Its a hard one this as every estate has its pubs...... As an East Huller most have gone now.........elephant and castle..... Charlies........... Crown...... Swiss and Viking have had there days........ but you cant forget other pubs like Schooner......Rampant horse..... Waterloo Tavern............. to narrow it down to one is hard you have to be frequenting every pub in the city to do this......... Crown wasn't so much rough but had a lot of fights but my number one just because of the atmosphere when i walked inmost times and things i saw has to be the Lord Charles
Wow... some memories in there! Waterloo tav near Vicky dock proper dive!! Always packed with middle aged slappers on a Sunday night. Is it still open? I'm the right age now.... anyone up for a night out?!
Me Dad ran the Wednesday afternoon club in the Greenwood. and was a regular lunch time drinker in there. He drank in there on the day the pub opened and he died the day before it closed for good. When I was about 16 there was a fight between two rughy players and one had his arm glassed. I stuffed rolled up bar towels under his arm pit and put pressure on the cuts to stop the bleeding. About 10,years ago me Dad was playing dominos in the Cavalier and the conversation around the table turned to this bloke who said his life had been saved by this young kid who stuffed bar towels into his arm after a fight. For years me Dad had told the family how upset he had been, because I had been interviewed by the Police at 2am after a fight in the pub and I had become involved. He always said that I should have walked away as it was not a safe pub.
That reminds me of one of the most one-sided fights I ever saw. Beech Tree, Kirkella/Anlaby, around the same time you quoted (maybe '78). Took my Canuck wife-to-be to visit my family for the first time. June sometime. Sat or Sun afternoon. Brother-in-law decided to walk to the Beech Tree instead of his local in Anlaby (Red Lion) for a change. Pleasantly hot afternoon - patio area was packed. Lots of good looking lasses in their summer finery. Many were flaunting it a bit. Very nice I thought. Quite a few groups of lads ogling the lasses - who can blame 'em. Suddenly, brother-in-law, who could handle himself, suggested we vacate our table & move back about 10 yards to another table. "Why?", I asked. "There's gonna be a barney over there." he responded, and pointed to a good looking lass with a single fella, who was getting some stick from a group of lads (late 20's, early 30's all of 'em), who were sitting next to the table we had just vacated. Words were exchanged, and suddenly, and like lightening, the single fella, with the good looking lass, laid into the group of 5 or 6 antagonists. He laid out 3 of the gang in a jiffy - one punch each ! The other 2 (or 3) scarpered as fast as they could when the single lad picked up a couple of empty beer glasses. It was all over in 3 or 4 minutes. My misses has refused to go into a pub in England ever since ! It was stunning the way that lad handled himself. He paid his bill and walked off calmly with his bird as if nothing had happened. I always thought Kirkella was a serene place !
Oh yes...I used to knock around with a couple of geezers and we'd go into Vicky coffee club, then we got all 'Lord Snooty' and went upmarket to Cameo, usually after a skin full in OceanII. One liver later, I haven't touched the brew in years..
The Roost disco at the rear of Endyke was always lively in the early 70's - Tony Dunbar and his ginner oppo took it in turns working the bar and attending to ''door duties'' as required, Tony may bat for the other side but, back in the day, he was as strong as a bull and happy to either put you out or knock you out ....... a real animal.
Arthur was a bully and a proper bell. Les was alright and I never saw him cause any grief, although he was more than capable. Kim got what she deserved in the end, a nasty piece of work.
I liked the late Arthur in his mellow year's. He used to come round now and again and try to flog me a knocked off Video recorder. Most of the time at three o'clock in the morning.
