Aditi Rane with Mick Haddon, Irene Worrall, Richard Wright. St George’s Park retirement village (Image: Adam Gerrard / Daily Express)
It is mid-morning at St George’s Park, a sprawling retirement village on the Sussex Downs, and three residents are gathered in the bar, readying themselves for an outing. Later that day, they will be heading to the Chichester Festival Theatre to see Top Hat. Their outfits reflect the sense of occasion: Richard in a shirt and neat sweater vest, Mick in a snazzy patterned shirt, and Irene in a navy-blue blouse finished with a scarf that loops elegantly at the collar.
The bar where they welcome me is like a country club and, in fact, is Mae’s Court Bar, the village’s new hub, which opened in June. With its polished wooden finishes, plush seating and soaring glass roof that bathes the room in natural light, it looks less like a retirement facility and more like a members’ club.
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Aerial views. St George’s Park retirement village accommodation in Burgess Hill, West Sussex. St Ge (Image: Adam Gerrard / Daily Express)
The journey to St George’s Park winds through a farm estate. Wild birds swoop across the fields, and at one point, three hulking water buffalo appear by the fence. “Not alpacas,” says CEO Philip Smith with a grin. “Though we did once have alpacas, which have since died.”
This blend of bucolic tranquillity and bustling village life inspired Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club, quite literally.
Osman’s mother, Brenda, lives here, and her experiences of the community’s rhythms – the clubs, the camaraderie, the committee debates – informed the cast of pensioner detectives who have now leapt from the page to Netflix screen.
The writer has been visiting the community for the past 15 years, since buying his mother a home there. Last year, the Pointless star turned mega-author told the Express: “I’m a good working-class boy. It’s my proudest thing that I bought her a place in that retirement village. That’s what she dreamed of.” He added with a smile: “It’s obviously paid me back!”
Today, the residents at St George’s find the connection amusing.
“It’s light entertainment,” says Richard Wright, 83, a retired banker and now the chair of the Residents’ Association. “Fun, though not entirely accurate. No one here dresses like the Queen for dinner, and we certainly don’t wear flowery swimming caps.”
Mick Haddon and Richard Wright (Image: Adam Gerrard / Daily Express)
The trio are part of the Residents’ Association, which operates efficiently like a small parish council. They hold monthly meetings with management, where they can raise anything from bar refurbishments to bin cupboards.
Recently, a debate over the bar area – whether it should remain a dated servery or be transformed into a sleek club room – ended with renovation. Not everyone was pleased, particularly those who rarely leave their apartments.
But as Irene Worrall, 80, once a health centre practice manager in Bristol and now social chair of the Residents’ Association, puts it: “We need to keep the place looking smart, or visitors won’t see the full picture.”
Day-to-day life at St George’s is full of activity. Clubs abound: tai chi, knit-and-natter, poetry groups, three separate book clubs (one headed by Brenda Osman herself), line dancing, swimming, tennis, and bridge. The concert hall hosts performances in summer and winter, alongside lively “bring-your-own” dances where the turnout is so strong you can’t move for neighbours.
Excursions are popular too. Residents regularly pile onto the community coach for theatre trips, castle tours, or river cruises. “We’ve been to the Bluebell Railway, Leeds Castle, the vineyards,” says Mick Haddon, 78, a former entrepreneur and now deputy chair of the Residents’ Association. “It keeps us out and about.”
Irene Worrall at St George’s Retirement Park (Image: Adam Gerrard / Daily Express)
And then there are the campaigns. A recent battle over neglected bus shelters saw residents step in to clean and repair them when the council demurred. “We came here for a quiet life,” Mick laughs. “But there’s always something to fight for.”
Part of the charm of St George’s lies in the residents’ varied backgrounds. Among the apartments are former magistrates, barristers, military men, even, it is whispered, an MI5 officer. “We did have one,” the trio says conspiratorially.
A quarterly residents’ magazine, produced in-house, profiles new arrivals in a section cheekily titled New Kids on the Block. It often surprises with tales of high-flying careers and remarkable adventures. But day to day, nobody makes much fuss about past glories. “Here, we’re all in the same boat,” says Irene. “You arrive as strangers, and then you’re family.”
When asked what they made of the Netflix adaptation of The Thursday Murder Club, the trio exchange knowing smiles. “The companionship was right,” smiles Irene. “People from very different backgrounds all coming together. That’s what it’s like here.”
And while the characters on screen may have indulged in elaborate costumes and eccentricities, the reality of St George’s is more understated: smart, yes, but without the theatrical flourishes.
What they do admire, though, is the portrayal of community. “Every time you step outside your door, you meet a friend,” Irene said. “That’s exactly it.”
With 250 acres, St George’s Park is much like a market town. Apartments are set among landscaped gardens. There is a bistro, a shop, a concert hall, a swimming pool, and allotments where beans and tomatoes climb in neat rows.
Nuns still hold weekly services in a chapel on the grounds. There are even rumours of parrots among the residents’ pets.
The village began in 1868 as a convent for around 40 Irish nuns who came to care for local people. Much has changed, but the traditions remain. The nuns still offer pastoral care on the estate, which has retained its 250-acre grounds, chapel, and aura of sanctuary.
Today, St George’s Park comprises approximately 240 independent living apartments plus around 27 assisted-living apartments, all under the care of Augustinian Care, the charitable organisation that oversees the estate.
The independent-living accommodations are designed with accessibility in mind: wider doorways, level-access showers, and supportive walls, all built to “Lifetime Homes” standards. Should greater care be needed in future, residents can transition to one of two 60-bed care homes on-site.
The retirement home inspired ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ which is now a Netflix movie (Image: AP)
A short stroll down the road leads to Trinity Lodge, where those who need assisted living have their own apartments, while domiciliary care is provided in a separate unit.
“The idea is continuity,” says Paula Spencer, resident liaison officer, as she shows us around the estate. “People can move through the levels of care without having to leave the community they’ve built here.”
On the way, she points out the neat allotment plots tucked behind one of the blocks. Residents can rent their own patch, she explains, and the results are impressive. “They can grow anything they want, vegetables or flowers. They take it seriously.”
Neat rows of beans, towering tomato plants and beds of bright dahlias line the paths, a testament to her words.
Amenities are extensive. They include a restaurant, library, gym, swimming pool, an art show, activities rooms, tennis and bowls greens, around 30 allotments, four guest suites, a guest apartment, and a shop where one of the nuns volunteers.
Paula, who helps knit the strands of village life together, recalls the excitement when the Netflix film finally premiered. “They were very keen to watch it,” she says. “We ended up showing it twice in the lounge.”
Richard Osman’s mum, Brenda Osman lives at St George’s Park (Image: -)
For many, the decision to move into St George’s comes at a turning point. Some arrive to be closer to family, others after illness, or because the loneliness of living alone became too heavy. Irene had lost her husband just 11 months after moving in. “If I’d been living where I was before, I would have been completely isolated,” she says. “Here, people just put their arms around me. The support was incredible.”
That sense of belonging is why people stay. “This becomes your home,” the trio agrees. “Once people arrive, they want to stay until the end of their lives.”
So, do they plan to set up their own Thursday Murder Club?
“We’d need a few murders first,” Richard deadpans. “And I’ve been tempted once or twice.”
But the truth is, they don’t need murders to occupy themselves.
Between bridge nights, theatre trips, committee meetings, gardening, and campaigns about bus shelters, life is already as busy as anyone could wish for.
And if Osman’s fictional club has put their village in the spotlight, so much the better. “It’s lovely, isn’t it?” says Irene. “A story about older people, in a place like this, being shown as interesting and funny and full of life.”