The Beehive is a public house at Southernhay in Basildon Town
Centre. It opened on Tuesday 11th August, 1964 as the Bull's Eye and was the first public house to be built within
Basildon Town Centre.
Among its features at the time were two ground level bars and upper level ballroom capable of holding 250 people with
associated outside terrace. The upper ballroom also doubled as a 200 seat dining hall. In the 1970s this was extended over a
portion of the terrace and the restaurant was run as a Mr Toby Carvery.
The name of the pub was suggested by Norman Hack of St. Michael's Avenue, Pitsea who entered it in a name-that-pub competition
held between October 31st, 1962 and March 1963 by brewer's Charrington and the Basildon Recorder newspaper. Prior to the
competition it had been planned to call it The Toby Jugg.
In its early years it was run by Cope's Taverns, one of Charrington's subsidiaries, although the Charrington name
can be clearly seen on the outside of the building in early photographs. In 1967 in came under the control of
Bass Charrington following Charrington's merger with Bass and Mitchells and Butlers which it remained, possibly
until 1997 when Bass Charrington sold off their interest in public houses.
Around 1998 it was renamed The Beehive which coincidentally was one of the suggestions in the original name-that-pub
competition. In the aftermath of the 'smoking ban' introduced in 2007 the outside area, some of which had been a car park,
has been utilised with the addition of a seating area where on occasion live bands have performed.
Colors Nightclub
In 1999 the upper bar area took the name Colors where it became one of
the most popular gay nightclubs in Essex. It underwent a refurbishment in November 2011 and another one nearly
11 years later when it closed on August 6th, 2022 and reopened on Friday, September 9th as The Loft. The Beehive
was also refurbished during this time and reopened on Wednesday 7th September.
The public house and the nightclub are owned by the Stonegate Group. | 
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