27 March 2025
www.gscene.com/news/community-news/brighton-hove-lgbtq-switchboard-at-50
Hello, Brighton 27878. You’ve reached the Lavender Line, how can we help?
As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Brighton & Hove LGBTQ+ Switchboard, Alf Le Flohic looks back at its origins.
The first call came into Brighton & Hove LGBTQ+ Switchboard 50 years ago, on 25 April 1975 to be exact. It was known as The Lavender Line back then, but we’ll get to that.
It’s hard to imagine what it was like trying to get information about local gay life in the early 1970s. If you were lucky, your town had a noticeboard in an independent bookshop or café, or maybe even an underground magazine. Thankfully Brighton had all of those ingredients, which allowed a counter-cultural scene to thrive.
Having a queer person with regional information at their fingertips, on the end of a phone line, was revolutionary. Even if you had to join the queue outside a public phone box to have a private conversation with them.
It was in March 1974 that the London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard was launched, offering access to “news of the activities of gay groups around the country, gay pubs, clubs and discos, facts about VD, advice on legal problems.” (Gay News)
As with many other things, Brighton was hot on the heels of London, and just over a year later Brighton had its own switchboard.
The Open Café
The Open Café at 7 Victoria Road in the Montpelier area of town, proved to be integral to the birth of Switchboard. The café opened in September 1971, set up by a pair of gay-friendly hippies, Bruno and Alan.
Right from the start they allowed the Sussex Gay Liberation Front (GLF) to run gay counselling meetings from their premises. The Argus flatly refused to let the GLF advertise, but thankfully the local free press got the word out, including the magazine Attila produced by boyfriends Bill Butler and Mike Hughes of the Unicorn Bookshop.
Setting up an information service had been a goal of the Sussex GLF, but not having an office in which to locate a telephone had made that tough to achieve.
The Lavender People
In February 1974, a few disenchanted men and women from Sussex GLF formed a separate group calling themselves The Lavender People, announcing later that year that they planned to set up a switchboard. Once again, the Open Café saved the day providing the location as well as their own phone number to make this possible.
Amazingly David Maplesden has a photo of him (top of the article) on the phone in the small switchboard office. The fact that it was used in part as storage for the café might explain the carton of eggs in front of him. Or maybe not!
Image circa 1975/76, courtesy of David Maplesden.
The photo was taken by David’s American boyfriend Jacques de Tersac. A number of people have cited Jacques as being the reason it was called The Lavender Line. He had volunteered at San Francisco Gay Switchboard in 1971 and was aware of two US groups formed in 1973: The Lavender Menace and The Lavender Panthers.
Brighton Gay Switchboard
In an unusual act of solidarity, members of Sussex GLF and Brighton Campaign for Homosexual Equality helped to staff the phone lines, enabling switchboard to be running seven nights a week by February 1976. A name change to Brighton Gay Switchboard swiftly followed (presumably for clarity), and later that year the gay befriending phone service Brighton Icebreakers merged their services with them.
(LAGNA at Bishopsgate Institute)
It was the community effort of local activists and volunteers that ensured the survival of Brighton Switchboard back then, something that remains true today. Thank you for your service.
