Caesar's Palace

Name: Caesar's Palace
Location: Greve De Lecq, St Mary
Period: 1988
Fate: Demolished
Regular Tunes: Unknown

Caesar's Palace was during the 1980s Jersey's premier cabaret venue, putting on extravagant shows nightly for eight months of the year. If you have ever wondered why today there is so much car parking space in a bay as small as Greve De Lecq, there's your answer.

I never visited the venue for cabaret, but for a very brief period at the tail-end of the 1980s they dabbled in the nightclub business. That I did experience, although admittedly my memories are minimal at best (hence the lack of a floorplan for this entry).

For kids living and clubbing in St. Helier in the 1980s a trip outside the metropolis to party was a big deal, transport being the big problem. Few of us drove, and those who did weren't keen on having to stay sober all night acting as a taxi service for our mates.

And the professional taxi companies? Whilst they were more than happy to take a double-figure payment to drive you to a club in the hinterland of the island at 10 PM, you became an untouchable once the question was raised of getting a taxi back to town at 2 AM.

So when Caesar's Palace announced out of the blue they would be opening one night every two weeks as a nightclub, and providing return coaches from the Weighbridge, we considered it a no-brainer. We had a ride out of town, we could get plastered in a club, and at closing time were guaranteed a ride home

With the venue being used to sedate, polite, civillised and middle-aged cabaret patrons, I don't think they had a clue what was about to hit them.

On that first nightclub evening at Caesar's Palace there must have been six coachloads of kids, packed to standing, ready to party to the max, on top of which the local taxi firms were doing good business with those who'd missed the coaches.

We got one of the last coaches out of town and upon arrival had to queue for about 25 minutes to get inside. The place was already looking full to capacity as we stepped through the door. Just beyond the entrance was a small lobby with a decorative fountain in the centre. Staff clearly out of their depth with the situation were trying to corral clubbers from this foyer area into the main room (already visibly packed to bursting), shouting not to do this, warning not to touch that, demanding you keep away from there, ordering you to come over here, etc. etc. etc.

It was verging on mayhem. That's my sole clear memory of the evening.

I don't recall anything about the music they played and very little about the interior layout, although I'm certain the DJ was working from the stage as I have a vision in my mind of him flanked by huge curtains. I do remember the main room itself being so full that we ended up spending most of the night in the area by the indoor fountain. I also have a vague recollection of a few fights happening outside when the evening concluded.

I doubt Caesar's Palace had ever experienced an evening like it. Talk about the barbarians descending upon Rome.

The second nighclub session they attempted a couple of weeks later was an equally boisterous and unruly affair, shortly after which they decided to call it a day and stick to the cabaret business.

As tourism in Jersey slumped into terminal decline the cabaret circuit dried up and Caesar's Palace closed their doors in the early 1990s. The story of Caesar's Palace ends much the same as that of most of the venues of which I've here written, the building lay empty and neglected for a number of years before being demolished. A row of houses at the bottom of Mont De La Greve De Lecq now occupies the site.