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 This is a view of the out-side of the pub I used to manage for my uncle. This was an interesting point in my life, marred by the unscrupulous nature of my uncle. You see, for 6 months I was unpaid and developed a £2,500 debt, which I was unable to cope with once he did start paying me, as he only paid me £100 per week. I had to survive on this money too, the only free part of it being the roof over my head. It doesn't take a genius to work out that £100 doesn't go very far, so with paying my debts and the general expenses of living in a pub (not being able to shop like normal people), I was lucky if I ate once every day. Hardly a fair deal for someone who is working 130+ hours a week. In the end this was a big factor in my leaving after 10 months. But, it wasn't just the money, I also lost both of my cars, so getting back on to my feet upon leaving increased my debt to £5,000, which I expect to be free of by the time I am 50. The most galling part of it all was his constant lies to family members trying to cover up all of this. According to him, he was paying for my debts, paying for my food and drinks, and also giving me £200 each week. I WISH!!!! Is it any wonder that I can't wait until the day I hear he is dead? Anyway, enough of the negative aspect, take a look at the rest of these pictures and you will see that it wasn't the dump it appeared to be on the out-side. The full refurbishment included sound-proofing, fully equiped DJ booths, blinds to keep the light polution to a minimum, shiney metal furnature and fittings, disco lighting and eventually a smoke machine. A true party venue... |
 In this picture you can see some of the light effects I mentioned. This particular one was a kalidoscope type of light which reacted to the sound. I could have watched it for hours (I'm a bit dumb like that!). The dark blue thing on the right with a circle of holes is the DJ booth.
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You can see the DJ booth a bit better in this picture. Also, you can see the back-projection TV we had set into the wall. The definition of this screen was fantastic, far better than a normal type projector TV, but it was a night-mare pulling it out to mess with the cables and stuff, but thankfully we didn't have to do that very often!
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You can see it again here. Also, you can see a big speaker we fitted underneath it. As you can see, it wasn't 100% ready when this picture was taken, in fact, all of these pictures were taken fairly early on, before all of the pictures and stuff were put up, which is why it looks so bare!
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 This was a later picture. Here you can see that fancy light I mentioned earlier. Also, you can just make out the final version of the bar-front. It doesn't show very clearly unfortunately, but the front of the bar was covered with sheet stainless steel with a matt finish. As you can see, we have more pictures up in this picture. The rectangle thing in the centre of this picture is a cover for the pool table, so we could use it as a table if we wanted to.
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This picture shows the bar-front a lot better. Unfortunately, due to the short distance on the flash, this picture makes the pub look dull, which it certainly wasn't. As you can see, the cover above the bar caught the flash fully, exagerating the contrast. All of the walls and wood were painted white, so it was always bright in the day, but we could also set the mood at night with clever lighting or candles. It was very versatile.
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This picture is from our opening night. It appears in the book "The Firm" by Jocelyn Bain Hogg [ISBN 1-903391-09-1]. As you can see, we had exotic dancers (not strippers-far more extreme) that night. We used to have them occasionaly to entertain the naughty people who used to come in.
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 Speaking of naughty people, here is a picture of one of them. This is a still from Dave Courtneys film "Hell To Pay", a small part of which was filmed in the Belvedere. I feature in it for approximately 0.7 seconds! This picture was taken in Portsmouth by Anthony Oliver (49-59 Old Street, London, EC1V 9HX - Tel 020 7251 9054 - Fax 020 7251 9053).
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 This picture was taken during one of our most successful parties, organised by a guy called GI. The singer here is a garage singer called Lee Anderson, who was fantastic. Unfortunately, I missed most of his act (dancers too!) because I was so busy. The best things about this night were: a) at least 70% of our customers were female b) everyone was very smartly presented c) everyone was so well behaved d) everyone made so little mess! Considering there were at least 300 people that night it was incredible. The next morning I only had to pick up 3 cigarette butts before I vacuum cleaned! The toilets looked like they hadn't been used! Due to all of this, we begged GI to organise another party, but it never happened.... |
 Here is another picture from that night. You can see how effectively the lights and white walls worked together here. Unfortunately you can't see how beautiful the dance troupe were (I had to roll my tongue in when I saw them!), or how tight and talented they were. I can't remember what they were called, but they were very good. Like Lee Anderson, very talented. |
