I
was a darling of
the left for a
bit and then
I started
taking the piss out of the left as well, so I was
suddenly this alt-right stooge.
This woke culture is very virtuous, but
there’s an insidious element to it. If you dare to
stray from the prescribed norm, the Twitterati
will destroy you. That’s a big part of the show,
that so-called liberals are so illiberal when it
comes to anything they don’t believe is liberal.
It’s a bizarre paradox. That said, I need to
reiterate that the show is far more funny than
I’m making out!
I think Donald Trump is well on his way to
a second term. I did a thing for the BBC last
year where I went to America and interviewed
loads of Trump voters. I genuinely want to
know why people voted for him so maybe we
can stop them voting for him next time! The
reason I take the piss out of the left is because
I care about the left. And I’m fed up with them
getting it wrong.
We’re about to get a general election
before the end of the year. For very
selfish reasons I’m hoping they wait
until December when my tour is over,
so I don’t have to rewrite the bloody
thing! But all bets are off. By the end
of the year you could have Corbyn in
number 10. You never know. What I
will say with some measure
of authority is that Boris
Johnson will continue
to be a self-serving
arrogant prick. You can
quote me on that!
As told to Ben Bailey
Brighton Dome, Sun
27th Oct, 6.45pm
....45....

CLASSICAL
.............................
Feast of Fools
A medieval musical extravaganza
The final show in this year’s Brighton Early
Music Festival is a medieval extravaganza
involving no fewer than three choirs and a
teenage dance group.
“The show is based on the #‘Feast of Fools’,
in which social hierarchies were reversed and
general bawdiness was, for the only time in the
year, allowed,” says Leah Stuttard (pictured).
“So, as well as a lot of delectable Renaissance
polyphony, there will be an ass dance, and some
audience participation in the break. It’ll be
full of surprises, and super-varied.” Expect the
unexpected, in other words. Just don’t expect
any po-faces in the house.
There aren’t many who know more about
medieval music than Leah, who is charged with
the tough task of musically orchestrating the
whole shebang, with help from co-director,
Saskia Wesnigk. Leah’s a self-confessed
‘manuscript geek’ and has translated into
modern notation several of the pieces that are
being performed, adding some of her own
improvisations. She’ll also be in the four-strong
band, which will feature some excitingly obscure
instruments, like the trumpet marine and Leah’s
buzzing bray harp.
The Feast of Fools was an annual winter
celebration in France and England until the
16th-century, when it was banned by bishops,
worried about all the unruliness it engendered.
“It involved the whole of the community in the
parish,” she explains. “Children had to deliver
a sermon. Sub deacons got to do what bishops
normally did. There was a lot of revelry, with
clergy carousing on the streets and people
bashing on doors, asking for money. The world
went topsy-turvy for a few days.” In Tudor
times, the feast transmogrified into Twelfth
Night; Lewes’ Bonfire Night has its origins in
the celebration.
The theme of this year’s Festival is
‘transformation’. “The Feast of Fools concert
was festival director Deborah Roberts’ idea,”
says Stuttard. “She’s also the director of the
Consort of Voices choir, who will be joined
by the BREMF Community Choir (directed
by Andrew Robinson), and a choir made up of
students from two Brighton primary schools,
Westdene and Goldstone. The youth dance
group Streetfunk, with their choreographer
JP Omari, will add some youthful dynamism
to the evening. We’ve decided to give young
people a big part in proceedings to acknowledge
their importance in recent campaigning against
climate change.”
The concert will be held in Brighton’s biggest
church, St Martin’s, on Lewes Road. “It’s a
beautiful church,” says Leah, “and big enough
for us to recreate that medieval community
feel.” If you’re not quick enough to book a ticket
during the Festival proper, the concert will be
reprised on January 5th – Twelfth Night – and
Jan 6th, in two nearby churches that date back to
medieval times, St Mary de Haura in Shoreham,
and St Margaret of Antioch, in Rottingdean.
“Two more occasions you can let your hair
down, medieval style,” says Leah. “Just don’t
expect the normal, static dynamics of a classical
concert.” Alex Leith
St Martin’s Church, Sun 10th November, 7pm,
bremf.org.uk
....47....

SPITTING IMAGE MEETS NOT THE NINE O’CLOCK NEWS VIA HIGNFY
THE TREAS N SHOW
“Savagely funny - fantastically silly” The Guardian
The Latest
chortle.com
FRIDAY 1ST NOVEMBER
The Argus
FUNKY FISH CLUB
19-23 Marine Parade, Brighton. BN2 1TL
New
Venue
Book Online www.treasonshow.co.uk
Broadway Baby
Northern Echo
Fringe Guru
FESTIVALS
DIGITAL
FILM
MUSIC
PERFORMANCE
Thursday 31 October
The Con Club, 139 High St, Lewes.
8pm
Tickets£16 (£12 members)
Book online www.treasonshow.co.uk
University of Sussex, Gardner Centre Road, Brighton BN1 9RA
01273 678 822
attenboroughcentre.com

MUSIC
.............................
Roy Orbison & Buddy Holly
Hologram concert
You might have heard about the growing trend
of dead superstars performing in holographic
form, but this month gives us a chance to see it
for ourselves at the Brighton Centre. We spoke
to Martin Tudor, CEO of BASE Hologram, a
US-based company specialising in developing
and promoting the nascent form of live
entertainment.
Why are Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly
performing together? It is Roy Orbison and
Buddy Holly sharing the bill. They do not play
together because Roy and Buddy never really
did play together, although they did at one
point share a bill. We try to be as authentic as
we can. We think it will be a great, fun evening
for audiences since every song’s a hit. So it’s
pretty special actually.
All quite short hits too… Exactly. It’s hit
after hit after hit. Because then, songs were
two or three minutes, not three, four, five, six,
seven and so on.
The show’s blurb mentions ‘mixed reality’,
what does this entail? There’s a big screen
with some videos that give you some history on
both of them. People in their lives
talk about them both, so you
get a real flavour of who they
were as artists and individuals.
Are they backed by a band
or an orchestra? You’re
seeing a live band
but hearing the
artist’s actual
voices, from the
holograms. This
is about as close
as it could be to
seeing the two of
them live. Most people never got to see Buddy
Holly, because he died so young. And Roy died
at such a young age too, only 52 years old.
What recordings do you use for the vocals?
In this case they are all studio recordings,
because the quality of the live recordings from
back then is just not good enough. We have
remastered all the vocal recordings, so it sounds
as good as one can sound in today’s world.
Where does the video of them performing
come from? We create the video, starting
from scratch. We use original videos as
reference, so we can get their movements
correct. We do it exactly the same way as how
they created Carrie Fisher in the Star Wars
movie [Rogue One].
How does it work, technically? We use
military grade laser technology to project a high
quality hologram onto the stage… for this tour
we’re using one very powerful Epson projector.
Have the shows proved popular? Audiences
cheer and act at these concerts in a similar
way to how they would if the performers were
really there. There’s a great party atmosphere.
Do the performers appear solid?
They appear solid from a distance
– anyone particularly close can
see through them, because
ultimately, of course, the figures
are just projections. But
people tend to get swept up
in the atmosphere and feel
so immersed that no one
remembers.
Interview
by Joe Fuller
22 Oct, 7.30pm,
brightoncentre.co.uk
....49....

Advertorial
Wakehurst, Kew’s wild botanic garden in Sussex,
is home to over 500 acres of diverse landscape,
featuring rare plants from around the world.
Run and managed by the Royal Botanic gardens, Kew,
Wakehurst is brimming with colourful foliage as it
enters autumn, with stunning woodlands and
hedgerows teeming with jewel-like berries.
Autumn in the garden is a delight for all the senses,
as the leaves turn to vibrant hues of red, orange and
golden yellows. Picture perfect vistas can be seen
throughout the gardens and woodlands, with a favourite
being Westwood Lake for the reflections on the water
on a still day.
Home to the Millennium Seed Bank, step inside to spy
on scientists at work as they strive to conserve seeds
from around the globe. Scramble over our daring log trail,
Tree Trunk Trek, hire an Explorer Rucksack and head to
the Children’s Heritage Garden to get cooking in our mud
kitchen (open until 3 November).
Wakehurst is open daily from 10am. Adults £13.95,
children 16 and under free. National Trust members
can enjoy free entry to Wakehurst, however car parking
charges apply.
Upcoming events
Bountiful Botanics
12 – 13 October
A fun-filled weekend celebrating nature’s
bounty, with an exciting programme of
family activities.
October Half-term fun
26 October – 3 November
Plenty of fun for all the family during
October half-term with a range of
activities and workshops.
Glow Wild
21 November – 22 December
The winter lantern trail returns, bringing
the landscape alive with lanterns,
soundscapes and torches of fire.
To find out more about Wakehurst and upcoming
events visit kew.org/wakehurst

