PORTAL TO THE PAST - THE MEADS AT BRENTWOOD - THE PLACE TO BE ON VALENTINE'S EVENING

Today's Valentine celebrations are well under way and the topic has been well advertised as the most romantic  time of the year. Once red roses was the choice of lovers, but polls tell us that  somehow chocolate seems to have been the top of gift-giving this year. 

In the 1960s, young prospective lovers had no sophisticated way of choosing, let alone meeting other prospective partners. So, what did our local lads and lasses do on this auspicious day? One local resident has memories of Valentine Day dances at the Crystal Meads, later known just as The Meads in the Ongar Road.

The building was bought by the late Elsie and Sam Pepperell who had come to live in Brentwood during the Second World War, with their daughter Sandra. By 1964, they had been granted a full drinks' licence and the family set about transforming the old building into one of the most glamorous nightspots in the area. People from all over Essex flocked there. Prior to this, the Meads was used as a dance school run by Madame Tredgett, who advertised her classes in the local newspaper. It was by this lady, that many of Brentwood's youth were taught the finer points of the waltz, quickstep and the foxtrot over the well-sprung wooden dance floor in her studio. But it was the Pepperells who made the Meads so popular and it wasn't just the youth who packed in on Saturday nights to the music of a live band and often popular singers of the day. During the week, the venue was used for political lunches, with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and members of the government often coming to Brentwood to be fed and entertained at the Meads. into its own.

Tickets for their romantic dances quickly sold out and it was here, among the glamorous mirrored room with polished dance-floor where scores of couples met, often later marrying and now fifty years later still retain magical memories of Brentwood by night. Time moves on and the site eventually became Sam's Night Club, equally popular with the youth of the 90s.

Today, the Meads is a complex of smart new retirement apartments serving older residents of the town, some of whom may even have met in the old building half a century ago. So, numerous Brentwood residents may even retain their own memories of their days of dancing and partying at this once famous magical Meads.

To learn more about Brentwood's notable buildings, check out Sylvia's book Brentwood in 50 Buildings published by Amberley Books, ISBN 978-1-4456-9213-5 from all good bookshops. Signed copies can be obtained at Waterstones and WHSmith in Brentwood. Also at other bookshops in Essex and Amazon.