Liminality

Order and chaos
Ebb and flow
Sand and pebbles
Persp and ective

Rags and angles
Shapes and shades
Trussels and tresses
Scaff and olding

Mud and iron
Wet and dried
Gull and nets
Indus and trial

Pilings and mussels
Maze and mops
Weed and feathers
Perp and endicular

Nuts and bolts
Ropes and rods
Lines and curves
Encrust and ation

Rusts and reds
Black and greys
Salt and ripples
Limin and ality

Together Co at the pier

Brighton-based charity Together Co is hitting the road today with a vibrant citywide bus roadshow marking 25 years of tackling loneliness and building community connections in Brighton & Hove. The one-day celebration, part of the charity’s #ConnectIn25 campaign, coincides with Loneliness Awareness Week and aims to put ‘social health’ - the ability to form meaningful relationships - firmly on the public agenda.

In partnership with Brighton & Hove Buses, the roadshow features a specially designed, beach-themed double-decker bus that doubles as a mobile community hub. Fully accessible and dementia-friendly, the bus will stop at key locations across the city including Moulsecoomb, Whitehawk, Churchill Square, and culminate at Brighton Palace Pier (where these photos were taken).

Television presenter and Together Co ambassador Gail Porter will join charity staff, volunteers and community partners along the route. Visitors are invited to climb aboard for a chat, learn more about Together Co’s work, or find out how to get involved as a volunteer. Founded in 1999, Together Co has supported thousands across Brighton & Hove through befriending, social prescribing and volunteering programmes.

Its work, the organisation says, has never been more relevant, with recent research showing that nearly half of adults in England experience feelings of loneliness at some point. Together Co CEO April Baker said, ‘This roadshow is about Together Co being out in the community, on the move, meeting people where they are. We want to celebrate what we have achieved with the help of our volunteers and supporters over the past 25 years, and to invite everyone to be a part of what comes next.’

Together Co is always looking for new ways to spread its message. In April 2024, to celebrate the Grand’s 160th anniversary, Together Co hosted an afternoon tea at the iconic hotel. It attracted 160 guests and performances including the Brighton Welsh Male Voice Choir. In November, it is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a gala on the pier. This will be themed, appropriately, as ‘All the Fun of the Fair’ - think Moulin Rouge meets Cabaret, it suggests. 

End of the Pier Show

A new chapter in Brighton Beach entertainment - or rather an old chapter renewed - is set to open in Brighton this summer, according to the Brighton and Hove News. The Palace Pier Performers - led by local panto favourites Allison Ferns and Jack Pallister - are preparing to revive a once popular theatre genre - The End of the Pier Show - on Brighton Palace Pier. 

Auditions, described as ‘a kind of Brighton’s got talent,’ will take place on 1 July at Horatio’s, with the first performance scheduled for 11 August and a run through 22 August. According to Brighton and Hove News, the organisers promise a contemporary twist on the classic variety format, seeking dynamic performers who can sing, dance, and act, and emphasising inclusivity for applicants of all backgrounds. Anne Ackord, chief executive of the pier was quoted as saying: ‘I am delighted to both revisit the past and create new memories for today’s visitors with the return of the iconic end of pier entertainment.’

Allison Ferns reflected: ‘My first ever proper job was on the Palace Pier selling seafood and Brighton rock and so it feels really special to be back here. In fact, I’m very much going back to my roots as my first ever performing job was in an end of the pier show in Eastbourne.’

This revival draws on a rich tradition that began in the late Victorian era, when pleasure piers across Britain built theatres at their seaward ends to host variety shows for holidaymakers. End of the pier shows became a hallmark of the British seaside, offering affordable entertainment that mixed comedy, music, dance, and novelty acts for generations of visitors. Though their popularity declined with changing holiday habits in the late 20th century, the format remains a cherished part of coastal culture.

Indeed, today, such anachronistic entertainment has largely disappeared. The Cromer Pier Show with over 70,000 visitors annually is a rare exception - this publicity still (!) can be found at the DayVisits website. 