THEATRE
.............................
Nigel Slater's Toast
A feast of nostalgia
Photo by Piers Foley
“When I say ‘Jammy
Dodgers’ the audience
goes crazy,” laughs actor
Giles Cooper, “And as for
‘Cadbury Mini Rolls’…”
It’s one of many nostalgiaevoking
moments in Toast,
the stage adaptation of
Nigel Slater’s bittersweet
foodie memoir that
arrives at the Theatre
Royal this month. The show follows the
longstanding Observer food writer – played by
Cooper – from his 1960s boyhood in suburban
Wolverhampton, through his teenage sexual
awakening, to his first proper job at The Savoy.
A different dish – some of them recreated on
stage – prompts each memory; the burnt toast
his adored but short-lived mother made for
him; the family’s early experimentations with
then-exotic spaghetti bolognese, and of course,
Slater’s infamous masterclass in seduction via
Walnut Whip. “It’s a total nostalgia-fest,” says
Cooper. “One of the unifying things between
us, regardless of race, gender, politics and so
on, is that we all know and love food. It’s such
a part of our identity and memory. That’s what
Toast, and what Nigel as a writer, encapsulates
so perfectly.”
He has worked closely with Slater throughout.
“That’s a unique experience as an actor, to
have the person you’re playing present or at
the end of a phone.” He now prides himself
on having the writer’s mannerisms and vocal
inflections down pat. “We did a radio interview
together the other day down a phone line. The
DJ asked us a question and Nigel and I both
started chatting. She had to stop us and say she
was terribly sorry but she didn’t know which
of us was talking. I was
delighted.” Cooper has
also had a few cooking
lessons from his subject
in preparation for a
scene where he cooks
live on-stage. “I enjoy
that moment in the show
immensely because I
don’t have any lines. I’m
on stage for the whole
two hours so it’s nice to be quiet for a while.”
It’s not something one is prepared for in drama
school, however. “There was one moment
in London, during the press night, when I
looked up and saw Nigel Slater and Nigella
Lawson in the audience watching me cook. I’ll
be honest and say I did lose my stomach for a
second there. I decided I wasn’t going to look
up again.”
Contrary to assumption, Cooper says he
doesn’t actually get to eat on stage: “It wouldn’t
be very pleasant for the front row.” But, as a
child with ‘an enormously sweet tooth’ the
section about sweetshop favourites – which
involves handing out the likes of Black Jacks
and Parma Violets to the audience – is one
of his favourites. “I love seeing people’s faces
when we start passing them round. There’s so
much affection and excitement.”
Slater’s story touches people in all kinds of
ways, he adds. “I’ve had people come up to me
afterwards who knew nothing about Nigel but
liked the look of the show and then had such
a powerful reaction to the memories the show
evoked they felt compelled to come and talk to
me afterwards. That, as an actor, is gold…”
Nione Meakin
Theatre Royal Brighton, October 28-Nov 2
....51....

THE KEEP
.............................
The dead CAN talk
Where there’s a will…
Much of what we know about
the lives of our East Sussex
antecedents can be gleaned from
the bureaucracy cataloguing
their demise.
Did you know, for example, that
the 18th-century inhabitants
of Battle had a penchant
for peppermint? “Or so it
appears from the inventory
in the probate of one Francis
Bellingham, landlord of the
George Hotel,” says Elizabeth
Hughes. “The document lists
every item that was in every room of the hotel
after his death. In the cellar there was what
you’d expect: beer, wine, madeira, claret, port,
rum, brandy… but also, oddly, eight gallons of
peppermint.”
Elizabeth was the county archivist at the
East Sussex Record Office and, on October
30th, she will be sharing some of the original
material held at The Keep, in an event entitled
Where there’s a Will… Archives and Records
Relating to Death and Burial.
“We can also find out information from
coroners’ inquests, funeral arrangements,
family documents and wills,” she continues.
“We can work out where people lived and how
they died, how rich or poor they were, what
sort of friends they had, what type of funerals
they were given, and much more.”
The causes of death draw a picture of how
very different people’s lives were, in the past.
“Before modern medicines were discovered,
many people were killed by epidemics of TB,
smallpox and cholera, of course. But there are
examples of people drowning in privies and
wells. There are a lot of horse-related deaths.
Before people were killed by
cars, they were killed by carts.”
There are also some interesting
parallels to be drawn with the
present. “It appears that deaths
due to accidental drug overdoses
were as common in the 19th
century as they are now,” she
continues, “only people used
different drugs.” She cites the
example of a young man who
died in 1826 in The George pub
in Rye: the Coroner’s Inquest
suggested he had overdosed on
opium. “You could buy it at the chemists as
easily as you can get cough mixture today.
Many people would have been addicts. They
took it as laudanum, in an alcohol solution.”
Not all deaths were accidental. “We can learn
a lot about the chaotic lives of the protagonists
of the Second Trunk Murder, in Brighton, in
1934,” she says, “from the Coroner’s Inquest
into the case. The victim, a dancer and
prostitute, was named as Violet Kaye, but she
had a number of different aliases. As did the
man accused of her murder, Henry Mancini.
The report of the policeman who opened the
trunk and found the remains is particularly
gruesome.”
The majority of people who consult the
archives at The Keep are doing so to draw
up their family trees. But, Elizabeth says,
they generally get much more than they
expected out of the process. “People end up
learning a lot of social history. And the records
surrounding their antecedents’ deaths is
particularly rich in information.”
Alex Leith
The Keep, Oct 30th, 2.30-4.30pm
....52....

Tree & Wood
Jony Easterby returns to the Sussex woods
“My work is starting to feel a bit prophetic,”
says artist Jony Easterby, only half-joking.
We’re talking about Tree and Wood, his
new outdoor show about mankind’s uneasy
relationship with nature. When we speak,
the forest fires in the Amazon are still raging.
“We began this project three years ago
but it has just got more and more intense,”
he explains. “Now I can’t think of a more
pressing narrative than trees.” Inspired in
part by American writer Annie Proulx’s
environmental epic Barkskins, the show is a
song cycle created by Easterby in collaboration
with sound artist and ‘avant-folk’ musician
Nathaniel Mann (The Dead Rat Orchestra).
“My favourite part of the performance is
playing an eight-foot long forestry saw,”
he says. “We went out into the woods as a
company and engaged the services of a couple
of foresters. They brought a few of their tools
along and I started bowing this saw. It just
sounded incredible. It makes this otherworldly
sound somewhere between screeching and
harmony.”
Tree and Wood picks up the themes of
Easterby’s 2017 Brighton Festival promenade
piece For The Birds, of nature as a source of
both wonder and anxiety. “The idea of the
‘greenwood tyrant’ runs through the show –
this fear of the wild. It’s particularly prevalent
in New Zealand and the American North
West, where cutting down 2,000-year-old
trees is seen as a celebration of man’s dominion
over nature.” Easterby has had a passion for
“all things arboricultural” since his early days
woodcarving in rural Wales, when he was first
introduced to the ‘living sculptures’ of land
artists such as David Nash – “a revelation.”
He says: “It was like, oh right, you don’t have
to do things in a gallery. You can work in this
really free way.” Performances will take place
at dusk – “There’s an almost hallucinogenic
quality to being in the woods as the light starts
fading, it’s like God dimming the house lights”
– within Leonardslee Lakes and Gardens
near Horsham. While the Grade I listed
gardens, planted in the early 1800s, are “far
from a naturalised landscape”, Easterby feels
the conservation they represent chimes with
the themes of the show. “The original plant
collectors started laying out the gardens 200
years ago in the grand tradition of Victorian
plant hunters, and generation after generation
have added to them. Over that period many
of the wild environments the plants have
come from have decreased – so some of these
plants are probably the only ones of that genus
that still exist.” Easterby’s intentions for the
touring show are practical as well as artistic,
he tells me. He is adding a 15 to 20 per cent
‘rider’ that will go towards replanting ‘vast
quantities’ of new trees around the UK. “It’s
not about us saving them. If we can focus our
energies enough, then trees can save us.”
Nione Meakin
October 24-27 & Oct 29-Nov 2, Leonardslee
Lakes and Gardens, Lower Beeding, near
Horsham. thecapitalhorsham.com
....53....

(EAST)
BRIGHTON RACECOURSE
Freshfield Road, Brighton BN2 9XZ
PREVIEW EVENING
11th October 2019 (6pm - 9pm)
OPEN ALL WEEKEND
12th & 13th October 2019 (10am - 6pm)
Artwork: Jody Craddock
HALF PRICE WEEKEND TICKETS AVAILABLE! REGISTER
AT EVENTBRITE.CO.UK WITH THE CODE: VIVAB50
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AFFORDABLE
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FROM OVER
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sussexartfairs.co.uk | #sussexartfairs | @sussexartfairs

ART
.............................
David Nash
The Wizard of Wood
You get the feeling, when you talk to Anglo-
Welsh sculptor David Nash, the internationally
respected sculptor and land artist, that he
really loves his primary material, wood.
In October the Towner in Eastbourne is
showing a retrospective of his career, 200
Seasons at Capel Rhiw, an indoor forest of his
raw abstract sculptures, in all their charred,
chipped and chain-sawed glory. The exhibition
celebrates the artist’s long relationship with
Wales, where he has been working in his studio
– a converted chapel in Blaenau Ffestiniog – for
50 years. He also has strong connections with
East Sussex, where he sources much of his wood.
“Every species speaks a different dialect of the
language of wood,” he tells me, over a glass of
elderflower cordial, on a hot July afternoon.
“Each has its different qualities. Oak has
longevity, birch has a short life. Holly is so
dense and white they use it to make piano keys.
Elm doesn’t split, but it can smell funny. In
fact, it can smell like dog shit. I had to remove
a sculpture from an exhibition once, because
everyone was looking at the soles of their shoes.”
Another sculpture that had to be taken away,
for a different reason, was Big Bud, a fourmetre-high,
6-ton oaken carving that was
briefly on show, in Grange Gardens, as part of
his 2007 With the Grain exhibition, in Lewes
Town Hall. “It was vandalised,” he says, “and
we had to put a fence round it, and a guard,
with a dog. It became too much bother, so we
removed it. My wife didn’t like it anyway.”
Nash has utmost respect for his materials.
He would never kill a healthy tree, to make a
sculpture. “I only work from dying, or dead
trees, or ones that have fallen, or become
dangerous. After a storm, people ring me up
about a fallen tree; if they’re any good I go and
quarry them.”
Wooden Boulder was a case in point. In 1977
he was alerted that an oak had fallen on a
hillside of the Ffestiniog Valley, in North
Wales. He hewed out a huge, asymmetrical,
half-ton lump, and attempted to work it down
a stream, so he could take it in his truck to his
studio/home at Capel Rhiw. It got lodged in a
waterfall, and he chose to leave it there, visiting
it regularly to see how it changed, through the
seasons. Over the next 25 years, rainstorms
moved it down the stream to the estuary below
and it disappeared, presumably washed out into
the Irish sea.
“I never thought I’d see it again,” he smiles.
“Then, ten years later, in 2013, it mysteriously
reappeared, in the same estuary. It was like a
lap of honour.” Two years later, it disappeared
anew. “I doubt I shall ever see it again,” he says,
“but it’s still somewhere, it’s just out of sight.
No energy dissipates.” Alex Leith
200 Seasons at Towner Gallery, 29 Sep–2nd Feb
2020, free entry
....55....

