Culture: Casuals in Brighton

The focus of most Casuals' identity was football. It has been suggested that the Casuals' interest in Italian sportswear and labels developed from following football teams to matches on the continent.

Casuals in Brighton supported the local team Brighton & Hove Albion, who in the mid 1980s were based at the Goldstone Ground. These Casuals were known as the West Street Gang or West Streeters as they would congregrate in amusement arcades at the bottom of West Street.

Goldstone Ground

In the mid 1980s Brighton & Hove Albion were based at the Goldstone Ground (now a retail park), a place that inspired many fond recollections from Brighton Casuals who were interviewed for Brighton & Hove Museums' Renegade collection.

'Goldstone Ground, oh it's gone now, it's a retail park. I saw my first game there in about the mid 80s. I didn't spend a lot of time watching the game but actually watching the crowd. I obviously started going and supporting the team and gradually the ground started getting really delapidated and you know, there was a great spirit in the ground, it was like wonderful. You stood in the same place all the time, you saw the same people, everyone used to meet at a certain bit and same people sitting in other stands and there was an atmosphere...'

West Street

The Casuals who followed Brighton & Hove Albion were known as the West Street Firm, also referred to as the West Street Gang and the West Streeters. Their name came from the fact that at night they used to congregate at the bottom of West Street, particularly around the Crystal Rooms amusement arcade. According to one Brighton Casual interviewed for Brighton & Hove Museums' Renegade Collection:

"Nobody actually said they belonged to it, so it was just like you knew you were down there and who was what, but you never admitted that".

Explore more about Casuals in Community History