There are some buildings in Worthing that almost disappear into the streets around them.

10 High Street is not one of them.

Its huge arched windows, red-brick frontage and unmistakably ecclesiastical shape have stood opposite the entrance to Warwick Street for a century.

Generations have walked past it. Many have walked through its doors.

Some went there to worship.

Others went there for cocktails, live music and late-night dancing.

And in the early hours of Friday, August 21, 2026, Sussex Police were called there for an altogether different reason.

The former Angels Bar and Club had allegedly become home to a substantial cannabis cultivation operation.

Initial reports described a “very large” number of cannabis plants inside the former nightclub. A subsequent update reported that two people had been arrested following the discovery.

For Worthing, though, what makes the discovery particularly extraordinary is not merely what police found.

It is where they found it.

Because behind those doors is a building which has been part of Worthing life for almost 100 years.

And its journey from church, to nightclub, to an apparently empty building concealing cannabis plants tells a remarkable story about a changing town.

Before the DJs, there was a congregation

Long before bass reverberated through the building, 10 High Street was St James's Evangelical Free Church.

Historic records date the building to 1926. It was designed in a free Perpendicular style by architect T. H. Winney and served as an Evangelical church until 1988. Historic worship records show St James's Hall being registered on High Street in January 1926, with the later Worthing Evangelical Free Church registration finally cancelled in February 1989.

For more than six decades, therefore, the huge windows which would eventually overlook nightclub bars illuminated a place of worship.

Then came an extraordinary change of use.

When the church closed in the late 1980s, the building crossed from Worthing's religious life into its hospitality and nightlife scene. Historic sources record it subsequently becoming a restaurant and bar.

And before long, it had acquired a very different reputation.

The nightclub years

Ask Worthing residents of different ages what they remember the building as and you may receive completely different answers.

For some, it will always be Cloisters.

For others, Bar Ten.

Local pub-history records describe the main section of the old St James's Church becoming Cloisters nightclub before later being renamed Ten. The neighbouring section would at one stage operate separately as the Alehouse & Kitchen.

By the 2000s and 2010s, Bar Ten had become a familiar fixture of a Worthing night out.

The building was perfectly suited to making an impression.

It was vast.

A later commercial property listing put the premises at 6,541 square feet, with large open areas, balcony and mezzanine space, bars and a main dancefloor. Its capacity was listed at a remarkable 750 people.

This wasn't a backstreet drinking den.

Commercial agents themselves described 10 High Street as occupying a “highly prominent” town-centre position, almost directly opposite Warwick Street and just minutes from the seafront.

Hundreds of people could pass through it on a busy night.

Music, queues, taxis, security staff and smokers outside became part of the building's identity.

In 2015 and 2016, part of the former church traded as Alehouse & Kitchen, even containing an on-site brewery. Later came the Alehouse Craft Bar. CAMRA records that incarnation as closing in September 2022, while also documenting previous names including The Church, Alehouse & Kitchen and Bar Ten.

Then came Angels.

Angels arrives — with big ambitions

Angels Bar and Club opened in the building in early 2023 and attempted to put 10 High Street firmly back on Worthing's nightlife map.

The premises licence demonstrates just how serious a late-night venue it was intended to be.

Council documents list alcohol, live music, recorded music, films, indoor sporting events and dancing among its permitted activities. At one stage, the venue sought permission to extend elements of its entertainment and alcohol operation as late as 4am.

Its management would later claim it had invested more than £300,000 into Worthing's night-time scene.

In a petition launched during a dispute with the council, Angels' management described the premises as a nightclub which had existed under different names — including Bar Ten — for decades, calling the venue a “cultural asset” and an important part of Worthing's night-time economy. Those were claims made by the club's management during its campaign and should be understood in that context.

But behind the scenes, trouble was building.

The music becomes a battleground

By 2024, Angels was locked in an increasingly serious dispute over noise.

Worthing Borough Council's licensing committee concluded that excessive noise from the nightclub was causing a public nuisance following complaints from residents and evidence from environmental protection officers.

A statutory notice had already been issued in July 2023.

According to reporting on the licensing decision, breaches and further complaints followed, and the committee ultimately ordered that from June 4, 2024, loud music would have to stop at 11pm until an appropriate noise assessment and effective mitigation measures had been put in place.

It is worth remembering this part of the story.

The building may inspire nostalgia as a former nightclub, but its final years as an entertainment venue were not universally celebrated. People lived nearby, complaints were made and the council ultimately concluded there was compelling evidence of disturbance.

Then, only weeks after the licensing decision, Angels was gone.

After 18 months, the doors closed

On June 25, 2024, Angels announced its sudden closure.

It had been open for only around 18 months.

The venue cited circumstances beyond its control, alongside rising costs and changing customer habits, as reasons it could no longer continue.

Its farewell statement thanked customers and staff and spoke of the memories created there.