ART
.............................
Opening room of the Omega Workshops, 33 Fitzroy Square, London. © The Charleston Trust.
Post-Impressionist Living
The Omega Workshops
It is one hundred years since the Omega
Workshops closed their doors at 33 Fitzroy
Square, in London – just six years after the
pioneering design enterprise had opened.
Their bright, bold colours, abstract patterns,
Cubist-style lampstands and Fauvist-inspired
textiles were perhaps a little too avant-garde
for the mainstream audience. But a major new
exhibition at Charleston – featuring around
200 Omega objects – explores the workshop’s
lasting influence as well as its radical
beginnings.
The Omega Workshops were founded in
1913 by the painter and influential art critic
Roger Fry. He had been instrumental in the
introduction of modern art to England in
the early years of the twentieth century and,
in 1910, had organised an exhibition that
included works by Cézanne, Matisse, Seurat,
Van Gogh, Gauguin and Picasso – all of them
largely unknown in the UK at that time.
The exhibition shocked and outraged the
establishment, but it energised younger artists
– Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant among them
– and changed the way they painted.
As well as Fine Art, Fry was also interested
in domestic design, but was frustrated by the
British tendency to constantly reference the
past. “He wanted to get that Post-Impressionist
aesthetic into the home,” explains Dr Darren
Clarke, Head of Collections at Charleston and
curator of the exhibition.
To that end, Fry set up the Omega Workshops,
bringing this new sensibility to the decorative
arts. “It was seen as quite a novelty but there
was an excitement to it,” explains Darren. “In
....56....

ART
.............................
the exhibition, we’re trying to capture what it
would have been like, going into the Omega
Workshops in Fitzroy Square. Coming from an
Edwardian world of polite and tasteful things,
and then going through the doors and seeing
the wild designs and fantastic colours. Fry liked
surfaces to be rough and tactile; lumpy paint
and lumpy ceramics. It would have taken quite
a lot of guts for people to have that furniture
in their homes, and to buy Omega clothes and
wear them in the street.”
The workshops were also a source of steady
income for Fry’s artist friends. He invited
them to work three mornings a week, giving
them time and money to carry on with their
own work. Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant
were employed as co-directors and designers
from the outset, with other artists working
on an informal basis, contributing designs for
products including ceramics, textiles, children’s
toys, clothes and furniture.
It was Fry’s intention that the pieces be
available to everyone, but customers came
largely from friends, artists and the cultured
elite. “George Bernard Shaw supported the
workshop from the outset, and Sickert and
Picasso both visited. It was a real hotspot for
people visiting London in that period. It was a
very trendy place to be seen.”
In 1916, Bell and Grant moved from London to
Charleston, furnishing their home with Omega
furniture, textiles and decorations. Whilst
the Workshops themselves were short-lived,
closing in July 1919, Fry’s forward-looking
vision found its most complete expression in
the unlikely setting of a Sussex farmhouse.
“The whole of Charleston is that quintessential
Post-Impressionist house”, concludes Darren.
“The ethos of the Omega Workshops in its
living, breathing state. That’s very much
why we’re doing this exhibition here. It’s like
bringing Omega home.” Lizzie Lower
Post-Impressionist Living: The Omega
Workshops continues until January 2020
charleston.org.uk/omega
Lampstands with geometric decoratIon, designed and
made by the Omega Workshops, 1913-1919.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Invitation card to an exhibition at the Omega Workshops Ltd by Duncan Grant. Mid-1910s. © The Estate
of Duncan Grant. All rights reserved. DACS 2019 / Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Omega chairs and table in the Dining Room at
Charleston. © The Charleston Trust.
Photograph by Penelope Fewster.
....57....

ART
....................................
ART & ABOUT
In town this month...
Floating Worlds – an exhibition of Japanese woodcuts from
the Edo period (1615-1868) – is at Brighton Museum
& Art Gallery. The style of prints on display is known
as Ukiyo-e, which means ‘pictures of the floating world’,
capturing the sights of 19th century Edo – modern day
Tokyo. The exhibition has been specifically designed to
offer a calm space to relax and a series of events including
yoga, Tai Chi, meditation and haiku poetry run alongside
to promote mindfulness and wellbeing.
© Brighton Pavilion and Museums
Oska Bright, the world’s biggest learning
disability film festival, returns to The Old
Market from the 23rd-26th. Challenging
perceptions of who can create and star in films,
this year’s festival offers dozens of animations,
documentaries, dramas, film surgeries and a new
‘After Dark’ slot where ‘the most unexplained,
unexpected and experimental films’ will be
screened. An awards night takes place on Friday
25th, with winning films screened on the 26th. (oskabright.org)
Sunset on Brighton Beach by John Whiting
Our congratulations to 35 North Contemporary Fine Art,
who are marking five years in their North Road gallery.
To celebrate, they’ve invited a selection of their favourite
painters to submit work
on the subject of Autumn.
Alexander Johnson,
Philippa Stanton,
Michelle Cobbin,
Charlie Day, Tori Day,
Harvey Woodward and
John Whiting will all be
exhibiting in this group show which opens on Saturday 12th
October. Along the road in Hove, another seasonal exhibition –
Into Autumn – continues at Cameron Contemporary until the
6th. Then, from the 12th, Introducing… does just that, with an
exhibition of work by artists who are new to the gallery’s stable.
On the Edge by Sam Lock
....59....

From
Buckingham
Palace
Treasure
A PRINCE’S
to the
Royal Pavilion
21 SEPTEMBER 2019
– AUTUMN 2021
Admission payable
Members free
brightonmuseums.org.uk
The Royal
Collection returns
to Brighton
THE ROYAL PAVILION • BRIGHTON, BN1 1EE
Images: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019

ART
....................................
In town this month (cont...)
This month Sussex Art Fairs bring together more than 125
artists, galleries and collectives at Brighton Racecourse from the
11th-13th. Visitors will be able to chat to the artists and gallery
owners whilst browsing thousands of affordable artworks.
(Preview 6-9pm Friday 11th, £12 entry. General admission
10am-6pm Sat 12th & Sun 13th, £6 entry. Free for children
under 12. See pg 54 for reader offer. sussexartfairs.co.uk)
Richard Pelling
Brighton Digital Festival returns for its 8th
edition this month, with upwards of 50 events
taking place across the city from the 12th-25th.
Choose from a two-person immersive digital
installation using two smartphones and a projector
(Loop by Kate Shields at Gallery Lock In);
an exhibition that dares to imagine how life in
alternative, sustainable and socially just systems
might unfold (Hidden Paths at ONCA), or hear the latest release from Canadian electronic composer
and ‘contemporary master of volume and texture’, Tim Hecker (Anoyo at ACCA). Brighton’s
collaborative innovation hub, The FuseBox, sets up camp at 3 Hanningtons Lane for a week of
interesting, informative and fun hands-on experiences and talks about new technologies, society and
you. Explore Virtual Reality, the arts, creative performance, 360 film, and more (wiredsussex.com/
events). Plus loads more besides. Keep an eye on brightondigitalfestival.co.uk for full listings.
Out of Town
Post-Impressionist Living: The Omega Workshops is at the
galleries at Charleston (see page 56). Tickets include
entry to Coming Home: Virginia Woolf by Vanessa Bell;
part of a major National Portrait Gallery project that
sees portraits of iconic individuals from the national
collection travelling to the towns and cities most closely
associated with their subjects. Vanessa Bell’s portrait
of her sister, Virginia Woolf, was painted at nearby
Asheham, Virginia's Sussex home in 1912 and where
Vanessa first experimented with the interior design ideas
that she would go on to develop at Omega. The painting
is displayed at Charleston for the first time.
Virginia Woolf by Vanessa Bell, 1912 © National Portrait Gallery.
The Estate of Vanessa Bell, courtesy of Henrietta Garnett
....61....

