The site of the present Thai restaurant at the junction of Eastgate Square, between St Pancras and The Hornet was the location from the late 17th century for the Unicorn Inn. The title deeds held by Messrs Henty and Constable in 1940 go back to 1741.
The “Unicorn” was the home of that ancient body the mayor and corporation of St. Pancras founded. there in 1689. This mock corporation celebrated and commemorated the overthrow of the Roman Catholic James II and the succession of the Protestant William of Orange. Every year the corporation held a banquet with ‘plentiful supply of wine and ale, and everything provided to content the stomach’. So drunk did the members become that apprentice boys had to push them home in wheelbarrows – hence the nickname of the corporation –The Wheelbarrow Club – which survives to this day and is arguably the oldest dining club in Britain. It undertook charitable work such as delivering Christmas dinners for the Old Ladies of Dear’s Almshouses. The Inn was also a favourite meeting place for clubs and societies.
The Anti-Drainage Party met at the Inn in 1889 to oppose the plans to install main drainage in the City. They saw it as an unnecessary expense and a way to line the pockets of others and it could be avoided by registration of cesspools and improving their maintenance. The full text of the report of the meeting in the local Newspaper can be downloaded here.
In April 1889 the City Police Force dined at the Unicorn to commemorate their extinction as a separate body. The County Government Act meant that as far as the police were concerned they came under the control of the County Authority.
Due to the need to widen the roads in the vicinity, owners Henty and Constable (Brewers) with architects Whitehead and Whitehead and builders Patching and Co of Worthing redeveloped the site in the late 1930s to create a new Unicorn ‘Hotel’ which ‘set a new standard even among improved licensed premises. The building was constructed of Dorking bricks with a lower story of reconstructed Portland stone. Behind the brickwork, the building was of steel frame construction, most of the upper floors being reinforced concrete. The Lavant course ran across the site. The Unicom opened under the managership of Mr. Arthur King and his wife.
Gracie Fields and actor George Graves visited the City in the 30s and selected the Unicorn Hotel for ‘rest and refreshment’ whereas Miss Evelyn Laye preferred the Village Hotel at Itchenor for the summer vacation.
In 1939 it was one location for Air Raid Precaution (ARP) Wardens to test their readiness – the Unicorn being ‘wrecked’ with four persons trapped and injured. The Hotel was the drinking hole for RAF pilots during the second world war, especially those from Tangmere. The landlord at the time was Arthur King. When a beachhead was established in Normandy soon after D-day he used an Anson aircraft to transport to them, fresh bread, tomatoes, stout and lobsters fresh from Selsey twice a week.
An American pilot, Robin Olds, on an exchange program with the RAF visited in 1946 and noted the range of photographs and drawings on the wall depicting those such as Sailor Malan, Douglas Bader and Stanford Tuck who were heroes to him when a young cadet in 1940.
With his wife, Kay, Mr Harcourt. a Fleet Air Arm petty officer and RAF Squadron Leader, was host for many organisations until 1960 when Watney decided it was no longer viable.
The Unicorn closed as a pub in 1960s and up to 1994 the building was leased to the Chichester Festival theatre as the Minerva Studios.
It became the offices of the Observer paper until 2015, then laid dormant until occupied by the restaurant.
If you want to follow the Chichester Pub digital trail go here where the Unicorn is at location 11
Sources of information include:
Changing Times | The life and times of Ebenezer Prior – Part two‘ Posted on 7th March 2020. Chichster Post Lifestyle
www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
‘The Unicorn – 300 years of hospitality’ The Chichester Society Newsletter – September 2017