The Brighton Fishing Museum is a small speciality museum by the seafront that has a focus on the history of Brighton’s fishing industry.
Every May, the Annual Brighton Mackeral Fair is organised by the museum and the city’s fishing community.
What to see at the Brighton Fishing Museum
The museum has exhibits about the fishing industry that has existed in the Brighton area for over one thousand years. It gives an insight into how important the fishing industry was to Brighton and other towns along the English coast but also has other displays about Brighton’s local history.
The highlight of a visit to the museum is the 8.2 m (27 ft) Sussex Maid, a wooden fishing boat that operated in the area during the 1920s.
The display about the role that local fishermen played in the evacuation of Dunkirk and St Valery during the Second World War is particularly interesting, as is the area dedicated to two of Brighton’s local identities: Martha Gunn, the most famous of Brighton’s ‘dippers’ and Captain Fred Collins of the Skylark.
There are also displays showing how Brighton made the transition from relying on fishing to embracing the tourism industry.
There are a few small exhibits about Brighton that are not related to fishing. These include the rivalry between the Mods and Rockers as well as early swimming competitions.
It is not quite as good as the fishing museum in Hastings but still worth a look if you are interested in the history of the fishing industry on the south coast.
Visiting the Brighton Fishing Museum
The Brighton Fishing Museum is located in two of the arches under the Kings Road, which runs along the seafront near Brighton Pier. It is close to The Lanes, only a five-minute walk to Brighton Pier and less than 10-minutes to the British Airways i360, the Royal Pavilion, Brighton Dome and the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery.
The museum is open daily. Admission is free but donations are appreciated.
There is not enough here to make you want to go out of your way to visit the museum but it is definitely worth a quick look if you are walking past.
It is only a small museum and most people will be able to see everything in around half an hour.
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