The great Sheffield down Town pub run 1960-80ish

[samssong 10]

I trust you meant the smell of the fish and chips.

Of course I did ?

[sedith 19]

You had to treat the lady who you had offered to walk home to fish and chips .

I can still remember the wonderful smell it left on your fingers the next morning .

 

Excellent post .... You can achieve a similar result after eating a bag. scampi fries

[Billam 10]

On the very edge of Town was Sheffields own Sodom and Gomorra,but with a laugh on its face and a story to tell of nights in the sixty's and seventies ,nights that have never been surpassed due to the shutting down of our Towns best ever dance hall The Locarno.

 

Any who was any one around Town at that time headed for the Locarno on a Friday ,Saturday and Sunday nights.

 

Due to its location the pubs that surrounded it did a roaring trade and through the fog of years I will try to remember the good times that surrounded the Moorfoot, London Rd area .

 

If we start at the first port of call then that would be the Travellers on the Moor , entering this pub was like entering Dirty Dicks in London as the place always seemed dark and foreboding with nicotine stained walls covered in posters advertising the latest turns that were forthcoming to the rear large concert room .

A miner (or is it minor) bird would greet you as you entered telling you to go forth and multiply and this fowl was often accompanied by its owner and landlady who would do the same if you crossed her as she showed you the front door.

 

The concert room was at the very rear of the pub and the stage had a pair of mucky curtains that were drawn back when the turn came on , the turn was some times a singer or a comedian and they were usually introduced by Bobby on the drums and Vera on the piano to a great fanfare of drum rolls and piano banging.

 

By far the most popular turn was Ron Delta a Sheffield legend of a comedian who should have been on T.V as he was as good as any that had national fame at that time .

The only problem was that Rons material was usually very blue and risky as he stood with fag in hand telling the latest bedroom or below the waste line joke as he had all and sundry in stitches peeing them selves with laughter.

 

Walk down the Moor for a couple of hundred yards turn right onto Cemetery Road and you come to the pub that was packtist fullest pub on a Friday night that I have ever know .

Eric and Irene Whittington were the hosts and a very smart couple they were both in business and looks.

You entered by the front door and to the left was the best room and the bar , The bar was Cheers type one that was surrounded by front room , rear room and side area .

All these areas got so packed at weekends that it was almost impossible to move one way or the other.

The stairs on the right that led to the living quarters ( as you looked forward) also had drinkers sitting on them and Eric had placed his radio gram on the landing so as any one could put on the latest Sinatra , Frankie Lane or Ella record as they were his favourite artists.

 

One regular at the Oak was a ready mix lorry driver called Dennis and his party trick in the packed pub was to ask the lasses in the packed pub to feel how soft the leather was on his new belt this resulted in many loud screams for some reason although to this day I do not know why a trouser belt caused so much mirth and laughter in the pub.

 

Across the road near the Lacarno was the Hermitage (is it still there) and this newly built pub boasted a sweeping staircase leading to a balcony area (not a wise architectural idea when the daft lads had had a few pints on a Friday night as many a pint some how tipped over onto the crowds below in fact many an unlucky customer ended up in some ones lap as they some how exited the upper floor the quick way down.

 

The Hermitage also had strippers on stage on various nights making this pub a must go to venue for young lads out for a bit of an eye full.

 

Next pub up was the Albion and this was just above the Lacarno on London Road .

The cliental that used the Albion were shall we say the more mature types among the Lacarno crowd as this was a pub that insisted on standards ,no swearing in front of ladies (taken for granted in them days any way) and one was expected to move away from the bar and sit down on the plush backed seating

The Albion walls were covered in horse brasses and paintings of hunt scenes and was a pub that was a bit up its own arssse for us lads from the Lion .

 

Where next we must have missed summat anp't we.

