The Gut (Strait Street)

[Batstiger]

If you ex Matelots want a nostalgic trip have a look at this lot:-

http://rumration.co.uk/cpgn2/Forums/viewtopic/t=13440.html

I think it is better to stick with your memories!

Bob.

[CYLLA]

BATSTIGER,
THANKS for that thread ,yep it did bring back the memories [hangovers]

a bottle of cheap plonk,got a glass :p cheer,s


cylla

[BuntingBob]

Some fine pictures there. Those of the empty street look like they did many years ago, in the day time. Same peeling paint walls. But, what a tranformation at night. It was a mucky, smelly place but to us thirsty matelots it was a 'Mecca.'

[TACKLINE]

Thanks for those photographs Bob. Took me back to wartime days. I wonder if anyone remembers "The Lucky Wheel" bar down the gut,with resident " Singers" Bobby and Sugar. Blokes of course! Went there on holiday in '86,but the thoroughfare ,although still there,all the bars and "characters" had gone. All the bomb damage had gone,except for one building in Valetta,which had been left wrecked as a kind of memorial. I enjoyed my return very much.
A couple of snaps taken at the time. My late wife with some residents of "The Gut".
Alan.

[NSR]

Memories from the Egyptian Queen at the top to the AM Twink and the Galvanised Donkey (Morning Star and the Silver Stallion) at the bottom, via The New Life, The New York, The Cotton Club, The Cricketers and who can forget Charlie's Bar. Charlie standing outside and shouting, 'Inside Navy, all your ship's company here, both of them p****d'. Happy daze.

[MelQuick]

Hi Everyone

I go down there once a year to pay my annual house insurance!

Mel

[oldsalt]

No one has yet mentioned the B&B's, like Jim Irish's splendid establishment.;)

[alanandbren]

No one has yet mentioned the B&B's, like Jim Irish's splendid establishment.;)

What about this one Keith.

[steve roberts]

I can Well remember going down there,but blowed if I remember coming out most of the time.I was going out with a girl from Mosta,while at Bighi.She had to be home by nine pm,so after seeing her safely on her bus at the bus station.It was only a hop-skip-and a jump to Strait street.:D
Regards Steve.

[alanandbren]

No one has yet mentioned the B&B's, like Jim Irish's splendid establishment.;)

I can Well remember going down there,but blowed if I remember coming out most of the time.I was going out with a girl from Mosta,while at Bighi.She had to be home by nine pm,so after seeing her safely on her bus at the bus station.It was only a hop-skip-and a jump to Strait street.:D
Regards Steve.

How the hell did you manage to date a local girl Steve. When I was there they all used to be locked indoors or hidden under those black outfits where as you could not get a decent shufftie at them.

[steve roberts]

Hi Alanandbren.She had been a pen-pal for a couple of years(me being of a devious crafty so and so) I had to meet her with a chaperon for a few weeks,until I got "Up Homers" and met Mum,Dad and Local Priest.Having them then decide that I was a "Decent Upstanding" young man,and of course being Medical Branch helped.I was then permitted to meet her alone,on the condition I never took her to a Bar,and that she must be home by nine pm.Believe me that early was frustrating for both of us!!!:D She wanted to marry me,but I did not fancy having the entire family move in with us when we got back to the UK.So it sort of faded out after 18 months.(Phew!!!)
Regards Steve.

[RonHowell]

What about 'Dirty Dicks' at the top, the 'Bing Crosby' of course, and the 'Gypo Queen'. However when I was on a run we started at the 'Britannia' then worked our way to 'the gut'. Great memories, especially great shipmates.

Ron

[alanandbren]

What about 'Dirty Dicks' at the top, the 'Bing Crosby' of course, and the 'Gypo Queen'. However when I was on a run we started at the 'Britannia' then worked our way to 'the gut'. Great memories, especially great shipmates.