Contemporary
British Painting and
Sculpture
We look forward to welcoming
you to our gallery in Hove.
OPENING TIMES
Mon—Sat 10.30am—5pm
Sunday/bank holidays 12pm—5pm
Closed Tuesday
For more details visit
CAMERONCONTEMPORARY.COM

ART
....................................
Out of Town (cont...)
From 3rd October, Studio+ Gallery in Seaford present The
Unexpected – an exhibition of new paintings by Lewes-based artist
Peter Messer. His intense and watchful tempera paintings explore
unseen elements of a world ignored by many of us until he, deftly
and persuasively, reminds us of it. (21 Church St, Seaford. Continues
until 3rd Nov.) Just next door, the Crypt Gallery has a full month
of events with a group exhibition, a guitar recital and an interactive
sound and vision installation inspired by the Sussex Downs. Visit
thecryptgallery.com for details.
Night Garden by Peter Messer
© Desmond Morris
October is the last month to visit Farleys House and Gallery – the Sussex
home of the Surrealists – before it closes for the winter. The house is open from
10.30am until 3.30pm on Sundays up to the 27th, with tours starting every
half hour. BODYWORKS A Surrealist Anatomy – an exhibition of paintings by
Desmond Morris – is on display in the gallery until Sunday 13th. Best known as
a zoologist, author and television presenter, he is also an artist who first became
interested in surrealism whilst at boarding school during World War II. Morris
maintained a studio throughout his career and, having recently celebrated his
91st birthday, continues to produce art works and to exhibit.
Towner Art Gallery
David Nash 200 Seasons
29 September 2019 – 2 February 2020
Devonshire Park, Eastbourne, BN21 4JJ
www.townereastbourne.org.uk @townergallery
#200Seasons #EastbourneAlive
David Nash, Nature to Nature, 1985. © Jonty Wilde, courtesy David Nash. Tate Collection

Single Use Plastic I
ART
.............................
Lexi Laine
Freediving photographer
I’ve been a professional photographer for
twelve years. I’m a wedding photographer,
and I love it. But I needed a more artistic
outlet that was just for me, so in 2013 I took
up underwater photography, which I’d done as
a project at art school.
I use a mirrorless digital camera – a Sony
A7R3 – with an underwater housing, which is
perfect for the job.
I make otherworldly and ethereal
underwater images that usually depict a
single female. My aim is to try and capture
how beautiful and peaceful the underwater
world is. I also want to comment on the harm
humans are doing to the ocean, particularly
with plastic.
People say they find my work symbolic.
There’s usually a journey involved, often
towards the light of the sun reflected on
the surface of the water. Some people see
the journey from life to death; others say it
represents for them some personal transition
they’ve made.
Two years ago, I joined NOTANX, a freediving
club based in Brighton, where I’ve learnt
to stay underwater for longer. I really enjoy
dynamic apnea – I can swim around 90 metres
underwater – but I’ve also learnt to hold my
....64....

The Unknown
Aktun Ha
ART
.............................
breath for much longer, up to three-and-a-half
minutes. The current world record is nearly
twelve minutes!
But the ethos of NOTANX isn’t about
obsessing about figures and numbers. It’s
about relaxation and enjoyment of the water.
We train in swimming pools twice a week and
go on excursions to more exciting locations.
The most difficult element of my art is finding
models. It can be dangerous – they often need to
swim underwater in clothing, which weighs you
down, and it takes a long time for them to build
up the trust in me that’s required.
Five years ago, I met Iara, running a
jewellery stall in Formentera. I love that
island: I’ve been going all my life, and I use
it for a lot of my shoots. I told her what I did,
and she said: ‘I’m a mermaid’. I arranged an
underwater photoshoot with her the next day.
It turns out it was true: she was a mermaid. I’ve
been working with her regularly ever since.
Iara features in an image that I entered for
the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize. I received
an item in the post and to my horror it was
wrapped in huge sheets of plastic. I did an
underwater shoot with Iara, who made shapes
with one of these sheets, representing the
different land masses. The image is a composite
of ten different shots, stitched together to
make a map of the world. I’ve called it Single
Use Planet, and, I’m delighted to say, it’s been
shortlisted for the prize.
The worst thing about doing underwater
shoots? The jellyfish. I’m on constant lookout
for them, so my models don’t get stung.
Jellyfish can completely scupper a photoshoot.
As told to Alex Leith
You can see more of Lexi’s work at the Sussex
Art Fair, Brighton Racecourse, Oct 11th-13th.
Instagram @lexilainephoto
....65....

“The”
Showcasing the design process of the city’s
biggest selling annual publication
...known affectionately as
“The”
Brighton and Hove Calendar.
20th
and final edition.
Images from this year
and the
first 19 calendars.
October
2nd - 28th
2019
Please feel free to come in
and help us choose the images.
11 Dukes Lane
(Next to Oasis)
BN1 1B
Submissions welcomed ASAP / Uptil October 10th / brightoncalendar.com for details.
Sea differently
BRIGHTON
PHOTOGRAPHY
Prints | Books | Cards
brightonphotography.com | 52-53 Kings Road Arches | 01273 227 523

DESIGN
.............................
Will Blood
Crafting an image
Creating visuals for the craft beer realm plays
to the strengths of Brighton-based designer,
illustrator and muralist Will Blood. His
fantastical, playful, intricate illustrations with
a nod to the macabre, express the individual
streak of industry that sets itself apart from the
mainstream.
“I think Beavertown played a huge part in
the way cans look now,” says Blood. “They
were one of the first to make beer exciting and
interesting. A lot of breweries tried to copy
that, or at least it made them think differently
about how to package their product. Now,
more of them take the time to tell a story.”
Blood cites the early masters Doré and Durer
as influences on his style – artists famed for
their illustrations depicting epic biblical scenes.
“I loved their precise cross hatching and the
way they could create such depth,” he says. “I
was also obsessed with insects as a kid, so insect
anatomy books played a large part, too.”
The alternative nature of craft beer labels –
with a nod to heavy metal – is an authentic
medium for Blood. “I came from being in
bands and skateboarding, so a lot of my early
work was within those fields,” he says. “I
became known for my pop character skeletons,
which continue to be my main income
to this day, selling prints
and merchandise.
Right now, I do a
lot of dot shading
– it works well
with bones as
it lends itself to
the texture. I’m
creating more
and more with
brushes and spray paint as I progress, and am
introducing a lot more bright colours.”
Blood has designed packaging and logos for
about 15 breweries internationally. Here in
Brighton and Sussex, he’s created special
edition bottles for craft beer companies
including Bison Beer and Sussex Small Batch
Brewery. “The Bison Beer See Side APA bottle
was for an exhibition of work where I made
cartoons out of Argus headlines,” says Blood. “I
took their bison and gave him a deckchair on
the beach reading the Argus. And for the Sussex
Small Batch brewery cans, I used the base of a
traditional English crest and incorporated the
ingredients of the beer’s flavour.”
What needs to be considered when illustrating
for a craft beer can? “Font is really important,
from font choice to kerning [adjusting the
spacing between characters],” says Blood. “It’s
often overlooked by illustrators that just want
to push their image or drawing. I use a mix of
set fonts, generally hand-drawn.”
Want to see more from Will Blood? “Brightonwise,
you can see my work in Brush on
Gloucester Road along with some other great
artists and also at Studio 45,” he says. “I’m
working on a new body of work called Neon
Futures – I update my instagram daily
(@iamwillblood), that’s a pretty good way
to keep up with me! I had a solo exhibition
in Brisbane recently, and I’m also part of a
big Expo called ArtNext in Hong Kong in
November.”
Rose Dykins
willblood.com
....67....

THE WAY WE WORK
This month Adam Bronkhorst photographed local publicans
He asked them: 'What's your favourite tipple?'
adambronkhorst.com | 07879 401333
Simon Stern, The Better Half
‘A pint of Timothy Taylor Landlord.’

THE WAY WE WORK
Ali Charlesworth, Haus on the Hill
‘Brighton Bier South Coast IPA.’

THE WAY WE WORK
Niamh Barker, The Montpelier Inn
'A Doom Bar Ale.'

THE WAY WE WORK
Sarah Davies, The Cleveland Arms
'A nice vodka, soda and a squeeze of lime.'

THE WAY WE WORK
Jen Left, Hand in Hand Brew Pub
'A pint of Shaka.'

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THE WAY WE WORK
Max Aben, The Roundhill
'A Gun Brewery (vegan) Pale Ale.'

