A new exhibition at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery is shining a light on the history of The Sussex Lancers, a groundbreaking gay leather bikers' club that forged a resilient community in the face of prejudice and the HIV/AIDS crisis. Developed by LGBTQ+ historian and University of Brighton Digital Communications Officer Alf Le Flohic, The Sussex Lancers: Tailor-made Leather Lovers traces the club's activity throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
The story begins in the 1960s with two tailors on Bond Street and charts the rise of Brighton's leather culture, exploring its vital role in shaping identity, visibility, and belonging for its members. The exhibition uses rare photographs, personal memorabilia, and newly uncovered archival material to create an intimate portrait of the club's everyday life, revealing the friendships, care networks, and moments of joy that existed alongside necessary activism and profound loss.
“At the end of the last century, it was a common sight to see groups of men in leather, arms around each other, moving between the bars in the St James’s Street area of Brighton,” Alf Le Flohic told QX magazine. “The image was ultra-masculine, but some of the candid photos I’ve uncovered show them having picnics on the Downs and taking tea at Amberley.”
He explained that the project required diligent reconstruction after the club's official archive was destroyed around a decade ago. The exhibition has been pieced together from personal collections and material held at the Bishopsgate Institute in London. “We hear a lot about Brighton’s Mod scene – this is a chance to celebrate some bikers,” Le Flohic added.
The exhibition also features new photographic work by Antony Edwards, documenting the contemporary group Leathermen South. This draws a direct line between past and present expressions of leather culture and community in the city. It is presented as a companion piece to Gender Stories, which runs concurrently at the museum.
“This exhibition captures an important but often overlooked part of Brighton’s social history,” said a spokesperson for Brighton & Hove Museums. “By bringing together personal collections, archive material and contemporary photography, it highlights the city’s long-standing role as a place of community, resistance and self-expression.”
The Sussex Lancers: Tailor-made Leather Lovers is on display in the museum's Prints and Drawings Gallery until 12 April 2026. Tickets are available online.
