History

Legendary: Inn on the Park all-nighters

What had begun as an extravagant ballroom where Jersey’s elite gathered to dance and quaff champagne, had evolved into the premier venue for live music and cabaret by the 1970s.

However, something radically different was waiting in the wings. Dance music in the UK was about to make the unlikely leap from the underground fringe in to the mainstream. 

The tabloids had found their latest bête noir and damning headlines accompanied pictures of weekend ravers on a seemingly daily basis.

It wasn’t long before the scene reached Jersey and found its spiritual home at the Inn on the Park.

Spiritual home

Warren Le Sueur was resident DJ at the now crumbling venue and remembers it as being slightly surreal.

“It was still a stunning venue. It was this big ornate ballroom, very different to what I was used to in Liverpool,” he said.

“Any aspiring DJ in Jersey at the time was just so desperate to play the main room at Inn on the Park.”

“I had come over from Liverpool in early ‘91 and the first Saturday I was here I saw Sasha – one of the main DJs who broke through into the mainstream.

“To see him in this massive ballroom was pretty unique compared to any sort of UK club. It was a really special feeling and I knew I wanted to play there.”

Within three months, Warren had got the job at Inn on the Park.

Zeitgeist: Inn on the Park

Summer of love

Warren will be more familiar to today’s youth as the prime mover behind the hugely successful Jersey Live festival.

Back in the summer of '91, he was a twenty year-old DJ with aspirations of doing it full-time. 

Crucially for Warren and many of his contemporaries, the demand for dance music in Jersey had reached fever pitch.

The big monthly all-nighters at the Inn on the Park seemed to capture the zeitgeist.

Warren said: “It was a brilliant time. The music over here was uplifting piano-house and for about two or three years it was like a summer of love in Jersey.” 

Crumbling

The music was new but the building, which had now been standing since the 1930s, was not.

Warren recalls the night when he was almost flattened by a falling roof tile. 

Warren said: “The lighting at the Inn on the Park was always very dark to create an atmosphere. When a big tune came on the lights would be cranked up to create an effect.

“I remember DJing on the balcony and one of the massive tiles from the ceiling fell off and missed me by about 12 inches. I nearly lost a beat in my heart.”

Jaded

The former ballroom was still punching well above its weight as a venue, and was listed by dance music bible MixMag as one of the top three venues in the UK.

It seemed the ageing building had become a legend to a whole new generation. 

Vintage Flyer

Sadly, this proved to be the Inn on the Park’s last stand. The monthly dance events became weekly, and over familiarity with the venue diluted its potency. 

The scene and the venue was in its death throes by mid 90s.

Warren said: “In the end the demand petered out. People had just got a bit tired of it all.

“There was a sense of it being an event at Inn on the Park, but once it became a weekly thing people became jaded.”

By 1996 it was all over. Despite numerous petitions and protests the venue was sold off and turned into art-deco flats which, on the outside at least, echo the 1930s original.

Warren remains philosophical about the Inn on the Park’s demise.

He said: “I was sad to see it go. It was a Jersey institution, but every dog has its day and they had certainly had theirs.”