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Stagedoor Coffee Bar

ps That lunchtime coffee bar sounds like the Stage door. They changed the system from time to time. Usually the action was upstairs in the evening but in the daytime only the downstairs was open. For a time they tried to go up market and closed upstairs as a club and tried to make it an ordinary cafe/restaurant - that didn't last long but it did close finally in the mid 60s. In its heyday it was a melting pot of artistic life. In the 30s and 40s that was the Trocodaro. With the demise of the Stage Door the Windsor and the Greyhound took over. In the mid 60s I left for London and lost touch then
 
I remember the trad jazz nights at the Crown, very popular. Cheap beer as well if I remember rightly. Also wasn't there a folk club at the Digbeth Civic (or Town) Hall. It was roughly opposite the Irish Pub. The Campbells ran it and performed, (parents to Ali and ?, UB40).
You mention the Greyhound. Is that the one around Holloway Head way? We used to go there for the lethal (and cheap) cider. Blimey, some hangovers after nights out there.:D
Also, while still on memory lane, my mate Eddie played piano in the Custard House on Blake Lane, he lived in Churchill Road opposite.
 
Hello David Fowler,:)April 6 15:48 what a wonderful text i might even say (That's A Plenty) one of my favourite pieces of Jazz...Cat:)
 
Mr Ingram: I think we moved in very similar circles. The Jazz Clubs, The Stage Door......but since I was rarely sober either, we must have been ships that pass in the night!
 
Hello Michael,can you tell me if you remember my sister Georgina she was a friend of Chris Perfect,Lorna Campbell and Luke Kelly who was crazy about her but frightened her to death .She went to the Royal college of art loved jazz and met up with friends in the coffee bars mentioned.She went with Chris Perfect to her first audition at one of the t.v.studios,Lorna Campbell used to visit Moms house.Are you related to Colin Ingram from Wheeleys lane as I went to school with him.Mary
 
Hi Mary, I could well have known Georgina but I didn't know everybody's name. I spent every night there at that time. Luke could seem scarey but he was a nice bloke.
Funny enough, one of my best friends who I originally met there was Dave Ingram (we weren't related). He knew Christine Perfect better than me. My friend Kevein Donaldson was quite pally with Luke. Kevin often played guitar and sang blues at the club; I accompanied him on harmonica. Another name I remember was Pete Buckley; he also played guitar and was doing NDD at the art college.
Often on Saturday mornings some of us would meet at Andre Drucker's coffee bar down Gosta Green. Andre displayed his own paintings of the holocaust and had his book for sale. Later he opened another coffee bar at the Cinephone in Bristol Street.
This was the Andre Drucker of Drucker's Vienese Patisserie that many of you still living in Brum will know. Great Western Arcade and may other places now in the Midlands.
Sorry, I don't know of a Colin Ingram in my family but we could be related of course.
 
Thankyou Michael for your reply much appreciated,can you remember the name of the coffee bar that was on the Hagley rd near Five Ways.Mary
 
What an interesting thread that was!

I well remember both the Stage Door and The Firebird from the late 1950s. Until he moved to Richmond or Kingston (can't remember which), Surrey, the Firebird was run by an Hispanic American called Chris Padan and his Spanish omelettes were something to die for! He also knew all the visitng American jazzmen (the Musicians' Union ban on visiting American jazzmen had not long been lifted then) so, being a musician myself, I got to meet quite of few of them. I got to play with Acker Bilk one night and also the late Roy Castle on several occasions before we both moved to the south coast and I got to know Roy better.

Mention was made of the trad jazz at Digbeth. The pianist in those days was Pete Vicary. I can't remember the rest of the lineup, but the late George Melly was a fairly frequent visitor too.

Can anyone remember the names of two coffee bars - one at the top of Martineau Street on the right hand side opposite the bus stops, and the other just a little way down Snow Hill on the right hand side next to a shop that sold drainpipe trousers? Snow Hill was also the location for Birmingham's first Wimpy Bar and I spent many a happy lunchtime down there pigging myself! Yummy!
 
Hmm, this thread seems to have died a death, but whilst searching for something else for another thread, I came across this picture of the coffee bar in Snow Hill. It was called the Jungle - anyone remember it now? We're talking 1957 to 1959 because one of the jukebox favourites there was Duane Eddy's "Rebel Rouser".

Sorry it didn't scan too well, though the neon sign shows up much better on the original print.

