[Drinking] Lunchtime Drinking (70s80s)

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Did you ever use the little’club’ near the old Police station in Worthing?
It was an ordinary semi detached house, that had it’s downstairs rooms knocked into one and a small bar installed.
Can’t for the life of me remember its name, but spent many a Saturday afternoon in there, watching the wrestling, waiting for the football results.

Was that the Civic Club in Stoke Abbott Road? Was supposed to be for Council staff Intnink but my football club got membership and we used it post match during the second half of the 80s and early 90s.

My first job was a Lloyds Registrars and when I started in 1984 there was a bar in the office which was open for a couple of hours each lunchtime and manned by the messengers. Some people would have a few pints before strolling back to their desks. When it was finally closed, it was across the road to the Golden Lion instead.

 

[The Clamp]

I very briefly worked at a Job centre in Brighton. The now defunct one on Upper North Street.

Circa 2002

There was a smoking room there. A small box room filled with smoke where people would smoke and play cards and dominoes.

Needless to say, the people that frequented that room also like a lunch time beer.

Being a roll-up smoker at the time I quickly found my place in the smoking room and subsequently the pub. Usually The Windmill or that one on the corner that I think is called Cask now. Was the Queens Head I think? Not sure.

I was broken after about 6 months and had to leave the job for my own health and sanity .

 

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

Being a roll-up smoker at the time I quickly found my place in the smoking room and subsequently the pub. Usually The Windmill or that one on the corner that I think is called Cask now. Was the Queens Head I think? Not sure.

Top of Regent Hill it was The Princess Victoria

 

[Return of the Rev]

Recall popping over the Thurlow from AMEX house at lunchtimes and tea breaks,one lad could neck 10 scotches in the 20 minute tea break and quite a lot more in the lunch hour.

 

[The Clamp]

Top of Regent Hill it was The Princess Victoria

That’s it. I knew it was regal in some way!

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Back in 1969 I was a student at a College Of Further Education in Sussex, I’m not telling you which one! I was in my first year doing a City and Guilds Hotel and Catering course. This culminated in doing a a five hour practical exam at the end of the summer term - in other words to prepare, cook and present a four course meal. The examiner entered the kitchen at 10.00 am and told us what was expected of us, which included that any mistakes in the process had to be shown.

At 10.30 he announced to all that he was leaving the kitchen and would be back later. I knew, I just knew, where he was heading - the pub! The rest of the students asked me how I knew. Well, my Dad had a pub and I was brought up in the booze trade so I had a bit of an intuition as to where he was heading.

Within our catering set there were only two of us lads among a group of smashing, friendly girls. My mate and I were absolutely useless cooks as our efforts proved. A couple of the girls felt sorry for us and shoved our food down the waste disposal unit (strictly forbidden!) and then proceeded to complete the practical for us.

At 2.40 the examiner returned, with ruddy cheeks, bloodshot eyes and reeking like a distillery. He then went round each of our presentations making notes on his clipboard - my meal looked sumptuous! When the exam results were announced I, and my mate, passed with flying colours!

I therefore raise my glass to the piss head of an examiner, the wonderful pub that provided him with copious amounts of alcohol, and to the darling girls who saved my bacon. Cheers!

You are Paul Hollywood and I demand a handshake*.

(*I initially wrote handshandy. Luckily I am stone cold sober and still have my editing facility intact.)

 

[heathgate]

There’s a tale of Alliance staff being strewn around Hove Park on Friday afternoons in the 70s and 80s after a visit to the Sackville. I only worked there for a short while.

We had a social Club up off Elm Dr in Hangleton, cheap as chips and hidden from the public view,... but yes, it could be carnage sometimes.

 

[Weststander]

I very briefly worked at a Job centre in Brighton. The now defunct one on Upper North Street.

Circa 2002

There was a smoking room there. A small box room filled with smoke where people would smoke and play cards and dominoes.

Needless to say, the people that frequented that room also like a lunch time beer.

Being a roll-up smoker at the time I quickly found my place in the smoking room and subsequently the pub. Usually The Windmill or that one on the corner that I think is called Cask now. Was the Queens Head I think? Not sure.

I was broken after about 6 months and had to leave the job for my own health and sanity .

I think that small pub is now closed down .

 

[heathgate]

The William Tell

A great pub in it's day,.. first pub in Brighton to have a video juke box.... we were mesmerised.

