368 replies to this topic

[Holden West]

Victoria College so it would have been what we now call Camosun's Lansdowne Campus.

Pot? Possibly, but I'd put my money on too much Jack Kerouac.

[victorian fan]

^ And before that, Provincial Normal School.

The young student teachers would come to teach us in our classrooms while the permanent teacher sat at the back of the room.

[djride]

One Lounge - The Limit - Plan B
Icehouse - Terrible strip club across the street from Paul's motor inn, also hosted live coverbands like Hell's Bells and Nearly Neil. (They would remove the pole for those shows) - not sure if it still exists.

[AllseeingEye]

Personally I always had waaaaaaaaay too much fun at the Thatch in Royal Oak (~1977-1981); mainly because I bounced there and got lots of girls' phone numbers .

Also back then you could have a couple too many and "escape" (back to Gordon Head in my case) by driving over the R.O. overpass and taking the back woods route through Broadmead and Mt Doug Park. Not that I am condoning drinking-driving at all but back then there was less stigma attached to it. Saanich Police never seemed to figure that old ploy out, at least during the years I did it.

From 1981-5 I also bounced at the UVIC Sub Pub (ah, yes, good old "Felicitas) and had many a fun night dealing with everything from inebriated 1st year law students to visiting rugby players from Australia, and the like. I particularly enjoyed the thrill of the chase on "Sub Thursdays" when the main objective of half the campus was to over-consume and steal those Felicita's plastic beer jugs, usually by passing them through open windows to com-padres waiting outside. Naturally we caught most of them, but it was great fun. And we were making $11/hour simply for asking for ID and then schmoozing the ladies all night.

[VicHockeyFan]

[VicHockeyFan]

Persian Room, Century Inn:

[G-Man]

^Where was that?

[VicHockeyFan]

^Where was that?

http://maps.google.c...=12,337.43,,0,5

Maybe? The windows look right. And that lip that runs under the bottom set of windows

[martini]

http://maps.google.c...=12,337.43,,0,5

Maybe? The windows look right. And that lip that runs under the bottom set of windows

That would make sense. Isn't that where Oly's was? Maybe in reference to the original hotel name?

[victorian fan]

Yes. the The Best Western Carlton Plaza used to be the RO. It was pretty tacky and I never drank there.
I had dinner at the Persian Room when it first opened. I remember the cocktail lounge quite well.

[martini]

Yes. the The Best Western Carlton Plaza used to be the RO. It was pretty tacky and I never drank there.
I had dinner at the Persian Room when it first opened. I remember the cocktail lounge quite well.

Yeah it was. But at the time being underage...we often got served there.
What was the club attached to it? I can't recall the name.

[Jill]

Wasn't it Oly's? The entrance was around the corner, off Broad? I can picture the sign. I never went, but I do vividly remember passing one night at closing time and seeing a woman crawling out on her hands and knees.

[VicHockeyFan]

Wasn't it Oly's? The entrance was around the corner, off Broad? I can picture the sign. I never went, but I do vividly remember passing one night at closing time and seeing a woman crawling out on her hands and knees.

Yes, Oly's. When I hung out there (86-87?) there was an entrance on Broad that lead into the half that had strippers, and an entrance off Johnson that had bands, you could pass between them inside, but not with drink in hand.

Different drink prices each side too.

[Sparky]

^ This was where we used to play pool in the basement, a neat old tile walled pool hall. There was also a disco type bar in later years where the room would fill with fake smoke, a guy would come out dressed in operating room garb, set you in an old dentist's chair, tip you back, and pour B52's out of two bottles......right down your throat. The club was named after the street address....642?

[glenalan54]

... was a coffee house in the basement of an old hotel on Goverment Street across from present day Mountain Equipment Co-op. In the early 1960's folk music was the rage. You could still smoke in the clubs, to the point where your eyes were watering by the end of the night.

Valdy had a crew cut and wore a suit. Others were Don "the Eagle" Crawford, Tom Northcott, Pat Paulsen and Jose Feliciano to name some of the more memorable acts.

The gents wore a jacket and tie, and the ladies a fine dress. It was a brief but classy era.

That coffee house was housed in the Westholme Hotel, which became the Century Inn in 1965. It was called "The Secret Coffee House" 1417B Government Street located in the basement of the Westholme Hotel below the Westholme beer parlour.

"Tony Else managed The Secret Coffee House which was in the basement of the Westholme Hotel on Government Street. Roy Mercer and I assembled yet another singing group called The Minstrelmen and Tony had us do a weekend gig to open for his headlining act. Later we added a fifth guy (Bob Cross, ex Mayor of Victoria.) Then Roy shipped out and we became The Chariot Singers with Irene Harris, who was a nurse in training at St. Joe's. Tony brought in Valdy, Pat Paulsen who tried to walk across the Inner Harbour and also ran for President with the same result. There was a local favourite duo of Murray McAlpine and young Robin Ross who wistfully interpreted the ballads of the Chad Mitchell Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary." Above quote from Mike Gibb and can be found here with a great poster of the place
http://rcmpsite.com/...0c7a18217c&ia=1

Carey Pallister of the City of Victoria Archives has written an interesting as yet unpublished history of the Songhees Grill, the restaurant that existed in the basement and under the sidewalk of the Westholme Hotel, which eventually (1968?) became the Secret Coffee House.

