Drinking Clubs of Yesteryear.

[CazCarey]

Southport has always had more than a fair share of drinking clubs; the Watch Committee who granted licences in days of yore were very generous.

There are a few that spring to mind: Dino's, The Elbow Room are just a couple of places that used to defy legal drinking hours.

There were always lots of other clubs I used to frequent whose names I cannot remember. A guy called Alf from St Lukes used have a club on Lord Street down by the side of the bank opposite the Monument and another one was on or just off Lord Street and was run by the mum of George who had to be the campest piano player in Southport.

[blackdog-mick]

Do you remember the Top Hat on Eastbank St., See music thread for Bill Edge, what a piano player!

[All Rounder]

The medics club down Gordon St

[pedoja]

The Carstairs Club......

[Nell]

Alf Prestburg was pianist or was it organist at The Carstairs,
which was later known as The Office Club?
The club was next to Valentino's Restaurant.
A lot of the town characters went to this place,never a dull
moment

[Nell]

I think the Restaurant was Versuvios,not Valentino's

[smithy99]

Nell: I used to drive Alf Prestburg's taxi in the mid 60s. What a character.
What ever happened to him?

[Nell]

smithy, Alf died some years ago.

[chad]

Caz - can you remind me again where that was 'cos me dad was always on about it
PS We have an 'Elbow Room' in Aston, Birmingham and it's as dodgy as the one in Southport always sounded - Pat

[CazCarey]

Chad - I seem to remember that it was in Stanley Street.

The owner once asked me if I had ever been to jail and when I said no he asked me if I would be become a committee member as he had to have a list of names of people of good repute in order to renew his licence!

[chad]

Caz
Yeah - could've been across from Makins Bookmakers where the old man worked for a spell - probably popped across at night for a bit of illegal gambling until the 1969 Gaming Act finished it -
- of course, in later years Teddy Moran's 'Shed' was the place to be.
Cheers Pat

[Nell]

Pat..I have heard many stories about Ted's shed

[chad]

Most of mine were from me dad - think I only went in once - Pat

[CazCarey]

The Marine Club (in many guises) was one of the places I used to go.

I used to live in Coronation Walk and sometimes used it as a local although when it had a casino it used to cost me fortunes. les Dawson used to appear there occasionally and he'd come up to the flat about eight o'clock so we could go out for a few pints at the Cheshire Lines before he had to go on at the Marine.

I remember Joe Rouane giving us a residency there when I played with the Sandgrounders band. He gave us a reduced fee with free beer and after a week he raised the fee and made us pay for the booze!

[blackdog-mick]

Went out with his daughter for a short while when we went to CTK school. Lovely family.
My old grandma was most disappointed that this relationship didn't last. We were 16(ish)!