Photographer Simon Dack relives Grand hotel IRA bombing

Argus lensman Simon Dack was enjoying a drink with his colleagues in The Grand hotel's bar on Thursday, October 11, at the height of the 1984 Conservative Party conference in Brighton.

It was like any other party conference, with delegates coming and going out of the Brighton Centre and anticipation brewing for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's speech the following morning.

Party members sit around the foyer of the Metropole after they were evacuated from The Grand. In the mirror is photographer Simon Dack (Image: Simon Dack)

At around midnight, Simon made the journey back to his home in Queen's Park where his wife Jennie was waiting for him.

But soon after getting back, Jennie heard a boom which sent shockwaves through the city.

"Simon was home later than me and he just got into bed and we heard this great big bang," she said.

"I told him that sounded like a bomb, but he said no - that's just a car backfiring."

Soon after their home telephone started ringing.

The front page, featuring Cleland Rimmer's picture (Image: The Argus)

Journalists at what was then the Evening Argus heard reports a bomb had gone off inside The Grand hotel, where the Prime Minister and her cabinet were staying.

Picture editor Cleland Rimmer was first on scene to capture the striking front page for the following morning.

Simon, now 65, followed shortly after, racing down to the seafront in his car and leaving it parked ahead of what would be one of the longest shifts of his career.

"The hotel was lit up by the fire brigade, and that’s what made it dramatic, with this big hole on the top floors," he said.

"I got to the bottom of West Street, where the cordon started and was able to walk along the beach to the other side of the hotel, roughly where Cannon Place is now.

"The first thing we were asking, though, was if our colleagues were OK. Some of them were staying in the hotel."

The scene outside the hotel, and how close Simon was able to get  (Image: Simon Dack) As the night turned into day, the scale of the damage became clear. Emergency services were scrambling within the rubble to save those who survived.

Through a contact at the fire service at the time, photographer Simon was given access inside the hotel less than 24 hours after the bomb detonated.

It was here he captured a picture of the firefighters working among the rubble inside the hotel, taking it through a doorway where the floor had collapsed just beyond.

"This was the best access we got just after the explosion. The firefighters had borrowed lights from the BBC camera crew.

"My adrenaline was just going, I didn't think it was dangerous. I had time to take half a dozen pictures before I was escorted out by the police.

"After I left, other photographers were even offering me money for my film."

Firefighters working in the rubble. On the left, a BBC television light is being used to inspect the wreckage (Image: The Argus)

In 1984, news photographers did not have the luxury of wireless file transfers and computer software.

Instead, a team of dedicated couriers on motorbikes ferried rolls of film from the photographers back to the darkroom at the Argus offices in North Road so pictures could be developed and published in the newspaper as quickly as possible.

One of Simon's favourite pictures was taken on that same morning, but it was not of the hotel or the rescue effort.

Simon turned his back to see three firefighters covered in dust taking a much-earned rest inside a seafront shelter - tucking into a plate of food.

"Among the darkest of stories, there are sometimes light moments to be found," he said.

"It’s the peripheral stuff which is of historical interest now. Look at what they are wearing, what they worked in, the conditions they are under. Now they would have a catering unit come down."

Firefighters taking a rest in the shelter (Image: Simon Dack)

Later that day, Mrs Thatcher delivered her defiant speech to crowds of delegates at the conference in the neighbouring Brighton Centre - many of who were reading the latest news of the bombing in the Argus.

And of course, our man Simon was there to capture this.

The attack was one of the most brazen on British democracy, targeting the Prime Minister and her cabinet in the height of party conference season.

It changed the way political events were held in this country, with security becoming a much more prominent feature of British politics.

Now, party conferences are surrounded by concrete barriers and a heavy police presence. For the next Conservative conference in Brighton, officers even attended the Argus office to take physical details from the reporters attending.

Simon Dack still regularly photographs for The Argus,  40 years after the bombing, capturing sports and news events for print and online.