A NIGHTCLUB in Brighton is set to change its name ahead of a grand reopening.

The Haunt, which was in Pool Valley, will be rebranded as CHALK.

The announcement comes the day before the club is set to reopen nearby in the five-floor Savoy Centre, which was formally the ABC Cinema.

In a statement, the owners said: “So we have one last surprise for you all.

“As you know we are so excited about our new venue.

“We have been working tirelessly to provide you with an amazing space, which will provide a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere for everyone.

“Our new venue, like our old, is independently owned.

“We will be keeping the same vibes as The Haunt, but we think our brand spanking new venue deserves a brand spanking new name - so please say hello to Chalk.

“We hope Chalk will become one of your favourite venues and we can’t wait to welcome you to one of our opening parties.”

The new venue will increase capacity from 350 to 825 in the new flexible main room, with a further 150-capacity second room also on the cards once the move is complete.

But one upset regular has already started a petition against the rebranding.

The Argus:

New general manager Matthew Dimmack 

Gef M’Onguese created a change.org page and wrote: “The recent rebranding is a bad idea, badly executed.

“The Haunt had built up name recognition over many years and become well-known by residents of Brighton and beyond.

“Chalk however sounds like one of the many generic Brighton seafront clubs that changes their name every two years.

“The Haunt had an admittedly naive, but unique and recognisable logo, whereas Chalk branding: a standard font with a default Adobe brush stroke across it - is a forgettably poor effort and as pointed out already looks like a line of coke.

“Not to mention the black-on-muddy-pink variations which are, if anything, worse. Black chalk??

“Now please change it back and we’ll forget any of this ever happened.”

So far, only Gef has signed the petition.

The club is a popular venue in the city, having hosted the likes of 2manyDJs, George Fitzgerald and James Holden during its near-nine year tenure. It already has more than 50 concerts on sale between now and Christmas.

New manager Matthew Dimmack told The Argus: “With reference to the name change, it is something that we agonised over for a while. We flip-flopped back and forth between a new name and The Haunt over and over again.

"The feeling was that The Haunt was so cherished and beloved to people, that there was no way we could not keep the old name.

“Ultimately, we came to realise that was actually the precise reason that we needed to come up with a new name, because to suggest to people that what we were offering them was 'The Haunt' was actually dishonest, because the new venue will not be the same thing.

“What we are attempting to achieve is a scaled up version of the previous venture, with a similar ethos and ideology. But what we are going to offer is bigger, better, bolder, braver and undeniably a different beast.

“The (old) Haunt had very much established it’s place in the market and ploughed a very specific furrow, that was honed over many years, with a great deal of trial and error.

"What we believe we are going to do now is cast our net wider and offer more diversity.”