Photographer and occupational therapy lecturer Luci Carnall explores the power of connection and belonging in The Bevy – More Than a Pub, a Photo Fringe 2026 exhibition celebrating the UK’s first community-run pub on a housing estate.
A pub can be much more than somewhere to grab a drink. At The Bevy in Brighton, it’s a place to meet friends, share a meal, find support and join in with activities from Disability Disco to Community Garden and more.
Photographer Luci Carnall’s exhibition The Bevy – More Than a Pub, part of Photo Fringe 2026, celebrates the people who make this community space what it is. Her photographs capture everyday moments and the connections that bring people together.
Luci is drawn to community spaces that offer connection and belonging. “Growing up in the Midlands with a different family set up than anyone I knew, I was always drawn to community spaces that offered connection & belonging,” she says, “this insight also navigated my path to become an occupational therapist & now occupational therapy lecturer. I think this experience underpins an innate collaborative approach, I want to genuinely find out how the Bevy is experienced by individuals and to gain an understanding of this from them, not an assumed idea.”
Rather than simply turning up with a camera, Luci has made regular visits, building relationships and becoming part of the community herself. She says the process has been reciprocal, strengthening both her connection with the people there and her own sense of belonging.
“I would say Joe and his family, Barbara and Dave and also Gemma, Warren and Luke who are integral to the sustainability of The Bevy in particular really made space for discussion and offering a welcoming path in to the community… but everyone has been kind and welcoming, now I am offered a cup of tea when I go!”
Someone even told her they were surprised by how much trust she had gained in such a short time.
“That meant a lot to me,” she says.
For Luci, the exhibition was about more than documenting daily life. She wanted the people at The Bevy to feel that their stories had been told with care.
“My hope for the exhibition was that The Bevy community would feel that I’d done a good job & done them proud by capturing the heart of the place & them,” she says.
After the exhibition launch, she received a message from someone in the community saying: “Thank you, absolutely brilliant, you did the pub proud.”
Another said: “Thank you for a brilliant Bevy night, that’s what we are all about.”
Luci says both messages moved her deeply. Holding the exhibition at The Bevy itself was particularly important, allowing the community to be involved throughout the process and share its story with a wider audience.
“I hope anyone who sees it […] will experience a visual connection through the photographs & accept the open invitation to return at anytime.”
One particularly lovely moment from the exhibition came during the Family Fun Day, when children decorated beer mats in response to the question: ‘We love The Bevy because…’. Without much prompting, they came up with words including family, inclusivity, friendship and fun.
“It was really moving & again highlighted belonging,” Luci says.
The exhibition comes at an important time for The Bevy. While the pub is community-owned, the building itself is not. A fundraising campaign is underway to buy it, helping keep the pub in community hands for generations to come.
Luci sees the photographs as a way to show people why the pub matters and support its future. The campaign’s message is: “The community built The Bevy, now it’s time we owned it.”
For Luci, the project is far from finished. She plans to continue documenting The Bevy as it faces its next chapter, and is also considering visiting other community pubs around the UK to explore the connections between them.
As she puts it, the next stage will be about continuing to capture the story and seeing how things unfold. “Hopefully with another hope realised.”
For now, her photographs offer a glimpse of what makes The Bevy special: the people, relationships and everyday moments that turn a pub into a place to belong.
See the exhibition: The Bevy – More Than a Pub by Luci Carnall is part of Photo Fringe 2026 at The Bevy, 50 Hillside, BN2 4TF until Friday 30 October.
Support the campaign to buy the building at thebevypub.co.uk.
All images © Luci Carnall
