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Events tagged with "Grosvenor"

Birmingham Pride

Birmingham hosted the first Birmingham Pride festival in 1997 and has held the event annually since. The first event was organised by a group of business and community volunteers called the Birmingham Triangle CommitteeThe roots of the event can be t...

Crossroads and Noelle Gordon

The soap 'Crossroads' started on the 2nd November 1964 and was the first daily serial on UK television. It was filmed in Birmingham by ATV at Gosta Green and later Broad Street. Some of the actors are noted as frequenting bars also used by the gay co...

Five Days of Fun

Five Days of Fun, also known as 'Gay Brum'. The annual event took place for five days over the August Bank Holiday, the first taking place in 1983. Teams from different community and commercial ventures took part in 'It's a knockout' type games. The ...

Grosvenor House Hotel

The Grosvenor was a large Victorian hotel situated on the Hagley Road, on the Edgbaston/Bearwood border. About two miles out of the city centre, it was owned by the same couple who owned Guys Limited on Bromsgrove Street, John Walters and Keith Campb...

Guys Limited

Guys was the city's first gay run gay club in the old Bull Ring markets area, now the site of the Wholesale Markets. Previously a ‘Beatnik’ café, it had Papier Mache on the walls to make them look like rock. Co-Proprietors Keith Campbell and John Wal...

It's a Knockout

In the mid 1970s a competition was organised between the Grosvenor House Hotel on the Hagley Road and the Nightingale club, then in Witton Lane. The event was held in the gardens of the hotel. This event eventually grew to become  Five Days of F...

Larry Grayson

Larry Grayson could regularly be found at the Grosvenor House Hotel with his best friend Noelle Gordon.Larry Grayson was one of the first television comedians to suggest an openly gay persona. He did not achieve stardom until he was in his fifties an...

Women's access to bars

Pre 1960s Prior to the 1960s, and well into the 1970s there appears to have been very little opportunity indeed for lesbians to get together openly in a social or public space. All the bars noted as being popular with the gay crowd in the 40s and 50...

Memories tagged with "Grosvenor"

Bringing Poppers to Birmingham

"There weren't as many drugs then, I introduced poppers to Birmingham then, via the Grosvenor, they were banned in the Nightingale, they used to smoke (weed) but never in the bars or the clubs, not that we banned it, they just didn't do it, if they s...

Competition from the Nightingale

"The Nightingale, which was in Camp Hill then (1969), moved to outside the Villa Ground, by the Holt pub (in 1975), for years, then (in 1981) they moved to Thorp Street, so I had to decide what I would have to do to keep the punters coming out of tow...

Different bars for different sorts of lesbians

During the eighties Mary visited various pubs and clubs in Birmingham including The Matador, where the old Bull Ring market was, which was quite a good gay venue, with a women's disco every Friday which attracted a broad spectrum of women. She, an...

Fabulous Grosvenor

Certainly we had some jolly good parties in private houses and there was a fabulous old mansion opened up on the Hagley Road called the Grosvenor House Hotel with parking for about twenty cars and a swimming pool, tennis courts (1971). It was strict...

Fantastic Grosvenor House

“When I moved to Birmingham (1980) a whole group of us would go out, there was a club on the Hagley Road, a hotel - The Grosvenor House Hotel. Noelle Gordon from Crossroads used to be slung up in the bar and it had a swimming pool. It was absolutely ...

Five Days of Fun, 1983

Editorial from the Gay Midlander, September 1983 reviewing the first Five Days of Fun."Last Friday, 26th September, saw the launch of a unique event in the annals of Gay entertainment. Gay commercial venues in Birmingham collaborate in the production...

Grosvenor 1970s

Then Pam’s favourite place opened, the Grosvenor Hotel on the Hagley Road, very much more upmarket, John Walters owned it and two of his regular clients were Peter Harris who designed the muppets and Noelle Gordon as well. The Nightingale had moved t...

Guests at the Grosvenor

"In 1971 we still had Guys and then we got the premises on the Bearwood end of the Hagley Road, the Grosvenor House Hotel, which was the original name and we kept it. There were two bars, very large gardens, a nice restaurant that seated 40+ people, ...

It's a Knockout

"Birmingham's "Five Days of Fun" originated in the Grosvenor house Hotel. It was the Grosvenor against the Nightingale, I think when that happened, the Nightingale was still in Aston (pre-1981). This became the precursor to Pride, so the Grosvenor st...

No women members at clubs 1970s

Basically all the gay venues, of which there weren’t many, were men. “You had to be signed in, you couldn’t get membership. We tried all through the sixties to get membership, and there was just no way. When the Nightingale moved to Thorp Street, wom...

Once was enough at the Grosvenor

Betty: “I think I went to The Grosvenor House Hotel once, I think once was enough”. Gill: “I couldn’t really afford it actually. It was quite expensive and I was on a student grant at the time”....

Other bars in the late 80s

“I vaguely recollect going to The Grosvenor House Hotel on the Hagley Road with a late night piano cabaret bar. There were also premises that moved from Albert St to Water St on the site of Subway City, called The Jug. One of the proprietors was very...

Parties at the Grosvenor

Keith talks about his hotel, the Grosvenor. "In about '73 we built an open air swimming pool, half moon shape, not small, about average size, and obviously that became popular, then in the winter we used to put a bubble over it so it could be used in...

The scene in the 50/60/70s

“At the time the bars were fabulous - in the fifties and sixties, all the bars were fabulous. There were still a lot of American bars, still a lot of people who drank cocktails in those days, gin and tonics I suppose. There was the Imperial up Temp...

The scene in the seventies

Bridget said there wasn’t really a gay area 9around the mid to late 1970s), but places dotted over the city, the Grosvenor Hotel up Hagley Road, the Greyhound (Holloway Head) at Five Ways, the Matador in town, the Jester, mainly men, the Silver Web...

The Scene Today

"A hell of a lot of people, lots of my friends, a hell of a lot of people who used to come to Grosvenor, and Guys, are still alive now but don't go to the scene now. Grosvenor was more like a social club, to be honest, far more friendly than the scen...

Women's night at The Grosvenor

“The Grosvenor was a big hotel on the Hagley Road with a swimming pool out the back, it was a beautiful privately owned club and they had a women’s night and you could go for Sunday lunch because they had a really nice restaurant. The gay blokes who ...