 

I used to work at TC Harrison, after work on S

aturday we used to go round to Cemetery Road, I can,t remember the pub name but I remember Eric, I think he died from cancer, Irene had blond hair, great pub. The Hermitage was Wards ales, mostly undrinkable, no one has mentioned the large pub opposite, my memory has gone and so has the pub, great pint. The Locarno, Tiffany's was a great pick up place.

 

---------- Post added 13-12-2016 at 07:28 ----------

 

I used to work at TC Harrison, after work on S

aturday we used to go round to Cemetery Road, I can,t remember the pub name but I remember Eric, I think he died from cancer, Irene had blond hair, great pub. The Hermitage was Wards ales, mostly undrinkable, no one has mentioned the large pub opposite, my memory has gone and so has the pub, great pint. The Locarno, Tiffany's was a great pick up place.

The pub on Cemetery Road, I think it was the Royal Oak, the pub opposite the Hermitage was the Lansdowne, great beer, old fashioned pub. The Albion was a great old fashioned pub with several different rooms, it was modernised and spoilt by knocking all the rooms into one.

[Elmambo 25]

Am I wrong here ? Was the Locarno not dry - served nothing stronger than a Mint Julep and that this was one of the the reasons everyone fortified themselves before entering.

[sweetdexter 10]

I nearly forgot !!!!!!!!!

The Marples ,we can't leave this booze up without mentioning this Sheffield landmark in another neglected part of our City centre.

At exactly 11.45 pm Dec 12 th 1940 German bombers flattened this pub so today it is 76 years to the day and on a night similar to the one at this very hour .

 

Around 70 people who had been having a sing song perished in the pub that night, I remember the derelict site in the fifty's along with the one across the road that stood empty and forlorn until the new Marples and C@A across the road raised up from the ashes of war.

 

The new pub opened in 1959 and what a splendid building it is standing proudly on the corner of High Street And Fitzalan Square .

Sadly no longer trading as pub (the very history of the place should have made it the one to be still in use as it would have been a much better venue than the one Wetherspoons opened over the road).

Any way the new Marples was on two levels the upper one being reached by a magnificent flight of twisting marble stairs , stairs of which i have a very painful memory as I fell down them some time in the eighty's while wearing a pair of those daft platform multi coloured shoes along with flared trousers (so much for the Barney Goodman look that started this thread of in the Lion all those years before).

 

Upstairs was a concert room although I do not remember any of the Sheffield top groups playing there it seemed to be mostly the odd solo turn and some times a piano and organist encouraging a sing song much like the night when the bomb fell in the war years .

 

There was a bronze plaque just inside the High Street entrance remembering the lads and lasses who died but I don't know if it is still there.

 

Any way thats the Marples getting its mention and I will leave it there until the old grey matter revs up again and my typing finger is out off plaster.

The Marples used to have a lift to the concert room

There was a big electric organ played by a guy named Tommy

I used to frequent it often in the early 60s

[LLAN 10]

In 64 i was just starting year three of my five year apprenticeship, Night School was at the old College Workshops on Tudor Way, afterwards it was a pint in the Adelphi or the Brown Bear on Norfolk Street.

This particular night one of my mates came up with the idea of a visit to the Barley Corn on Cambridge Street "as this pub was frequented by Girls of the Night" and it`ll be a laugh spotting the prosi`s, those with a chain round their ankle!, a bit more "education" for four inquisitive nearly 18 year olds.

We paid for our pints and picked a table in the back corner of the pub to observe all and sundry, we didn`t even have time to take a sip before all hell broke loose, it was like one of those scenes in a Western, chairs, tables, bottles,and glasses flying everywhere. The Men in the pub had disappeared and the Women we`re going at it hammer and tongs, we made a quick exit dodging the flack on the way out, only to find the Men standing in the Road, pints in hand, chatting away as if this was a regular occurrence.

Needless to say four youths legged it down Cambridge Street before the Police arrived on the scene. We finished off the night in the Nelson.

[TORONTONY 10]

In 64 i was just starting year three of my five year apprenticeship, Night School was at the old College Workshops on Tudor Way, afterwards it was a pint in the Adelphi or the Brown Bear on Norfolk Street.

