Pop-up living room coming to Brighton Palace Pier and Whitehawk

Camerados is a social movement which creates public living rooms which it says “bring people together in tough times”.

Tomorrow, the company will bring a van full of sofas and chairs to Brighton to set up a space for passers-by to sit down and chat.

Maff Potts founded Camerados in 2015 after years of working in the homelessness sector.

“In that time the biggest lesson I learnt was that it is human connection that makes the biggest difference to people’s lives," he said.

“People coming together and looking out for each other. Of course the practical stuff is important, but it is our connections with others that give us a reason to keep going when things are difficult.”

Camerados has more than 100 public living rooms in the UK in public spaces such as community centres and disused shops. Many are affiliated to schools, libraries, hospitals and universities too.

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The company is touring the country and wants to encourage people to make the living rooms a regular event in their communities.

The pop-up living room in Rochdale (Image: Camerados)

Maff said: “We want to remind people at this time when they're feeling the effects of the cost-of-living crisis that coming together and being connected is as important - if not more so - than fuel and food poverty.

“We hope that local people see how easy it is to create a public living room and think about creating one in a local space that opens on an ongoing basis after our visit.”

The pavement public living rooms will be coming to two locations in Brighton tomorrow. 

• Whitehawk Estate, close to the Co-op in Whitehawk Road from 10.30am to 1pm
• The paved area in front of the Palace Pier from 2pm to 4pm

On Saturday, February 25, Camerados will arrive in Hastings. The living room will be outside the old Debenhams in Robertson Street from 10.30am to 4pm