Ye Olde Birmingham of Yore

[Xela]

1 hour ago, sidcow said:

Hort's was definitely the classiest drinking place.  Most venues tagged as a "wine bar" were just a bar trying to sound like somewhere that yuppie Londoners would be drinking.  Hort's was a proper wine bar.  Only closedown in 2007 apparently when the Edgbaston shopping centre was demolished.  That's probably getting on 15 years after I last went to it! 

2007! Christ, didn't realise it was that long ago. Spent many a boozy Friday lunchtime in there with work colleagues from the turn of the century up until it closed. On some days, I reckon 100 of us from our company would be in there having a lunchtime pint/wine. You don't get anything like that now, everyone is stressed up to their eyeballs and the social side of work died years back. 

You remember The Last Word pub on the other side of the shopping centre? You could access it from the car park upstairs? That was another lunchtime haunt. Watched England beat Argentina there in the 2002 world cup. Think the game was 11am on a Friday... work in the morning, pub for the footie (and about 4 pints), back to work about 2pm, worked until 5pm, then hit Broad Street and ended up in some warehouse club at about 3am. That was a heavy day! The joys of living a home... Mom would always make me a full English on Saturday morning (more like lunchtime!)

[sidcow]

18 minutes ago, Xela said:

2007! Christ, didn't realise it was that long ago. Spent many a boozy Friday lunchtime in there with work colleagues from the turn of the century up until it closed. On some days, I reckon 100 of us from our company would be in there having a lunchtime pint/wine. You don't get anything like that now, everyone is stressed up to their eyeballs and the social side of work died years back. 

You remember The Last Word pub on the other side of the shopping centre? You could access it from the car park upstairs? That was another lunchtime haunt. Watched England beat Argentina there in the 2002 world cup. Think the game was 11am on a Friday... work in the morning, pub for the footie (and about 4 pints), back to work about 2pm, worked until 5pm, then hit Broad Street and ended up in some warehouse club at about 3am. That was a heavy day! The joys of living a home... Mom would always make me a full English on Saturday morning (more like lunchtime!)

I don't remember that but then I really didn't drink in 5 Ways after early 90s. 

When you say "the other side" was it actually facing Islington Row Middleway?  I remember a pub there but I don't think I ever went in.  It looked rough as arse holes later in life. 

[Xela]

6 minutes ago, sidcow said:

I don't remember that but then I really didn't drink in 5 Ways after early 90s. 

When you say "the other side" was it actually facing Islington Row Middleway?  I remember a pub there but I don't think I ever went in.  It looked rough as arse holes later in life. 

No, sorry, I meant the other side of the Edgbaston shopping centre - it was more or less next to the Barclays on Hagley Road. 

The one you are thinking of is the Crusader, over the other side of the roundabout in the old Five Ways Shopping Centre/Auchinleck Square. That was a grim place. 

Edit: The Last Word used to be called The Punch Bowl, then it was renamed The Unspoilt by Progess.

It was the other side of the tower block in this photo (one on the left) on the Hagley Road. It was all levelled for the Morrisons. 

Edited March 2, 2021 by Xela

[stuart_75]

I remember going in The Last Word a few times on a Friday evening. The ex used to work in Tricorn house over the road and as mentioned earlier there was a big after work social scene back then. Happy days.

[John]

On 28/02/2021 at 18:05, bickster said:

Anyone remember the Cedar Club on Constitution Hill? I once saw the Au Pairs there, absolutely no idea how I was let in because I was about 15

Played some great music there back in the day (mid/late 70s in my case). I recall The Selector playing there one night. Made a change from the Top Rank. Those were the days...

 . 

[Lichfield Dean]

My band playing at the old Edwards no 8. I loved the black and white horror style images around the walls, a bit Sabbath, a bit werewolfy.

 

[sidcow]

10 hours ago, Lichfield Dean said:

My band playing at the old Edwards no 8. I loved the black and white horror style images around the walls, a bit Sabbath, a bit werewolfy.

 

I used to work in the red brick office building (now apartments) next to Edwards No 8, on the 4th floor adjacent to the roof.  You could hear bands rehearsing all the time. 

[Risso]

On 02/03/2021 at 21:08, Xela said:

No, sorry, I meant the other side of the Edgbaston shopping centre - it was more or less next to the Barclays on Hagley Road. 

The one you are thinking of is the Crusader, over the other side of the roundabout in the old Five Ways Shopping Centre/Auchinleck Square. That was a grim place. 

Edit: The Last Word used to be called The Punch Bowl, then it was renamed The Unspoilt by Progess.

It was the other side of the tower block in this photo (one on the left) on the Hagley Road. It was all levelled for the Morrisons. 

It was the Unspolit by Progress in the early 90s when i was at Brum Uni. Used to drink in there a lot as it was only a ten minute walk from our halls of residence. Decent boozer back then.

[sidcow]

Just found this picture. 

I reckon that Bakers is where Faces used to be and (Some Place Else?) is where Maxwells Wine Bar used to be with Maximillians above. 

Edited March 4, 2021 by sidcow

[bickster]

1 minute ago, sidcow said:

Just found this picture. 

I reckon that Bakers is where Faces used to be and (Some Place Else?) is where Maxwells Wine Bar used to be. 

