The Kon Tiki

Name: The Kon Tiki
Location: St. Saviours Road, St. Helier
Period: Late 1980s
Fate: Closed down
Regular Tunes: Pop

Located at the La Motte Street end of St Saviours Road, The Kon Tiki was a nightclub attached to a hotel (The Continental) but open to the public. It had a reputation for being one of the rougher clubs on the scene, a step down the ladder from The Blue Fox. Violence seemed to be a common problem, in its last couple of years of existence The Kon Tiki's name increasingly appeared in the local press related to some one fracas or other.

The club was a small affair adjoining the rear-end of The Continental, its front emblazoned with a neon "Kon Tiki" sign. Its entrance faced St Saviours Road across a small strip of tarmac carpack which ran the length of the hotel.

The club's interior was very 1970s, looking like the kind of place you'd see in The Sweeney when a scene required a visit to a snout in a grimy strip-joint in Soho. It was not much more than a single square room, the walls painted in a tropical style of decor and the main lighting effect coming from a large mirrorball rotating above the dancefloor. At the back of the club was the DJ booth, and running the length of each side was leatherette bench seating. I can't remember exactly where the bar was, I think it may have been in the corner to the left of the DJ booth. The music played was the cheesier variety of 80's Pop.

Being hidden in a corner of St. Helier well away from the usual pub-crawl routes The Kon Tiki wasn't on the mainstream map for town clubbers, so it largely attracted people living in the immediate vicinty (the most deprived part of St Helier) and people banned from other clubs.

The Kon Tiki closed down sometime in the very early 1990s. I'm fairly certain it lost its licence due to the constant violence. I have a memory of the local press reporting matters coming to a head following a punishment beating in the carpark outside the club, undertaken by a couple of members of the IRA who flew over specially for the purpose.

The Continental Hotel and The Kon Tiki have since been demolished and a large apartment block named Liberation Court now stands on the site. The entrance to The Kon Tiki was approximately ten feet further back from where today the side entrance is to apartments 15-20 .