The Gay Dolphin Hotel, Rye

At the peak of the old town is St Mary's Church. The cobbles of Traders Street, in Malcolm Saville's Rye, lead along from the church to end at a wall on the cliff above the town's quay. On the right of this quiet look-out point stands an old, half-timbered, inn. An archway leads through its side into a cobbled yard, and above the arch swings the inn sign. That mariners' friend, the dolphin, gambols in its painted sea, a wicked gleam in its eye. This is the Gay Dolphin Hotel. The archway has doors in its sides. The door on the left leads into the hotel and the one on the right into the private part where the owner, Mrs Warrender has her flat. During the school holidays her son Jon and niece Penny descend on the Inn and move into their rooms.

The Gay Dolphin Hotel from Traders Street © John Allsup

The Gay Dolphin Hotel from the cliff edge © John Allsup

This view of the hotel shows Traders Street to the right, and Jon's bedroom window. Traders Passage leads across the front of the hotel and drops past its garden wall and tree down steps into the town. The wall in the foreground is beloved of Penny, its sun warmed bricks are a favourite perch of hers. Below her the boats and sheds of the quay send sounds of the sea to her ears, as her eyes drink in the view.

Penny's room is at the opposite end of the building, looking out across the town and down into a little garden and Traders Passage.

Penny's room has a surprise. A secret stairway twists bedside it into a hidden room in the roof of the inn. This room is 'given' to the youngsters, and here they discover papers and an old map which lead them on a treasure hunt.

Here we are looking through the doorway; daylight streams in through the green glass of the narrow windows on the right while the Dolphin's old oil lamp throws a warmer glow onto the table. On the table is the smugglers' map, and the big key to the room. Beyond the table a fire burns in the brick fireplace set in the dark oak panelling . . .

The Secret Room © John Allsup