21 Piccadilly, Piccadilly. (c) Gene Hunt at flickr under Creative Commons.
21 Piccadilly (or '21s' as we called it) was an occasional haunt in the 1990s, usually when other venues were full, or turning away groups of worse-for-wear sorts.
21 Piccadilly, Piccadilly. (c) Paul Dean with permission.
Its entrance was just around the corner of Oldham Street next to the Nobel's amusement arcade, and despite going through these doors a few times, I have no recollection of how what lay inside (probably thanks to the Lazy Pig).
21 Piccadilly closed a few years ago and Nobel's have recently vacated this site which is to become a Travelodge, Nando's restaurant and Waitrose supermarket [1].
21 Piccadilly, Piccadilly. (c) Paul Dean with permission.
Over the years, 21 Piccadilly has held a rather dodgy reputation, firstly for gang-related trouble in the 1980s and '90s, followed by a low-brow, cheesy standing amongst Manchester's trendier clubs.
21 Piccadilly, Piccadilly. (c) Paul Dean with permission.
That didn't stop the club owners advertising itself as a romantic venue for couples (or singles looking)...
21 Piccadilly, Piccadilly. (c) Paul Dean with permission.
21 Piccadilly, Piccadilly. (c) Paul Dean with permission.
The building which housed 21 Piccadilly is better known to Mancunians of a certain age as the Woolworth Building, sadly forever remembered for the tragic fire of 1979 which killed 10 people.
Woolworths, Piccadilly, 1979. (c) MEN .
Although a rather unfortunate link to the past, but a memento nonetheless, these sleeves of 21 Piccadilly matches were handed out to revellers in the early 1990s.
21 Piccadilly, Piccadilly. (c) Paul Dean with permission.
Huge thanks to Paul Dean for these mementos of 21 Piccadilly, and many other clubs and bars featured here and yet to come.
21 Piccadilly, Piccadilly. (c) Paul Dean with permission.
1. http://theskyliner.org/post/3940897326/piccadilly-mirror-ball.
1. http://theskyliner.org/post/3940897326/piccadilly-mirror-ball.
No comments:
Post a Comment