1990s


A Magnolia tree planted in memory of Lord Elwyn-Jones.

1990
Lord Elwyn Jones died in 1989 and with his daughters permission we had a Magnolia tree, his favourite, planted in the gardens in his memory.
1991
During our 50th Anniversary year we asked through the Argus if anyone had any lasting memories of the café. The above lovely letter from Mrs. Alma Harris arrived, which fabulously tells the story of how the café came into existence. Our family celebrated this year raising over £1700 for Patcham House Special School throughout this year to go towards activities. We donated a penny for every rock cake sold. The events we held included an exciting rock cake competition judged by Adam Trimingham (Argus), Tim Cuttress (Forfars), John Henty (Ex Radio Brighton) and the Manager of the Northern Rock Building Society.. Forfars Tim Cuttress brought a special anniversary cake (see above) in his old vintage van. We also held a well attended children’s party with Billy Bubbles entertaining. We concluded this memorable year with a Grand Raffle drawn by Mary Conlon (Eastenders) and compared by John Henty.

A letter from Alma Harris received in 1991 outlining the detailed history of how Mr Herbert
Tennent came to start his cafe in the Pavilion Gardens during the Second World War.

The Pierotter troupe (Univ. of Sussex students) perform Tim Cutress brought Forfar’s 50th Anniversary Pavilion
at the Pavilion Garden Cafe in the Cafe 50th Gardens Cafe cake along on the Rock cake

Anniversary year (1991). competition day in August

Tim Cutress , Mr Broadrib, John Henty and Adam Trimingham          Mary Conlon (Eastenders) announcing the Pavilion Gardens Cafe
are judging the 50th Anniversary Pavilion Gardens Cafe                 50th Anniversary Grand Raffle.

Charity Rock Cake Competition.

1992

More restoration of the gardens took place this year especially quickened up following an Argus article which showed the Pavilion Gardens being left as a complete mess as can be seen above in the middle photograph.
1993
This year saw much work in the gardens with the restoration taking shape.
1994
This year saw the launch of the Friends of the Pavilion Gardens, a dedicated group of volunteers whose work was an extension of the successful Friends of the Royal Pavilion, Art Gallery and Museums. At present there are Tuesday and Friday afternoon groups. The above photographs show a snow scene of the Royal Pavilion and a prototype flywheel mini-tram in New Road.

1994 Royal Pavilion snow scene

1994 Fly-wheel mini-tram demonstration in New Road 1994 Fly-wheel mini-tram demonstration in New Road
behind Pavilion Gardens Cafe.                                                                   adjacent to the Theatre Royal.

1995 Rocking-Horse Appeal Charity Children’s Funday, with bouncy castle.

1995
We hosted a free Funday on the Pavilion Lawn raising £450 for the Rockinghorse Appeal with Billy Bubbles, a local children‘s entertainer, a bouncy castle, face painting and music. Notice the old stripy seaside deckchairs.

1996
June Brown (Dot Cotton) opened our Children’s Funday raising money for the Trevor Mann Baby Unit. Due to bad weather that year the event took place in the Corn Exchange and we raised £1100 for the special care baby unit at the Royal Sussex County Hospital. The photograph above has my son Alex on the left with June Brown and three children of my wife’s best friend. During early December the Council Tourism Department hosted a Winter Wonderland sponsored by Seeboard in the gardens adjacent to the café. Numerous snow machines were positioned high up in the elm trees and artificial snow fell amongst the happy children. On Saturdays a brass band played, there were period horse-drawn carriage rides, carol singers in Regency costumes with lanterns singing carols.

June Brown (Dot Cotton) with Alex Sewell,Sofia, Dom and Romina
Duplain.
1997
In May shock plans surfaced to shrub over all the north side of the café patio in the new Lottery scheme for the renovation of the Dome, Corn Exchange and re-building of the Pavilion Theatre as part of the landscaping proposals. Our customers were so upset with these proposals that they complained in vast numbers. After a meeting with Chris Barron (Festival Director) later that month this terrible scheme was amended. We hosted Wallace Grevatt’s history of the Radio Times Exhibition which was kindly opened by Derek Jameson and his wife Ellen in August. Wallace a loyal friend and customer was the Radio Times archivist and had possibly the largest collection of Radio Times publications in this country. Our Canadian relatives came over during the summer and this was a special family lunch at the café.
1997-2002
During this time we hosted an annual Funday with Magic Rabbit, for the Trevor Mann Unit. Since 1996 we have raised over £8500 for this very important special baby unit.
1999
In May the fabulous children’s parade finished again spectacularly in the Pavilion Gardens. The other photograph shows Robert Hill-Snook with the garden volunteers on a tea break adjacent to the east side of the Royal Pavilion. Hoarding went up to the north-side of café for the construction of the underground energy centre that now powers the Brighton Festival Dome. Summer Bands were cancelled this year on the Pavilion Lawn but were successfully re-instated after café campaign aided by David Lepper MP.

The landscaping phase of the Dome project with a new path across the lawn and the planting of ten new Elm trees in front of the café were controversial. After much debate the path across the lawn was constructed with only two Lobel Elms instead of ten. In July Paul McKenna was filming on the lawn for his new show interacting with people. The hypnotist helped a lady overcome her fear of spiders and entertained the crowds by getting a man to walk with an imaginary dog