Yet another landlord leaves the Beach Tavern in unknown circumstances. Why does it not work? A lot of work by all the landlords and then they leave.
It is not the best of adverts for the Bay to have a key location locked up, but perhaps having put their hearts and soul into the enterprise and found it simply does not work, the landlords have had no choice but to leave.
Sad because the building has bags of character and occupies an optimum position.
Can anything be done to see that the public house works again? Joyce who was born in the Bay, told us that ‘years ago it was a very popular place’ as ‘The Honeypot Tea Rooms’, and friend Colin, pointed out that it used to be ‘heaving’.
Postcards from the early part of the twentieth century demonstrate that as ‘The Honeypot Tea Rooms’, the building was known for miles around.
For some years it has been known as a Friday night home to local bands, and it has worked well. Having said that without regular programming and promotion and the ‘guarantee’ of an audience, it must have been difficult for landlords to risk every Friday night with live bookings that could not be sustained..
Maybe times have changed. Late night clubs have all suffered because the public houses are open later and many pubs to survive have had to innovate in some way. They have become destination pubs or focused on speciality food offerings, or become focal points in villages as ‘community hubs’.
The Castle Inn in Pevensey Bay is a fabulous success. The pub has won for itself an enviable reputation with ambience, family atmosphere and the best pub grub that money can buy in the Bay. Their focus on community based events, like CastleFest, held each year, are examples of best practice in terms of community engagement.
Two public house still close every week in this country and they will not be back. Is it time for the owners of the Beach Tavern to change tack and think about utilising the building in a different way?
An example of best practice innovation in a public house in Sussex is the Bevy in Bevendean, Brighton.
Set on an estate it was boarded up for years and then the community decided to exercise their options to buy the premises. Local people formed a community enterprise company (a legal hybrid that enables share options to be bought by communities) and within a year they had enough money in the coffers to launch the public house as a new venture.
The Bevy became the first public house on an estate anywhere in the country to be owned by the community that it serves.
Even the local vicar was there to launch the enterprise. The pub is a real success. Friday nights have changed. The Bev is not a home from home for regulars and residents, it is their home, because they own it.
Without question the Age of Austerity has knocked the stuffing out of so many businesses and public houses across the country have suffered badly.
We need the Beach Tavern to survive as a sustainable business because it is in a vital position in the Bay.
The Bev in Brighton is also a community hub that is home to all kinds of groups and societies.
Pevensey Bay is rare in having so many thriving active community groups (at the last count 55 in the locality) and some have met in the Beach Tavern at various points.
There is a lot to be said for a public house that offers drink and food with space for groups to meet, but the bottom line of course is finding a way in which enough support can translate into regular sources of income.
Ideas for the Beach Tavern seem to be moving towards some kind of community use, but is it possible to build a business model that would work?
East Sussex County Council has done well to keep the community informed about the closure of Pevensey Bay Library and they are pledged to re-open the library. A temporary facility is available at St. Wilfrid’s Hall, but almost a year has gone by now without a resolution to the legal problems at the old site on the corner of Richmond Road. Might the situation be an opportunity for ESCC to consider the Beach Tavern as a possible location for the library?
The building is a key location and the architecture says possible characterful community centre and library does it not? Picture the scene as you bring back your books, browse the newspapers, with exhibitions of local history, a gallery of local art and sales of memorabilia about the locality. You have a possible busy new hub for the Bay do you not?
Yards from the information centre in the Sea Road car park, the two community facilities might twin well together, serving both residents and visitors.
We talked to Margaret and Tim Martin. Pevensey Bay for engineeer, Tim, has been his family home for generations, Margaret has worked for a major local town planning department and is now a teacher. Margaret told us of various village ventures and ventures in towns that have led to sustainable success.
She commented,”the key point is that local authorities need to work together and in partnership with local people”. Innovative, pioneering solutions for important vernacular buildings that are out of use, she pointed out ‘can be found, but what is necessary is for all the parties to work together with a vision for what needs to be done”.
The closure, for the fourth time in as many years, of the Beach Tavern may give food for thought not just to the owners of the building, but to local authorities and other local parties.
Might this be the time to consider possible ways in which the building could be put to some sustainable community use?
Simon Montgomery
editor, Bay Life
