Regent ‘Record Night’
I was eighteen years old in 1963 and I met my first husband in The Zodiac coffee bar over Hiltons, in St James’s St. My friends and I also went to the Chateau Rouge coffee bar down West Street and the Penny Farthing coffee bar in East Street. Tuesday nights dancing was the Florida Rooms which was located down the Aquarium steps. One of the best nights was Thursday; that was at The Regent in Queens Road. It was ‘Record Night’ and me and my friends loved it. Amazingly I can still remember the excitement going up in the lift.
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Electricity House and the mods
From The Regent we would race down to Electricity House to watch all the Mod scooter boys lining up before catching our last buses home. My dad used to be waiting on the doorstep at home for me and would be pacing up and down. There was another coffee bar over the shops at the beginning of Western Road near the Clock Tower before they were pulled down to make way for Churchill Square. Can anyone remember the name of that place. They were great times and never to be forgot
By Jackie Thomas, nee Jones
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I think it was the Istanbul Jackie, but I was only about 13 then so I am not sure, only went there once.
Hi Jackie – Electricity House was a great meeting place for Mods and all the scooters used to line up in front and then we would go round the Steine and along the Front, up West Street and back down again. Has anyone got any photos of the scooters parked outside Electricity House?
The coffee bar was called the Istanbul and I think that the entrance was up some metal steps, in the road behind Western Road. Mac Fisheries had a shop underneath the Istanbul along with, among others, Horton Stephens men’s outfitters, a cheap instant photo shop and a men’s hat shop. Further along Western Road was a ladies’ dress shop, Martin Ford, and being “daring” we used to change the first letters round making it Fartin Mord, so that we thought we were being funny.
I can remember meeting up at the Electricity House on a Sunday and going for a run out on our scooters. But the Starlight Rooms was the place to be, with the scooters lined up outside at the weekends.
I lived in Woodingdean and would go to The Regent on a Thursday and Saturday night. When it ended I would run down North Street to get the bus at the bus stop near electricity house,but quite often would get a lift home on the back of a scooter that was driven by boys also living in Woodingdean also Mods.
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