This picture used to adorn a corner of the Kings Arms in George Street, Kemp Town, until a few months ago.
When Colin and Julie left after nearly 20 years the pub underwent a total refurbishment and is now a tasteful mix of beige and dark wood and soft lighting. Along with a tasteful mix of customers I hasten to add.
Beforehand it was like a pub we all knew when starting out in the 60's and 70's and the sad thing is you cannot find many of them around any more.
The Kings Arms had many fans (us included) and many detractors because it did not fit in or even try to fit in with the 'Gay Village' which sprung up around it over the years. It was also a very doggy pub - they had four large ones at one point. We loved it but that's because we got used to it.
I bought the picture from the new tenants yesterday and cleaned it up (enough nicotine on there it should have come with a health warning) then popped it in Nelson's place (sorry Horatio but you'll soon be above Lady Emma Hamilton, as it were).
If anyone knows the name of the original please let me know (info@avalonbrighton.co.uk). It's a proper oil painting from the Faques Gallery (better than calling it Fakes I suppose) on Upper St James's Street and I have seen it online before. It looks decidedly Pre-Raphaelite to me. The damsel is tied to a tree but her rescuer in shining armour is just sheathing his sword having just run through the baddie. Thankfully she seems unharmed and the baddie only got as far as revealing a bit of her shoulder.
Also in our dining room from the pub is a ship in a bottle - the Mauretania. I was always convinced this was one of those ships that had sunk or been torpedoed but that was her sister ship the Lusitania. This one had an illustrious career until 1935 when she was scrapped due to the depression. There's a poignant photograph on Wikipedia showing her at the scrapyard beside the Olympic before being broken up. Just think, but for an iceberg 23 years earlier the picture might have been of three ships...
No comments:
Post a Comment