Pavilion Gardens Café

During this time Mr. Tennent (known affectionately as Mr. T) had two kiosks by the Palace Pier groyne. One selling teas and pies the other selling drinks and ice-cream. He also had at one time a small kiosk near the lift by Peter Pan’s playground and one by the paddling pool adjacent to the West Pier.

This kiosk near the paddling pool was close to Jim Hatton’s weighing machine (jockey scales). Mr. T would wheel a barrow from Elm Grove carrying bread, pies and cakes all the way to the seafront. He had to order his supplies on Thursday and pick them up on a Friday in readiness for the weekend.

f the weekend weather was bad, the fish by the groyne had a feeding frenzy on Sunday night. This led Mr. T to start baking his own cakes to avoid such losses.

It must also be remembered that all water had to be queued up for and collected from a stand pipe along the beach. At that time the seafront families operated a form of cartel agreeing not to compete to bid against each other for their pitches to keep the status quo.

Mr. T also had a restaurant called the ‘Prompt Corner’ in Duke Street at the junction with Middle Street. Mr. T did a lot of the cooking serving pies and puddings to variety artists appearing at the Brighton Hippodrome.

Mr. T was a semi-professional ballroom dancer and with his wife Louise reached the finals of the Star Championships at the Hammersmith Palace in London around this time. Wealthy ladies would arrange afternoon dancing lessons at the Regent and Sherry’s with Mr. T and Sydney Bellman anothergood dancer.

Herbert Tennent’s parents were seafront traders running a seafood stall selling cockles, mussels and whelks underneath the arches.

They also ran a pub near the Metropole Hotel which was frequented by the local fisherman. Some nights after a good night catch, fresh fish would be thrown through the fanlight of the pub door to greet them in the morning.