Off licences Outdoors

[Alberta]

We called the off licence 'the outdoor' when I was young.
I remarked to a southern friend that years ago when my husband was on late shift I went to the outdoor to stock up on crisps and sweets for the evening.After a few seconds she asked ,outdoor?
Is it a brummie word?

 

[Alf]

Quite right I still do, just closed our local one and they won't sell you booze to take out.

 

[Oisin]

My Southern friends call it the "Offy" (off licence). In my family it's known as the "O.D." (outdoor). Yes, I believe it is only in civilised societies that it's known as the outdoor.

 

[Kandor]

Say!

I always remember a London woman saying how she hated Brummies always saying 'Fizzy Pop'

 

[dennis]

Now then Off licence don't sound as nice as "The outdoor"
Glad we had one when I was a kid,used to collect a couple of bottles
take them into the Outdoor,get tuppence and could then go to the pics

 

[RayD]

I think you will find that the description "Outdoor" came from times when pubs had a door that led to the part of the pub where you could buy booze etc. to take away.
At this time there were no "Off Licences", a description given to the modern day establishments where alchohol etc. can be bought but not licenced to be consumed on the premises.

:alcoholic:

 

[Di.Poppitt]

A blue jug that lived on the top shelf in our kitchen was the jug that I had to take to the outdoor to get dad's beer. My reward was a 1d packet of broken crisps.

They call them the Offy here, and the ones I knew were on the side of a pub, thye are all gone now.

 

[Alf]

Dennis
Well done another memory taking the bottles back.
Di a White jug we had and that was for Beer week days and Faggots & Peas Saturdays.
Money on the bottle now would make a lot of diference to the rubbish dumped now I'm sure.

 

[Kate]

I've just read a book by Bill WAtkins called A Celtic Childhood and it is the first time I've heard about kids going up to the pub with a jug to get beer! I enjoyed the book which switched between Birmingham, Stratford and Ireland. Very funny in parts.

 

[Oisin]

Ours was a glass jug that held three halves of M&B mild. Unlike going with a bottle that could be sealed with a little tab over the stopper, you had to be a certain age to use the jug. I can't remember how old you had to be but I can remember my dad making me a pair of stilts so that I looked older when I went.

You try balancing a pitcher of ale while walking on a pair of stilts all the length of Wellington Street from Franklin Street.

 

[Di.Poppitt]

The mind boggles Paul.

 

[Peter Walker]

So far as I know, 'Outdoor' is very much a West Midlands word - I don't know whether it extends to other parts of Warwickshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire, let alone Leics, Notts and Derbys.
My old nan used to tell a story about when she was around 14 and went to an outdoor near Cecil Street where she lived with a jug and the six-inch square of muslin over the top, weighed down with square wooden [?] beads round the edge. On her way home she met the local vicar, who was taking her confirmation classes at the time. She used to describe the shame she felt, running home afterwards in tears, and disappearing into her bedroom for the rest of the evening.
It may be her story about that night which led to my dad never liking beer. He would drink cider, wine and whisky - the last only at Christmas, as I remember.
Another generation on, I took to beer, didn't think much of cider or wine, and disliked Whisky.
Peter

 

[Di.Poppitt]

Mom used to tell us a story about the Out Door in Hamstead. It was at the top of the village almost under the canal bridge, no pub anywhere near. My gran would go to get grandad's jug of beer ready for the end of his shift in the pit, and she was always followed by Joey, a goose she had saved from the cooking pot.

 

[gingerjon]

the building is still there it was an off licence till recently it was a Victoria wine lodge I will have a look next time I go down there I think it was boarded up the last time I noticed it
there was a robbery prior to it closing

 

[Alf]

Hi Di
My Aunt lived in Hampstead name of Crossley

 

[Di.Poppitt]

Sorry Alf, I didn't know her.

 

[harryrages]

It was the 'outdoor' for sure. My uncle Ken (Humphries) kept one for years on the corner of Floyer Raod in Small Heath. I remember well being sent to 'goo up the outdoor' with a jug for beer and packit of woodies.

 

[Sid Walker]

My Mom and Dad thought it was Bliss. We lived opposite The Salutation with an Off-Licence a few doors away If the beer was off I would be sent to the Off-Licence with "the jug" for three halves. Sid.