Marrocco’s and the dawn of TripAdvisor

Fifteen years ago, in June 2010, a TripAdvisor user named Candyjo quietly posted what remains one of the earliest - and most charming - online restaurant reviews in the UK. Her destination was Marrocco’s, the family-run Italian institution on Hove’s seafront. At the time, hers was the only review for the year - only the second in total. Today, there are nearly a thousand.

Founded in 1969 by the Marrocco family, the Brighton Beach business began as a gelateria serving homemade Italian ice cream prepared fresh each morning. Over the decades it evolved into a full restaurant, offering fresh seafood, pasta and grills in a close-knit, cheerful setting. The heart of the operation remains the same: a warm welcome, an open kitchen, and food made with care.

TripAdvisor, meanwhile, was just beginning to take root in the UK dining scene. Although the platform launched in the US in 2000, its early growth in Britain was slower. In 2010, most independent restaurants still relied on word-of-mouth, and online reviews were more novelty than norm. This is what makes Candyjo’s post feel like a time capsule. 

She wrote in June 2010: ‘If you go here (please don’t - I like to be able to get a table) you need to accept that it’s a small, family-run place where they cook the food in an open kitchen that might be right by your elbow, and if they’re too busy then you’ll have to wait, and if you take longer than usual over your starter that might mess up the timing a bit but that what you get is authentic, fresh and delicious.

I had the crab linguine - a whole spider crab so not a huge amount of meat, and very messy of course what with pincers and extractors etc - it was already chopped up a bit, the pasta spilled from the shell like a piece of art - it was beautiful. Am I being too effusive? Probably. It’s just so rare to get food this good, that looks this good and that I can afford (£11.95). The pasta sauce included fresh cherry tomatoes to die for, a hint of heat (chilli), perfect.

My companion had a whole, huge sea bass, grilled perfectly. Same price; it came with chips. The tables are closely packed and if it’s busy it’s noisy. There are children, who might possibly run around were there room to but there isn’t. There are grandparents, business people, couples, friends; often they seem to be Italian which seems a good thing. The staff are friendly and knowledgeable.

Perhaps you should go with the idea that it’s a café that serves fab food (and with ‘greasy spoon’ cafes charging perhaps £7 or £8 for a plate of breakfast, this is a bargain in comparison). Get a bottle of wine, linger. Then walk along the seafront towards the dreamy sunset and remember that city living can have its advantages.

I don’t especially like the ice cream (not sweet enough for me) but I don’t go there for that. Though I did share an ice cream ‘cocktail’ thing (banana split?) once and it was good.’

Fifteen years later, the heart of that review still beats. The prices may have changed, but the atmosphere, the setting and the charm of Marrocco’s continue to draw locals and visitors alike. Candyjo’s post wasn’t just an early review - it was a small piece of Brighton food history, lovingly written, and now part of the restaurant’s long and ongoing story.

Dombey’s son on Brighton Beach

Charles Dickens, who died 155 years ago today, knew Brighton well. He first visited the seaside resort in October 1837 and returned frequently over the next 30 years, often staying at the Bedford Hotel (now replaced by the modern Holiday Inn on the seafront following the original building’s destruction by fire in 1964). He also lodged at the Old Ship Hotel and with friends in private residences. While in Brighton, Dickens worked on parts of several novels, including Bleak House, Barnaby Rudge, and most notably Dombey and Son.

Dickens appreciated Brighton not just as a place to write, but to observe. In a newly discovered letter, he wrote: ‘I feel much better for my short stay here, also the characters one meets at these seaside places.’ In 2012, a blue plaque was unveiled on the Holiday Inn to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth, commemorating his strong links to the town. Further details of his Brighton connections are available at the Brighton & Hove Museums website.

