Decorationg work at a Brighton hotel has revealed a fragment of its forgotten past.

As workmen scraped layers of paint off the front pillars of the Prince Regent Hotel in Regency Square, they spotted a glint of gold.

Gradually the Jewish Star of David was revealed with the wording Regency Inn Restaurant Hotel written beneath in gold leaf.

Yesterday part-owner of the hotel Stuart Corson said: "We knew it had been a hotel and guesthouse on and off since the Thirties. But we never knew about this chapter in its history."

The old sign was close to the pillar's surface, suggesting that the inn would have operated in the 19th century. But no one knows much more about the discovery.

Aubrey Milstein, vice-president of Brighton and Hove Jewish Representative Council, said Regency Square was not noted for its Jewish links.

"I know quite a lot about our history but Regency Square does not really come into it. It is quite near the old synagogue in Middle Street so it may have something to do with that," he said.

So far his investigations have only reached as far back as the Sixties when the building, believed to have been built in the 1820s, belonged to former Brighton mayor Alfred Feld, a member of the synagogue in Middle Street.

More research into the hotel's history is being done, but any other clues on its past may have been destroyed.

Mr Corson, who has owned the hotel with Alan Ashwell for the past 15 years, said: "The previous owner completely rebuilt the interior in the Seventies. It was gutted so there will be nothing to see inside."

Although the building's past will not now be forgotten, the letters and Star of David will soon be hidden again.

Mr Corson said: "The decorators will be painting over it. We are not a Jewish establishment so it would not seem right to have it on our front pillars."