Construction of a new hotel in the city centre at the former home of a nightclub is well underway.

Several storeys of the new Premier Inn have now been built, with a crane looming over the site in West Street, Brighton.

Builders demolished the former Sherry’s nightclub in 2020 to make way for the mixed-use development, including the 125-bedroom hotel.

Once complete, the new building is expected to be six storeys tall.

The new Premier Inn hotel will be the brand’s 16th in Sussex and second in the city - it already has one in North Street.

The Argus: An artist's impression of the new development in West Street, BrightonAn artist's impression of the new development in West Street, Brighton

A spokesman for Whitbread, the parent company of Premier Inn, said that conversations are ongoing between the firm and the council to discuss the design of the hotel’s frontage.

Conversations are expected to be complete “in the next couple of weeks”.

However, the company was not able to confirm when the new Premier Inn might welcome its first guests.


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The site has hosted many of the city’s most popular clubs for more than a century.

Most notably, the space was the home of Sherry’s Dance Hall, which dominated Brighton’s nightlife scene for almost three decades and was a popular destination for servicemen during the Second World War.

After Sherry’s closed, it became a roller-skating rink and then a bingo hall before being demolished in the late 1960s.

The Argus: The site of the Premier Inn used to be Paradox nightclub in the late 1990sThe site of the Premier Inn used to be Paradox nightclub in the late 1990s (Image: Rudi Gnoyke)

It was remodelled as a nightclub and became the Pink Coconut, Paradox, Creation, Tru, Project and Hedkandi.

In a planning application submitted in 2018, developers from architectural firm Morgan Carn Partnership described the building as soulless and said it had a “negative impact on the character of the area”.

The new hotel comes after the chain included several Sussex sites among its “target locations” to open new hotels.

Alongside Brighton city centre, the list included Patcham, Hove/Shoreham, Lewes, Reye, Bognor, East Grinstead and Arundel.

Premier Inn has more than 800 hotels across the UK, with upwards of 76,000 rooms.