Bars
Bars
Mega’s Wine Bar – Old Square / Priory Queensway
Whilst The Railway, the Barrell Organ and Edward’s Number 8 are frequently cited and recalled as prime examples of the local gig ‘industry’ back in the day, one venue appears to have slipped from the radar; Mega’s Wine Bar on Old Square.
Edward Fewtrell – Nightclub Pioneer
Opinions about Birmingham nightclub impressario Edward ‘Eddie’ Fewtrell are rarely non-committal or ‘on the fence’. What is incrontrovertible is that Eddie Fewtrell did more to nurture and develop Birmingham’s nightlife culture over three decades than anyone else in the City’s history.
The Futurist Cinema – John Bright Street
Work began in 1914 on the then to be named Majestic Theatre which opened some two years later in 1916 only to change its name to The Futurist Theatre some three years later in 1919. Always trying to be at the forefront of the cinematic medium, the Futurist was the first cinema in Birmingham to have curtains [...]
The Grapes – Hill Street/Lower Severn Street
A pub with a fairly inauspicious history was to be found on the corner of Hill Street and Lower Severn Street – a stones throw from the once nightclub Mecca of John Bright Street.
Whilst now a Select & Save store as seen above – this pub, built in 1966, provided my first taste of a rock [...]
Rebecca’s Nightclub / Boogies Nightclub – John Bright Street
Opened by Edward Fewtrell in 1966 as Rebecca’s – named after his eldest daughter – the premises operated along similar lines to later opened Edward’s Number 7 and Edward’s Number 8 bar and nightclub which were housed in an adjacent building in opening in 1979. On the ground floor accessed from John Bright Street was Rebecca’s [...]
Goldwyn’s Nightclub – Suffolk Place
Aimed at a slightly more upmarket crowd than Boogies and Edward’s nightclubs and bars just around the corner, with the opening of Goldwyn’s nightclub in 1989 – along with Paramount bar beneath it in 1988 – Edward Fewtrell aimed to tap-in to the theatre-going public (the Alexandra theatre being next door) and to present live [...]
Paramount Bar – Suffolk Place / Beak Street
Opened by Edward Fewtrell a year before selling-up to Ansell’s Leisure, Paramount was a single-room bar around the corner from Edward’s and Boogies in the heart of the John Bright Street nightclub and bar scene of the 1980s.
Subject to an intervention from Paramount Studios over the name, the bar proved quite a popular venue on [...]
City Centre Nightlife in the 1980s – An Introduction
Once upon a time in my my youth I could regularly be found gallivanting around the Birmingham pub and club scene in both various states of alcohol-induced abandon and as a member of staff of numerous clubs and bars throughout the 1980s. It is with the hazy memories of this period in mind that I [...]
Website design and hosting by AdDa Design
