Crawley-based Chas Saunders (pictured left) made such an impression on me by his geniality and enormous enthusiasm (a feeling, I suspect, shared by all who met him), I am incredulous, thinking back, that we met on only a few occasions and the first of those was as recent as 23 January 2010. That was the date of my pub heritage tour of Brighton. Chas introduced himself to me as we sat at the bar of the Quadrant, and in a generous gesture I later discovered to be typical, pulled out from his raincoat pocket a present for me – a sheaf of papers on which he’d photocopied pictures of all of the pubs on my tour, annotated with notes on their histories. We then avidly discussed pub history for the duration of our stay. Chas was, after all, a self-styled Pubologist and it was through his Pubology website -
http://www.pubology.com/ - that I had first heard of him.
From that point we entered into a correspondence, almost always on the topic of beer and pubs, except for the occasional digression into Gods. Chas’s letters were works of art in themselves, as shown by the composite image below. Photocopied onto them was Chas’s Pubology business card as a header followed by pictures of pubs and assorted illustrations arrayed around the fine calligraphy. These letters were full of optimism, enthusiasm and humour – “Amidst much pubbing, beer festivals etc. I have been to Battle of Hastings re-creation. The Bloody Normans won again! Wonderful show but NO beer tent. English Heritage Indeed!” To receive an envelope addressed with that unmistakable slanted but precise penmanship always filled me with enormous anticipatory pleasure at such delights contained within.
Even when Chas’s letters began to remark on his illness, they lost little of their optimism – “Beer is part of my medication!” he wrote to me in February this year. It therefore came as a shock when I received the news that Chas had passed away peacefully at home on 9 June, aged 77, surrounded by his many projects. Charles Edward Saunders, cartoonist, author, jazz drummer, inventor of board games, real ale lover and, of course, Pubologist, while it saddens me to think that I will never again receive another of your letters, I will always derive great pleasure from re-reading those that I have.
Our thoughts at this time go to his family and friends.
The back-fittings are mostly original although the gantry is a 1960s addition. The Art Deco statuette as a counter-top centrepiece is some 18 inches high and inscribed with the maker’s name, Roche. The banquette seating with its statuettes was probably fitted in 1960 when the pub was acquired by the Brighton-based brewery, Tamplins. At each end of the pub the toilets retain their deco doors; the interiors of the Gents and Ladies on the left are largely intact. But by far the most striking feature appears above your head on entering the pub: a six-sided stained-glass skylight in red, lime and gold. 
Also visit the right-side free-standing brick-built function hall with barrel-vaulted roof. The front lobby retains its terrazzo floor and many original features of the toilets. The main room was once divided by a folding wall. Both the bar-back and counter are also original but the latter lies under a 1960s re-fronting. 
