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Parisian Club Cannon Street

This is looking down Cannon St from the roof of Rackham's not certain of the year I would say in the 1980,s ? https://www.flickr.com/photos/dofartshavelumps/8423832930/in/album-72157632632841664/
Did you used to work at Rackhams? Is that how you got access to the roof to take the picture? As i remember it was pretty much out of bounds even for staff, but some of us used to sneak up there on occasion. A few of us sneaked up there to watch when the space shuttle was flown over the city centre
 
I did not work for Rackham's but I did work at Rackham,s I did get permission to take the photo,s, I did manage over a number of years to gain access to a number of roofs in Brum (all legally)
the one roof I would love to return to is what is now Waterstones in the High st, the view from this roof has changes, the last time I was up there it was Times Furnishing (long since gone) I have a reason to remember gaining access to roof was in those day climbing up a short ladder and pushing up a cover (big and heavy) what would then happen then was any water that was on the cover would drench me in a small cascade with the result of me saying lots of rude words this should be a view of the demolition of the bristol and west building society again from Rackham,s https://www.flickr.com/photos/dofartshavelumps/8652317232/in/photolist-ebzotj-ebzomy


Did you used to work at Rackhams? Is that how you got access to the roof to take the picture? As i remember it was pretty much out of bounds even for staff, but some of us used to sneak up there on occasion. A few of us sneaked up there to watch when the space shuttle was flown over the city centre
 
I was a regular at The Parisian which I thought was very sophisticated. It was on two levels and if you remember, it had a balcony from which you could look down on people. You are quite correct, it was in the location that you thought it was.
I did use The Nelson and I also used The Costermonger but in the summer I would always go to The Longboat, especially in 1976, where I would sit on the balcony outside and look on the narrow boats on the canal. You could get a great view of the sunset lighting up the red bricks of the library of Summer Hill library in the distance.



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photograph taken in 1976
 
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As far as I am aware the Parisian was next door to the rear entrance of Yates Wine Bar and it at number 6 Cannon Street. That was between New Street and Fore Street. It was a place that I never used as the 70's was well after the time that I used night clubs. Though I did work in the basement of some of those buildings when they were doing exploratory works for the planning of the upgrades to some of the buildings. I have to tell you that the basements were some depth, three or four floors deep, so they were as deep as they were high.


This is a photo of the Parisian, I think this might have come from the forum before it was attacked as I can't think where I would have gotten it from other than here.

great photo thinks. with the low roof I can't place the location on the street with all the old architecture? could it have been knocked down for the Pallisades, Pavillions, whatever ?
 
View attachment 107783 View attachment 107784

For some reason I've had problems posting these photographs, hopefully I've resolved the problem. Both photographs are from 1976.
I worked as a barmaid at the Parisian circa 1970. We moved with the landlord and landlady (smashing couple) from the wandering minstrel, smallbrook Queensway to the Parisian. I was there the opening night working part time in the upstairs bar wearing a very sexy little number which was the uniform. A white chiffon low neck top with a black velvet short naughty short similar to a Parisian maid outfit. Perfect! Of course I wore all the accessories needed to complement such an outfit, i.e. Black seamed tights with white frilly tennis nickers. Nut brown ales on the bottom shelf were a big tipper!!!!! I'll leave the rest to your imagination. The atmosphere was terrific. I left to work abroad, otherwise I would have stayed. Happy days.
 
I worked as a barmaid at the Parisian circa 1970. We moved with the landlord and landlady (smashing couple) from the wandering minstrel, smallbrook Queensway to the Parisian. I was there the opening night working part time in the upstairs bar wearing a very sexy little number which was the uniform. A white chiffon low neck top with a black velvet short naughty short similar to a Parisian maid outfit. Perfect! Of course I wore all the accessories needed to complement such an outfit, i.e. Black seamed tights with white frilly tennis nickers. Nut brown ales on the bottom shelf were a big tipper!!!!! I'll leave the rest to your imagination. The atmosphere was terrific. I left to work abroad, otherwise I would have stayed. Happy days.
Welcome aboard Lorraine,
My imagination has run riot.
Old Boy (Mores the pity)
 
On the subject of back street pubs, does anyone remember the Beer Kellar, It was off of new street up a narrow ally. What a place that was.
 
What is now on the site of The Parisian? I went there a few times in the seventies but not having been back for many years have lost my bearings as to where it was,
they were indeed happy days!!
 
Parisian Club posts from the Windsor Pub thread have now been moved to join this thread. Viv.
 
The Parisian was a cellar pub in Cannon street just down from the Winsor. Had many happy hours in there... the ones I remember of course. Not many pubs I would queue up to get in but this one was well worth it.
The Parisian was about here. The building is a newish build but I see someone is still queueing lol.
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froth so they demolished the parisian and built the buildings in your pic...reason i ask is because they look as though they have been there longer than 40 years??

lyn
 
Yes, I remember The Parisian, great place. I recall last going in there in the late 80's early 90's
 
hi mort well if you were going there in the 90s the buildings in froth photo have only been up for about 20 years?? froth are you sure you have the correct spot..im getting confused again:D
 
froth so they demolished the parisian and built the buildings in your pic...reason i ask is because they look as though they have been there longer than 40 years??

lyn

It is a newish building. The Parisian was a cellar pub, just had the entrance from the street. Maybe the original building was destroyed in the war ??
 
hi mort well if you were going there in the 90s the buildings in froth photo have only been up for about 20 years?? froth are you sure you have the correct spot..im getting confused again:D

I'm looking at the building next door, looks the same as the Parisian photo
 
so the pic on post 63 and the one you posted on post 72 are taken at the same spot froth...
 
well im amazed froth...the buildings in your photo look as though they have been up for many years..i used the parisian in the early 70s..nice place
 
well all i can say is they did a good job in keeping it in keeping with the rest...is the windsor still open
 
Yes the Winsor is still open.
Does anyone remember Winston's wine bar ? further down Cannon street same side as the Winsor
 
Here's a photograph from the 1970s, those Foster Brothers' lumberjack jackets with the fake sheep's wool collars defied sartorial taste and seemed to be around forever.

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and another wow from me...great photo on of these days one will turn up showing you staggering out froth:D

lyn
 
Le Pub, formerly the Parisian (on the right with the large sign above). This section of Cannon Street must have been rebuilt. Attached below, the view today - the modern replacement building fits in well.

The gap in the buildings in Le Pub photo seems to have been created by a fire in 1888. The high building side wall was, I think the position of the Central Arcade which burned down along with Marris and Norton's cabinetmakers. (See post Pedrocut's post # 19 here https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/for...central-arcade-fore-street.48335/#post-580971

Central Arcade used to exit onto Corporation Street, the arched entrance on Corporation Street can still be seen near the Fore Street junction. And the other image below must be the Cannon Street entrance - still there too.

Viv.

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This photograph brought back memories of the cold wet rain filled autumns / winters of the seventies. Note The Foster Brothers tartan jacket (complete with nylon wool) the chap on the right is wearing. I spent quite a few weekends in this pub. In the eighties Davenport's bought it and renamed it Cagney's (I suppose to compete against Bogart's on New St) Cagney's was much smaller and the bar was downstairs. It was a pub but it was done out like a nightclub, covered in mirrors, it reflected (forgive the pun) the gaudiness of the eighties I suppose. Try as I might, I haven't found anything about Cagney's but I still live in hope.

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