Was the Cossack a gay pub ?

[dafodil]

Was The Cossack a gay pub?

 

The Cossack was at some time re-named But(t)'n Ben for a while and then went back to it's original name. I'd like to relate some of my own experiences of this Tetley pub in the early 70's.

 

1. In early 70's whenever I had a new girlfriend I would go out with her to pubs on the Howard Street side of the railings on Eyre Street/ Arundel Gate. This was to prevent my mates who drank in the Buccaneer and the pubs around Cambridge Street etc from eyeing her up. Remember, most of the time when you lose a girl it's quite often to one of your own mates.

Anyway, one evening I went with a bird called Jean into the Cossack on Howard Street. Jean was 18 and I was a few weeks short of 18, I had a pint of bitter and she had a coke (yes, coke not Pepsi). A while later two men approached us and asked what I was drinking and I told them to clear off. One of the blokes pulled his police I.D. out and asked me how old I was. I gave them the name of my next brother up who was 1 year 2 months and 10 days older than me. One copper with a big smirk on his face told me that I could be charged with giving misleading information, because they had heard people call me by a different Christian name during their previous visits to the Minerva pub (Whitbread) on Charles Street, (where I had been supping since I was 15). I came clean by giving them my real details, I also asked them why they hadn't done me before in the Minerva for underage drinking and they told me not to be cheeky or they'd lock me up for the night. I later assumed that they had not wanted to blow their cover in the Minerva because they might of been observing for drugs there.

The case was at Nursery Street Juvenile Court and I was found guilty of underage drinking and was fined 3 quid (approx. 24 pints). Even though I was almost 18, I found to my dismay I wasn't too big not to get a hiding, and that's exactly what me mother did.

 

2. Some weeks later I was in the Cossack again with the lovely Jean and this time I was legally allowed to drink (it tasted better when it was illegal). After a couple of drinks I went to the bogs to splash me boots. Inside the lav that was situated outside at the back of the pub the lights weren't on (wonder why?). After I finished me slash I turned around in the total darkness and was verbally accosted by some ducky. I wasn't angry, just scared and I lashed out and connected with his face, then I pushed him out the way. I ran into the pub and grabbed the alarmed Jean and went off to the Red Lion (Wards) on Charles Street. The Cossack was never visited by me again!

 

Jean left me some months later, and guess what?......Yes, for one of me mates!

Zakes did you work on Fitwilliam St at the time!!!!!!!!!

[Shogun]

Yes I can remember that pub it was full of um, we din't call them gays in them days we called them homo's, I can remember walking past there one night and there was this bloke stood in the door that looked like him out of YMCA with the big tash and the chaps with his bum cheeks hanging out, I soon crossed over the other side of the road,it really was a gay bar.

[gnvqsos]

Thanks gnvqsos. They had a laugh and were astonished at what they saw but providing no-one was attacked or abused or stabbed no further action was necessary. We're all voyeurs and peeping toms of one sort or another, even now viewing threads from people totally unknown to you but wanting to share their experiences in life with others is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

I dont think reading a post is voyeurism ;it is consensual as most posters know it will be read whereas voyeurim implies a degree of secrecy and intrusion.

[zakes]

Corrections

 

1. The girl with me wasn't Jean, she came late 1974.

 

2. Incidents were in early 1972.

 

3. DAFODIL, yes at Neville Watts shop.

[Kadogo]

The urban legend was that The Cossack had money stuck to the floor. However, I never saw any evidence of that, as I used to go in there with a friend of mine. he and I would both drool over some of the fellas who came in. Thing was, as I am a straight woman, and he was a gay man, we knew he'd probably have more chance of scoring with them! lol

 

That was a pinch from Dirty Dicks in London, which did have coins nailed to the floor.

[Fareast]

Was the Cossack a gay pub ? I 've an idea it was------shaking hands was the second most popular way of greeting friends [ or strangers ! ].

[Cookingfat]

yes the cossack was a gay meating place along with the pump it was owned by a gay couple once. it was a place where gays could get together and be them selfs hold hands have a bit of hanky panky i am not at all gay but used to go there with my mates now and agan

[shane39]

yes the cossack was a gay meating place along with the pump it was owned by a gay couple once. it was a place where gays could get together and be them selfs hold hands have a bit of hanky panky i am not at all gay but used to go there with my mates now and agan

 

Haha!

It was definately as you worded it..'A meatin..g' place.

[old cossack]

I went in the Cossack a few times it was alright, seem to remenber it had a U-shaped bar in the middle and the building itself was a Prefab built after the war. I would say most of its customers were gay never had any bother while there. In the mid 1990s it was renamed But a Ben but soon changed back to Cossack. Last time I went it started to go downhill I think it closed in November 2003 then pulled down in 2007 shame in one way not many Prefab pubs left and never seen any photos of the inside.

[broomhills10]

I remember her; was she a Glaswegian?

 

Was her name Paula?