In Dombey and Son, the Brighton coast plays a central symbolic and narrative role. The novel, a meditation on pride, emotional repression, and redemption, follows the life of Paul Dombey, a cold, ambitious businessman obsessed with his shipping empire and the hope of passing it to a male heir. The story opens with the birth of his son, Paul Jr., and the simultaneous death of his wife. Dombey’s daughter, Florence, is largely ignored - valued neither in business nor lineage.

The frail and introspective Paul Jr. is advised to spend time by the sea for his health, and so he and Florence are sent to Brighton. They stay first at the austere Mrs. Pipchin’s boarding house and later at the school of the formidable Dr. Blimber. These episodes mark some of the most poignant and poetic passages in Dickens’s writing, in which Brighton Beach becomes more than a setting: it is a landscape of revelation, sorrow, and spiritual inquiry.

In chapter eight, we discover Paul’s favourite place is not among the bustling crowds, but a quiet, remote stretch of beach, where Florence reads to him and he reflects deeply: ‘His favourite spot was quite a lonely one, far away from most loungers; and with Florence sitting by his side at work, or reading to him. . . he wanted nothing more.’ He becomes fascinated by the sea, sensing a hidden language in the endless waves: ‘The sea, Floy, what is it that it keeps on saying?’ She told him that it was only the noise of the rolling waves. ‘Yes, yes,’ he said. ‘But I know that they are always saying something. Always the same thing.’

The beach also gives Dickens the chance to provide Paul with limited social interaction: a daily encounter with a gruff, elderly fisherman - ‘a weazen, old, crab-faced man in a suit of battered oil-skin’ - adds colour to his otherwise quiet days. Yet solitude and introspection dominate: ‘Another time, in the same place, he fell asleep, and slept quietly for a long time. Awaking suddenly, he listened, started up, and sat listening.’

The Victorian Web website has several illustrations of Brighton Beach from different editions of Dombey and Son. The one immediately above is by Harold Copping for Mary Angela Dickens’s Children’s Stories from Dickens and the one above that is by W. L. Sheppard for the 1873 American Household Edition of Dombey and Son.

One cannot say the novel ends happily since despite the hopeful associations of sea air and convalescence, Paul’s condition worsens, and he dies young. Florence is heartbroken and the emotional void between her and her father deepens. Nevertheless - this is Dickens after all - there is, ultimately, a sense of moral reckoning and eventual redemption.

Beyond writing retreats, Dickens’s relationship with Brighton was also marked by performance. He gave several public readings in the town, including a much-admired appearance at the Royal Pavilion on 9 November 1861, where his dramatic rendering of scenes from his novels drew packed audiences. Brighton featured again on his Farewell Reading Tour in 1867-1868, during which his health was already deteriorating. Indeed, he would die on 9 June 1870, Much more on Dickens can be found at Wikipedia.

New Nuun beach run

Today saw the debut of the Nuun BRIGHTON TEN & FREE Foundation 5K, a two-part running event bringing a new blend of competition and inclusivity to Brighton’s seafront. Organised by RunThrough Events and its non-profit arm, the RunThrough Foundation, the day’s races highlighted two distinct aims: one focused on performance over a new 10-mile distance, the other offering a completely free, accessible route into running for local communities.

The Nuun BRIGHTON TEN, a 10-mile closed-road race, began at 9:00am on Madeira Drive, near Brighton Marina. The course was flat, fast and scenic, with chip-timed results, three water stations, and energy gel support at mile six. Entry cost £40, or £52 for those opting to include a sustainable tech t-shirt. All finishers received a medal, refreshments, and free event photography.

The second event, the FREE Foundation 5K, started shortly after at 9:20am and was open to participants via a free-entry ballot. Ballot places were allocated in three stages during April and May, with priority given to underrepresented communities, including low-income households and first-time runners. The 5K route also followed the coast, and participants enjoyed the same finish-line support, safety infrastructure, and festive atmosphere as the 10-mile field.