Regards,

Maurice
 
If it is the one I am thinking of an ex colleague of mine (when I worked briefly at 'H J Butcher's' in Balsall Heath) used to work there in the evenings. Slim blonde guy with a small beard. Can't recall his name just now. Always regaling us with tales of his customers.

PS Just thought his name may be Paul
 
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Hi Bernie,

We're talking 50 years ago and I can't for the life of me remember any of the staff there. But amongst the regulars, there was a very pleasant petty criminal from Hockley who's name was Dave. He and his mates reckoned they held the record for stripping a car in 20 minutes, leaving it propped up on bricks minus the engine and anything else saleable! :-)

Regards,

Maurice
 
Sospiri

In post N0 #43 was the cafe at the top of Martineau St that you mention The Mikado. I don't remember the Wimpy Bar in Snow Hill. but I do remember taking various young ladies to The Wimpy Bar at the top of New St after a night at the Odeon Cinema.

Phil
 

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Phil
I remember the Wimpy next to the Odeon and went in there often. There was also a Wimpy opposite the Hall of Memory on Broad Street, just along from the Register Office on the corner near Suffolk Street.

Judy
 
Other Half:

Yes, the Firebird was at the bottom of Carrs Lanne on the left hand side. As I've mentioned before, it was run by a Hispano American called Chris Padan who died in 1997. The ground floor was a restaurant and the basement was where all the music happened.

Phil:

It was a coffee bar in Martineau Street, opposite the row of bus stops (was the No. 37 Hall Green service the first?) and about 3 or 4 shops down from the top. The Mikado was an ordinary cafe somewhere, but I am sure that wasn't the name of the coffee bar. Just looked at the pic and the Mikado is far too big and in the wrong place.

The Wimpy about 5 doors down Snow Hill on the right hand side was the first to open in Birmingham. The Jungle Coffee Bar was probably about another 20 shops further down on the same side. These should show up in a 1959 or 1960 trade directory.

Regards,

Maurice
 
Sospiri the reason I asked my Mom Worked there her name was Bridget but was known as Betty It was a very nice Greek man who she worked for De ja vu may have posted this somewhere before if I have apologies Tom
 
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Other Half:

Phil's picture was, I imagine, taken sometime after the coffee bar era, as the corner has been modified and a bus shelter placed there in Corporation Street. Move to the left of the picture, i.e. the opposite corner of Martineau Street, go down Martineau Street three or four shops and there was the coffee bar.

Regards,

Maurice
 
sospiri said:
Hi Bernie,

We're talking 50 years ago and I can't for the life of me remember any of the staff there. But amongst the regulars, there was a very pleasant petty criminal from Hockley who's name was Dave. He and his mates reckoned they held the record for stripping a car in 20 minutes, leaving it propped up on bricks minus the engine and anything else saleable! :-)

Regards,

Maurice
Click to expand...
Bang on it would have been 1958 when I worked at Butcher's. I gave up on them after 6 months as I wanted to be an electrician not a printer.
 
I have just joined so hello everyone. I used to go to the Midland Jazz Club - was it in Digbeth? I also used to go to a coffee bar that was near Navigation Street and the back of the large Woolworths in New Street. It was on the corner of a little road there. Wish I could remember more!
Also went to the jazz club at the West End ballroom every Sunday night.
WendyP
 
El Toro (THE BULL ) WAS THE NAME OF THAT COFFEE BAR used it many times along with the EL SOMBRERO in the Hores Fair.
All ways put "NOBODY LOVES LIKE AN IRISHMAN" by Lonnie D; on the juke box so if any of my pals were in they would know I was there.
 
Thanks for that, I would never have remembered it. Incidentally my husband loves that song and anything else Lonnie Donnigan sings.
Up the road from that coffee bar in Navigation Street was Laura Dixons where I went dancing. That was over a mens outfitters shop. Great times there.
 
Yes thats it - Chetwins. What a good memory you have. Did you ever go to Laura Dixons or any dance halls in town? I was a proper "Towny" as I didnt live far away in those day, Alum Rock. It was so safe to come home on the all night buses in the late 50's and early 60's. I now live in Suffolk which is very similar to how it was then. Nice and quiet and safe (touch wood), except for the 5 girls that got murdered here a couple of years ago!!
 
The only ballroom I ever used in the city was the WEST END & then only on the odd times GEC APPRENTICES had the annual dance.
My main love was Ice Skating & I agree with you it was a safer time way back then, I have walked home at 2 & 3am after being droped off in the city from a speed team trip to Richmond Ice Rink.
Had my first USA made Jeans from Chetwins, thought I was the bees knees back then.
 
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