BookshopGeorge Street
The Queery
Kemptown's pay-as-you-feel queer bookshop and café
7.6/10
Local score
No. 10 of 43 shops on r/brighton, from 39 locals across 42 threads.
96% would send a mate. Still recommended in 2026.
A go-to recommendation for meeting Brighton's queer community, run as a sober, friendly, pay-as-you-feel space with a bookshop, binder exchange, pottery workshops, a stitch-and-bitch and dyke discussion nights. A 2026 post flagged that most volunteers had resigned over a poor working culture, leaving several roles unstaffed and the space running at reduced capacity.
- Go for
- Meeting Brighton's LGBTQ+ community over coffee
- Heads up
- Recently short-staffed after volunteer resignations; hours reduced.
What locals say
Come along to some events at Daltons, The Actors or the Queery! There’s a lot of evening events but also a lot of daytime events, shows, markets etc. where there’s no shortage of kind, progressive, open and (very!) lgbt friendly ppl. I know how hard it can be to ease in but once you start seeing the same familiar faces that might help!
Try The Queery and Ledward Centre. They're community cafés rather than clubs/bars and often have events and groups. They're good places to just chill out around queer people and have resources you can check out.
Please don't suggest The Queery as a cheaper replacement for other coffee shops. It operates on a pay as you feel because queer people often have a lower income, harder access to jobs, and limits on spaces they feel comfortable attending. It's there to stop queer people from being priced out of community, not to make your more coffee…
So when I emailed them i got this bounce back... "Due to a deeply ingrained poor working culture at The Queery, most Queery volunteers have resigned. As a result, The Queery will operate at a reduced capacity for the foreseeable future. Currently, the following Board positions and Collectives of The Queery are unmanaged and/or unstaffed. Art, Books, Café, Events, Finance, Grants, Operations & Maintenance, Social…
Ranked from 21,200 r/brighton comments. Summaries are written by AI from what locals said; quotes are word for word. Not affiliated with Reddit. Back to the guide