News that the Beach Tavern Public House may have been sold to a private buyer was circulating Pevensey Bay at the weekend—Bay Life, 18 April 2016
Bay Life has heard from two stakeholder sources that a sale may have taken place and that we may be seeing in Pevensey Bay, at the location of the property, a restaurant of some description.
Like all local stories, establishing whether or not a sale has taken place has proved to have been difficult today (April 18)..
The public house, the source of much publicity and community interest locally has twice been put forward for auction and twice seen an auction of the property postponed.
The property was first put forward for auction by Clive Emson auctioneers and offered for a proposed sale on 15 December 2015.
Bay Life reported (10 December 2015) “this morning news emerged that the Beach Tavern in Pevensey Bay has been withdrawn from sale by auction at the Brighton Hilton Metropole Hotel on 15 December”.
Just prior to the proposed sale, the property had become of interest to the local community group the Friends of Pevensey Bay Library which proposed the building as a potential community asset.
At the time (30 November) , Bay Life reported “the Beach Tavern is up for auction on 15 December.
“One of the first actions taken by the Group has been to apply to Wealden Council to have the pub listed as an Asset of Community Value. If successful, future owners will be required to give the community six months notice of any planned disposal to give them the opportunity to acquire the site”.
In response (30 November 2015) Alex Colbran, Policy Officer for Wealden Council wrote to the group;
The Beach Tavern, Community Right to Bid nomination:
Thank you for your completed application to add The Beach Tavern, Sea Road, Pevensey Bay, BN24 6EH to the Wealden District Council List ot Assets of Community Value. We intend to make a decision on whether to list on or before 25/01/201 6, this being eight weeks from the date of receipt of the nomination as required by the relevant regulations.
On 22 January, this year we reported, “Bay Life understands that the decision has now been made by Wealden District Council on whether to list the Beach Tavern public house as a community asset”.
The decision made by Wealden Council, published subsequently, was to turn down the application.
In spite of the fact that the application failed, nonetheless the coherent community campaign raised the profile and interest in the building.
In addition the Friends of Pevensey Bay Library group did something fundamentally important. They raised the profile of Pevensey Bay as an active community, prepared to defend the precious assets that constitute the heart of the community.
The Beach Tavern public house was put back up for auction, the news was announced by Clive Emson Auctioneers in a media release issued to Bay Life on 2 March 2016.
At the time they said, ‘at the Brighton auction on March 18, Pevensey Bay’s Beach Tavern will be coming back up for sale’.
The sale of the property was withdrawn from the auction on March 18.
To our knowledge the only information available in the public domain about what future might hold for the public house, which offers a focal point to community activity at a key position in Pevensey Bay, is what has been stated on the Right Move property site about the proposed sale.
A statement reads (April 18) “This property has been removed by the agent. It may be sold or temporarily removed from the market”.
A sign at the property continues to suggest that the property is up for sale by auction, with Clive Emson auctioneers as a number promoted to phone for further information.
Bay life contacted the auctioneers Clive Emson today (April 18) about the matter.
We were told that the person concerned with the sale was not available for comment.
The auctioneers have acted with credit over the issue, keeping the community informed of the proposed sale, since the story of the Beach Tavern and the proposed sale first became public knowledge and of such interest to the community.
Owners too of the property have acted with credit, and appear cognisant of all the issues involved from the community perspective.
The public house occupies a pivotal position in Pevensey Bay. It has not been a surprise to see the interest that the sale has generated.
Many people in the Bay appear to believe that an independent enterprise of some description, such as a restaurant or similar venture, with community input, could become a success.
It is noteworthy that independent ‘destination venues’, particularly those offering such services as ‘speciality eating’, have proved to be successful in Sussex.
Pevensey Bay, in some ways, has seemed increasingly ripe for such an offering, particularly given the fact that grants and various successful local community initiatives have all seen the profile of the locality raised somewhat over the last few years.
A total close to £200,000 in the form of national and regional grants has funded seedcorn ventures in the locality over the last two years. Included in this figure is vital support for the fabric of iconic historic buildings in the community, such as the 800 year old St. Nicolas church. The figure approaches £250,000 if the monies invested in the locality by Wealden District Council, for example, through support for the Wealden Food and Wine Festival (£42,000) are included. A further £30,000 is to be invested in the Food and Wine Festival by Wealden Council this summer.
The approach to the festival in terms of planning and thinking has been meticulous. Given the savvy investment in the rural wellbeing of the community by Wealden Council there is evidence this year that sponsorship for the event of some significance may emerge. It is becoming manifest that this approach to social wellbeing and economic regeneration has the potential to introduce sustainable value to the locality.
