Project Brighton: Caroline of Brunswick Proprietor Cliff Barnes on what the threatened pub offers to the community, and his plan to save it
Brighton’s Caroline of Brunswick is a pub of two halves. Downstairs, it is the city’s last remaining pub to cater primarily for the members of the rock, goth, punk and alternative scenes, following changes in recent years to the target markets of the Hobgoblin and the Hare & Hounds, and the closure of several rock-friendly nightclubs.
Meanwhile, upstairs the live venue has developed into a world-famous comedy club, where it’s not uncommon to find big names like Romesh Ranganathan, Seann Walsh and Zoe Lyons running in material for their latest shows.
I’ve run the pub since the summer of 2006, the Caroline’s future is now threatened by the expiry of its current lease, and a change in the business model of the building’s owner, Punch Taverns. Punch are getting out of the leasing game, and are planning to directly manage hundreds of their premises, under their Falcon Pubs chain, which includes the Champs brand of American-themed sports bars.
Therefore, at the end of November 2016, I launched a campaign to mark the beginning of ‘12 Months to Save the Caz’: a campaign that was joined by over 1,000 people within its first 48 hours, and gained the support of local MP and Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas on the very first morning.
The Caroline of Brunswick is proud to provide a safe space for the outcasts of Brighton
Part of the campaign is to get the pub recognised as an Asset of Community Value by Brighton & Hove City Council, with the hope that gaining such status would help to persuade Punch Taverns that the Caroline is no ordinary pub, and that to try and turn it into an ordinary pub would be a project that is doomed to fail.
Ms Lucas had a meeting with Punch in December, and it is looking hopeful that they will relent, and allow the Caroline to continue operating in the same style, where I would become Punch’s tenant rather than its leaseholder, as per their new business model.
Andy Slee from Punch has conceded that “it is clear that there is significant feeling locally about keeping the Caroline of Brunswick trading in the style it currently operates”, and that “it is a brave company that goes against local public opinion when developing a pub”. Of the comedy venue above the bar, he said that he was “especially taken with stories of those who are now famous returning to the pub to recognise the role it played in their early career”.
Local records show that a pub has stood on the site since the 1820s: originally named the Star of Brunswick, it was a popular student bar in the 1990s under the name Leek & Winkle, although it struggled in the early 21st century after rebranding as The Leek when it was given a trendy orange and blue colour scheme. My wife Debora Parr and I relaunched the pub under its current moniker immediately after Halloween 2006, when it had become clear that it had developed an “alternative” clientele under our ownership.
Appropriately enough, the pub is now named after a social outcast with a Brighton connection: she was married to the Prince Regent (later King George IV of Brighton Pavilion fame), and found herself refused entry to their daughter’s wedding on her husband’s orders. Today, the Caroline of Brunswick is proud to provide a safe space for the outcasts of Brighton who find themselves with nowhere else to drink!