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• Log burner
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• Book your Christmas party with us by 31st October and
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FOOD
.............................
The Coal Shed
Quality across the board
The memorable meat at The Coal Shed
certainly isn’t surprising, but the flavourful
seafood and great sides, starters and desserts
make for an impressive meal overall.
On a bleak early September evening, we ask for
defiantly summery drinks: Jamie goes for a fruity
Beach Session IPA from local brewery Lost Pier,
and I choose a crisp Hallets cider, handmade in
the hills of Wales (both £5.50).
We dovetail: I go fish then steak, Jamie pork
then fish. His smoked old spot pork belly, with
apple and radish slaw (£8) is a louder affair: with
a tang and a kick to it. My fire-roasted prawns
with broad beans and jersey royals (£9) are
fantastic, with large, smoky, fluffy prawns – and
the secret sauce is fresh and fragrant too.
We indulge in the à la carte options, but it’s
worth noting that there is also an express menu
available at off-peak hours. Jamie settles on
the south coast fish stew, with scallops, prawns,
smoke liquor and more crustaceans (£23). He’s
gleeful, exclaiming that “it tastes like eating the
cast of Finding Nemo”: a salty, vibrant cornucopia
of fish, brimming with the tasty echoes of
colourful personalities.
I’m thrilled with my steak too: an attractive
Himalayan salt aged sirloin (£24), which is
tender, and perfectly cooked over coal to a
consistent, delicious, medium texture. The outer
third is neatly fire-tinged; the inner is pink and
succulent. Waiter Georgi suggests salsa verde
sauce to accompany the steak. It’s an aromatic
way to vary the flavour at times, but I prefer to
enjoy the steak as is, or paired with some chunky
chips, cooked in beef fat to joyful effect (£4).
Photo by Jamie Wilkinson
The sides at the bottom of the menu look
irresistible, and prove delightful. The garlic field
mushrooms are generously infused with a treacly
oil (£4), while the truffle mac’n’cheese, adds a
contrasting rich and cheesy tone to the meal,
with a lovely crispiness on top (£5).
The service is attentive and efficient: Georgi
politely wonders if we can possibly fit in
dessert. Maybe a bit of ice cream, to share, if
they have any? They do! We order a selection
of homemade ice cream for £6. We’re told the
options change weekly: the lemon thyme is our
favourite, joined by a somewhat savoury honey
and walnut, and a sharp berry flavour.
Quality permeates the whole menu. In addition
to the treats listed above, I appreciate their
fantastic loose-leaf Assam tea (£3), for example.
Furthermore, Georgi explains that they aim to
make as much in-house as possible, down to the
mayonnaise we dipped our chips in.
Joe Fuller
8 Boyce's Street, 01273 322998
....77....

RECIPE
.............................
....78....

RECIPE
.............................
Four-onion pakora
Alun Sperring, from Chilli Pickle,
on an Indian street-food staple
I had wanderlust as a young man and worked
my way around the world, learning my trade in
eight countries over five different continents,
under a variety of brilliant chefs.
I particularly developed a passion for Indian
cuisine, and when my wife Dawn and I had
our first child – in Dubai, twelve years ago –
we decided to set up our own restaurant in
England. The idea was to produce amazing
Indian food, inspired by all the regions of the
country, espousing authenticity of style and
method, tweaked a little to suit our own style
of cooking.
I was brought up in Brighton, and it seemed
the obvious choice of venue, a city that is
open-minded enough to embrace something a
little different. We started in a little 40-cover
space in the Lanes, and moved to our current
building, in Jubilee Street, nine years ago. It’s
all about teamwork: Dawn is front-of-house,
I’m head chef, and we make sure everyone who
works at Chilli Pickle does so with enormous
passion, both in the kitchen and the restaurant.
We see ourselves as being in the entertainment
business: we’ve made the restaurant reflect the
vibrant colours of India, and there’s always a
wow factor when the food arrives on the table.
But the most important thing is the taste,
which involves, of course, sourcing fresh produce.
So all our meat and vegetables are locally
produced, while we import the best quality
spices from India (you can use Taj!)
Onion pakora are eaten throughout India,
as a street food or starter, and are always on
our menu. They are easy to make at home,
especially if you have a deep-fat fryer (though a
chip pan will do fine). And, of course, they are
absolutely delicious.
Method (makes 24 pakora).
Finely slice 400g of white English onion, 100g
red onion, 50g shallots and 50g spring onion,
and mix well in a bowl with 20g fresh chopped
coriander, 30 torn-up curry leaves, a finely
sliced green chilli, 15g freshly roasted coriander
seed, 15g freshly roasted cumin seed, 10g
fennel seed, 5g asafoetida, 35g Masoor red dal,
5g turmeric, 8g salt, 4g baking powder, 250g
chickpea flour, 150g of rice flour. Add 225ml
of cold water, and mix with your hands, being
careful not to squeeze too much, otherwise
excess water will release.
Heat 1 litre of vegetable oil to 165c (you can
use a thermometer). Create small pakora
shapes with the tips of your fingers and your
thumb, carefully dropping into the oil pan. Add
eight or nine at a time: cook until light golden
colour, turning a few times so the colour is
even. Drain onto a paper towel, and repeat,
until all the pakora mixture is cooked. When
you’re ready to serve, heat the oil to 175c, and
fry the pakora patties a second time – again in
batches – until they are crispy. Serve with the
best mango chutney you can get your hands
on: we source a wonderful Alphonso mango
chutney direct from India. Enjoy!
As told to Alex Leith
....79....

FOOD
.............................
BackWood
Zero waste, maximum taste
I’ve missed the buzz on Circus Parade since Plenty packed
up and moved, so, I’m pleased to be having Friday brunch
at BackWood, recently opened in the same – somewhat
upgraded – spot. The exposed brickwork has been painted,
there are new tables made of some clever composite
material, comfy banquette seating and, placed prominently by the door, a bank of clearly labelled
recycling bins. You see, BackWood are on track to be a zero-waste operation. Already all of their food
waste is composted and nothing goes to landfill. Their sustainability manifesto is set out on the back of
their menu: lovingly prepared, locally sourced food, minimal, compostable packaging, and absolutely no
single use cups (loan cups are available if you can’t supply your own). They’ve also eliminated the most
environmentally damaging ingredients, which means no avocadoes or almonds on the menu.
They do, however, offer my favourite breakfast food: potato hash. I choose the one with halloumi
(£8.50) and an iced latte (no straw, obvs. £3). The crushed new potatoes are mingled with fried
peppers, caramelised onions and a generous helping of halloumi, all infused with herby, smoky oil. It’s
a seriously tasty combination and the coffee is great too. I make a mental note to come back soon to
try their homemade cucumber, mint and basil sherbert and one of their bulging pittas. ‘Collectively,
our small steps can make big change happen’, reads the menu. If that means forgoing my smashed
avo on sourdough, so be it. With brunch this good, it’s no hardship at all. Lizzie Lower
gobackwood.com
Christmas lunches and dinners for 10-90 guests in the impressive State Rooms
Book now for 22 November – 22 December
INVITATION: Come to our free Christmas Taster Evening, Thursday 10 October, 5.30-8pm,
with canapés, live piano and drinks. Email christmas@westdean.org.uk or call 01243 818258 to book.
www.westdeanvenues.org.uk
West Dean College of Arts and Conservation, West Dean, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 0QZ

FOOD
.............................
A-news bouche
The OctoberBEST restaurant festival returns
for its fourth year. 28 of the top restaurants
in the city (as selected by Brighton’s Best
Restaurants) put on special £20 menus or
offers: Chard, Easy Tiger, Lucky Khao,
Halisco, Baby Bao, Kujira and Polpo are all
new on the list. Supplier partners such as
Ridgeview, The Cheese
Man and Bolney Wine
Estate will also be offering
their produce on many
of the menus. 4th to 20th,
brightonsbestrestaurants.com
www.horshamfoodies.co.uk
Grab some wheelbarrows at the Pumpkin
Picking Patch in Sompting if you’d like
to browse 20 different varieties, including
munchkins for little ones. Wand making and
broomstick making are available too! 12th-13th,
19th-31st, 9.30am-4pm, pumpkinpickingpatch.
com. Last month saw Brighton Square
welcome Coppa Club, with ‘uncomplicated
dishes’ including small
plates, burgers, pizza,
pasta, breakfast and a
special non-gluten menu.
coppaclub.co.uk/brighton
In dessert news, Gelato Gusto on Gardner
Street won the Great Taste Golden Fork for
the “perfect balance” of their salted caramel &
liquorice, a vegan gelato which leaves “such joy
on the palate.” gelatogusto.com. And the Brighton
Chocolate Festival will be showcasing
award-winning chocolatiers, tastings, educational
talks on topics such as sustainability and new flavours,
and more. 12th-13th, 11am
to 5pm, Brighton Hilton
Metropole, brightonchocolatefestival.com
....81....

Join us at The Salt Room or The Coal Shed
throughout December for a festive
CHRISTMAS
FESTIVE MENUS
celebration.
& PRIVATE DINING
GROUP DINING
Enquire about availability at www.saltroom-restaurant.co.uk and www.coalshed-restaurant.co.uk
Seen me,
Seen you?
Make sure you are visible
to other road users.
Share the Roads
Share the Responsibility
f Share the Roads, Brighton & Hove

FEATURE
.............................
A beginner's guide to...
Gluten
I was recently advised by a nutritionist to
eliminate gluten from my diet and I feel a
whole lot better for doing so. But what is gluten
and why is it such a problem for an increasing
number of people? Elle Fox, from the College of
Naturopathic Medicine, explains.
“Gluten is a protein that is found in quite a few
grains. The reasons it has become a problem
are manifold, but we can boil them down to one
main thing: human intervention. We've come
a long way from the ancient agrarian societies
who discovered that they could cultivate grasses
for food. We’ve cross-fertilised and hybridised
modern wheat to produce something that is
(supposedly) bigger and better, with greater
yield and greater resistance to pests. But it bears
no resemblance to the original steppe grasses
that our ancestors were used to, and the gluten
content is higher.”
Gluten gives bread its body and its springiness,
but it is a complex molecule that is hard for
our bodies to break down and modern food
production methods don’t help. “If you look
at traditional societies, bread was not made in
two and a half hours, as the bread you find in
supermarkets is today. Now we use genetically
modified yeast to make the bread rise very
quickly, so there isn’t enough time for the
micro-organisms to break down the gluten and
starches. That’s why wholegrain sourdough, made
over 24-48 hours, can be very well tolerated by
people who are otherwise intolerant to gluten.
The micro-organisms have started the digesting
for you.”
Other even more insidious substances find their
way into our food and further compound the
problem, explains Elle. “We have also introduced
pesticides and other toxins. For example,
glyphosate – a weed killer and mould reducer – is
sprayed on the crops many times a year and at no
point is it effectively removed. So, when you pair
a difficult to digest substance like gluten – which
is effectively like glue – with a toxic agent like
glyphosate, it hangs around in the gut, setting
off alarm signals from the immune system. The
gut is intimately connected with the skin and the
lungs so allergenic reactions might manifest as
problems with the sinuses, the ears, the throat or
the skin. And gluten is the major aggravator for
sufferers of inflammatory bowel conditions like
Coeliac and Crohn’s disease. Any amount will
make them very poorly.”
Elle believes that many of these conditions are
the inevitable result of a broken food production
system and takes the naturopathic perspective
that they can be greatly rehabilitated by healing
the gut with good bacteria and by eating foods
that are gut friendly.
“Processed food is not friendly to the body.
At CNM we’re hoping to re-educate people
that local food, organically grown and eaten in
season is the best thing you can give yourself.
It’s not grains that we should demonise but the
production methods. It’s part of a larger problem:
the commodification of food.”
Lizzie Lower
Visit naturopathy-uk.com to find out more about
CNM courses or join them at their open events
on the 2nd of October or the 9th of November at
Brighton Aldridge Community Academy.
....83....

