Butlin's Beachcomber Bar, Bognor Regis, England (bar)

Name:Butlin's Beachcomber Bar
Type:bar
Street:
City:Bognor Regis
State:
Zip:
country:England
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
This is the third installment on the Butlin's Beachcomber Bar chain featuring the Bognor Regis location.

Most of the postcards I have from this Beachcomber feature the inside of the bar area, focusing on the mural of the South Seas volcano.

You can see the Beachcomber drink menu at the table being served by the wahine waitress.

A few more postcards showing the bar area.

Here is the postcard of the exterior, which featured a big neon sign and some strange looking Tiki figures.

This one did not appear to have the big A-Frame structures that the other locations had.

I found some information on the architect who designed the Butlin's Beachcomber Bars:

Patrick Garnett was a successful architect whose practice, Garnett Cloughley Blakemore (GCB), designed memorable, three-dimensional sequences of 1960s' swinging London, and connected pop culture with a wide cross section of society - from Belgravia to Butlin's.

Garnett was introduced to the film designer Erik Blakemore, who had designed the original Beachcomber Bar at the Mayfair Hotel in London. Holiday camp king Billy Butlin loved this stuff, too. As a result, in 1965 GCB were asked to design six Beachcomber bars - all bamboo furniture, fishing nets swagged from ceilings and local girls sporting sarongs - at Butlin's camps at Barry Island, Bognor Regis, Filey, Minehead and Skegness.

At this time the firm also produced the Chelsea Drugstore, a large boutique completely lined in reflective surfaces that multiplied the impressions of space, light and activity, and which formed an environment sufficiently disorienting to be selected for a scene in the film A Clockwork Orange (1971). Joining the Drugstore on the Kings Road were other, smaller, eye-catching boutiques styled by GCB, and they produced themed pubs, restaurants, Spaghetti Houses, and a number of private flats for the Chelsea set.

A photo of the famous drugstore.

Here is a link to more info on Garnett.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/patrick-garnett-481140.html

DC

On 2011-04-05 16:55, Dustycajun wrote

...in 1965 GCB were asked to design six Beachcomber bars - all bamboo furniture, fishing nets swagged from ceilings and local girls sporting sarongs - at Butlin's camps at Barry Island, Bognor Regis, Filey, Minehead and Skegness.

..and Ayr,

Nice pictures of the drugstore, there is thread about Patrick Garnett here..

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=19959&forum=1

Thanks DC for yet another comprehensive post. My favorite shot from that location is this pool lounge photo:

Atomictonytiki,

You know it's funny, I have never seen a photo, postcard, or any other evidence of the Beachcomber Bar at Barry Island. I have heard conflicting reports that Barry Island was the first one and that Bognor Regis was the first one. News is that the Barry Island Beachcomber burned down within a year or two after opening, maybe that's why.

Bigbro,

One of the all-time great John Hinde photos! Thanks for including that from the book of big postcards!

Here are a few more postcards from the Beachcomber Bar at Bognor Regis I found in my computer files. These ones actually show the bar area itself.

Actually some nice art behind the bar.

DC

[ Edited by: Dustycajun 2011-04-06 23:31 ]

Picked up a another postcard from the Bognor Regis Beachcomber that shows a shipwreck in the bar. First time I have seen that.

Plaid skirts at a Tiki bar, only in England!

DC