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The ORIGINAL WINDSOR Public house

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Brumtownie

New Member
I was quite shocked to read about the amount of people with extremely bad memories about lost pubs & restaurants in Cannon street Brum.In my heyday, 1977 & still going , we would start off in Yates wine lodge in all three of its bars.We would then exit through the back door & go straight into the horrible bar of the Windsor & walk through to its much better Claymore lounge, done out in tartan.What a great crew of real rouges we were in there, what a craic we used to have.The upstairs bar we seldom used seved soup & rolls & i remember with great clarity the coppers raiding it for drugs.They used to barge in from both entrances.Other nights we"d be in the famous Parisian, then a meal in the Great American Disaster restaraunt, before we had the benefit of Franks place aka The Clover Cantonese eatery, & very good to.The house special nimber 46 on the menu @£5.50 was everyones favourite.Then came a downstairs Davenports house - Cagneys , but it didn't last long.On nights with a irl in tow i would use Winstons wine bar which later morphed into Beau Beagles.That too is long gone.When it.became clear thst M&B were to demolish the old windsor ( Yates's & the hi fi shop next door went the same way as did Camera House) myself, Charlie Mytton, Snapper, Sybo, Nigel Ames, Danny Kelly, & a good few others raised a can as they flattened it that Friday afternoon.Almost immediately they threw up a three floored shopping centre on that site which never did really work.The only notable place in it was Palms piano & cocktail bar containing a pianola & a great view of the pigeon park.The new Windor appeared, a good 60 yards further down on the same side with a very novel see through elevator which gave everyone a treat when girls with short skirts got in to go to the very plush upstairs bar which hosted a dj Sunday nights in the mid ' late 90's.Since its opening its undergone even more change, with another refurb planned i"m told.Apart from the perpetually flooded downstairs gents in the Original Windsor I DO miss it, & to all thise out there who are daft enough to convince themselves that its still in the same spot, it is NOT.And if you can' t accept that, you were clearly never there, or old enough to be.
 
thread moved to the correct section of the forum which is PUBS AND HOTELS...could we please ask members before starting a new thread to check the main page of the forum as we do have specific sections for many topics...thank you

the team
 
There are references and memories to the Original Windsor in some of the posts here

The Windsor Pub Cannon St.

Did anyone ever drink in The Windsor in Cannon Street. Like many teenagers in the 60's I felt the Aston pubs were for the old men and the young set drank in town. I never went downstairs at the Windsor cos it was a bit too close to the back door of Yate's Wine Lodge and you used to get all sorts...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
Brumtownie said:
I was quite shocked to read about the amount of people with extremely bad memories about lost pubs & restaurants in Cannon street Brum.In my heyday, 1977 & still going , we would start off in Yates wine lodge in all three of its bars.We would then exit through the back door & go straight into the horrible bar of the Windsor & walk through to its much better Claymore lounge, done out in tartan.What a great crew of real rouges we were in there, what a craic we used to have.The upstairs bar we seldom used seved soup & rolls & i remember with great clarity the coppers raiding it for drugs.They used to barge in from both entrances.Other nights we"d be in the famous Parisian, then a meal in the Great American Disaster restaraunt, before we had the benefit of Franks place aka The Clover Cantonese eatery, & very good to.The house special nimber 46 on the menu @£5.50 was everyones favourite.Then came a downstairs Davenports house - Cagneys , but it didn't last long.On nights with a irl in tow i would use Winstons wine bar which later morphed into Beau Beagles.That too is long gone.When it.became clear thst M&B were to demolish the old windsor ( Yates's & the hi fi shop next door went the same way as did Camera House) myself, Charlie Mytton, Snapper, Sybo, Nigel Ames, Danny Kelly, & a good few others raised a can as they flattened it that Friday afternoon.Almost immediately they threw up a three floored shopping centre on that site which never did really work.The only notable place in it was Palms piano & cocktail bar containing a pianola & a great view of the pigeon park.The new Windor appeared, a good 60 yards further down on the same side with a very novel see through elevator which gave everyone a treat when girls with short skirts got in to go to the very plush upstairs bar which hosted a dj Sunday nights in the mid ' late 90's.Since its opening its undergone even more change, with another refurb planned i"m told.Apart from the perpetually flooded downstairs gents in the Original Windsor I DO miss it, & to all thise out there who are daft enough to convince themselves that its still in the same spot, it is NOT.And if you can' t accept that, you were clearly never there, or old enough to be.
Click to expand...
Winstons wine bar what a blast from the past… a few bottles of Blue Nun then off to the Parisian, good days.
 
Blimey ! Blue Nun.The only thing i can think of worse than that was Bulls Blood.So we were happy when they opened Hosteria 1 by the Aussie bar.At least we could get Tiger Milk in there.Apart from Bills Bierkellar moving twice since departure from the back of the Windsor, ending up at the site of the old Oddspot in Exeter st after a spell by the Alex theatre ( I knew Bill & his old man well), the other regular pitch was Biancas bar in the Imperial hotel as was Bill bk no 1.Many people got lost coming out of the khazi in Bills which was also part of the Imp, it was a bit of a labyrinth with 3 other bars reserved for private do's .Another one we still miss was the Berni Inns White Swan in off Edmund st with a cracking cellar bierkellar of its own that i only ever went in once cause it was usually shut.Thar aside it was the ground level two bars, or sometimes upstairs for a steak or game of snooker too.What a waste of a good boozer, closing it to become Tarmacs pensions office !.
The BMI keys club bar on Margaret st was another classic cult good un.Down the steps to it with old 78's stuck on the wall & usually very goid grub on offer like goat curry ( No kiddin' !) Guest ales too.
 