MY SPACE
.............................
Greg Dunn
Curriculum Manager at Plumpton Wine Centre
What courses do you offer at the
Plumpton Wine Centre? A whole
variety, from degrees to day courses.
We offer a BA and foundation degree in
Wine Business, and a BSc and Masters
in Viticulture and Oenology, which
trains people to grow grapes, make wine
and to work at a relatively high level in
the wine industry. There’s currently a
shortage of practical vineyard workers,
so we also offer a level three course and
we’re about to launch an apprenticeship
scheme. The Sussex wine industry has
created a lot of job opportunities and
it’s still expanding.
What facilities do you have? We’re
extremely well set up to teach every
aspect of wine making. We have a
commercial winery, three different
types of labs, a research winery and two
vineyards. As a country, we don’t produce
a lot of wine (last year we produced 15
million bottles against, say, Champagne,
which produced 300 million bottles) but
the teaching facilities that we have are
excellent.
Our well-qualified tutors come from
all over the place: Australia, Cornwall,
America, Brazil and we’re about to
welcome another lecturer from India.
We’re a bit of a United Nations and
all well-connected in the world’s wine
regions, which comes in useful when
arranging placements for our students.
Where do your students go on to
work? Most people working in the UK
....84....

MY SPACE
.............................
wine industry have received at least some of
their training at Plumpton. Winemakers, cellar
hands, assistant winemakers, buyers, marketers,
sales managers, consultants, specialists… The
UK wine business needs all sorts of skills, but
we also train people for international careers.
There’s a lot of movement in wine making.
Wine makers and grape growers move all over
the world.
You’re Australian. What brought you
to Sussex? I’ve spent the last twenty years
working in viticulture and wine making – I
was the director of a research facility in New
South Wales, a lecturer at the University of
Melbourne, and my PhD is in Botany – but
I was aware of Plumpton Wine School from
Australia. I’ve been here for close to two years
now. It’s nice to be part of a rapidly expanding
industry and I love teaching.
The English wine business appears to
be booming. What do you put that down
to? One of the drivers is climate change.
Historically, the UK had a very marginal
climate, but this is changing, allowing us to
ripen grapes and make some pretty smart wines.
The English climate and terroir are well suited
to the production of high-quality sparkling
wines, some of which have won international
awards, giving the UK wine industry a fair bit of
profile. South African companies are buying UK
vineyards and Taittinger have bought and run a
vineyard in Kent.
It was an unbelievably good vintage last year
and, with all the planting and expansion going
on, Wine GB envisage that we’ll be producing
40 million bottles of wine in ten years time.
Plumpton’s wine school has been here for 30
years which is a testament to the foresight of the
people who originally set it up. Sussex is well
placed in the middle of a swathe of vineyards
that start in Essex and reach to Hampshire, and
it's growing massively all the time. Lizzie Lower
plumpton.ac.uk/courses/wine
@plumptonwine
....85....

吀 爀 愀 渀 猀 昀 漀 爀 洀 礀 漀 甀 爀 栀 漀 洀 攀 眀 椀 琀 栀 漀 甀 爀 昀 椀 渀 攀 猀 琀 焀 甀 愀 氀 椀 琀 礀
匀 㨀 䌀 刀 䄀 䘀 吀 洀 愀 搀 攀 ⴀ 琀 漀 ⴀ 洀 攀 愀 猀 甀 爀 攀 椀 渀 琀 攀 爀 椀 漀 爀 猀 栀 甀 琀 琀 攀 爀 猀 ⸀
琀 ⸀ ㈀ 㜀 アパート アパート アパート 㠀 㐀 ㈀
攀 ⸀ 挀 漀 渀 琀 愀 挀 琀 䀀 戀 攀 氀 氀 愀 瘀 椀 猀 琀 愀 猀 栀 甀 琀 琀 攀 爀 猀 ⸀ 挀 漀 ⸀ 甀 欀
眀 ⸀ 眀 眀 眀 ⸀ 戀 攀 氀 氀 愀 瘀 椀 猀 琀 愀 猀 栀 甀 琀 琀 攀 爀 猀 ⸀ 挀 漀 ⸀ 甀 欀

INTERVIEW
.............................
Emma Inch
Founder of Brighton & Hove Beer Week
How is Brighton’s beer scene changing?
Previously, there was very little brewing
going on in Brighton and Hove compared to
other cities. There aren’t many old industrial
buildings in Brighton, whereas in other parts
of the UK, perhaps it’s easier to get an old
industrial unit. And we have very high rents
here – so good on our local brewers for doing
it. Part of the reason for Beer Week was to
show that Brighton and Hove’s brewing scene
has really grown.
You founded Brighton and Hove Beer Week
in 2018. What were the highlights this year?
All seven of Brighton and Hove’s breweries
came together to brew a collaboration ale,
released exclusively for the festival. It was called
Provenance, and it was a Rhubarb and Ginger
saison. They used local rhubarb from one of
the brewer’s allotments. It was a really, really
nice beer – people loved it.
How do you hope our brewing scene will
develop? What are you excited about? I
guess it’s about recognising how powerful
beer tourism can be as a way of selling a city,
and for attracting people to come down and
visit. In Sussex, we've got way more beers
per head than they have in London – it’s so
brilliant that we have Harvey’s and Burning
Sky just up the road. I’m also really pleased
with Unbarred, who are new on the scene in
Brighton. Jordan Mower, the head brewer, he’s
a creative, interesting brewer who works really
collaboratively.
Your job sounds fantastic! How did you
become a beer journalist? Writing was always
what I wanted to do. Previously I worked
in mental health, which I loved, and I used
to write for academic journals. I also had a
Rockabilly music show on Radio Reverb. And
then the whole beer thing started to happen,
and Radio Reverb allowed me to do a beerthemed
show, which became the first regular
beer show on FM radio. And that sort of grew
bigger and bigger – it was released on podcasts,
and I won the Best Beer Writer Online. That
encouraged me to start pitching to write for
magazines. And it kind of snowballed from
there!
And last year you were named British Beer
Writer of the Year! It sounds like beer
writing is so much about storytelling… I
rarely write about what a beer actually tastes
like. Occasionally I do, but most of what I write
about is the story of who made it, where the
ingredients are from, what kind of beer it is,
and what it says.
Favourite pubs in Brighton? I have a really
soft spot for the Basketmakers Arms. I love the
feeling in there, as if time can
stand still for a little bit and
you can ignore what’s going
on in the world, with all
the tins on the wall with
handwritten notes inside.
As told to Rose Dykins
Emma produces and
presents an audio
magazine. Listen at
fermentationradio.com
....87....

