A lapdancing club previously owned by a convicted sex offender has ceased trading and is set to be turned into a gay bar.
The Pussycat Club in Grand Parade received a “record number” of objections when it renewed its licence in February.
Now, it has closed its doors and a company owned by the same team behind the Brighton Sauna next door has applied to take over its alcohol licence.
The lapdancing club hit the headlines at its sex entertainment venue licence renewal meeting, at which feminist campaign group Sister Salon spoke to highlight financial links the club still had with former owner Kenneth McGrath.
McGrath was jailed in 2017 for coercing a vulnerable teenage girl from Brighton into having sex with him on his yacht in Majorca.
The licence was renewed after McGrath’s son Kris McGrath – now the sole director of the company which holds the licence, Saltire Investments Limited – said loans taken out in Kenneth McGrath’s name against the club would be repaid this year.
Last month, signs outside the club announced it had ceased trading with immediate effect from Friday, 26 September.
No updates have been made for the company which held the club’s licences, Saltire Investments Limited, on Companies House.
However another company owned and run by Kris McGrath called Saltire Sussex Ltd has applied to be struck off the register.
Mr McGrath did not respond to a request for comment.
A separate company called Brighton Cruise Bar Limited has applied to take over the club’s alcohol licence.
That company is owned and run by Paul and Andrew Gray, who also run Brighton Sauna.
Paul Gray said he had taken over the lease of the venue from Kristopher McGrath last month.
He said: “We entered into discussions with Kris and came to an amicable agreement. We are ripping the building apart at the moment.
“We are opening a gay bar – hailing back to the old days when people would maybe actually come out to a bar and meet people face to face.
“We’re hoping to open on 1 December. It’s a difficult climate – there’s more clubs closing down than opening these days, but we’re optimistic.”
It’s a good location for a bar, nearby the current offering of St James Street.
If I remember correctly this upstairs bar was a gay club before, back in the late 1970s, then known as the Longbranch club, and popular with lesbians.
I think, in this day and age, the proximity to St James’s street is not so important as the short staggering distance to the Sauna downstairs.
Either way, it’s quite brave opening a new licensed premises in the current economic climate. So many bars in Brighton and Hove are currently running at a loss, or else struggling in getting customers past the door.
It will be an all male cruise bar opening in November according to a Facebook post I saw.