[Drinking] Lunchtime Drinking (70s80s)

[ROSM]

I started work in late 80s. The William IV (known as the Billyiv) or shades bar pav tav were a good base. As was the Windsor tavern. 3 pints in an hour was the norm although it was usually drink 2 thirds of a pint and ask for a top up due to be young and living a champagne lifestyle on ginger beer income.

I then moved to the uni of sussex and the refectory bar was a much cheaper place to drink. At xmas or Easter when there were no students it was possible to have 5 pints then back to work. 6 was my record but I wasn't allowed to see any (if there were any) customers that afternoon.

Now, the few times I will neck beer quickly during daylight are at football. 4 pints pre match at the amex and that's me done

 

[POSKETT AT THE VALLEY]

There weren’t many places you could carry on drinking after 2,30 on a Saturday afternoon.
Luckily we always had Woodside Road to ‘watch’ the football.

I can’t remember what road it was in but ended up in The Oasis after the pubs shut at 230 some afternoons.. I think an old boy called Roy run it. What a place that was!

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

It's no wonder the country struggled back in the 80's with people who supposedly "run" the country were all pissed. Anyone in a suit back then definitely thought themselves superior to those who wore a uniform or overalls. What most missed was often those in a uniform/overalls earned more money and certainly had the responsibility to not get pissed at lunchtime.

Being an aircraft engineer at the time with BCal I was shocked at the culture of drinking back then. BCal's social club, The Wingspan, used to be on the engineering base at Gatwick between hangars. You'd see the suits going off for their fix. It was finally raised as an issue by the union that such practise should be banned. BCal answer was to shut the Wingspan and reopen it at Caledonian House on Manor Royal Ind Estate. Unbelievable.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

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...

Which probably means several of us on here will know your sister and maybe even were involved in those liquid lunches in the Lion. Not sure if that is good or bad for you (or her!).

 

[sparkie]

I graduated in the early 90s and worked in Holborn. Friday lunch sessions, a few hours at the desk and then back in the pub after work were routine. There was always someone having a midweek session afterwork if you wanted it as well. Brutal when I think about it. Being close to Soho meant there was always a risk of ending up in a dubious late night club as well.

I used to love a bar called 'On The Rocks' in Holborn in the mid-90s.

A bit too far to travel for the lunchtime sesh but good for the after work happy hours.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I used to love a bar called 'On The Rocks' in Holborn in the mid-90s.

A bit too far to travel for the lunchtime sesh but good for the after work happy hours.

Don’t recall this. Where was it? I worked on Kingsway. This road was dead at the time, no bars or anything of note. It’s changed somewhat last time I was there.

 

[sparkie]

Don’t recall this. Where was it? I worked on Kingsway. This road was dead at the time, no bars or anything of note. It’s changed somewhat last time I was there.

It was a cellar bar on Southampton Row, diagonally across the crossroads by Holborn tube. Sadly shut down now.

 

[Arthur]

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.

I would say it was post millennium as I didn't start up in town until 99.

Loved a lunchtime session back in the day. Every Friday was 5 or 6 pints, then back to the office for a token hour to make sure everything was good for the weekend. I'd probably spend more time pissing in that hour than I did at my desk. Back to the pub for a few more after work scoops then a few tins for the train home keeping everything crossed the toilets on the train were operational. Home and straight to bed as you had to be up to get a 6am train to some dank northern shithole to watch the Albion. Happy days. Now I struggle to get motivated to go to the Amex.

 

[happypig]

Started at Amex in '79 and Friday lunchtimes were in the Thurlow, no exceptions. The fact that most of us were under age was irrelevant in those days.
Went to work at BT in '84 and Friday lunchtimes were in the Green Dragon. Sometimes we went back to work. After the '87 hurricane I was working 7 days a week in Withdean and spent every lunchtime in the Brewery Tap.
When I went to work in Worthing in '91 every lunchtime was spent in the John Selden or the Durrington workmens club.

 

[BLOCK F]

When I went for my interview with a large brewery back in the early ‘70’s, halfway through, I was asked whether I would like a drink. I assumed it would be a tea or coffee, but out came a nice cold bottle of lager. I thought, wow, this is where I would like to work. Anyway, I got the job and spent my career in the industry.
As for lunchtime drinking, let us just say that it was a different world back then!