The first Wealden Food and Wine Festival at Pevensey Castle in 2014 saw 8,900 people coming to the event. In July this year the second Wealden Food and Wine Festival at Pevensey Castle is predicted (weather permitting) to attract as many as 15,000 people over the weekend of 16-17 July.
Pevensey Bay, joining Pevensey, with a distinct blend of history, and all the charms of being ‘one of the hidden jewels of the crown of Sussex’, presents a unique set of possibilities in the re-profiling of the area as a visitor destination.
The kinds of opportunities that are emerging, with this re-profiling, are clearly of potential value both to residents and visitors to the Bay from economic and social wellbeing points of views.
Anyone who has lived here for any length of time will know the quirky quintessence of the locality and how much people appreciate the ambience of the place. There is a premium on the value of the vernacular experience of being here.
The sunsets and beach here, for example, provide a lasting daily sense of what it means to live in such a special place.
The Guardian newspaper (18 September 2015), identified the community in their “Let’s move to” section of their Saturday magazine.
The newspaper said about Pevensey and Pevensey Bay,
What’s going for it? We may be few, but our numbers are growing…big skies, quiet, forgotten-about towns, roads with names like Sluice Lane, shingly beaches fronted by settlements straight out of an Ealing comedy (Peter Sellers used to visit his mum at Pevensey Bay) – just not for £1.5m, or anything close.
The seafront at Pevensey Bay might not be Malibu, but it is splendidly eccentric, with Edwardian town houses cheek-by-jowl with shacks and the 1930s-50s bungalow estate of Beachlands.
Long term resident, Jane Marter, was quoted as saying in the article “Pevensey and Pevensey Bay have a community vibe, with lots of clubs and societies.”
The community vibe here is certainly something special.
There are at least 60 thriving community groups here of some description. Arts and history groups are very well represented, as well as many other genres. It would be interesting to study if any similar sized coastal community in Sussex could boast such a rich catchment of activity,
For the record, the excellent parish magazine, the Parish Pump, published three times yearly, and delivered to every household in the locality without fail, began life in 1968, making the publication the longest standing community magazine in Sussex of any similar description.
In September this year, the University of Cambridge Museum of Zoology plans to open their new £19.8 million Museum, which will become one of the wonders of the modern Museum world in this country.
The museum will see the skeleton of the famous Pevensey Whale centre stage at the museum as the star attraction in an annex designed for the extraordinary specimen.
The national news that will follow from the opening of the Museum seems sure to ripple down to Pevensey.
More visitors are expected to the locality to see where the story began.
Any restaurant planning to profile the story of the Pevensey Whale looks likely to benefit from the publicity that will come from the launch of the new museum in Cambridge.
The modern sculpture planned for the Sea Road car park in tribute to the Pevensey Whale also looks likely to attract some attention both in the locality and to a certain small extent, as a feature in the Wealden region for people visiting small coastal communities.
‘Wish you were here— Meet me at the Whale Statue in Pevensey Bay’, is the title of the application to a national arts based organsiation that is now under active consideration.
Postcards, T shirts and memorabilla about the Pevensey Whale are already planned by local businesses to accompany the launch of the museum in Cambridge in September.
Wealden Council has agreed to fund the development of the launch of “the Mummers Play”, promoted by the Pevensey Timeline, that will form part of a re-cast historical profile for Pevensey Bay.
The Mummers Play will see the story of the beaching of Pevensey Whale in November 1865 told by a local theatrical group here in Pevensey Bay, at the position where the whale sculpture is to be sited in the Sea Road Car Park in Pevensey Bay.
Today in Pevensey Bay there was a generally a positive reaction to the possibility that a private sale may have taken place and the Beach Tavern is possibly to become a restaurant.
District Councillor Dianne Dear, who is also the publisher of Bay life, said today (April 18), “if the Beach Tavern has been sold and is to become a restaurant, my reaction is the news could possibly be good for the community.
“A restaurant of some specialist description could become a community asset and could certainly add community profile to the Bay”.
The public house, which has been the subject of much local community comment has now been empty for six months.
News that it may now have been sold, has caused a ripple of reaction.
In a local cafe, reaction to the possibly that there had been a private sale, and the Beach Tavern may become a restaurant, was generally received in a positive fashion by people.
A number of people asked questions about what kind of restaurant the property might become with at least one pointing out “if it was to be a specialist restaurant, something that we do not have, an Italian restaurant, for example or a classic English restaurant for example, it could be a positive addition to the community”.
