Viva Brighton Issue #64 June 2018

INSIDE LEFT: HOVE LAGOON, 1960s
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Pirates ahoy! It looks like the two gentlemen in the
sailing dinghy are preparing to board the rowing
boat containing two ladies, who are looking rather
perturbed at the prospect. There’s a great dynamic to
this picture, from the James Gray collection, but in his
caption Gray doesn’t know much about who took it,
and when. His best guess is ‘some time in the late 60s’.
Hove Lagoon is naturally a stretch of tidal marshland,
formed by the overflow of the Aldrington Basin, once
known locally as ‘Salt Daisy Field’. It was privately
owned by a gentleman called Paget Baxter, and by all
accounts a bit of an eyesore. In 1927, after much legal
wrangling with Baxter, Hove Council managed to
acquire the rights to convert the area into a pleasure
lake, which was completed in 1930. Contemporary
photographs show it was extremely popular, particularly
with model yacht owners – a big craze back in
the day. The Hove Lagoon Model Yacht club still
hold races on Sunday mornings, at 9.30am.
The Lagoon area was requisitioned by the MOD in
the war; it was used by Canadian troops to practice
manoeuvres in their DUKW amphibious trucks;
the beach, too, was a no-go area at the time, strewn
with tank-traps and zig-zagged with barbed wire
as first-line defence against a feared Nazi invasion
from the Continent.
After the war it became a pleasure lake once more; in
the harsh winter of 1947 the water froze over and locals
used it as a skating rink. As you can see from this
picture it became a boating lake again soon after and
you can still sail dinghies there, as well as – courtesy
of Lagoon Watersports – try your hand at windsurfing,
wakeboarding, kayaking and stand-up paddle
boarding. After a three-month closure this winter for
dredging, the Lagoon was reopened on April 28th:
the dredgers found countless lost items, including 200
shoes, a drone and a Buzz Lightyear toy.
To the far left of the picture you can see the Lagoon’s
café, which has had an interesting and chequered
history, not least in recent years, with two celebrity
owners taking it over. First up was Heather Mills,
who in 2008 converted it into VBites, a vegan eatery;
Norman Cook took it over in 2013, adding burgers
to the menu, and renaming it the Big Beach Café.
We wonder if our 60s pirates managed to persuade
the two ladies to join them for a cup of tea in the late
sixties incarnation of the café, after they’d all got their
feet back on dry land. Alex Leith
Thanks, as ever, to the Regency Society, holder of the
James Gray Collection.
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