#vegetarianshoes

Brighton, Brighton, Brighton - so beautiful and gay!

On the Saturday of the conference I went on ‘A Walking Tour of LGBTQ+ Brighton’ with Multi-media writer, alternative historian and performer Rose Collis who lead us on specially commissioned walking tours through Brighton’s queer history, present and future. 

My visit to the UK also happened to overlap with the introduction by GREGG’s of a vegan sausage roll. From their website, ‘The launch follows strong consumer demand, including a petition by PETA last year, which was signed by more than 20,000 people.’ It’s pretty tasty and like 1 pound.

I never bought any shoes from Vegetarian Shoes, but their shop is in Brighton. More about the history of the place: ‘Nowadays, I no longer make shoes. (which I do not miss, as it was blooming hard work !). Most of our shoes are made-to-order for us, exclusively to our specification in European and English factories, including one established as a co-op in 1881! Vegetarian Shoes is still a small business. We still operate out of our Gardner Street Shop and nearby office. We now send shoes all over the world and a growing number of stores carry a selected range.’

Some of the spots that we stopped on the tour also showed up on this cool International Women’s Day 2020 Quiz from the University of Sussex where students ‘We photographed some of our current students in local spots which have links to women who have been a part of the #EachforEqual movement. The photos were shared on social media over the weekend, but did you recognize each location? ’ 

On the list was the Royal York Hotel: 

Anne Lister, also known as Gentleman Jack, was a wealthy independent landowner and diarist who wrote some of her entries (mainly those detailing her passionate love affairs with other women) in a secret code. Known now as the ‘first modern lesbian’, Anne stayed at Royal York Hotel in 1820 for three days with her then partner Marianna while waiting for a package ship to take them to France. In her diaries she suggests that she would "like it exceedingly if we lived for a while at Brighton".