Pub memories

[david_russell]

The odd one is the Marine, Pelham Place ????

[Terry]

Engine, Clutch and Gearbox and Regular John played frequently at the Smugs. There were many other bands and performers. It was also the favourite pub of local Irish artist = Eamon (can't remember his surname), an incredible and unforgetable larger than life character who tragically died whilst swimming off Hastings about three years ago. The Smugglers was also the home of the legendary Hastings gibbons, but their activities are protected by the Official Secrets Act, so I cannot comment further!

The "Glass Eye nights" when anyone who could hold a guitar could get up and play were always worth a visit. The bare florrboards, the holed cieling held up by acros, buckets on the floor to catch the leaks and various other idiosynchrosies of the pub gave it character, although it wasn't to everyone's taste. Watching people attempting to play pool when there wasn't really enough room could be quite entertaining as well. It was sad to see landlord Ewen Smith move on, but that's life I suppose. The new people tried hard, but somehow it just wasn't the same.

Another feature of the pub was the famous Smugglers Pole. I believe there was once another arch in this position and the pole was put in to support the cieling when it was damaged and had to be removed (can anyone confirm?) and the occassional attempts at pole dancing were often quite hilarious. A makeshift beer garden was provided at the rear of the pub on the roof of the toilets, but rarely used, probably due to the lack of lighting. I actually fell off this during its construction: OUCH!

Many local characters used the Smugglers (the gibbons), but I'd better not name them (Official Secrets Act again). There was also the one eared Smugglers Wererabbit that was pictured behind the bar with Peter Stringfellow and the Concrete Owl that failed to impress the bats that sometimes fluttered around outside at the rear of the pub..

Now for some history: Following the laying of the ceremonial stone at the America Ground, the officials celebrated in the Wellington. It was one of at least three local pubs named after the famous Soldier and Prime Minister who once lived in Hastings and was briefly MP for Rye. (the Duke of Wellington in the old town and The Duke in Silverhill were the others). Landlord Albert E Todd ran the pub from the 1890s until the 1930s. For some years the huge lights outside the pub remained unlit because no one could figure out how to dismantle them and change the bulbs. I have no idea what happened to the Smugglers' pub sign that used to hang outside the pub, although I do have my suspicions. At some time after World War two (I don't know when) the pub sign became a stylised picture of a Vickers Wellington bomber.

The picture was taken on Ewen smith's last night as landlord.

[david_russell]

[img://www.hastingsforum.co.uk/forums/sf_attachments/50a_Smugglers___Engine_Clutch___Gearbox.jpg]

[david_russell]

Glad you mentioned Engine Clutch and Gearbox. Here they are playing in the Smugglers about two years ago. The Smugglers pole is on the left.

Around that time we had a Polish lady, Eva, lodging with us in St Leonards. Occasionally, other members of her family also stayed including her sister Elzbieta from Philadelphia and her daughter Ana who was studying psychology in Edinburgh.

They always asked to visit the Smugglers especially to see E,CandG and Ana took this photo of the band one night.

Your description of the interior is dead on. They were fascinated by it and the people who drank there. They still remember the pub in Philadelphia and Poland. So the Smugglers gained a little bit of an international reputation !!

[patrick]

The Marine, Pelham Place,kept by Mr Arthur Deudney, in 1828,afterwards by his Head Waiter, Chas.P.Hutchings_ _ _.It is believed to have been the temporary abode of the Empress Eugenie and her son upon being exiled from France in 1870..perhaps it was demolished to make way for the Cinema de Luxe or Palace of Varieties, perhaps this was the original site of the Old Bathing House..This gets us into the Russian Gun and the site of the shipyard where the 'Pelican' was built.
Quote..''Pelham Place soon became an important centre of the modern town, and the Royal Marine Hotel was formed by converting one or two houses''..After the death of Mr Hutchings the R.M. passed through various hands before becoming the Hippodrome or Palace..The problem is that information is on different pages

[Terry]

The Marine Hotel was indeed on the site of the Hippadrome/Deluxe. I read somewhere that Charles Dickens stayed there when he visited Hastings (either in November 1861 or February 1884 or perhaps on both occasions), but I believe the Marine was primarily a hotel with a bar rather than a pub that let rooms, although it may have opened its bar to the public. See

http://www.hastingschronicle.com/1899/0 ... tre-opens/

http://www.hastingschronicle.com/1861/1 ... s-in-town/

http://www.hastingschronicle.com/1884/0 ... -lectures/

As an amateur I don't keep many records and I'm unable to recall where I read about Dickens stay there or where I read that the hotel was rather poorly built.

[david_russell]

The two pub signs of the Smugglers mentioned above:-

I believe the Wellington Bomber pub sign commemorates the fact that the Wellington pilots were trained at Fairlight. Does anyone know anything about this ?

The only reference I have found is in the 'The Dictionary of Pub Names' by Dunkling and Wright (ref library). DandW distinguish the Hastings 'Wellington/Smugglers' from hundreds of other pubs with the name Wellington by this fact.

But I have not been able to find any illustration of the sign (except the one posted here which I think is a letter heading) or spoken with any one who remembers the sign.

John Prothero, who was a local historian from Silverhill, said the sign hung at the Wellington until the early 1970s.

Does anyone recall the sign or know of any reference to it ??

The Wellington/Smugglers was a pub in a very prominent position on the sea front. It just seems odd that no one remembers the previous sign ??



[img://www.hastingsforum.co.uk/forums/sf_attachments/Smugglers_2.jpg]

[david_russell]

[img://www.hastingsforum.co.uk/forums/sf_attachments/Smugglers.JPG]

[patrick]

Empress Eugenie on her exile from France,landed on the beach at Hastings in 1870 to find asylum..She and her son,later killed in South Africa by Zulu's stayed at the Marine Hotel until she went to Chislehurst..it seems that Prince Louis Napoleon lodged just a few feet away from the same apartments in 1840,he later became Emperor of the French..When the Royal Marine as it became was sold to the promoters of the Hippodrome an auction was held of the contents and the fittings and some souvenirs from the Empress's rooms found eager buyers..The sale took one week..So it would seem that it was more of a hotel than a public house..

[david_russell]

Patrick:- Of the hotels on your list the Castle, the Saxon and the Queen's all had attached 'Shades Bars'. The Royal Victoria, the Harold and the Conqueror all had attached 'Tap rooms' at one time. The Havelock was both hotel and pub until it went bust in the 1880s. So I agree with you the Marine was a hotel rather than pub.