 

[Invicta]

My first proper job after Uni was in Dept of Transport in London, in Offices in Southwark St SE1. The Friday lunchtime drinks session was a regular thing and I remember all the pubs in the area heaving.

There were also some private clubs where you could continue drinking all afternoon after the pubs shut (2pm? 2:30? can't remember) if you knew about them.

There was also a mass exodus across Southwark Bridge just before 5pm as the pubs in the City opened at 5pm, but in Southwark they didn't open until 5:30!

There were also a few boozers near Borough Market that opened early in the morning for the market workers that you passed on the way to the office from London Bridge Stn. I was never tempted but a mate of mine once sunk a couple before arriving at his desk at about 9 am. He said it wasnt the best boozing choice he'd ever made and never repeated it!

Southwark Tavern, Market Porter, Wheatsheaf, King's Arms and Globe all regular haunts 89 to 96 at lunchtime and evening. That along with all the pubs on the Thames behind Borough Market. Happy days!

 

[essbee1]

You are Paul Hollywood and I demand a handshake*.

(*I initially wrote handshandy. Luckily I am stone cold sober and still have my editing facility intact.)

Sounds more like Gordon "aggressive" Ramsay

 

[Bozza]

My Sister worked in the big Lloyds Bank just up the road and had many a liquid lunch in the "Lion" ...Friday was always "POETS" day...

I imagine there's a fair few on here who did a bit of time at Lloyds Bank Registrars, as it was.

 

[The Clamp]

My Sister worked in the big Lloyds Bank just up the road and had many a liquid lunch in the "Lion" ...Friday was always "POETS" day...

POETS day. Haven’t heard, or practiced that for many years.

 

[Bozza]

All this reminds me of a time when I met @Harry Wilson's tackle on, I think, Piccadilly one Friday lunchtime. I believe it was for an exchange of a football ticket. This was back in either the Priestfield or Withdean era.

A "it would be rude not to" quick drink turned into a big all-afternoon session where neither of us bothered going back to work. I was a junior business analyst at London Electricity at the time. I'm struggling to believe I had the balls to just not go back and get drunk instead.

Actually @Arthur may have been there too...

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

All this reminds me of a time when I met @Harry Wilson's tackle on, I think, Piccadilly one Friday lunchtime. I believe it was for an exchange of a football ticket. This was back in either the Priestfield or Withdean era.

A "it would be rude not to" quick drink turned into a big all-afternoon session where neither of us bothered going back to work. I was a junior business analyst at London Electricity at the time. I'm struggling to believe I had the balls to just not go back and get drunk instead.

Actually @Arthur may have been there too...

Yes, you me and @Arthur. This is my recollection. It was around 1998. Maybe 2000. It may be apocryphal. The three of us met at Victoria station and went into The Shakespear. We chatted about Brighton and Hove Albion. For at least 3 hours. No other subject.

It was magical.

A repeat is due.

 

[kevo]

When I used to do night shifts in London, we would go to the Hamilton Hall pub in Liverpool Street station, which opened at 7am. They would sometimes turn into proper five or six hour sessions. It always amused me when the shoppers and office workers would arrive at the pub at midday for a quiet lunchtime pint and find a group of wasters in the corner already totally paralytic.

 

[Bozza]

Yes, you me and @Arthur. This is my recollection. It was around 1998. Maybe 2000. It may be apocryphal. The three of us met at Victoria station and went into The Shakespear. We chatted about Brighton and Hove Albion. For at least 3 hours. No other subject.

It was magical.

A repeat is due.

In my mind it was something quite terrible like an All Bar One on Piccadilly.

But the company more than made up for the location.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Another great sesh was when @papajaff and I went with AW (sorry mate, forgot your NSC use name momentarily) to watch the Albion play at York and stopped off for a lunchtime 'break' in Lincoln (could be the other way around) about 25 years ago, and had a long liquid interlude.

I don't really remember much about the rest of the day.

But I digress.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

In my mind it was something quite terrible like an All Bar One on Piccadilly.

But the company more than made up for the location.

I seem to recall that it felt like the meeting of three Time Lords, during a lull in the Tim Wars with the Daleks (the forces of evil who were thwarting the resurrection of The Albion). You were a plotter and schemer. P was one false move from a ban lolol. I was largely full of shit, but my eyes were full of stars. Great days.

 

[JetsetJimbo]

Lunchtime drinking is still very much a thing here in the Czech Republic. But it tends to be just a single beer with lunch. I usually go for a soft drink instead because once I start drinking, I don't want to stop.