Luxor4u

Been looking through a lot of old photos lately and reminiscing, one photo was of Yate's Wine Lodge in my home town.
Not a "nice" place to go, according to my Mother. There were however a chain of them in northern England, not so sure about the south.
When I was first married my husband and I went for a day out to Blackpool where they had a rather large YWL I asked him to take me in, rather spartan if I remember rightly with wooden floors, no carpets.
I had a glass of white wine. Goodness it was awful, you could have stripped paint with the stuff. Still the place was packed loads of people in there all very happy.
Wonder if they are still going.

OMG Carrie!!! Yates Wine Lodge! My mother warned me that it was definitely not a place where ‘nice people’ went! Yep, she was right! Full of wide boys, prostitutes and dealers etc etc - we really felt we were living on the edge when we ventured through the doors! We made sure to keep our backs to the wall!! They still put sawdust on the floor in the Nottingham YWL, to soak up either the blood or other bodily fluids - I was never sure which! It was a huge main room with a balcony all the way round on the first floor. It was a regular occurrence for someone to be thrown over the balcony!!!

Oh happy days of my misspent youth - just a distant (but still vibrant) memory now!

Still going apparently. Some interesting history and photos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yates%27s

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... e-pub-1977

https://www.nottinghampost.com/whats-on ... ok-3145950

Thanks Newcastle - the article from the Nottingham Evening Post brought back lots of memories!

As a young naive sixteen year old, who looked eighteen, we often travelled around England on pub crawls, there was a YWL on The Strand in London but had no real atmosphere. The one in Birmingham was on Corporation Street, if you got really legless, you would sometimes go out of the place through a door on the other end of the building in Cannon Street, and half thinking you was in another city. In Liverpool there were at least three YWL's, these are probably the wildest I had ever come across, though the one near Moorfields Station was the tamer of the three. The one in Blackpool was a strange sort of place, no real character or atmosphere, perhaps expectation were to high for some people.

I am sure I've been in many of these old places in England when I was a kid, true, they attracted all types from prostitutes to pimps and everything in between, a certain no no for a young lady on her own, but for a young lad, they were fun.

My favourite place was Nottingham, as Yildez here remarks. We would start our crawl at The Trip, then The Royal Children, cross over the Council Square, where YWL was on the left hand side, and as Yildez points out it was on two floors. On the upper floor during the week-ends, there was a string quartet made up of four old ladies, dressed in black Victorian attire, they were dreadful, though everyone applauded loudly, and people would buy them drinks, and the music got worse. One night one of the old dears almost broke her neck getting off the 'stage', being that she was as drunk as a skunk. We would end our evening crawl across the Square at The Flying Horse, another one of that towns great pubs.

The Yates wine lodge on Moorfields used to fascinate me. It had the rose granite cladding and sone clever architect cut a hole in the side of the building and had it rotating.
This was back in about 2012. I have not seen it running in many a long year.


Here it is on video.




I was in the Georgian quarter yesterday and got the keys to access William McKenzie grave on Rodney street.
A 17 foot high pyramid. Added after his death by his brother. Apparently one of the most haunted streets in Liverpool they say.





Though I never frequented a Yates wine lodge, they did seem to have a bit of a reputation.

That's a clever bit of architectural engineered art. Useless but impressive.

HEPZIBAH wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 12:33 pm That's a clever bit of architectural engineered art. Useless but impressive.

I suppose most art is useless As a form of air-conditioning it seems a tad OTT.

You might be interested to read the story behind it....

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/li ... f-15522110

John Landon wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2021 10:30 am I was in the Georgian quarter yesterday and got the keys to access William McKenzie grave on Rodney street.
A 17 foot high pyramid. Added after his death by his brother. Apparently one of the most haunted streets in Liverpool they say.

Funny you should mention Rodney Street John, I once lived there for a while at number 62, better known as Gladstone House, where William Gladstone was born, though it was used by Toc H, before my time there.

If I remember that church was on the other end of the street, and was burnt out ( I don't mean the bombed out church), there was much speculation as to why and how it caught fire, but I do know that a planning application, thankfully, failed. I pleased you got the keys to the yard as I remember it was always securely locked up.

I did photograph a few of the houses on Rodney street, as my of them do have some history behind them. Also reminded my wife and I of our first place together in Glasgow.

We then crossed over to Hope Street and visited the 2 cathedrals. It seems the more traditional designed cathedral was only finished in 1978, some 11 years after the rather uniquely designed Roman Catholic cathedral.

Just 100 yards down Duke Street, off to one side, we were presented with the very ornate and elaborate entrance to China town, which spanned the whole Street entrance.

I was based at the top of Moorfields, in the exchange station for over 10 years, until covid made me redundant last August. After a year of taking it easy and reigniting my passion for cars and spending a few months fixing up an old Mercedes CLK AMG Sport, I decided to look for another job, and start a new one on Monday, just 200 yards down Tithebarne street towards the ferry.
I love Liverpool, and I have only explored a fraction of the place. The area where I worked was known as Little Wales. Ironic really.
But it's a city that's been very good to me, and in my opinion has much more to offer than London, except for the flooding, gangs, killings, congestion, cockney w@nkers and extortionate prices.