Brighton's east-side LGBTQ+ hub — Regency terraces, independent businesses, the Pride parade, and the eastern seafront. BN2.
Kemp Town is the bohemian, diverse neighbourhood on the eastern side of Brighton, built largely in the 1820s and 1830s as a speculative Regency development by Thomas Read Kemp. The area runs from the eastern end of the seafront up into the residential streets behind, with the commercial strip of St James's Street forming its main spine.
The neighbourhood is Brighton's LGBTQ+ community hub — St James's Street and the surrounding area contain the majority of Brighton's gay bars, clubs, and LGBTQ+-owned businesses, and the area has been a centre of LGBTQ+ culture since at least the 1980s. Brighton Pride, one of the largest Pride events in the UK (typically drawing 300,000–400,000 people in August), begins its parade on the seafront in Kemp Town.
The area has a strong independent character: antique shops, vintage clothing, independent cafes, and community-focused businesses mix with the bars and clubs. The architecture is a mix of intact Regency terraces (Lewes Crescent and Sussex Square are among the finest in England), Victorian infill, and post-war housing.
The seafront edge of Kemp Town includes the Black Rock area, with the Marina (the largest in the south-east) just to the east. The Undercliff Walk begins here, running east along the base of the chalk cliffs towards Saltdean and Peacehaven. The SeaLife Brighton aquarium is at the western end of the seafront, near the Palace Pier.