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The Windsor Pub Cannon St.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nipper
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Nipper

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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 in there. Upstairs though, you could 'skin up' if you were moderately discreet. The landlord didn't seem to mind as long as you kept buying drinks and didn't fall over.

Funny thing is, I went back there a couple of years ago. It's very different now of course, but I ran into a guy I used to drink with in there. Hadn't seen him for best part of 30 years. He too was revisiting a few old haunts after many years of absence from dear old Brum. We thought it funny that one of us could have been lying and in fact had been a regular there since the 60's!

Town pubs for me though were mainly about gigs and Captain Cannibal's Asthmatic Mixture. Good gig pubs were the Eagle behind the central post office, the Crown (blues) behind the station and the good ole Whisky a go go on the corner of Hill Street. I think it later became the Twilight Rooms or something.

Happy days....what I remember of them.....
 
The Crown used the name HENRYS BLUESHOUSE and they had trad jazz there too ..

I stopped going when soemone got stabbed outside.

Incidently the Savoy Hotel over the road was where I got extremely drunk at an after gig do with the Strawbs ..
 
I went to the Windsor two three times a week. The circuit was The Widsor, The Troc and the Stage Door Coffee bar; sometimes on Saturday, the Zambesi, always ending up at the cafeteria at New Street Station which just closed for an hour about 5 or 6 in the morining. Sometimes we caught the train to Stratford, starting at the Green Dragon and ending up at the Dirty Duck
 
Oh my God!

Good grief, I've nearly brought my breakfast up! Thanks for the photograph but I think I should have been more specific. What I really wanted was a photograph of the old Windsor from the 70s. I had some good times there during those days. I've been trying to hunt down a photograph from that time for a while now but haven't found anything.
Why M&B knocked the pub down I'll never know but to replace it with the monstrosity that is there now, I will never understand.
 
I think the lounge at the back by Needless Alley was covered in a tarten carpet. I remember the gents toilet in the basement was down a near vertical staircase, not what you want when you've had a few! I always went in the lounge upstairs. I had some great times there and to say my jaw dropped when I went in the 'new' pub would be a vast understatement!
 
m.humphreys said:
I am sure that the Windsor still stands in Cannon St. but I think its a "chain" pub now, bouncers on the door and all that.
Click to expand...
yeah I know it's still there in the same place. It's an argument at work someone thinks they knocked it down and rebuilt it in the same location
 
Leebcfc said:
yeah I know it's still there in the same place. It's an argument at work someone thinks they knocked it down and rebuilt it in the same location
Click to expand...

Don't think it was totally rebuilt but the frontage seems different but that may be down to my memory.
 
I remember going to The Windsor in the mid to late eighties, only to find that it had been completely demolished! I have attached a photograph that I previously submitted to the forum before (it was one of many that was destroyed when the site was hacked). Cannon Street can clearly be seen and if you look closely on the right of the photograph, the black plastic M & B sign can be seen with 'The Windsor' (if you look close enough!).
 
I don't remember there being a downstairs part to the Windsor. We always went upstairs to it, the staris led up off Cannon Street. There may well have been a downstairs but I don't ever recall going in there. Directly opposite the stairs was a jukebox which constantly pumped out music. A bit of a rough looking place in the 1970s. I think its full name was was called the Windsor Castle, but nobody ever called it by its full name, just 'The Windsor'. Viv.
 
I used to go in the Windsor,go into Yates wine bar for a glass of Australian white,then go through to a proper pub.The Windsor was the first pub I remember where they served draught Guinness,with one of their beef sandwiches it was a feast,never went upstairs though.
 
My late Wife and frequented both these places, mostly in 50,s and 60's for a drink and something to eat, until we discovered the Bodega our favourite by a long chalk. Eric
 
The Windsor (2).jpgthe windsor.jpgHi all just to add my twopennys worth to the subject of the Windsor, I used to drink in the Windsor mid to late 70s as you went in the the front doors from cannon st there was a steep staircase up to the upstairs lounge, a bit Quite not many went up there on the left of the stairs street level, was the bar a bit dodgy at the best of times, not trouble wise, but if you wanted something cheap, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, walk through the bar and you came to the lounge which had a Scottish theme ie. tartan carpets. the back door lead out to needless alley opposite mr bills and the peacock bar which was the back of the imperial hotel, in 1987 the pub was totally demolished the frontage was put into storage and the site was used as a car park( it was my job to collect the money) about 1990 it was rebuilt and the frontage restored, abt 10 years later it had another refit and that's what we have today, not a bad pub. Michael
 
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The Windsor

ThisThis photograph of Cannon St was taken in 1976. If you look carefully on the right, you can see The Windsor's pub sign.
 

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We must have bumped into each other Chris! I used to visit 'the original' Windsor from 1974 until they demolished it. In the hot summer of 1976 I remember waiting for my friend up stairs on a hot Saturday evening. The barmaid was an Irish lady called Ann and there was only the two of us up there. I remember hearing loud footsteps coming up the the stairs and a youth appeared carrying a dead sheep on his shoulder! He ran forward to the bar and plonked it down in front of Ann, who was by this time screaming and then fled back down the stairs. Apparently, Ann had given the youth 'his ticket' earlier and this was his revenge. Years later I found out that the youth was a local character called Charlie Mitton.


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
 
did the windsor have a frontage in cannon st and needless alley as i am a tad confused..i have a photo here taken in 1958 caption say needless alley

lyn

NEED ALLEY..BARR ST.CLIFTON RD. WATERWORKS ST 002.JPG
 
It certainly did, haven't been there since mid 60's but used to be a regular in the Needless Alley bar late 50's-mid 60's. Lady in charge I remember was "Lil"
 
Lyn
I don't remember, but the c1952 and c1960 maps show the Windsor (in pink) going through to Needless alley.


map c 1952 showing The windsor going through to needless alley.jpg
 

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Used to go to the Windsor in the late 60s/early 70s using the Needless Alley entrance, then up the stairs. Don't remember the entrance in Cannon Street, but remember thinking what a strange entrance in Needless Alley. It had a sign hanging in the alley of Windsor Castle (I think) but otherwise it was a very 'humble' (er scruffy!) entrance. In fact the place was generally scruffy. Nothing like the photo in post #12. Viv.
 
The lounge at the Needless Alley entrance did have a tartan carpet but you're quite correct in saying the downstairs lounge at The Golden Eagle also had a tartan carpet.
 
Have merged three Windsor pub threads with this one, so there are older posts which might be of interest at the start of this thread. Viv.
 
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