Thirty Club Skegness

By Angela Gooch on December 6th, 2008

AFTER 23 years at the Thirty Club in Castleton Boulevard, Skegness, licensee Mr Bob Hardy and his wife said goodbye to their members at a special party one Sunday night in 1974.

One-hundred-and-fifty People were treated to a buffet and disco by the Hardys on their last night before going into retirement. They are going to live in a cottage near Addlethorpe.

The club has been sold to Mrs Lucy Lord of Nottingham. The sale was negotiated by the Michael Emmitt organisation in co-operation with the Skegness firm of Hardcastle and Son. It will be temporarily closed for alterations.
The Skegness branch of the Royal Air Forces Association, whose headquarters have been at the Thirty Club, have now moved to the Vine Hotel, Skegness.
We are indebted to Mrs Jane L (surname withheld) nee Hardy, daughter of the retiring owners in the story above, for sending us more information about the Thirty Club on Castleton Boulevard, Skegness. Jane is a Skegnessian, though she now lives in Japan.

Jane writes:

“The Thirty Club was one of the most popular places in town for over 25 years where the “IN” crowd got together! The reason it was called ‘The Thirty Club’ is because it was No 30 Castleton Boulevard. My grandmother, Gladys Hannah Phipps, (she remarried) first bought it after moving from a hotel she ran on Scarborough Avenue. She lived in the top of the building where there was a kitchen with an old stove. I can remember watching her put in the sticks of wood and coal to start the fire before cooking. My grandmother had diabetes and as it got worse she became blind so she moved down to the first floor and the top floor was renovated and became known as “the top flat”. It was in this flat, every year, that American air force families stayed. I used to babysit for them and I can remember in particular one family where the mother refused to use “English” baby milk and had all the baby food sent from America.

“When I was a small child, the Rotary Club held regular meetings on the first floor and there were Friday and Saturday night band nights. As it was a members club, there was a dress code, and no-one was allowed in without a suit and tie. Members were allowed to bring in a non-member but were responsible for his behaviour. When I was a teenager, I remember an incident when a famous pop singer (can’t remember his name off-hand, but I’m think my father might) who arrived one evening and was turned away by the doorman (who was an old gentleman and didn’t know who he was – and even if he did, would still have done so) because he was wearing a leather jacket and jeans! The singer was so angry that someone had dared to turn him away it got into the newspaper – my father laughed and said that it didn’t matter even if it had been Prince Charles or some other important figure, he would have still been turned away.

“Eventually the first floor was turned into bedrooms and my mother started doing meals in the evenings and also banquets etc. Since I was little we had a number of famous people staying every year – often in the top flat. My younger sister and I were woken up very late one night in the winter and told to put on our dressing gowns and slippers and go to the bar in the club. We sat on the bar stools half asleep and wondered why we had been woken up – then suddenly up popped “Sooty and Sweep” and we sat in amazement as we had our own private show!! The Barron Knights always stayed with us and we became friends and I always looked after Baron’s pug when they came for the summer. He was too busy and she was always overweight so I got her slim until the next time! I remember the evenings after most of the guests had left and we had musical nights where everyone played music on some kind of instrument – (my father had a large variety of musical instruments from a piano accordion to castanets) if there were none left, then we made do with glass tops! Baron had a Spanish guitar and we often listened to wonderful music.

“Dickie Valentine was also a regular visitor and we sometimes went with him when he went to do a show in Butlins. I have a photo (I think taken by a newspaper reporter) with my sister and I standing next to Dickie, and other children staying in the camp. We dug out most of the back garden behind the club to build a pool. We had to dig by hand because my mother didn’t want her beautiful clematis ruined by knocking down the fence to get a digger in!! We therefore had a wooden plank and shovels and had to shovel the soil into the wheelbarrow and walk backwards up the plank and deposit the soil in a corner of the parking at the back. When the tide came in we were always digging in knee-deep water – I was so surprised the first time when the water rose up and thought “my goodness the sea comes under our houses every night”!!! As my parents were busy every day, it took about a year for the pool to be completed – with the help of a few friends at the weekends – and we filled it using a long hose through the window of our kitchen in the flat above “Jane Lesley ” – Ladies Hair Stylist which was next door (which was named after me and belonged to my other grandmother, Lucy Rippin)

“Unfortunately the Thirty Club is no longer there, a few years ago it was apparently turned into a block of flats.

“The inside of the club was was really nice when we had it. On both sides of the main entrance there were two enclosed garden areas surrounded by flowers and the front walls facing the street had a line of hydrangeas – which looked lovely when in bloom. The building was painted white and had a number of flat roofs – the highest being the roof of the top flat. The inside was mainly wood, The main entrance door opened into a small entrance and then to the left there was a medium sized room with the reception and off to the left the cloakroom and men’s toilet. I hated going into the cloakroom when I was a child as there were always loads of moths high up on the walls and I always thought they might fly onto me!! When you had signed in then you moved forward and there was a big open space with a very high ceiling and on the left was an open counter with the main cooking area behind it on view. The kitchen was behind – out of view. My mother cooked meals in an evening dress with no apron!! – on view – talking to customers on the way in. As you moved past her there was a wide wooden staircase leading up to the second floor on the left, with a balcony all round. Walking straight on you would come to another area where the bar was. The bar was beautiful, the back was all mirrored with shelves of every kind of drink on display and the glasses were polished to a shine – I know because I was roped in every Saturday to help – even the bottles had to be polished!! The main bar was all wood too with twisted wooden columns going up to the ceiling. Beer was kept in barrels under the counter. To the left of the bar was a ballroom with a small stage at the far end where the band used to play on Saturday and Sunday evening.

“When the jukebox became popular and bands became more expensive they played only on Saturday evenings. Actually the jukebox had it’s problems too, as of course many couples came in for years and they all had their favourite songs on the jukebox and every time my father tried to put on a new record somebody complained and asked to have it put back because it was a memory of something for them!! The ballroom had two alcoves, the one on the left, medium sized, and the one on the right, quite big with a big round bay window overlooking the garden at the back.

“When we had the pool finished we fitted two lights on the walls of the pool on the inside and at night they shone a green light giving it an eerie, romantic feeling and you felt that a fairy might appear at any moment. There was ballroom dancing and later on pop dancing in the ballroom. Round the sides of the ballroom were tables for the customers to eat, and each one had candles on them. The main lights were kept slightly dim to give a relaxing atmosphere.

“If you turned to the right (just before getting to the main bar) there was a large lounge leading back to the front of the club. It had big armchairs and low tables spread out and this was the place for the children to sit while the parents were at the bar, or for friends to relax and have a chat. My mother and father did all the renovating and decorating themselves and I remember my mother painted beautiful flower designs on the big shutters on the front windows of the club. We were open on Christmas Day every year and my job (being big sister) was to take care of the children who came with their parents. Many people stayed well after lunch and we were usually starving by the time the last people had gone and ate at about 4.00pm. My grandparents and aunt, and also the lady who helped us in the club, joined us for Christmas dinner. New Year was another big event and we spent about three days blowing up hundreds of balloons (I roped in friends to help) and these were put in a big net hanging from the ceiling near the bar. When the countdown started someone had to be ready to release the balloons and then at exactly on midnight they floated down – only to be burst in a few seconds by cigarettes, nails, hands and bodies!! Three days of puffing ending so quickly made me angry and sad!!

A special thank you to Jane for sharing this valuable information with us.

Did YOU used to go to the Thirty Club in Skegness?