Frothblower said:
Winstons wine bar what a blast from the past… a few bottles of Blue Nun then off to the Parisian, good days.
Click to expand...
Brumtownie said:
I was quite shocked to read about the amount of people with extremely bad memories about lost pubs & restaurants in Cannon street Brum.In my heyday, 1977 & still going , we would start off in Yates wine lodge in all three of its bars.We would then exit through the back door & go straight into the horrible bar of the Windsor & walk through to its much better Claymore lounge, done out in tartan.What a great crew of real rouges we were in there, what a craic we used to have.The upstairs bar we seldom used seved soup & rolls & i remember with great clarity the coppers raiding it for drugs.They used to barge in from both entrances.Other nights we"d be in the famous Parisian, then a meal in the Great American Disaster restaraunt, before we had the benefit of Franks place aka The Clover Cantonese eatery, & very good to.The house special nimber 46 on the menu @£5.50 was everyones favourite.Then came a downstairs Davenports house - Cagneys , but it didn't last long.On nights with a irl in tow i would use Winstons wine bar which later morphed into Beau Beagles.That too is long gone.When it.became clear thst M&B were to demolish the old windsor ( Yates's & the hi fi shop next door went the same way as did Camera House) myself, Charlie Mytton, Snapper, Sybo, Nigel Ames, Danny Kelly, & a good few others raised a can as they flattened it that Friday afternoon.Almost immediately they threw up a three floored shopping centre on that site which never did really work.The only notable place in it was Palms piano & cocktail bar containing a pianola & a great view of the pigeon park.The new Windor appeared, a good 60 yards further down on the same side with a very novel see through elevator which gave everyone a treat when girls with short skirts got in to go to the very plush upstairs bar which hosted a dj Sunday nights in the mid ' late 90's.Since its opening its undergone even more change, with another refurb planned i"m told.Apart from the perpetually flooded downstairs gents in the Original Windsor I DO miss it, & to all thise out there who are daft enough to convince themselves that its still in the same spot, it is NOT.And if you can' t accept that, you were clearly never there, or old enough to be.
Click to expand...
I recall leaving the Parisian, turning left down Cannon Street to then go into a wine bar on the righthand side of Cannon Street. One of the first wine bars in Birmingham , late 70s. Was that that Winston's?
 
Sorry, I saw Charlie Mytton's name mentioned and I laughed out loud. I was meeting my mate Phil on a Saturday evening in the summer of 1976 in the upstairs lounge of The Windsor. I was on my own in the lounge apart from Liz the Irish barmaid. At about 6.45pm in the stifling heat I heard these slow, laboured and heavy footsteps coming up the stairs from Cannon St. A figure appeared wearing a Foster Brothers tarten jacket complete with lamb's wool collar. It was Mytton, not only wearing a jacket with a lamb's wool collar but he also had the carcass of a dead sheep (complete with wool coat) draped over his shoulders! He ran over to Liz (who was screaming hysterically) and deposited the sheep on the bar counter. With a manic laugh, he turned around and scarpered down the stairs. There's only three people who witnessed this, Liz myself and of course, Charlie. Liz was in her 50s then and has probably passed, Charlie passed away a few years ago, so I think sadly, I'm the only living witness left to this event. From what I discovered, Liz had given Charlie his ticket and this was Charlie's retribution. All I know is, that even in these depressing times, I am still have tears of laughter rolling down my cheeks because of this absurd, hilarious incident nearly 50 years after the the event!
 
Barr_Beacon said:
Sorry, I saw Charlie Mytton's name mentioned and I laughed out loud. I was meeting my mate Phil on a Saturday evening in the summer of 1976 in the upstairs lounge of The Windsor. I was on my own in the lounge apart from Liz the Irish barmaid. At about 6.45pm in the stifling heat I heard these slow, laboured and heavy footsteps coming up the stairs from Cannon St. A figure appeared wearing a Foster Brothers tarten jacket complete with lamb's wool collar. It was Mytton, not only wearing a jacket with a lamb's wool collar but he also had the carcass of a dead sheep (complete with wool coat) draped over his shoulders! He ran over to Liz (who was screaming hysterically) and deposited the sheep on the bar counter. With a manic laugh, he turned around and scarpered down the stairs. There's only three people who witnessed this, Liz myself and of course, Charlie. Liz was in her 50s then and has probably passed, Charlie passed away a few years ago, so I think sadly, I'm the only living witness left to this event. From what I discovered, Liz had given Charlie his ticket and this was Charlie's retribution. All I know is, that even in these depressing times, I am still have tears of laughter rolling down my cheeks because of this absurd, hilarious incident nearly 50 years after the the event!
Click to expand...

terrific story...couldnt make it up

lyn
 
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