9 Leeds Close
Worthing
BN13 3QP
Tel: 01903695194
www.markwild.co.uk
Mark started performing magic in 1979 and has performed shows for both adults and children on many occasions. In 1994, Mark successfully became a full time professional entertainer fulfilling engagements throughout the country
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Brooklands boating lake: By Bob Embleton
Brooklands Pleasure park and lake is situated at the Eastern end of Worthing on the Brighton coast road.
It has various facilities from play areas for the kids to a Golf course and Go-Kart track for the adults.
There is ample car parking and the park area has a total area of 45 acres including the 8 acre boating lake.
Brooklands is a great day out for all the family and there are also cafe facilities adjacent to the car park.
The beach is just over the road from Brooklands with another Park/ play area just a few hundred yards East at Lancing.
“Diddlyland”
Brooklands Pleasure Park
A259 Brighton Road, Worthing, West
Sussex, BN11 2HP
Tel: 07967 361847
Opening hours: 10.30am – 5pm All
year (Some facilities are seasonal or
weather permitting)
Travel the unique 1 mile “Diddlys” miniature train ride (the only one
in the U.K.) around the beautiful boating lake with its natural wild
fowl. Attractions include paddling pool, trike ride, trampolines,
bouncy castles, indoor ball pool, children’s play park, pony rides and
to finish the perfect day take a ride on the pirate motor boats. Fun
for all the family with parking available.
Brooklands Go-Karts
Brooklands Pleasure Park
A259 Brighton Road, Worthing, West
Sussex, BN11 2HP
Tel: 07867 762106
Website: www.brooklandsgokarts.co.uk
Opening hours: Weekends, School
Holidays and Bank Holidays throughout
the year (Weather permitting)
We are situated at Brooklands Pleasure Park between Lancing and
Worthing. The 280 metre track can be altered for all standards of
driving. We have a choice of 2 circuits, either the oval (this is less
demanding for beginners) or the full track for the advanced driver. We
also have 2 Kart sizes – Junior or Adult. We run Go Kart and Mini Moto
clubs throughout the year, these training clubs are an ideal way to train
and meet new people. There is also a Go-Kart party booking service.
Brooklands Golf Centre
Brooklands Pleasure Park
A259 Brighton Road, Worthing, West
Sussex, BN11 2HP
Tel: 01903 232270
Website: www.continental-landscapes.
co.uk/brooklands
Opening hours: 9am – Dusk
A superb 1152 yard, Par 3 course,
designed by former Ryder Cup star Dave Thomas that offers a
challenging round of golf. We have a separate pitch & putt course,
putting and training area, and are open all year to all.
The Connaught Theatre is an Streamline Moderne theatre in the centre of Worthing, in West Sussex, England. Built as the Picturedrome cinema in 1914, the venue was extended in 1935 and became the new home of the Connaught Theatre (established nearby in 1931). The theatre houses touring West End theatre productions, musicals, thrillers, dramas and children’s productions. Since 1987 it has been a dual use cinema/theatre with two screens, and has a seating capacity of 512. When it opened, it was a rare example of a conversion from a cinema to a theatre: the reverse was much more common in 1930s Britain, when many theatres became cinemas. The Ritz cinema (also known as Screen 2) at the Connaught is a venue for The End of the Pier International Film Festival.
History
The Connaught Theatre occupies the former Picturedrome cinema, which was built in 1914 on the site of Stanmore Lodge and opened in July of that year. Its seating capacity was 850 in a single tier, with four boxes at the rear, and the auditorium was octagonal. In 1926, Swiss impresario Carl Adolf Seebold, who owned other cinemas in Worthing and who had been the Picturedrome’s musical director since it opened, bought it.
In 1916, Connaught Buildings were built next to the cinema, and an entrance passageway was built from the street to the Picturedrome through the new building. The Connaught Buildings (and later Connaught Hall and Theatre) seem to have taken its name from Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathern and Earl of Sussex. The new premises housed the Connaught Hall, which in 1917 became a venue for vaudeville entertainment. It was licensed as a theatre in April 1931 by Walter Lindsay, formerly a theatre director in London; the first full season of theatre began in the autumn of 1932. Terence De Marney became director of Connaught and Bill Fraser became involved in the theatre.
The two venues coexisted until 1935; in that year the Worthing Repertory Company, which had been outgrowing the Connaught Buildings, moved next door to the Picturedrome, renamed the building the Connaught Theatre and commissioned an architect to extend the façade of the building in an Art Deco style. Carl Seebold contributed £60,000 (£3,088,000 as of 2011) towards the cost of the work. The first production, a play called Theatre Royal, was given on 30 September 1935; it formed the centrepiece of a special opening week programme, and was very successful.
