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This history is your history, help me get it out there for people to remember and reflect on by leaving your comments and memories of spaces, people and events here. If you want to use a made-up name, feel free, so long as the memory isn't!

(That said, if you can't remember everything, that's fine. No one's memory is perfect, and hopefully someone else will fill in the blanks.)

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Sketchy bars


Last week, I was interviewing Charles. He was talking about the Lord Elgin, what it was like there, to drink and to try and court someone there. Fascinating stuff. At one point he was describing the layout of the lower level bar (the name of which I now know but have forgotten, but at least I have it recorded!) and I thought I'd try out something I've read about people doing, but hadn't done yet; I asked Charles if he could draw the space for me. This is what I got:


I may not seem like much, and the top part of it did not scan (which shows that Elgin street ran along the top of the page), but It was great to be able to visualize the layout of the tables, the two swinging doors to the top of the picture, and the small door to the right of the room where the waiters came out of with drinks (there was no bar in the room). At the bottom of the drawing is the jukebox: it's the square marked with the X. The four squares in the picture are pillars, which apparently made sight lines difficult and selecting your table to look at the people coming in, or the person you found really hot, crucial. According to Charles, one did a circuit around the bar before you picked a table; luckily the layout allowed for this.
So now I can conceptualize the space a lot better, which is the strength of asking folks to do these. Although the map is not great, and does not hint at it's size or atmosphere, I have something, and with a lack of photos at this point, it is better than nothing. I email Charles afterwards to ask him about the color or the walls, ceiling height, etc.. and this is what he replied (thanks Charles):

"If my memory is correct, the walls were beige and there was dark wood railings and cross pieces (in the form of a large horizantal 'X' in the wainscotting part (i.e. lower third of the wall). The place was lit with 'ranch style' chandeliers with, along with the woodwork gave it a definite western feeling. I think the floor was carpeted in brown low cut (industrial style) carpeting but I'm not 100% sure on that..."

Underneath is another quick sketch, this of a bar in Hull called Sacks (sic?) that was one of the earliest and best disco bars of its time - late 70's- if I recall Charles interview correctly. I have to look it up. The circle was the stainless-steel dance floor, while the rectangle is the bar that had a few stools next to it. Apparently in the basement (again) and it was small, so small that it didn't have tables, and no divisions between dancefloor and the rest of the bar. Charles recalls this as a good thing, since the place was so small, people would end up dancing all over the place, not just on the steel. Compared to the formalized space of the L.E. I can see why this place was so busy!
Naturally I don't know how solid Charles memory is, but it's all I have so far. Does anyone see anything wrong with these sketches?

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