The state of medicine today has its challenges. If you’re suffering from ill health, and
you’re feeling lost and overwhelmed, there is a path for you to become wholly aligned if
you’re willing to take responsibility for your healing.
In this insightful book, nutritionist and yoga teacher Ciara Roberts shows us the path to
happiness and healing through her personal journey of dealing with a lifelong kidney
condition charting from childhood to teenage dialysis to transplantation and beyond.
She shows us:
●
How to heal, with simple steps to help you take charge of your own
medical condition and wellness
● The pivotal role of yoga and nutrition on your healing journey
●
●
How to find joy in your healing through the tools that truly resonate
with you
Ensure that your Wellbeing Fund is balanced so you are able to face
whatever physical or mental challenges arise
When we each awaken our inner physician, everyone wins. Ourselves first and foremost,
our family and friends too as we are in a better place and, of course, our health systems
and environment. Because then we are truly awake to our human experience.
Ciara Jean Roberts is a yoga teacher and nutritional therapist with a
previous credit risk background in private banking. She loves
variety! Wholly Aligned, Wholly Alive is her first book and follows the
successful publication of a number of articles across media such as
Journal of Kidney Care, Yoga Magazine and Elephant Journal. She
considers her kidneys amongst her wisest teachers. She lives in
vibrant Crystal Palace, London, right next to a wood that she can
often be found skipping through.
Wholly Aligned, Wholly Alive
Awakening your inner physician
by Ciara Jean Roberts
ISBN 978-1-912635-96-2
£12.99
€15
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ADVERTORIAL
“The CNM course is
a very worthwhile
experience”
By Ciara Roberts, CNM
Naturopathic Nutrition
Graduate and Author
of ‘Wholly Aligned,
Wholly Alive’
WHOLLY ALIGNED, WHOLLY ALIVE CIARA JEAN ROBERTS
WHOLLY
aligned
WHOLLY
alive
Awakening your
inner physic ian
CIARA JEAN ROBERTS
I found my CNM studies comprehensive, enjoyable
and affirming and loved my three years of training
in Naturopathic Nutrition. CNM is a combination of
hopeful endeavour and academic excellence which
makes it a very worthwhile experience.
My first book ‘Wholly Aligned, Wholly Alive’,
launched in June 2019, details my journey and
includes the tools of nutrition and yoga and how
they have helped me. I went into renal failure at 14.
I had hospital dialysis treatments until age 21 when
I had a kidney transplant. I lost transplant kidney
function 3 years ago and whilst waiting for another
transplant, I currently support my health with both
conventional and natural medicine treatments.
Having been raised by a mother very interested in
natural health, I considered a Master’s in Nutrition.
It was through that process I ‘happened’ upon the
CNM course and it immediately sang out to me. It
literally felt like the course had been designed just
for me.
I was still working full-time in private banking
credit risk in Canary Wharf when I started at CNM,
however, I knew in my heart there was so much
more I had to offer in this lifetime. I resigned from
banking in 2013, having been supported by an
Ciara Roberts, CNM Naturopathic Nutrition Graduate
Photo by Josh Goodwin
amazing Global Head to go part-time for a year
prior – highly unusual in my type of role. When
you believe you are supported, this becomes
the reality.
I loved the lecturers, whose calibre was
excellent, and meeting like-minded people,
some of whom became very good friends. The
course content and feeling fully equipped to
practise after graduation, were helpful antidotes
to my very busy, stressful banking career. I came
to really enjoy studying at the weekends.
Having also qualified as a yoga teacher, I set
up my own business, Wholly Aligned, in 2012.
Wholly Aligned draws upon the wisdom of
nutrition and yoga to help people reconnect
with mind, body and soul and ultimately awaken
their inner physician.
The CNM course enriched my knowledge and,
importantly, helped me understand more deeply
the intricate nature of therapeutic rapport and
how key it is to build trust and confidence with
your clients.
CNM has a 20-year track record training successful
practitioners in natural therapies, in class and online.
Colleges across the UK and Ireland.
Visit naturopathy-uk.com or call 01342 410 505

FEATURE
.............................
BHESco
Food waste into energy
Got a few quid to
spare? Then how
about investing in an
anaerobic digestor
plant? If you’ve never
heard of one – it’s
understandable –
then essentially it’s a
mechanism to produce
‘clean’ energy
from food waste, of
which Brighton and
Hove produces some
400,000 tonnes every year. Brighton and Hove
Energy Services Cooperative – aka BHESco –
wants to build one in Sussex with the support of
the local community. If the scheme is successful,
it will be the first community-owned anaerobic
digestor in the country, capable of supplying renewable
energy to more than 10,000 local homes.
Although the project is still in its early stages –
the not-for-profit social enterprise must first find
a suitable site for the plant – the idea is to collect
waste from local restaurants, cafés and bars that
have signed up for the scheme. “Businesses would
need to separate out their waste because it can’t
be anything cooked and we don’t want to take
anything that could be redistributed within the
community,” explains BHESco’s marketing coordinator
Dan Curtis. “So it would be vegetable
peelings, egg shells…” A local contractor – they
are in talks with waste management company
Brighton Paper Round – would then collect the
scraps and take them to the plant, where it would
be transformed into gas that could be added to
the National Grid’s supply.
The project is expected to cost “a few million”
Curtis says – which is where the rest of us come
in. “We will be doing what we do with all our
projects and operating
a community
share offer. Anyone
can invest up to
£100,000, in return
for which they
would get a five per
cent return on their
money.” Aside from
the financial rewards,
it’s an opportunity to
do something positive
for the environment,
he says. “People would see their money
being used for something good – to help combat
climate change – rather than it just sitting in a
bank or building society. We hope people would
find it quite an inspiring thing to be a part of.
We had a public meeting at the Friends Meeting
House earlier this year and 60 people including
representatives of organisations and groups
attended. So, there’s definitely interest. We just
need to nail down the land.”
In the meantime, there are other BHESco
schemes in need of support. The cooperative is
currently fundraising to install solar panels on
five local schools, plus a church and a brewery.
“We need to raise half a million by the end of
this year,” says Dan, “So I’d definitely encourage
anyone who’s interested in what we do to take
a look at our website.” And it’s always worth
taking care of the basics, he emphasises. “Clean
energy is quite sexy and exciting but it’s much
better to just not use as much energy in the first
place. We’re big champions of people using their
energy more sensibly, changing to LED light
bulbs and so on. Even the smallest changes can
make a big difference.” Nione Meakin
bhesco.co.uk
....89....

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IVA-AD-94x66-print.indd 1 08/08/2019 15:18

FEATURE
.............................
Scrumping project
Apple addicts
The Fruit Factory, Brighton Permaculture
Trust’s headquarters in Stanmer Village, is home
to the scrumping project, which turns waste fruit
into raw or pasteurised apple juice, cider, cider
vinegar, chutneys, jams and more. These are
then sold outside the Fruit Factory every Saturday
and Sunday, 11am to 4pm – we recommend
the apple & cherry juice. Viva spoke to BPT’s
Schools Project Manager, and co-ordinator for
the project, Stephan Gehrels.
The scrumping project launched around
eight years ago. We were seeing a lot of fruit
going to waste, whether that’s in farms or
people’s gardens, or here in Stanmer Park, where
there were a couple of orchards not being used
[the scrumping project now maintains three
orchards in the park]. Out of that came the idea
of trying to make good use of all this fruit, and
to turn it into yummy products.
People can come along on a Saturday or
Sunday to drop off their fruit. We can swap it
for a few bottles of juice if they want, but mainly
the idea is that people can bring fruit and see it
go to good use. Sometimes they can see it being
juiced there and then.
Members of the public can come and have
a look, or join in, or throw a few apples in
the mill. We use a cold pressing method, called
a hydro press. Once the juice goes through a
mill, it goes into a container with a giant balloon
in the middle. As that water balloon fills up, it
presses the juice out of the fruit. It’s amazing raw
juice: you can really taste the difference.
When we pasteurise, I also play around with
different flavours: we’ve got a ginger apple
juice, classics like mint, a fiery and a super fiery –
Photos by Sarah Davenport
we have quite a few chilli addicts who come and
get the super fiery. We do a turmeric and black
pepper one, which really changes the taste of
the juice. It almost tastes tropical, like mango or
passionfruit.
Apple Day is our biggest event, at the end of
September every year. At one of our most well
attended events, we sold nearly 2,000 litres of
cider. It’s about showcasing what our project is
trying to do. For thousands of years, people have
celebrated the food around them, so this project
is about trying to bring that back. To minimise
eating food from abroad, and to focus on our
local resources. A huge part of our carbon
footprint is how we get our food, so trying to eat
local is one of the biggest things we can do as
individuals to make a difference.
We are always encouraging and welcoming
volunteers to get involved. Some of the most
popular activities are picking the apples, making
the apple juice, helping with pasteurising. People
can go onto the website for more information.
They then get an email with volunteering
opportunities, such as working on the scrumping
project, planting fruit trees or helping in a local
school. As told to Joe Fuller
brightonpermaculture.org.uk
....91....

ADVERTORIAL
How to find your ideal architect
Talk through your ideas at RIBA Sussex’s Design Day
So you’ve decided you need to extend or
renovate your home. If you need planning
permission, you are likely to need an architect’s
services; and even the smallest project will
benefit from an architect’s professional advice.
Sarah Miller of the RIBA, who is coordinating
Hove Design Day for RIBA Sussex at
Cornerstone Community Centre on Saturday
19 October suggests:
MAKE A WISH LIST which focuses on what
you want to achieve and includes all your
requirements and any problems to be solved.
By all means, add swatches and inspirational
images – but also include your overall budget,
so that you have realistic conversations from
the start.
MEET MORE THAN ONE ARCHITECT to
talk about your project, so that you feel the fit
is right. The RIBA’s Find an Architect service
www.architecture.com/findanarchitect can
help you to create a shortlist; and Hove Design
Day is an excellent opportunity to meet with
individual local architects. Chemistry is really
important: you will know when you have
found ‘the one’.
CHOOSE THE PRACTICE that has experience
of your type of project and follow up
references. How effective were they in
managing their clients’ budgets?
AGREE ON WHAT YOUR ARCHITECT WILL
DO FOR YOU before work begins. Discuss
the scope and cost of architectural services
and the fee basis, and put your agreement
in writing. How much or how little you
commission from your architect is up to you:
their services range from coming up with an
initial design, to seeing a project through to
completion.
Hove Design Day is the no-obligation chance
to ask questions and bounce ideas. Each
participating architect will have a table, so
you’ll be able to sit and chat through ideas as
well as go through their work with them.
sarah.miller@riba.org
@RIBASouthEast