A number of local residents said, “what another restaurant?”, but when it was pointed out that the sale might involve a community profile for the property of some new description, there was more interest.
One long term resident said, “in the old days it was the Honeypot and it really was popular”.
She pointed out that other restaurants of a similar description that have been re-cast in a classic way for the times in which we live, have proved to be popular.
“The Litlington Tea Gardens of the Past, seven miles from Lewes, with a fifty year history”, she pointed out, re-cast, “now has 90 rave reviews on Trip Adviser and is a real success”.
Nostalgia, in the Age of Austerity, for whatever reason, (perhaps because it makes people feel more secure?), is big business up and down the land.
The formula, in a variety of fashions and manifestations, seems to work particularly well in small, half-forgotten and hardly known parts of the country.
Does this explain why the Guardian newspaper came calling last September and something of the spirit of their review and their look at property prices in the area in comparison to other small ‘beachside’ locations in the country?
It is also noteworthy that whilst the locality is well served by cafes and public house in the day, with a good range of food offerings, there is little in Pevensey Bay that caters for an evening audience with a restaurant of some description that could be described as ‘specialist’.
The Happy Dragon, with the eat as much as you like philososphy has long proved to be a popular attraction in the evenings with a fabulous range of chinese offerings and a sit down in style experience and easy parking in North Road.
The duck in ‘rolled pancake with sauce’, positioned between the starters and the main course in their ‘eat as much as you like menu’ is known to be a family favourite for at least one visitor family to the Bay, that comes yearly and always requests this particular menu offering, on each yearly pilgrimage to Pevensey Bay!!
Raipur, in Eastbourne Road, with the distinction of being an Indian sit down that is both original and in the culinary world noted for the art on offer, draws people every weekend for special gatherings.
Chef, Sarwar Chowdhury, says that he sees “cooking as an art”. Raipur explains that, “through his delicately beautiful vibrant and inventive work he has already received tributes from many national and international food critics, obtaining this widespread reputation from five star restaurants in Dubai and the Gulf”.
The kind of hot flannel you get offered when you have had your meal and want to rub your hands in a number of Indian restaurants? We think not.
Anyone that has witnessed the art of service, delivery and tastes that comes with Raipur, and the lovely fuss and attention, from the moment that you are seen to your seat, will know that the experience has been noted, as owners suggest, as ‘artistry’ by many local people and by visitors.
Walk past at weekends and you will see that you have to book. Artistry is the word. The dishes are delivered in original style and the lightness of taste is equally original.
There is clearly room for a third specialist and different offering in the evenings in Pevensey Bay.
The profile of the Bay as a visitor destination in the evenings and as a place for specialist restaurants, all within walking distance, begins to fit the bill does it not?
Wander and make your choice from at least three specialist offerings. Book a table for eight and start at 7:30pm with a beautiful walk to the beach at sunset as the backdrop to whet your appetite. How does that sound for starters?
The Beach Tavern in many ways is a focal point physically for the community.
The property occupies a key position in the village, seen by everyone by car as they weave their way towards Eastbourne and seen by everyone walking into the village from the other direction as they wander towards the shopping parade.
Walk from the beach at the Seas Road car park or access the village from the Sea Road Car park, when you arrive. What is the first public service building inland that catches your view?
Travel in from Pevensey. Travel in from Bexhill, Hastings along the Wallsend Road. Which building stands out as you turn the corner into the Bay? In fact the building is a focal point from every direction into the Bay.
The visibility and the character profile of the building ‘at the end of the road’, makes what happens here at the heart of the community of vital interest to the future of Pevensey Bay. Perhaps in ways that are not immediately obvious.
Saving the location from developers, and even better, saving the building from what the particulars describe as being “suitable for a supermarket chain or similar commercial space”, would be welcome.
The board outside the Beach Tavern stills says that the property is up for auction. We have been told that this sign may be about to change, by sources that we talked to at the weekend.
Of course not all stories are true, so we will simply have to wait to see what happens.
It does seem though after six long months that we might perhaps be coming to the end of this particular chapter in the story of Pevensey Bay and the business of the Beach Tavern.
There is something about the timing and the time of the year that says to us that we may be about to see something happening at long last on the site.
Having said that, there is nothing yet, to our knowledge, in the pubic domain, that can confirm the suggestion that the Beach Tavern has now been sold and is to become a restaurant.
We wait to see if the news at the weekend that circulated that the Beach Tavern is to become a restaurant is simply rumour or if there is some substance to the story.