Though held on the same day, the two events were organised by different wings of the same company. RunThrough Events, founded in 2013 by former international athletes Matt Wood and Ben Green, has grown into one of the UK’s most prolific race organisers, delivering more than 200 events per year across the country. From its roots in a 300-person 10K at Bushy Park, the company has expanded to include half marathons, virtual races, and the launch of RunThrough Kit, an apparel line. Their events are known for strong logistics, welcoming atmospheres and iconic UK venues.

The FREE Foundation 5K, meanwhile, is the product of the RunThrough Foundation, launched in 2023 to remove barriers to distance running. Its mission is to make road racing accessible to all by offering free, closed-road events, especially in communities that might otherwise face economic or social exclusion. The foundation held its first large-scale race at Warrington in 2023, with over 30% of participants running their first-ever event. It followed up with a free London 10K in December 2024. Each event is coupled with year-round community training and support, working in partnership with councils, charities and local groups to leave a lasting impact.

Together, the two Brighton races represent a new approach to running events: one that preserves the structure and ambition of traditional racing while opening the sport to new audiences. Whether chasing a personal best or completing a first run, participants at today’s Brighton TEN and FREE Foundation 5K helped launch what looks set to become a major fixture in the city’s sporting calendar.

Incidentally, Nuun, pronounced ‘Noon’, describes itself as ‘the first company to separate electrolyte replacement from carbohydrates.’ The result, it says, was ‘a healthy, hydrating beverage without all of the extra sugar and additives’. Over a decade later, Nuun Hydration markets itself as ‘hydrating the planet one runner, surfer, cyclist, mother, yogi, hula hooper at a time (the list goes on…)!’

Monster moaning

Oh, sure - laugh it up. Take your selfies, poke my chest, comment on my ‘classic look’. I’ve stood here on this splintered pier through wind, rain, stag dos, hen parties, and the occasional rogue seagull attack, and not once has anyone thought to ask how I feel. I’m Frankenstein’s MONSTER, damn it. Not a prop. Not a photo op. A BEING stitched from human remains and existential dread - and yet somehow, I’ve become a mascot for your wretched seaside giddiness.

Every day, thousands of you shuffle past, sticky with candy floss, reeking of sunblock and regret, funnelling into the haunted house behind me like sheep queueing for a predictable fright. ‘Ooh, spooky!’ you say. Is it? Is it really? I’ve seen scarier things in your pop culture. You’ve got real monsters now - algorithmic surveillance, climate collapse, influencers. But no, you want a 1950s rubber mask and a few jump-scares. That’s enough horror for your Instagram.

And don’t get me started on the paint. Who keeps giving me these slapdash touch-ups? I look like someone tried to fix a Renaissance fresco with emulsion and a plastic spoon. My hands are scuffed, my bolts are rusted, and my suit - my suit - was once the pinnacle of stitched-together sophistication. Now I look like a bouncer at a discount Halloween disco.

I hear your conversations. I do. ‘Look, it’s Frankenstein!’ No. Wrong. Frankenstein was the doctor. I am the nameless creation, the wretched patchwork soul who wandered the Alps questioning the morality of man. But go ahead - reduce me to a misunderstood Halloween cliché, why don’t you?

And what is this cursed playlist on the pier? I’ve listened to ‘Agadoo’ more times than I’ve contemplated mortality. Which is saying something. You think eternal life is glamorous? Try standing motionless next to a coin-operated skeleton that laughs every time a child screams. I once pondered the ethics of divine creation. Now I know the true abyss: karaoke night on a bank holiday Monday.

Do I get a break? A moment of stillness? No. Just endless photos, drunks trying to grope me for laughs, and the seagulls - God, the seagulls. I was struck by lightning to be brought to life, and now I live in constant fear of bird droppings and chip theft.

So yes, I’m angry. I deserve better. I deserve a gallery, a plinth, a plaque explaining my tragic origins. Not this rotting boardwalk of flashing lights and bubblegum detritus. Well, fine. Take your photo, but just so you know, my true creator, Mary Shelley, is turning, eternally, agonisingly in her grave.