BUILT BRIGHTON
.............................
Embassy Court Mural
by Edward McKnight Kauffer
We humans have always liked decorating the
walls of our dwellings. 64,000 years ago the
Neanderthals were painting symbols on the
walls of caves in Iberia, and we’ve been following
suit ever since.
In the 1930s any luxury apartment block
worth its salt would have incorporated
artworks; maybe stained glass, decorative
mosaics, statues or carvings, and always something
splendid in the entrance lobby. Embassy
Court, the Grade ll* listed apartment building
on Brighton’s seafront was, in its day, the most
luxurious accommodation on the south coast.
It was packed with celebrities who were waited
on hand and foot, with bellhops and porters
in the lobby, maids living on the top floor and
chauffeurs in the basement. Rumour has it
that biplanes landed on Hove Lawns bringing
wealthy Londoners from Croydon Airport.
Wells Coates, the architect of Embassy Court,
was fascinated by technology and one of his
more successful experiments was the mural
in the entrance lobby of Embassy Court,
completed in 1935. It was designed by Edward
McKnight Kauffer, who made use of a new
invention by cinema and theatre designers
Eugene Mollo and Michael Egan: a system
of projecting photographs directly on to a
wall treated with a sensitised film. McKnight
Kauffer was an American designer who lived
mainly in the UK. Perhaps best known for his
London Underground posters, he was also an
artist, illustrator and theatre designer.
The mural was destroyed decades ago, possibly
in the 1960s, and it was a long-held ambition
of some residents of Embassy Court to re-create
it. The project was led by Andrew Birds,
Sue Milnthorpe and Paul Roberts, working
alongside architect John Cook who recreated
the images digitally, working from only two
black and white photographs that survived
from the 1930s. The main features are John
Nash’s section through the Brighton Pavilion
and photographs of two Parisian sculptures,
taken from a trip made by McKnight Kauffer.
The sculptures were identified as the god
Triton in the Place de la Concorde and Fame
and Pegasus from the Jardin des Tuileries.
The colours are, of course, guesswork to an
extent, though based on research in to what
McKnight Kauffer was doing with his work
in that period. Using that research, graphic
designer Andie Airfix helped to develop the
colour palette. The four wind turbines in the
new mural (pictured above) were added as
a contemporary nod to the changing local
landscape, making the point, the team behind
the project say, that the mural is not an
absolutely accurate re-creation, but a ‘faithful
re-imagining’.
The public can view the mural during Heritage
Open Days and Brighton Fringe tours.
Keep an eye out for opportunities to visit the
building at embassycourt.org.uk or take a peek
through the front door for a glimpse.
Paul Zara
....93....

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FEATURE
.............................
Dig for Victory (again)
Grow your own to save the insects
With the human population
expanding (currently at 7.5
billion globally), and flying
insect numbers rapidly declining
(down by 75 per cent in
the past 25 years), the big
question for the future is how
are we going to grow enough
food to feed everyone?
Dave Goulson, Professor
of Biology at the University of Sussex and an
expert in crop pollination, has described the depletion
of bugs as an “ecological Armageddon”.
Without them we’re all doomed, even if we can
control temperature rises.
But there is something we can do, he says.
And it’s not that far removed from the ‘Dig
for Victory’ advice of World War Two, which
encouraged the British public to turn their
lawns into vegetable patches to help cope with
food shortages.
Dave, a keen gardener with a two-acre plot,
carried out a citizen science project that involved
urban gardeners in Brighton monitoring
visiting insects. They also described their
pesticide use and weighed the produce from the
insect-pollinated crops.
Despite the bug decline, Dave was relieved to
see there were still sufficient bees and other
pollinators buzzing around his plot and those of
other amateur gardeners.
What most impressed him, however, were the
crop yields, particularly given growers’ low use
of pesticides.
“People were getting the equivalent of 35 tonnes
per hectare, which is a lot more than industrial
farming produces,” he says. “A wheat crop gets
around eight tonnes per hectare, and that’s after
it’s been sprayed several times with insecticides.”
The other eco benefits
included zero food miles and
packaging, while studies have
shown that allotments are
now the best places in urban
environments for biodiversity.
“You only have to look at the
variety of things being grown
to see that,” he points out.
His argument now is that
more land should be made available by the
government for those who want to grow their
own produce. The UK has 300,000 allotment
holders, but there are currently another 100,000
people on waiting lists – with the average wait
being ten years.
“Lots of people are interested in growing their
own food, particularly in Brighton,” he says.
“They are interested in organic and getting
back to proper local and seasonal food and
cooking. And because of that they are less keen
to use pesticides, which is much better for the
environment.”
While small-scale farming is more labourintensive,
Dave suggests this could even be a
route into employment in a time when jobs are
becoming redundant or lost to automation.
It’s also been shown that gardeners tend to
have better physical and mental health in old
age than non-gardeners, which is no surprise
to Dave. “They’re active, they get to enjoy the
bees and the butterflies, and they eat their own
veggies.” Jacqui Bealing
Dave’s latest book is The Jungle Garden, or Gardening
to Save the Planet (published by Jonathan
Cape). He is also the founder of the Bumble Bee
Conservation Trust and the author of bestselling
guides to bees, A Sting in the Tail, and A Buzz in
the Meadow.
....95....

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WILDLIFE
.............................
Illustration by Mark Greco
Blackthorn
Sloe times with Betsy
From up there it felt like I could see the whole
world: the Oak trees adorned in summer’s fading
leaves, the fields at harvest, the city far in the
distance. Each October my Grandad would load
me and a bucket into Betsy, his faithful 1963 Ford
Anglia. Together we’d cruise the county’s back
roads. Every few miles he would ease Betsy to a
halt and inspect the landscape until finally declaring
“this is the place”. My bucket and me would
be hoisted high up on his shoulders and from
there I’d get my Grandad-stand view of the world.
More importantly though, it’d put me within
reach of the treasure. The jewels we sought on
our expeditions were sloes, the round purple-black
berries that bedecked the Blackthorn bushes. My
Grandad was convinced that the finest fruits were
located high on the hedge. And the best sloes made
the best sloe gin.
Each spring the Blackthorn hedges bloom, their
brilliant white flowers blanket the countryside
temporarily creating snow-white drifts against
the woodlands and along our roadsides. These
ephemeral petals soon fall and the Blackthorn
becomes cloaked with small, oval leaves capturing
the energy which powers production of the sloes.
A Blackthorn bush is a prickly character and as approachable
as an enraged porcupine. Each twig is
armed with spikes which deter cattle and Grandads
from helping themselves to its leaves and berries.
This spiny spinney fortress also safeguards a
wealth of wildlife. Nightingales, Turtle Doves and
other birds nest under its protection and the elusive
Brown Hairstreak butterfly lays its miniature
sea urchin-like eggs on the bush’s black bark.
Many years after my Grandad and Betsy had
departed, I decided to honour them both and
concoct my own sloe gin. I found an online recipe
and, in what was and still remains one of the biggest
disappoints of my adult life, I discovered that
the main ingredient in sloe gin… was gin. After
watching my Grandad making his moonshine I
had genuinely believed that by submerging a load
of sloes in a bottle you would magically turn water
into gin. It seems my Grandad couldn’t perform
miracles, indeed looking back our hedgerow pillaging
raids could easily be dismissed as forced child
labour. Was he exploiting me and my tiny hands
to bypass those thorns and reach the best berries?
A few decades earlier he’d probably have sent me
down a mine or up a chimney. But my Grandad
wasn’t some Fagin-like character. Now I think of it
I never once saw him actually drinking any of his
sloe gin. Perhaps just being out in the countryside
in the autumn sunshine on an adventure with
Betsy and his grandson was the truly intoxicating
ingredient.
Michael Blencowe, Senior Learning & Engagement
Officer, Sussex Wildlife Trust
....97....

INSIDE LEFT: TAMPLIN & SONS, 1920S
.......................................................................................
It’s inspection time for the Tamplin & Sons draymen,
standing ‘at ease’ in rather military fashion,
in front of the Phoenix Brewery, with their marvellous
horses. We don’t know the exact date: the
James Gray archive notes read, simply, ‘1920s’.
Theirs was a vital job: delivering beer brewed on
the site to the 200+ pubs owned by the company,
throughout Brighton and Hove.
Tamplin & Sons was set up in 1820, by Richard
and Henry Tamplin. Their first brewery, in
Southwick, burnt down within a year, so they
built a second between Southover Street and
Albion Street. At the bottom of Hanover. Designed
by Amon and his son Amon Henry Wilds,
it opened for business in 1821. It was named
‘Phoenix’ as it had risen from the ashes of the
previous brewery, and the mythical bird became
the symbol of the company. You can still see the
Phoenix logo in the brickwork of a handful of
pubs in town.
Tamplin & Sons grew and grew, over the years,
swallowing up rival breweries and taking over
their pubs, eventually owning over half the hostelries
in town, and producing over five million
gallons of beer a year.
The brewery was itself taken over, by Watneys, in
1953, but until 1969 the London giants continued
brewing beer for the area using the ‘Tamplins’
brand. Between 1969 and 1973, when the Phoenix
Brewery was demolished, they brewed their
own keg bitter there.
The site was redeveloped in the 1990s and now
houses a University of Brighton student residence
building, named ‘Phoenix Brewery’. Two adjoining
streets – Phoenix Rise and Tamplins Terrace –
also acknowledge the area’s boozy history, as does
the Phoenix Brighton art centre. The brewery’s
former office building still stands, now the Phoenix
Community Centre.
Look to the far right of the picture, and you can
see a curious figure poking his head out of the
doorway at the foot of the building. Was this
chap surprised to see the photographer at work,
or was he cheekily trying to get into shot? He
lends this rather serious image a welcome touch
of humour: buy the man a pint.
Alex Leith
Many thanks to the Regency Society for letting us
use this image from the James Gray Collection.
regencysociety.org
....98....

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