 

[wunt be druv]

Which probably means several of us on here will know your sister and maybe even were involved in those liquid lunches in the Lion. Not sure if that is good or bad for you (or her!).

She would have been the one knocking back the Bacardi & cokes...then getting fits of giggles!

 

[BLOCK F]

Working in the civil service in the 70s and 80s mainly in Redhill and Sutton. Friday lunchtimes went on till closing time with 6 or 7 pints of Youngs common. Still like a good beer but could never drink anywhere near that much now.

The Home Cottage Redhill, maybe?

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Oh yes, when I started office life the culture was lunchtime drinking, with Friday's mandatory.
Halfway through my career, the drinking culture had morphed into "dress-down Friday" (for a quid).
When I fully retired a couple of years back, office attire was "casual", anything but beach-shorts and 4 days a week was WFH
Xmas parties were wild at the start. By the end, the mindset was "HR are watching" ...

I suppose they call this progress?

 

[Dinner with Gotsmanov]

Started at Amex in '79 and Friday lunchtimes were in the Thurlow, no exceptions. The fact that most of us were under age was irrelevant in those days.
Went to work at BT in '84 and Friday lunchtimes were in the Green Dragon. Sometimes we went back to work. After the '87 hurricane I was working 7 days a week in Withdean and spent every lunchtime in the Brewery Tap.
When I went to work in Worthing in '91 every lunchtime was spent in the John Selden or the Durrington workmens club.

Another one of the Thurlow Friday lunchtime crew here. Think I only used to have a pint, occasionally two.

where I work now used to have a heavily subsidised staff bar, eve lunchtime it was rammed. Long since gone…

 

[Worried Man Blues]

Started working for Courage Brewery in 1974 we all downed pens at 11am and walked round the corner to the tap room, choices Tavern or Harp or bottled. I took a liking to Velvet Stout............ only stopped drinking during the day when going round pubs in about 2005 a bit frowned on by then by the upstarts!

 

[Durlston]

Teachers at my Secondary School in the early 80’s always stank of alcohol in the afternoons

I had one at primary school in the late eighties who had a face like sunburn in the middle of winter. I never got any respect from him (because my parents requested to be put in his class as the other one had fallen out with my older sister over going on holiday two days before the end of term). I was brilliant in the 100 metres and was school champion. When we came up against bigger and better schools he said I'd let the school down after finishing fourth out of six in the Mid Sussex region finals. Gutted at 11 years-old.

So glad he's dead and drank and smoked himself to death!

 

[atfc village]

They were inflationary times! My first pints in 1981 I think were about 90p.

1987 my local £1.04 lager Bitter[Bitter ha ha slops ] 76pence

 

[Easy 10]

I worked in Black Lion Street back in the day. My hours were 8-4, so I'd work through till 2pm, then mince through that narrow little alley to the Smugglers for the lunch hour, whereupon me and some colleagues would commandeer a pool table and neck 3-4 pints, before scurrying back to our desks for 1 more hour of "work". Then straight back over to the Smugglers at 4. Usually Fridays, but some weeks there'd be a bonus ball.

It was not uncommon for an unfinished pint to be put "on hold" behind the bar, to be retrieved upon our rapid return at 4pm to crack on. Happy days.

 

[Lurker]

I’ve enjoyed reading this thread.
The younger element on the board are probably thinking it’s full of bullshit and exaggeration, but as someone who is now retired but worked through the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s I can tell you I believe every single word of every single post because it really really was that mad in those days.
London was also my main manor in those days, and some of the stuff that went on back then in the smoke was literally unbelievable.
I was in sales, and if you wanted to sell you didn’t alienate your customer.
If he fancied 4 pints in the pub at 5am near Smithfield Market and you wanted his business, then you bought him those 4 pints and sat with him while you drank them together!
You would then drive to the office afterwards and tell your boss how successful you’d been, he would refund your expenses … and then tell you need to drive to the City at lunchtime and wine and dine some high powered executive who’s business might be worth zillions to the company, but when you’ve done you can go home early!!
Those days really were that mad.
It sounds ludicrous now, because I won’t go near the driving seat of my car if I’ve had so much as a wine gum, but I don’t regret a single second of what I did back then, because everybody did it. It was completely the norm.

 

[timbha]

On a Friday (and some other days) my boss, after a heavy lunch time session would go back to his office for a sleep before driving home 2 hours later.