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A favourite seafront feature

We do not have a closeup of this famous clock – perhaps you do – if so please contact us.  If you look closely you will see a large disk to the right of centre of this photo which is in fact the Guinness Clock. The Grand Hotel is to the left. The photo was taken on the West Pier.

The Guinness clock on the seafront
Image reproduced with kind permission from Brighton and Hove in Pictures by Brighton and Hove City Council

Comments about this page

  • Regarding the Guinness Clock: I remember it well. As a boy I used to deliver groceries to people who lived in the flats that it was built on! You went through a door at the bottom, there was no lift and many steps to the top. The top flat was just above the top of the clock. At night the tenants could see the lights flashing into their apartments. I heard a rumour that it was the only building in Brighton to be hit by a V1 Rocket in the War! I’m not sure how true this is, maybe someone else has heard the same story? The building was demolished in the early 60s and the wall where the clock was is now the beginning of the west side of the Brighton Centre.

    By Trevor Chepstow (31/01/2004)
  • I lived in the building with the Guiness Clock as a young child in the 50s as my parents owned the building. I have one photograph somewhere and will find it. It can also be seen in an old movie, I will check the name.

    By Jo Marie Harris (25/08/2008)
  • I remember the Guiness Clock, it featured the too-can and various other quite surreal creatures that performed a sort of tableaux on the hour. I was a bit frightened of it but fascinated too, I must have been only a pre-school child (I was born 1959) my grandparents would take me to see it -I also recall there was one at Chesington Zoo or was it Drusilla’s or maybe both?

    By Ann Durrant (19/04/2009)
  • We remember the Guinness Clock and talk about it to others. No one seems to believe us that it did exist. We spent many hours in our youth playing around the clock, in the paddling pool and the Fortune of War. We have told our children and now grandchildren about the clock. Can anyone remember the big pink elephant that you could have your photo taken on?

    By Susan, Oat and Roslyn (19/07/2009)
  • A picture of the clock in Whitby can be found at F Frith & Co Reigate site. They do old photos and it was there that I first saw it and started my search.

    By Ged Spears (31/01/2011)

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