Interior of the Friends’ Meeting House. Heated by a centrally placed coke stove. The only internal decoration was a wide coved sounding-board over the speakers’ end of the room and a gallery at the west end. About 400 people could be seated. Drawing by W.A. Delamotte, 1853
would learn from each other’. Over time the Friends Centre moved into the fields of adult literacy, numeracy and English tuition for foreign nationals. It continued to grow, all the time being supported by the Quakers, until it reached a point where there was no alternative but to find alternative, larger premises.
someone once remarked, it has also been “a venue for many marginal, alternative and nonviolent social and radical groups and causes; a ‘den of nonconformity’ at the heart of Brighton”.
The Quakers continue to use the Meeting House for their regular worship meetings, but this historic building is also the venue chosen by local community groups for their many and diverse activities. And, of course, there are the afternoon lectures, ‘Tuesday at Friends’, founded by Pat Norman, former Principal at the Friends Centre, and still organised and run by her today. Education, as a way to help people find a better life, has always been central to activities taking place at the Friends’ Meeting House, but, as 18 |
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