Hastings town centre pub still closed nearly a month after floods hit

A note in the window of the pub says ‘Temporarily closed due to flooding.

The Clarence is popular with sports fans, as its shows major events on big screens, and is an established town centre local. According to Hastings pub historian David Russell, The Clarence was first licensed in 1868 as a small, town centre hotel. Since then it has served a wide variety of customers, including army volunteers, building workers, trade unionists, benefit societies, football supporters and many others.

The 1st Cinque Ports Rifle Volunteer Corps, formed in 1860 and supported by public subscription, had its drill hall two doors away. Military personnel of all ranks were customers of the Clarence, who in the 1880s used the pub to host Artillery Suppers.

Before the mass production of cigarettes at the end of the 19th century, clay pipes were commonly smoked in pubs and it was the custom of the Clarence to supply them free. The Clarence kept a jar of clay pipes on the bar. When a customer had finished his smoke he replaced the pipe in the jar for the next customer. Squeamish customers would break off an inch of stem to get a clean smoke. It was also the custom for the landlord to leave clay pipes in a cast iron rack over the fire at night, to sterilise them for the following day’s patrons.

The period from the 1890s to the First World War was the heyday of the Clarence. These were very busy years. The Hastings Cabmen’s Benefit Society held monthly meetings here. Their ‘distress fund’ was organised for the relief of members fallen on hard times. On one occasion a donation was made to a member whose trap had been smashed in the town centre. The cabmen also spent many evenings in ‘harmony’ (singing).

The Clarence was also the meeting place of the Amalgamated Society of House Decorators and Painters, who ran an impressive campaign on wages and on the levelling up of the painter’s rate to 7d [3p] an hour.

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