Hastings town centre pub still closed two months after floods hit

The pub has a loyal following and is popular with sporting fans. It also has a good reputation for live music. According to the pub’s Facebook Group, the Clarence was hoping to be open by March 14, but remained closed on Saturday March 18.

The pub has a long and fascinating history says Hastings pub historian David Russell. The Clarence was licensed in 1868 as a small, town centre hotel. Since then it has served a wide variety of customers, including army volunteers, building workers, trade unionists, benefit societies, football supporters and many others.

The 1st Cinque Ports Rifle Volunteer Corps, formed in 1860 and supported by public subscription, had its drill hall two doors away. Military personnel of all ranks were customers of the Clarence, who in the 1880s used the pub to host Artillery Suppers.

The period from the 1890s to the First World War was the heyday of the Clarence. These were very busy years. The Hastings Cabmen’s Benefit Society held monthly meetings here. Their ‘distress fund’ was organised for the relief of members fallen on hard times. On one occasion a donation was made to a member whose trap had been smashed in the town centre. The cabmen also spent many evenings in ‘harmony’ (singing).

The Clarence was also the meeting place of the Amalgamated Society of House Decorators and Painters, who ran an impressive campaign on wages and on the levelling up of the painter’s rate to 7d [3p] an hour.

The Hastings branch of the Postmen’s Federation, originally formed at the Clifton, St Leonards in 1895, also met here. The Hastings branch of the Amalgamated Society of Tailors, defunct in the 1890s, reformed here in 1906. It was perhaps inevitable that the Hastings and St Leonards Trades Council was founded here in 1894.

The Clarence has also been patronised by many other organisations over the years. These include Hastings Rowing Club, the Cinque Ports Foresters (a large branch with hundreds of members), the Victoria Lodge of the Oddfellows and the Hastings branch of the Equitable Society. The latter met here from 1901 and in 1910 the landlord formed the Clarence Benefit Society, which had 176 members and a total fund of £1,276, a considerable balance for those days. Between them, the members of all the above organisations provided the Clarence with a wide customer base.

During the Second World War the Clarence was heavily patronised by Canadian troops billeted in the town. The late Charles Banks, then Police Inspector Banks, recalled that “Hastings’ police were frequently called to the Clarence to deal with assaults, brawls and wilful damage. The ringleaders were frequently Canadian soldiers, members of the Princess Louise Dragoon Guards.” During the war parts of the area were bombed, but the Clarence was spared.

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