I am researching and writing about the history of Greater Victoria's saloons, beer parlours, hotel-bars and pubs of Greater Victoria, 1851-1999. Any questions regarding this or other great old venues can be forwarded to me where I hope to find the answers.

[glenalan54]

Merlins (now Boom Boom)

The Limit (Plan B)

94th Street (?) (Sugar)

Heaven (Jungle Room) - 40 Thieves

The Waterfront (Boom Boom)

Rumours (Hush)

The Oly (Prism, or at least Prism occupies 1/2 of what Olys was) - correct there was a cabaret, pub and lounge in the Royal Olympic at one time.

Brass Rail (Colony Inn, now home to Sandman/Shark Club)

The Sherwood (Fat Tuesdays) - now Hecklers

Club Cal (Plan B)

Ice House (Soprano's) - Originally the Crown 'n I Pub.

The Drawing Room (Red Jacket)

Added a few notes, but I can always look into the history of specific cabarets/clubs. The problem is that they change so rapidly unlike most pubs which seem to have lasted longer than most cabarets.

[Rob Randall]

Thanks, Glen. Your history and photos are without parallel and are greatly appreciated here.

[glenalan54]

My old club-hopping pal tells me NY NY/Wastelands/Sugar was also known as Co-Co's.

Here's the list of bars/discos/cabarets inside the Strathcona around 1980:

Big Bad John's
The Old Forge
The Sting
The Cuckoo's Nest
Barney's Hideaway
Ivy's

A brief History of the above venues within the Strathcona Hotel:

1) Big Bad Johns: Originally opened as the very first cocktail lounge in BC on July 1, 1954 named the Strathcona Lounge; I wrote an article on it, http://raincoasthist...-room-1954.html
John Olson, beverage manager, mentions in his unpublished biography, <u>The Olson Family in Victoria</u> "...millions of visitors coming to the Pacific Northwest [for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair] gave me an idea. I had been considering remodeling the Strathcona Lounge into a hillbilly Paul Bunion and his blue Ox type atmosphere...We got the green light to proceed with renovations from the Liquor Control Board by the end of May 1962 where we managed to complete the renovation of the room in two days (Sunday and Monday) By Tuesday noon the Strathcona Room was no more and in its place opened Big Bad Johns."
It's interesting to note that the Olson's only intended BBJ's to open for the duration of the Seattle Worlds Fair then to change it once again. But it proved so popular and a real money maker that it is still there to this day.

2)The Old Forge: November 1966 the existing bowling alley and billiard room was replaced by a banquet room which opened in February 2, 1967 as the "Old Forge" John Olson says, "The name came about when I went up to pick up building supplies from Shawnigan Lake Lumber. The owner mentioned he had crafted wooden patterns in his attic. They had been the molds used 70 years ago for the metal lamposts and fire hydrants that now grace the streets of Victoria. We blew the dust off, painted them black and decorated our new banquet room with them when we came up with the name, old Forge."
The band on opening night was the Foundry Brass, which feature a 16 year old on the piano named David Foster.

3)The Sting: The idea to open a Disco in the basement of the Strathcona came about after John Olson visited a disco in Phoenix Arizona named Marble Murphy's. The owner and John got along very well and John learned some new and innovative ideas used at Marble Murphy's.
The Sting was constructed in the old health Club in the basement of the Hotel beside the Old Forge.
An interesting side note: John got a visit on Sunday evening in 1974 (bars not allowed to be open on Sundays back then) from a couple that drove up in a limousine. It was Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward who had heard about the new nightclub and asked to take a tour of the place. So Jon, Paul and Joanne, vodkas in hand, spent an hour going through the nightclub and chatting.

4)The Cuckoo's Nest used to be called, "The Pit". This was the first real nightclub in the Strathcona Hotel built after the Strathcona Room and Barney's Hideaway. It is now part of the Clubhouse. They had a DJ upstairs that would spin rock and roll and everyone who went there remembers the MG that they used as a salad bar at lunch then hosted it up into the ceiling when the dancing started. Innovative.

5) Ivy's, Max Head Room...were side-rooms off of the Old Forge built to keep the place current and fresh. One of the reasons why the Strathcona Hotel was and continues to be, one of the best entertainment centres in Victoria is due in part to reinventing themselves and keeping the place interesting to future generations of party goers while maintaining some of their loyal and aging customers.

[victorian fan]

A brief History of the above venues within the Strathcona Hotel:

I've been to all of them except Ivy's.
The Pit really was a pit. It was filthy.

[glenalan54]

I went to The Old Forge after is opened in the late '60s. The band, The Brothers Forbes, had played at the Oak Bay Marina. They also played at the Empress' Paint Cellar.
Happy times.

John Olson, manager and co-owner of the Strathcona Hotel caught the Brothers Forbes act at the Paint Cellar located in the basement of the Empress Hotel. Larry on drums, brother John on piano and a young guitarist. He soon contracted them to play at his new club, the Old Forge.