This particular night one of my mates came up with the idea of a visit to the Barley Corn on Cambridge Street "as this pub was frequented by Girls of the Night" and it`ll be a laugh spotting the prosi`s, those with a chain round their ankle!, a bit more "education" for four inquisitive nearly 18 year olds.

We paid for our pints and picked a table in the back corner of the pub to observe all and sundry, we didn`t even have time to take a sip before all hell broke loose, it was like one of those scenes in a Western, chairs, tables, bottles,and glasses flying everywhere. The Men in the pub had disappeared and the Women we`re going at it hammer and tongs, we made a quick exit dodging the flack on the way out, only to find the Men standing in the Road, pints in hand, chatting away as if this was a regular occurrence.

Needless to say four youths legged it down Cambridge Street before the Police arrived on the scene. We finished off the night in the Nelson.

 

Are you sure the "girls" fighting were really GIRLS ? This is the Barleycorn ,early 60's you are talking about...lol:D

[samssong 10]

Are you sure the "girls" fighting were really GIRLS ? This is the Barleycorn ,early 60's you are talking about...lol:D

 

Doreen and Shirley would have crushed your Walker and Halls if you had suggested that they were any thing other than Ladies.

In fact Doreen was most upset when the Queen visited a local colliery as up to then she!!! said that she!!! was the only lady to have been down the pit.

[retep 68]

In 64 i was just starting year three of my five year apprenticeship, Night School was at the old College Workshops on Tudor Way, afterwards it was a pint in the Adelphi or the Brown Bear on Norfolk Street.

This particular night one of my mates came up with the idea of a visit to the Barley Corn on Cambridge Street "as this pub was frequented by Girls of the Night" and it`ll be a laugh spotting the prosi`s, those with a chain round their ankle!, a bit more "education" for four inquisitive nearly 18 year olds.

We paid for our pints and picked a table in the back corner of the pub to observe all and sundry, we didn`t even have time to take a sip before all hell broke loose, it was like one of those scenes in a Western, chairs, tables, bottles,and glasses flying everywhere. The Men in the pub had disappeared and the Women we`re going at it hammer and tongs, we made a quick exit dodging the flack on the way out, only to find the Men standing in the Road, pints in hand, chatting away as if this was a regular occurrence.

Needless to say four youths legged it down Cambridge Street before the Police arrived on the scene. We finished off the night in the Nelson.

 

They were the days for entertainment, I remember a Saturday afternoon in the Bull and Mouth witnessing such a sight, two ladies fighting over who was getting a 'customer', he just sat there waiting for a winner while they rolled around on the floor like a cat feyt.

[samssong 10]

They were the days for entertainment, I remember a Saturday afternoon in the Bull and Mouth witnessing such a sight, two ladies fighting over who was getting a 'customer', he just sat there waiting for a winner while they rolled around on the floor like a cat feyt.

It was free love in the Bull and Mouth , for some:hihi:

[LLAN 10]

Doreen and Shirley would have crushed your Walker and Halls if you had suggested that they were any thing other than Ladies.

In fact Doreen was most upset when the Queen visited a local colliery as up to then she!!! said that she!!! was the only lady to have been down the pit.

 

I remember being thrown out of the Travellers Rest by Shirley.

 

Called in at the Travellers with some mate`s on our way down to the Esquire.

Shirley said one of of my mate`s had been tormenting the Mynah Bird(this was in a cage on the bar) and threw us out, telling us you`re bard.

We were all dressed in Mod Gear, this look at the time was very effeminate, girly cardigans and backcombed hair etc.

My mate said, he threw us out because we look the part better than he does.

[Padders 2,866]

i used to frequent the pubs mentioned, the laughs we had were unbelievable. the characters were just from another planet.. who would have thought that 50years on they would be remembered with such affection. shirley is part of sheffield folklore..if only we could turn the clock back.