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Being an avid 17 year old rock music fan from
1974 onwards, I would come over to Brighton from Hailsham a couple of
times a month to browse all the junk and brac a brac shops and used and
new record stores. Virgin Records, by the clock tower, was one of my
regular haunts. In-between Virgin and the closed Regent Cinema was a
basement pub which I have traced as being ' The White Lion '. I went in
there once in 1975, late lunchtime, for a quick beer and check over albums
and records I'd bought earlier. I do remember it as a bit of a dive /
hole, and left immediately for a better ' hole' down West street.
Allegedly this pub had issues from the council
putting on drag acts and strippers, as a Brighton local mentioned on the '
mybrightonandhove ' website. Others on that website mention it as ' the
dodgy pub ' and that is in the early to mid 1970s.
Virgin closed in the summer of 1977 and the
whole block was demolished including ' the White Lion '. The Regent had
been demolished a couple of years earlier.
Information seems very scant but I have
included a photo where you can see this pub, and if slightly enlarged you
can just about make out the name on the black sign over the doorway. A
Watney's logo is in front of the name.
On the fandom.com website
they list the address as 137-138 Queens road but say it closed down in
1964. That certainly is not the case, as I have physically been there in
1975 and quoted their reported 'music/dancing licence' issues, which seem
much later than 1964, as mentioned on the My Brighton website memories.
The Regent had a music / dance licence but closed in 1972/73, did the
White Lion capitalize on this, but illegally ?
It seems it is a pub that may, may have
transformed into a semi club like existence for a while, before the block
was bulldozed in 77.
Maybe you have have some other sources to
support this. I would be interested to find out the full picture.
What an important block, the Regent, it's
history and sprung dance floor, A very early Virgin Records and it's
importance for a younger generation and sandwiching ' the dodgy pub ',
Good memories and of social importance too.
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