A child at the new Stanhoe

Following my article about the Stanhoe Hotel in last week’s Looking Back, I received an email from Clive Purser, a retired marine engineer who has lived in Worthing for over 60 years, which contained fascinating information that was entirely new to me – for he apprised me of the existence of a second Stanhoe Hotel, of which I had never heard.
The new Stanhoe Hotel, which stood well back from Marine Parade, and was listed in directories under Augusta PlaceThe new Stanhoe Hotel, which stood well back from Marine Parade, and was listed in directories under Augusta Place
The new Stanhoe Hotel, which stood well back from Marine Parade, and was listed in directories under Augusta Place

When the original Stanhoe Hotel was demolished around 1948, the ground on which it stood did not, as I said in my article, afterwards remain empty.

In fact, the old Stanhoe was replaced with a second Stanhoe Hotel (seen in the photograph on the left), which stood further back from the sea, with a car park in front of it.

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It had an Augusta Place rather than a Marine Parade address.

Clive Purser, aged about nine, sitting on the wall of the beer terrace at the front of the new StanhoeClive Purser, aged about nine, sitting on the wall of the beer terrace at the front of the new Stanhoe
Clive Purser, aged about nine, sitting on the wall of the beer terrace at the front of the new Stanhoe

Clive knows all about the new Stanhoe, because he grew up there, his father having been appointed the hotel’s manager in 1952 when Clive was five years old.

Clive’s father worked for Edlins, and had previously managed several of their pubs in Brighton, where the firm was based.

The new Stanhoe Hotel was, in spite of its name, only ever a pub.

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However, Clive says that there were plans to make the building into a residential hotel by extending it to Marine Parade, but that funds ran out – which is why the front of the building appears, as Clive puts it, “truncated and devoid of any architectural features”.

The layout of the building consisted of a public bar and terrace on the ground floor; a saloon bar on the first floor; and a staff flat on the second floor, where Clive and his family lived.

This flat had access to a private roof terrace, which served as a wonderful playground in the sky for Clive and his friends.

There were outside lavatories to the rear of the building, and a large cellar that was used for utilities and storage.

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Since this cellar extended close to the sea, it was prone to flooding at spring high tides, and a permanent electric pump was installed there.

Most of the beer barrels and other large items associated with the new Stanhoe were kept in one of a number of lock-ups situated on the west side of Augusta Place – which, as Clive points out, is of course where modern Augusta House stands, rather than on the site of the old Stanhoe Hotel (east of Augusta Place), as I incorrectly said in my article.

In those days, Augusta Place was a cul-de-sac, and only accessed at the northern end from Montague Street by a passageway running next to another old pub, the King’s Arms, which was located where Argos and Millets are now situated.

After the war, No. 63, Marine Parade – the building to the east of Augusta Cottage – had become Belli’s Ice Cream Parlour; but this business did not last long, and the building became derelict.

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Clive says that, as children, he and his friends used to break into the rear of No 63 and use it for games.

Clive does not know why the old Stanhoe was demolished, but says that he can remember there being several derelict sites in the immediate vicinity, so he suggests that perhaps it was damaged by enemy action during the war.

Alternatively, it is possible that the flooding that affected the new building had seriously affected the old one.

This may explain why nothing has subsequently been built on the site, which remains a grassed area.

The new Stanhoe survived until about 1970, when the bowling alley and the car park were built.

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