WELL-HEELED residents of one of the city’s poshest addresses chose to slum it in the servants’ quarters for dinner on Saturday.

Cooks and chambermaids in Regency period dress served pea soup and game pie made to 200-year-old recipes at the Regency Town House in Brunswick Square, Hove.

The two dozen diners, many of who live in the upmarket square, enjoyed a three-course dinner catered by volunteers in a team which has spent the last three decades working to restore the property to its Georgian glory.

Sitting down in the basement room, under a restored skylight which would have been a high-tech showpiece in the home when it was built in the 1820s, Frank and Nadine Domoney said the evening was a change from their usual fare.

Frank said: “We’d like to think we were more ‘upstairs’ than ‘downstairs’ types, but it sounded like great fun to find out how the other half live.”

Nadine said: “We’ve been to several events here, including the Christmas carols, and of course it’s a fantastic way to fundraise for a great cause.”

The building was bought by Nick Tyson in the 1980s and has been a labour of love for Nick and a growing team of volunteers in the years since.

It is Grade I listed and is being turned into a heritage centre and museum.

Saturday’s dinner was a celebration of the completion of work to restore the servants’ dining quarters. Paul Couchman, 50, a caterer and volunteer for the project, said: “I found all the recipes in an 18th century cookbook.

“I’ve tested them at home and now they’ve come out well here, cooking in the scullery.

“I wanted to help give people the experience of being a servant – and they love it.

“The servants used to get leftovers you see, there was always too much food.

“There would be plates and plates of food on the sideboards which would never be eaten, so it would go first to the butler and the cook, they’d have first dibs on any leftovers, and then to the other staff.

“So the servants would eat game pie and things like this.”

Maudie na Nakhorn, who helped organise the evening said “dine like a servant” had been a great success and encouraged anyone interested in the property or the period to go to www.rth.org.uk and sign up for the venue’s Regency dancing event in April.