Cannon Inn
29 Chatsworth Road
1866 to 1935
       

The Cannon Inn and Brewery. If there is one building that has lived through many guises, then this is it.

Built around 1866 as a retail beer shop run by J. Feest, it was soon to become a brewery. In 1886 to great pomp and ceremony (a dancing bear and the Littlehampton brass band were employed) it opened as the Cannon Brewery Museum and Assembly Rooms.

Rebuilt in 1894 as the Cannon Inn, in 1934 it was listed as a dining room, closing 1935. It was then purchased by the Worthing Gazette in 1949 and demolished in 1974. The Worthing Herald office now stands on the site.

Apparently, in 1894 the facade featured a terracotta cannon motive or casting. One wonders if that's resting in someone's back garden at the moment.

 
   

It is interesting to note that the present modern Worthing Herald building is called Cannon House!

The picture below left, shows what might have been the back wall of the original building where it joined the back of the now demolished police station.

 
   
   
   
An overlay of an 1898 map, seems to confirm the position of the brewery building under what is now Cannon House and the offices of the Worthing Herald.

Cooks Row directly in front became Chatsworth Road.

 
   
It had been rumoured that a terracotta model of a cannon adorned the brewery building. The picture on the left appears to show this. Confirmation needed.
   
Not any old chimney pot. This terracotta delight was rescued from the demolition of the Cannon itself. Now preserved in someone's back garden.
   

1866 - J Feest Beer retailer
1931 - GC Sidwell