 

[johnedward]

THE OUTDOOR I CAN REMEMBER WAS IN LAKEY LANE IN HALL GREEN ON THE ROW OF SHOPS BY THE FISH CHIP SHOP AND THE HARDWARE STORE IT HAD A SPECIAL NAME THAT I CAN'T THINK OF. BUT IT WAS A M&B RUN PLACE . I USED TO TAKE A SCREW TOP BOTTLE OR A CORONA BOTTLE FOR DADS TAKE AWAY I WAS AGED ABOUT 8 OR 9 DID THEY HAVE LAWS. I SEEM TO THINK YOU COULD HAVE WINE AS WELL TO TAKE AWAY.
HAPPY DAYS.AND OF COURSE THE SCRATCHINGS FROM THE CHIP SHOP FOR A 1 P ALL THAT CRISPY BATTER ETC
HEAVEN WHO THOUGHT ABOUT BLOOD PRESSURE THEN.
JOHNEDWARD

 

[Bryn Meurig]

my Grandfather would often send me with a jug and money to "The Outdoor". Everywhere else I've lived, other than Birmingham, it is known as the "Off Licence" or "Off Sales".

 

[adap2it]

my Grandfather would often send me with a jug and money to "The Outdoor". Everywhere else I've lived, other than Birmingham, it is known as the "Off Licence" or "Off Sales".

.

I think the Outdoor was originally the take out or take away section of the pub. It had it's own entrance. The Off Licence was only for take away. You could buy bottles or draught there. In Paddington St where I lived, we had an Off Licence at both ends of the street. They would also sell snacks like Smiths Crisps or Wagon Wheels (yummy)
Dave A

 

[Bob Davis]

I think the Outdoor was originally the take out or take away section of the pub. It had it's own entrance. The Off Licence was only for take away. You could buy bottles or draught there. In Paddington St where I lived, we had an Off Licence at both ends of the street. They would also sell snacks like Smiths Crisps or Wagon Wheels (yummy)
Dave A

In Greys Road, Harborne the pub on the corner had an outdoor and my grandad would send me to the outdoor which was a seperate door on Greys Road with his jug for some beer...i was 8. In Queens Road off Slade Road there was an Off Licence and I always had to be accompanied by an adult when my grandmother bought the bottle of Green Goddess for Xmas, together with 20 Passing Cloud cigarettes and 10 Manikin for the men.

Bob

 

[Ray T]

In Greys Road, Harborne the pub on the corner had an outdoor and my grandad would send me to the outdoor which was a seperate door on Greys Road with his jug for some beer...i was 8. In Queens Road off Slade Road there was an Off Licence and I always had to be accompanied by an adult when my grandmother bought the bottle of Green Goddess for Xmas, together with 20 Passing Cloud cigarettes and 10 Manikin for the men.

Bob

I remember in the 60s when I was knee-high to a grasshopper, running to the outdoor in the Warwick Arms in Long Street with a jug to collect a pint of bitter for my parents. And I never had to be accompanied by an adult!

Regards, Ray T.

 

[Smudger]

In Greys Road, Harborne the pub on the corner had an outdoor and my grandad would send me to the outdoor which was a seperate door on Greys Road with his jug for some beer...i was 8. In Queens Road off Slade Road there was an Off Licence and I always had to be accompanied by an adult when my grandmother bought the bottle of Green Goddess for Xmas, together with 20 Passing Cloud cigarettes and 10 Manikin for the men.

Bob

I used that off licence in Queens road many times. Dad gave me the empty bottles which the "landlord" would fill with beer & put a sticker over the bottle top, presumably to stop me having a swig before i got home.!! On one occasion i took a short cut, climbing over some railings & broke the two bottles with Dad`s beer. I was expecting a hiding when i got home, but Dad simply sent me back to the off licence & told me to be more careful this time!

 

[Vivienne14]

This looks to me like an outdoor. It’s labelled as 66 Darwin Street. Licencee seems to be Emma Pugh. Viv.

 

[pjmburns]

In 1932 Kelly's Emma Pugh (Mrs) is listed at 66 Darwin Street as a beer retailer. Still there in 1939. On the 1939 register she is described as "licence holder (outdoor)"

 

[pjmburns]

When Emma died in 1959 - still listed at 66 Darwin Street although she died in Moseley she left almost £3000. (I did a search and that is almost £68000 today).

 

[Phil]

Looking at some outdoors I've often wondered if some of them were beer houses before the licence changes. they certainly look too big to be built for off sales only.

 

[jmadone]

I can remember when visiting Nan and Grandad for Sunday dinner my uncle, who was the youngest in the family and just a couple of years older than I, and I were sent with a large blue and white enamel jug to fetch the beer for the adults. I suppose we were only about 10 or 12 at the time and had no problem being served. We always took a sip or two each on the way back, "Spilt a bit grandad, sorry". Our reward for fetching it was a glass of shandy to drink with dinner. This was from a Mitchells and Butlers outdoor in Trittiford road, Billesley. Am I right in remembering that most of the outdoor shops were M & B and the only outdoors that Ansells ran were part of the pub?

 

[Phil]

Jmadone

I think Ansells had their fair share of separate outdoors, if you look at my five images above you will see that two out of the five are Ansells.