And then the music stopped.

For a building designed to accommodate hundreds of people, the silence must have been dramatic.

It had already been marketed as a significant commercial asset. Property particulars advertised the freehold for around £1.15 million, describing a 6,541-square-foot former church with development potential, a 750-person bar and club capacity and a highly prominent town-centre location.

A building once filled with worshippers and later packed with clubbers had entered another, much less certain chapter.

And somewhere between the closure of Angels and August 2026, something happened behind those familiar walls.

So how did a landmark nightclub become a cannabis grow?

That is the question Worthing now deserves an answer to.

At present, there is no publicly established account explaining when the cultivation operation was installed, how long it had been running, how those responsible obtained access to the premises or precisely how much cannabis was being produced.

Those gaps matter.

What is known is striking enough.

Police were called to the former Angels premises in the early hours of August 21. A very large number of cannabis plants were reportedly discovered inside. The following police update resulted in reports that two people had been arrested.

A building capable of legally admitting hundreds of customers had somehow gone from one of Worthing's most visible entertainment venues to concealing an illegal cannabis-growing operation.

That transformation did not happen overnight.

Someone had access.

Someone had use of the space.

And at some point, a building directly on one of Worthing town centre's principal roads ceased functioning as a public venue and apparently became private enough for a substantial cultivation operation to exist inside it.

Precisely how that happened remains unanswered.

There is also no evidence in the information currently available that links former Angels staff, management or previous operators of the nightclub to the cannabis cultivation, and Worthing News is not suggesting such a connection.

The people arrested in connection with the latest incident have not been convicted merely by virtue of being arrested, and the investigation must be allowed to establish the facts.

Why vacant commercial buildings matter

Large cannabis grows discovered inside disused commercial premises are not unique to Worthing.

Police forces around the country have repeatedly warned that large-scale cannabis cultivation can be associated with organised crime and can create serious risks inside buildings, particularly where electricity supplies have been interfered with.

Law-enforcement operations elsewhere have uncovered cannabis factories in everything from shops and pubs to industrial premises and former nightclubs.

That does not tell us how the Worthing operation worked, and police have not publicly provided those details.

But it highlights why a large, relatively enclosed former commercial venue can become vulnerable once legitimate activity disappears.

At 10 High Street there were thousands of square feet behind a substantial frontage, large internal rooms, former dance areas, storage space and parts of the building that had once accommodated hundreds of customers.

In 2024 those characteristics made it a 750-capacity entertainment venue with development potential.

In 2026, police were removing cannabis plants from it.

That contrast is difficult to ignore.

A building that mirrors Worthing's changing nightlife

There is something almost symbolic about the story of 10 High Street.

For more than sixty years it brought people together for religion.

Then, for decades, it brought people together for something altogether different.

Cloisters.

Ten.

Alehouse & Kitchen.

The craft bar.

Angels.

Different generations gave the same building different names, but it remained occupied, illuminated and used.

Its latest chapter is different.

It is a story of a large town-centre venue falling silent at a time when pubs, clubs and hospitality businesses across the country have faced soaring costs and changing habits.

Angels itself specifically cited those pressures when it closed.

What happened afterwards should concern Worthing far beyond the issue of cannabis.

Because prominent buildings do not cease to matter when the business occupying them closes.

If anything, they become more important.

A 750-capacity former church on one of the town's most visible streets should have enormous potential: entertainment, hospitality, community use, leisure, redevelopment or something entirely new.

Instead, two years after the last clubbers left, its name is back in the news because police allegedly found a large cannabis operation behind its doors.

Worthing deserves to know what happened next

There are now significant questions still to be answered.

How long had the cannabis grow been operating?

How many plants were ultimately recovered?

What was their estimated potential value?

How and when did those responsible gain access to the former nightclub?

Had the building been inspected or visited regularly since Angels closed?

Was the electricity supply altered or bypassed?

Who had responsibility for securing the premises during the period in which the grow was established?

And, perhaps most importantly for the future of Worthing town centre:

What happens to 10 High Street now?

Those questions should not be used to prejudge the police investigation or accuse any previous occupant, owner or individual without evidence.

But they are legitimate questions about one of Worthing's most prominent commercial buildings.

Because this is more than a police drugs story.

It is the extraordinary decline of a building that once held hundreds of people at a time.

A place that began with hymns in 1926.

A place that later echoed with nightclub sound systems.

A place remembered as Cloisters, Ten and Angels by different generations of Worthing residents.

Then the crowds disappeared.

The doors closed.

And almost exactly a century after the building first opened as a place for the community to gather, police entered to discover what has been described as a “very large” cannabis grow.

For one of Worthing's most recognisable former nightlife venues, it is a remarkable fall from the centre of town life.

And the biggest part of the story — exactly what happened inside 10 High Street during those two quiet years — may still be to come.