page_title: Marlborough Pub and Theatre
section_title: Murder at the Marlborough
hierarchical_section_title: Marlborough Pub and Theatre / Murder at the Marlborough
context_page_description: The Marlborough Pub and Theatre is a historic venue, situated at 4 Princes Street, Brighton. It has been associated, since the 1970s, with the LGBT community. The Marlborough's small theatre presents theatre, cabaret and music throughout the year, including during the Brighton Fringe Festival, LGBT History Month and Brighton Pride Arts Festival.
context_section_description: In 1900, the Marlborough was the setting for a murder case, when Lucy Packham, wife of the landlord, was found dead and badly battered at the foot of the stairs. Her husband Thomas was arrested and tried for murder. At the trial, a policeman, PC Puttick, testified that, while in the street outside the pub on the day of the killing, he had heard Packham say to his wife, ‘You’re a lazy woman. You ought to be killed. I will kill you’. Despite this evidence, the all-male jury found Packham guilty only of manslaughter, sentencing him to just four years in prison.  In 1979, the crime was re-enacted in the pub with a comic play, Murder at the Marlborough, by John Montgomery, starring Binky Baker. During the play, the audience watched the murder in the bar, and the trial in the theatre upstairs. According to John Rackham, the first performance was disrupted by a woman customer, who was unaware that a play was in progress:
  On seeing the 'victim' crash to the floor after being 'hit' by a bottle, she burst into hysterical screams. Hardly had she been pacified with a hissed revelation of the truth when a new customer arrived at the pub. Surprised to see such a crush of people in the bar, he failed to notice the 'victim' still laid out on the floor, and promptly tumbled over her, to appreciative applause from those watching!
caption: 'One Day in a Summer in a Garden', another play starring Binky Baker (left), at the Marlborough Theatre in May 1983
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