The new owner of the i360 wants to reach out to local people and invite them in for a coffee and a cake or a glass of wine.
She wants people to pay to go up the viewing tower, of course, but with long experience in food and drink and hospitality, she wants to make the whole place more welcoming.
Sarah Willingham, 51, runs Nightcap, the bar chain that bought the Brighton i360 on Tuesday (4 February), along with her husband Michael Toxvaerd, 50, who she described as “frankly, the brains behind everything”.
For two seasons, she was one of the investors on the BBC TV show Dragons’ Den and appeared in The Restaurant, with Raymond Blanc.
But she is also a mother of four, living in Kemp Town, who has walked her black labrador Byron past the i360 scores of times – just as thousands of others walk by each week.
And she wants to give those who pop into town or stroll along the prom – up top or at beach level – a reason to drop in and a place to meet up.
She said: “I want it to be a hub – somewhere you can go for a croissant when you’re walking the dog or on a Friday night with the girls for a rosé.
“We’re all about hospitality. That’s what we do. And it should be a hub. It’ll be a blend between the tower and the hospitality.
“For locals, it should be a thriving place where we want to stop and have a drink. It’s right in the centre of the prom.
“That’s what will make people like it again – being a fun place you want to visit.
“The tower brings in the tourists – 260,000 people went up it last year – and that’s really important for the local economy. We need to get the tower up and running.
“Tourism is such an integral part of our economy and the i360 – love it or loathe it – is a really important part of it.
“We hope to open in March, starting with the tower and the coffee shop. It’ll be heavily invested even before we get it open.
“It’s not about how much. It’s about what, who and where. It’s about bringing the expertise and the passion to make this the amazing place it should be.
“This is right slap bang in the middle of the seafront,” she said, with Fish and the Lagoon at the western end of Hove, along with the new Hove Beach Park and Rockwater. At the Kemp Town end, there’s Sea Lanes, she added, “and, in the middle, there’s us and the pier.”
“We will be changing the flow when you come in but it’s going to be a work in progress for a while. People have got to give us a chance,” she said.
The maintenance and servicing that usually takes place during the annual shutdown in January is only just getting under way and should take about four weeks, hence the hope of a March reopening.
And it’s not just about getting the engine room up and running but a host of behind the scenes tasks such as sorting out the insurance and recruiting staff.
She said: “A lot of it is out of our hands.”
If the doors reopen in early March, there’s a chance of making the most of a late Easter this year – Sunday 20 April – and, a few weeks later, in May, the two bank holidays.
The real peak months are in the summer – subject to the weather. She said: “We need a cracking summer. Perhaps the locals can do a sun dance!
“We will definitely do something on the pricing. We as a business are very inclusive. It’s very important to me. Our customers often tend to reflect that.
“I hope we get the offer right and the pricing right so that it’s inclusive for everyone.
“We will definitely make it more appealing for locals. We want to welcome as many local people as possible and work with the schools, of course.
“We will have really good hospitality here. It should be a place to meet up. The terrace is so magnificent.
“The little terrace outside the coffee shop has 80 seats. It has great views. And it’s protected, sheltered by glass all round, and so it’s warm even in the winter.”
On a good day – and the weather of course plays its part – a glance at the crowded bars and cafés along the lower prom, from the Bandstand to the Palace Pier, hints at the i360’s untapped potential.
Even those who don’t fancy the view of the sea, the coast line and the hotel rooftops from the i360 pod, can stop by anyway – even if it’s just to catch up with a friend or for a bite or a drink.
It’s a case of taking the warmth of this experienced hospitality boss, the undoubted passion, drive and determination and the expertise built up over some 30 years and showing that the i360 is now well and truly on the up.
High price is a commonly stated reason for not going up the i360. Between £5 and £8 Is a commonly suggested affordable price?. But that may be too low for Nightcap.
Access for older and disabled is an issue. The micro-lift to the beach is inadequate and unreliable.
The entire non-pod/tower surround is pathetic. Cramped areas. Cheap looking and ugly. On a ferociously wet and windy winter day, there are cosier places to meet up. The site is itself at issue.
I am currently in hospital in a room with a spectacular view over the Kemptown area, the whole of Edward Street up to The Steine, and over the sea to Worthing Pier. The topography, sloping down Edward Street, under interesting architecture, etc is endlessly fascinating in changing light conditions. That looks south. To my right, the Downs peak up behind the rising topography. THIS is where a viewing pod on a pole belongs. Not where it is, without rethinking all the insubstantial beach level glass and concrete structures with climate change VERY MUCH in mind. Good luck with that. This is a very brave purchase and potential liability cost!
A thought just struck me. The location seems like it could potentially be large enough for a Shelter Hall type venue? Many cities up and down the country have multiple of these big social eating & drinking venues and we just have the one. Split the base unit up into a bunch of kitchen units to rent out and whack in a bar and a nice seating area.
There already is an up market Shelter Hall food court and plenty of beach huts and globe type structures to sit and eat in. it would be a shame to tread on existing businesses toes. A more original offer is need
For a mere £8 each I invite people to come to the top of the Race Hill with me and look out across the views of Brighton, its surrounding countryside and the sea…
For that I’ll throw in a glass of cheap Prosecco and a slice of Aldi Battenberg.
Your to kind, when are you taking bookings.
You had me at Battenburg.
Thanks for making me laugh. If we can’t laugh, we cry…
Is it just me? I think this acquisition by Nightcap has just got disaster written all over it. Apart from the fact it seems to be financed by ‘other peoples money’, I don’t see how a small business running a few bars has any experience in running a second rate tourist attraction.
I give it less than a year.
The council would have been far better to sell the contraption to a third party, dismantle it and get shot. At least it would have raised some revenue.
I am afraid this is delaying the inevitable.
Profit of doom!
The council does not own it so cannot sell it. All they could do is force the sale, agree to swallow the debt and endorse the preferred bidder.
Nonsense!
It never was a tourist attraction!
Now however it will be a museum piece…to admire as the best worst investment the Council ever signed off … from the comfort of the Beach Bar below which will nodoubt, serve up food, allow croc wearing dog owners in (with pooch) and have those millionaires scruffs on lap tops dotted about the place that can double up as security.
Basically, this could be the making of it!
You seem to have knowledge of the future. Are you a Time Lord by any chance
I will never forgive the council for agreeing to this White Elephant from the beginning, they wrote off multi millions of our money to get it sold, no doubt Ms willimham has a ltd company so if it goes wrong she will either scrap it or pass over to another fool without actually losing much of her own cash. Beware anyone that works on it chances are they will never be paid.
Just remember, it was a different council.
I don’t think the council has the slightest interest in your forgiveness
All this talk about hospitality , coffee and wine is a bit silly when there’s a fundamental problem… There’s no toilet on it..
I predict this latest venture will fail just like the previous one and it will be shut down by the end of this year.
Frankly, it’s ugly and boring and not many people are interested in going up it, especially with their being no toilet facilities or anything like that, and having to pay a high ticket price.
I’ve not been up it once and I’m a local. Coffee and a slice of cake is not going to change that.
It was built for tourists not locals. Locals use the infrastructure the greens built from sea lanes to the new facilities all along Hove seafront. We associate this elephant with failure and it won’t attract locals. The best chance was to turn it into a spoons, and even they turned it down. 5 years and the council will have to pay to pull it down.
Pretty sure the spoons suggestion was a meme.
If a small premium was put on a tea/coffee and you rode up and down for free, Im sure there would be a queue to the aquarium…