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Yates’s Wine Lodge Central Restaurant Corporation Street

Quote from Manchester evening news when they dropped the "wine lodge" name :

"The first Yates's Wine Lodge was set up by Peter Yates in the Angel pub on Oldham High Street in 1884 and within twenty years there were nearly 20 lodges around Lancashire.

In 1920 the company bought farm land in Cheshire and raised a herd of Hereford beef cattle. The meat was sold at Yates's Butchers shops in Blackpool and Manchester, as well as in some of the larger Wine Lodges.

During World War II the company became the first company in Britain to import Australian wine. It also became known as the "Blob shop" for selling the "blob" - its own mix of fortified white wine, hot water, sugar lemon."

The difference frum a pub, certainly in the early days, was that they specialised in wine, much of it , and certainly the more gut-rotting varieties, on tap, often from large barrels. They sold a large variety when many pubs only sold a sweet sherry if you didn't want beer or spirits.
Mike
 
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Talking of Yates takes me back to my youth. The one in corporation street had a downstairs and upstairs bar. Downstairs was a basic place where the cheaper booze was sold, complete with spitoons and sawdust on the floor, and drunken tramps often sleeping on the stairs, who you had to navigate around or over to get a pint.

some of the women down there could be a bit frightening, especially the ones with tatoos and beards!

aaaah, those were the days, real men in real pubs!

now its all lagers and mixers in a themed ambiance setting with sky tv
 
Your right Chris it was a rough place but the atmosphere was great, you never knew what was going to happen next, there was more entertainment there on a Sat night than the Hippodrome, as you say "Happy day's"

Chucka
 
In the mid 1950's my aunty Lil used to take me to Lickeys and then to Yates before catching the bus back to Sparkbrook. She was too old to pay on the bus and I was too young. I was passed round the old crowd in Yates and still remember the strange smells, the laughter and the rough coats. I was sworn to secrecy by the old girl so my parents never knew. They just noticed I slept rather well afterwards, cant think why.
 
Yates' was on the right-hand side of Corporation St looking towards New St, and either next door to or very close to The Midland Educational. That was the main entrance, and there was a rear entrance on Cannon St. It used to have an upstairs restaurant which, as I recall, was quite respectable, unlike the bar which most nights was a raucous place as large schooners of Australian Sweet were downed. I can recall how a queue used to form on Saturday nights, the dedicated drinkers buying a schooner and drinking it as they progressed round the queue and thus back to the bar.

Someone got stabbed one night when my friends and I were sampling the atmosphere...not an uncommon occurrence, actually.

I believe the last Midlands Yates Wine Lodge was in Dudley.

Big Gee
 
A photo of Yate's Wine Lodge, I don't know what year it was taken. It looks like sometime in the 60's. The thing I remember about Yates's most is having the occasional dock of Australian White from a bar where you queued up at a place not unlike the self service café in Woolworth's.

Another thing was if you went out the back door across Cannon St there was a bar that was down a couple of flights of stairs. This was the first place in Birmingham to my knowledge that sold draught lager. No it was not the Beer Keller that was in Needless Alley wasn't it. I'm not sure because I never used it. All I know is in this place they charges 10/6 for a pint and a half in a litre Stein. (they couldn't sell a litre). As a pint was only about 2/- We didn't go there very often.

Phil
 

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Hey Phil thats a brill picture, as soon as i saw it all my Sat night memory's came back to me, thanks.

Chucka
 
Chucka,

I am a Birmingham Post & Mail (Newspaper Publishers not he Royal Mail!) pensioner. The works entrance at the time was in Cannon Street. Yates' Wine Lodge was a couple of doors up from our works entrance.

But that was a few years ago - long before the 'Mail' moved over to Colmore Circus...

pedlarman
 
I seem to remember going to yates's in the early 70's to play snooker, did they have some snooker tables on the top floor or was it somewhere else i'm thinking of.
 
Arthur you are correct there were snooker tables on the top floor,i often wondered about the weight:)Mau-reece
 
Arthur and Mossy

There used to be a snooker hall just around the corner from Yates's, not sure of the name of the short bit of road it was in but I think it led into Cannon Street. It was in an old building that might have been called ".... Chambers", and was upstairs.

