Image Credit:The Royal Pavilion and Museums, Brighton and Hove

Brighton Dome Shares Wartime Memories with Free Event

News, Community, Events, History & Heritage

We are opening our doors for a day of free activities exploring wartime memories of Brighton Dome on Sat 6 Nov.

Brighton Dome played a pivotal role in the city’s war effort - from keeping Indian soldiers in good health during the First World War, to providing a place for young men and women to socialise in the troubling times of the Second World War - the venue offered a place for shelter and solace in very different ways.

During the 1940s, Brighton & Hove residents and soldiers on leave would have let off steam at regular Dome Dancing events. To recreate the popular routines of the times, Sussex Swing will bring wartime dancing back to the Concert Hall, with lessons in the Allies’ Waltz, an early sequence dance from 1917 and the energetic Lindy Hop, which originated in America and became a favourite dance in the UK. For fans of vintage style, Gladrags Costume Hire will display the fashionable outfits that would have been worn during the era of ‘make do and mend’ and a workshop will demonstrate how the glamorous Victory Rolls hairstyle can be achieved.


The personal stories of people who were connected to the venue are brought to life in an exhibition of photographs, letters and ephemera researched by Brighton Dome’s heritage volunteers. From the moving accounts of Indian soldiers recuperating at the Royal Pavilion Estate’s military hospital, to the fascinating mystery of how a young Brighton woman’s handbag revealed a wartime love story.

Brighton Dome in WW1 and WW2
10am-4pm, Sat 6 Nov 2021

Doors 10am
Allies’ Waltz dance lesson 10.30am - book your free ticket
Lindy Hop dance lesson 12pm - book your free ticket 
How to do the 'Victory Roll' or 'Marcel Wave' hairdo 1.30-2.30pm

All day (10am-4pm)
Exhibition in the Foyer -  Gladrags Costumes have provided examples of 1940s ‘Dome Dancing’ outfits
‘Letters from the Wars’ including Joan Nash artefacts and letters from WW1 soldiers recuperating at Brighton Dome
Café open all day with sounds of the '40s playing in the Foyer

Learn more about our heritage 

Catherine Bohart sits on a black chair, with her arms on the arm rests, and sticks her tongue out at the camera
Image by Raphael Neal

Self-deprecating, introspective and whip-smart, Catherine Bohart delves into her ‘needless worries’ in Borrowing Trouble. Bohart discusses moving in with her girlfriend for the first time and mental health in this powerhouse house hour from Irish comedy favourite (Fri 16 Oct). Dan Tiernan has hit rock-bottom in Quartz and All, and what better way to cope that to turn to the world of crystal healing? This “brilliant, blistering, eardrum-drum battering” (Daily Telegraph) sees Tiernan armed with rose quartz and sage as he discusses sexuality and mental health in an uproarious hour of stand-up (Fri 23 Oct). Over at the Concert Hall, internationally acclaimed comedian and filmmaker Simon Amstell presents an hour of reflection, dissection, and the psychology of indulging in a celebrity crush in I Love it Here (Thu 22 Oct).