That's definitely where Faces used to be

[mottaloo]

Wasn't Faces through those two pillars in the pic and the entrance was down on the right. Two rooms once you go upstairs; club visage and club jardine. 

Had my 18th there on a sat night and noel blake, tony coton and robert hopkins showed up ( it wasn't a private party, i just got a load of free tickets to a public room). 

DJ was Steve Dennis and i remember another time i was there, gwen guthrie ("aint nothing going on but the rent") made a guest appearance at about 1am. The DJ was a-whooping and a-hollering about her imminent arrival on stage but the "crowd" couldn't give a toss. She was a relatively unknown singer at the time and folk were more worried about getting another round in than paying the rent. 

[sidcow]

1 hour ago, mottaloo said:

Wasn't Faces through those two pillars in the pic and the entrance was down on the right. Two rooms once you go upstairs; club visage and club jardine. 

Had my 18th there on a sat night and noel blake, tony coton and robert hopkins showed up ( it wasn't a private party, i just got a load of free tickets to a public room). 

DJ was Steve Dennis and i remember another time i was there, gwen guthrie ("aint nothing going on but the rent") made a guest appearance at about 1am. The DJ was a-whooping and a-hollering about her imminent arrival on stage but the "crowd" couldn't give a toss. She was a relatively unknown singer at the time and folk were more worried about getting another round in than paying the rent. 

I never actually went to Faces that often.  Was supposed to be an over 21 place, you did well to get your 18th there!   I don't remember about the 2 rooms. 

Yes I agree the entrance was in the tunnel with the entrance to Maximillians on the other side of the tunnel. 

[sidcow]

I do remember I went to about 4 final closing night parties as Peppermint Place.  Every week we would go up town and there it was with another closing down party.  It was completely shit but we were 16 and it let us in no questions. 

I've tried to find a photo. It's amazing how few photos seem to exist of these old clubs.  Anything from 2000 onwards is probably going to have thousands of photos, plus street view will presumably be archived forevermore. 

I'd love to be able to see Street View from the 80's and before.   That photo of 5 Ways @Xela posted above I can't even picture in my mind what the whole streetscene looked like.

I often think there are many parts of Birmingham that if 18 year old me was dropped into them I wouldn't know where I was. 

[mottaloo]

3 minutes ago, sidcow said:

I do remember I went to about 4 final closing night parties as Peppermint Place.  Every week we would go up town and there it was with another closing down party.  It was completely shit but we were 16 and it let us in no questions. 

I'd love to be able to see Street View from the 80's and before.   That photo of 5 Ways @Xela 

Peppermint Place was the first nightclub I ever went to. I was a spotty faced office junior and here I was partying with adults in a nightclub ! Wow ! I couldn't get my head around folk buying whole bottles of wine and carrying them around the place. 

If i remember correctly, it was quite a narrow place that went a fair way back with the main dance floor at the end.

Got pissed on 4 pints of autumn gold cider and got the night service no.91 bus back to near my home, with a scalding hot bag of chips for company. I really felt I'd arrived, clubbing with the grown ups !

[sidcow]

12 minutes ago, mottaloo said:

Peppermint Place was the first nightclub I ever went to. I was a spotty faced office junior and here I was partying with adults in a nightclub ! Wow ! I couldn't get my head around folk buying whole bottles of wine and carrying them around the place. 

If i remember correctly, it was quite a narrow place that went a fair way back with the main dance floor at the end.

Got pissed on 4 pints of autumn gold cider and got the night service no.91 bus back to near my home, with a scalding hot bag of chips for company. I really felt I'd arrived, clubbing with the grown ups !

Yes, it was a small place, the dance floor was probably the smallest out of anywhere I've been to.  It was located towards the back with the bar behind it. 

The very last time I went there I have a very clear memory of us being about the only people in there, dancing to Colonel Abrams Trapped with about 3 of these surrounding the dance floor:

The place was on it's knees

Edited March 4, 2021 by sidcow

[Xela]

7 hours ago, sidcow said:

Just found this picture. 

I reckon that Bakers is where Faces used to be and (Some Place Else?) is where Maxwells Wine Bar used to be with Maximillians above. 

Some Place Else was always where our Friday night work sessions started... I say night, we used to slink out of the office at about 3pm and were knocking back pints and whisky chasers 10 mins later  Ahhh... good old days of working in the finance industry!

 

[Xela]

7 hours ago, mottaloo said:

Wasn't Faces through those two pillars in the pic and the entrance was down on the right. Two rooms once you go upstairs; club visage and club jardine. 

Did that become XLs in later years? 

[Xela]

6 hours ago, sidcow said:

I've tried to find a photo. It's amazing how few photos seem to exist of these old clubs.  Anything from 2000 onwards is probably going to have thousands of photos, plus street view will presumably be archived forevermore. 

Its a shame there aren't more photos about. I always find them fascinating to look at. My parents were big clubbers back in the 70s and would be nice to see photos of the places they went to. 

[bickster]

12 minutes ago, Xela said:

Its a shame there aren't more photos about. I always find them fascinating to look at. My parents were big clubbers back in the 70s and would be nice to see photos of the places they went to. 

Might have been one of them?

[bickster]

Here's Faces