Judy
 
I used to work in Cannon Street opposite the back of yates,s, and pedlarman i used to know a few of the post and mail workers, cheeky so&so,s some of them, but good fun
 
Annveitch ; Hello! and welcome to the membership. Did you work in the pub just opposite Yates and our works entrance? I know that a few of my workmates used to make a habit of a quick snifter "over the road" during their break - but I wasn't with them: I liked my usual mug of "Rosy Lee" too much...!

Anyway, nice to meet you...

Jim Pedley (pedlarman)
 
PEDLARMAN

I used to work in one of the offices over the road from Yatses/Post & mail. 36 Cannon street, there was a commisioner on the door always used to wear a uniform, his name i think was Charles, I worked for Maurice Cooke shipping agents, i was only the junior always running errands and fetching and carrying for everyone, thats how i got to speak to the chaps you worked with great banter with them i was only 15/16 and at that age woolf whistles were much apprieciated
Ann.
 
Annveitch : Yes, Ann, from your description, that sounds like my old workmates, alright. They were a good bunch to work with and I had some happy times during my labours at the Post and Mail.

Later we moved over to Colmore Circus and with the advent of new technology we had even more interesting times...

Regards,

Jim Pedley (pedlarman)
 
my mom worked at yates in the 30s 40s my aunty nelly warrington and there freind edith groves they all worked on the posh dinning rooms we as kids had great food &
never went short the man who was the boss over them left and had a cafe in prince of wales lane warstock after abt 1 year we moved to warstock were my aunty & mrs groves lived and it all stared again aunty nell work there mom worked only for us to have holidays in rhyl them were the good old days i am so glad i am not young now
 
thank you i do not know about instant messages but i do remember your uncle what no: did they live at i lived in prince of wales lane regards linda
 
Hi Linda

Just click on my name Jayell and then instant message, and put your message in.

Fantastic that you knew my Uncle Ron. I have sent another IM. Hope it works for you this time :)

Judy
 
Hi Linda, this is a long shot, but do you remember any of the frequent guests, a Mrs Fellows in particular, during the 50's and 60's?
Thanks
Kevin
 
Jayell said:
Arthur and Mossy

There used to be a snooker hall just around the corner from Yates's, not sure of the name of the short bit of road it was in but I think it led into Cannon Street. It was in an old building that might have been called ".... Chambers", and was upstairs.

Judy
Click to expand...

Hi Judy,

A very late reply but I've only just seen this thread. The short street
is Fore Street, and the building was called 'Fletcher's Chambers'. I think it still is! The snooker hall was immediately opposite C & A's offices over the shop, and we used to wave to the girls across Corporation Street.
Such innocent pleasures!:)

Kind regards

Dave
 
Yates's... Went in the front door,had a schooner of cheap Australian white,and passed through to the back door,and across the alley was "The Windsor",which was the first place I ever had draught guinness,coupled with their famous beef sandwich smothered with horseradish sauce...a feast.
 
Thanks for the name of the street Dave, and the name 'Fletcher's Chambers'. I have been in that snooker hall a couple of times with the lads in the old days :D

As to Yates - well I do have memories of drinking in there, but perhaps they are best forgotten :rolleyes:

Judy
 
Hi

At the top of Yates there were 4 Snooker tables. My mate Roger
amd I would be outside before it opened. We had to ron up 4 flights of
stairs to the Top. Great place spent hours up there. 1960 to 1964.
Had a nice small Bar up there.
what a life.

Mike Jenks
 
Hi Mike, like you we used to play snooker at Yates, when we could get on a table. The one thing I remember was the beer was putrid. Of course we where young and experts of the the midland beers, or so we thought.
Baz
 
Mary

Thanks for putting on the photo of Yates's Wine Lodge in 1951. I somehow missed seeing it until now. It brings back lots of memories, although I didn't go there until about 10 years later. Good to see the photo.

Judy
 
Used to go in Yates on Saturday Lunchtime after work for a pie with soup pored over washed down with a dock or two of the Aussie white.

Seem to remember downstairs where the gents were was very ornately decorated with ceramic tiles can't imagine why this wasn't a listed building?
 
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