The establishment of the Connaught in former cinema premises represented an unusual reversal of the contemporary tendency for theatres to be converted into cinemas—a trend seen throughout Britain in the 1930s.
A temporary closure during World War II was followed by a period in which the theatre was managed on Seebold’s behalf by a group associated with the J. Arthur Rank Organisation, who pursued a policy of blooding young actors who later became important figures in film, television and theatre. Glenda Jackson, Susannah York, Charles Morgan and several others appeared at the theatre during this period. In the 1950s, Alan Ayckbourn appeared in several plays at the Connaught. In 1956 Winston Churchill visited the theatre to see his daughter Sarah perform in Terrence Rattigan‘s play Variation on a Theme. Harold Pinter acted at the Connaught under the stage name David Baron, moving to a house just a few yards from the theatre in Ambrose Place in the 1960s. Pinter’s first wife, actress Vivien Merchant acted at the Connaught during this period. Giles Cooper worked with Pinter at the Connaught. Robin Maugham wrote several plays which he directed and premiered at the Connaught, including The Claimant (1962) and Winter in Ischia (1964). Actress Marina Sirtis, perhaps best known for her role in Star Trek: The Next Generation, began her career in rep at the Connaught in 1976. Actor Robert Blythe has also worked in repertory theatre at the Connaught.
Ownership passed from Seebold to other commercial interests in April 1950, when he sold the lease for £35,000 (£894,000 as of 2011). The theatre began to struggle, and closed in 1966, but campaigners successfully petitioned Worthing Borough Council to buy and run it instead. Productions began again in 1967 one of the first performances was The Beggar’s Opera, the first opera seen in Worthing for 136 years and the capacity was increased to its present 512 seats when the auditorium was revamped in 1972. The council agreed to provide more funding for the theatre after it was forced to close temporarily on two more occasions in the 1970s. The remodelling in 1972 introduced film projection facilities, which have been used regularly since 1987.
Architecture
Originally designed by Eastbourne architect Peter Dulvey Stonham, the building was refurbished in 1933 to the plans of A.T. Goldsmith. His design added a new first-floor cocktail bar and lounge area to the original Picturedrome auditorium. Two years later the entrance foyer on Union Place was rebuilt in Moderne style, with two rendered storeys, parapeted, in three bays.
Facilities
The theatre has a licensed bar, cloakroom facilities, disabled facilities and parking.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Worthing Pier is a pier in Worthing, West Sussex, England. Designed by Sir Robert Rawlinson, it was opened on 12 April 1862 and remains open. The pier originally was a simple promenade deck 960ft (291m) long and 15ft (4.6m) wide. In 1888 the pier was upgraded with the width increased to 30ft (9.2m) and the pier head increased to 105ft (32m) for a 650-seat pavilion to be built. It is a Grade II listed building.
The first moving picture show in Worthing was seen on the pier on 31 August 1896 and is commemorated today by a blue plaque. In 1897 a steam ship began operation between Worthing Pier and the Chain Pier in Brighton, twelve miles to the east.
In March 1913 the pier was damaged in a storm, with only the southern end remaining, completely cut off from land. A rebuilt pier was opened on 29 May 1914.
In September 1933 the pier and all but the northern pavilion were destroyed by fire. In 1935 the remodelled Streamline Modern pier was opened, and it is this that remains today.
Worthing Pier was sectioned in 1940 for fear of German invasion after the retreat at Dunkirk. A large hole was also blown in the pier to prevent it being used as a possible landing stage in the event of invasion.
The pier is owned by Worthing Borough Council (formerly the Worthing Corporation).
The Pavilion Theatre and Denton Cafe is situated at the northern, land end of the pier; at the middle is the 1935 amusement arcade, which from 1956 – 2006 carried a distinctive ‘New Amusements’ sign that was featured on the cover of the album To See the Lights (1996) by Britpop band Gene. Since 2006 the sign has changed from ‘New Amusements’ to ‘Pier Amusements’.
The Southern Pavilion (the sea end) is currently home to a nightclub named The Pier, which opened on 20 December 2007. It has previously been used as a cafe, dance hall and to house a model railway layout.
Since 2008, Worthing Pier has been the home of the annual International Birdman competition, which moved to the pier after it could no longer safely be held on the pier at Bognor Regis, some 15 miles (24 km) to the west.
In November 2009 during strong winds, two Worthing kite surfers became the first people to kitesurf over the pier.
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