Ron

Hi Ron, was that the Britania at the foot of Manoel island bridge, or valletta. we used to visit a restaurant in Valletta called the Britannia wich served a wicked steak egg and chips,pancake and a bottle of blue label for 2/6. another eating house down the Gut was Chico's, also good when you were ratted as you didn't look too carefully at what was on your plate. I dont think he ditched any leavings from previous customers. does anyone remember the sandwich stall at the foot of barracca lift, great for a steak or egg sarnie on the way back on board, also for duty boats crew on the liberty run,taking orders back for the crew. Enclosed a few pic's and one which will settle a few arguments as to how many bottles were drunk in Tonys bar.
Regards Alan.

[alanandbren]

What about 'Dirty Dicks' at the top, the 'Bing Crosby' of course, and the 'Gypo Queen'. However when I was on a run we started at the 'Britannia' then worked our way to 'the gut'. Great memories, especially great shipmates.

Ron

as stated in previous post the pic's

[RonHowell]

Hi AlanBren

The establishment opposite the Maneol Island bridge was the 'Bamboo', great run ashore. I remember when the 'Ausonia' / 'Rampura' sailed for exercises the Bamboo was full of Navy wives possibly starting off a glut of 'affairs'.
The Britannia was just off the then 'Kingsway' near the cinema, I remember you had to go downstairs to the bar situated at one end, there was also a balcony all the way round. From there a short stagger across Kingsway down a side street and there was the 'Gut'.
I was there in 1987 and felt quite sad walking down 'Strait Street', what memories.

Ron

[alanandbren]

Thats the Britannia I'm thinking of. I believe it had red leather seating, but I know you went downstairs, Great times in those days, THere'll never be another Malta.

[Dave Hutson]

Hi AlanBren

The establishment opposite the Maneol Island bridge was the 'Bamboo', great run ashore. I remember when the 'Ausonia' / 'Rampura' sailed for exercises the Bamboo was full of Navy wives possibly starting off a glut of 'affairs'.
The Britannia was just off the then 'Kingsway' near the cinema, I remember you had to go downstairs to the bar situated at one end, there was also a balcony all the way round. From there a short stagger across Kingsway down a side street and there was the 'Gut'.
I was there in 1987 and felt quite sad walking down 'Strait Street', what memories.

Ron

Hi Ron and sorry mate - The bar right opposite as you came off Manoel Island Bridge was the "Britannia" run by Yorkie, you had to go right one street and up a few yards to reach the "Bamboo". Now the Brit was used by all the Lascaris boys, the MFCDT, the Minesweeper boys,Woodbridge Haven. STC and Ausonia. Yorkie could always be relied upon to run the "pawn" shop on blank weeks when you put your watch over the bar and redeemed it on payday. [Altho' we all 'ad and 'ee knew two watches - I think my second one is still there somewhere].

Not a lot of single guys used the "Bamboo" in 58/59 because it was usually the haunt of the Minesweeper Squadron, and most guys didn't want to get into aggro with anything that "absence" produced if you get my meaning. Nuff sed.

This all comes back from 1954/57 Destroyers, 1958/59 Phoenicia [Lascaris W/T].

There was a Britannia in Kingsway just past the Govt Building on the right off a little garden area where you went downstairs to it, and if you came out turned right, crossed Kingsway and took the first left you ended up with the Toilets on your left [with Tiny the Cop standing outside] and the Gypo Queen on your right.

Howzat for 52 years search of the memory cells ?????

Dave H

[Dave Hutson]

I can Well remember going down there,but blowed if I remember coming out most of the time.I was going out with a girl from Mosta,while at Bighi.She had to be home by nine pm,so after seeing her safely on her bus at the bus station.It was only a hop-skip-and a jump to Strait street.:D
Regards Steve.

Hey Stevie Boy. I hope that wasn't my landlord's daughter cos' she was a nice girl and I hate to think what could have transpired if she was conned by some sickbay tiffy. We all knew that shirt buttons weren't "The pill".

Dave H

[Dave Hutson]

Now I have your attention and I have asked this before - does anyone remember "Chez Venci's" in Floriana - great food but an arm and a leg in the 50's. Also does anyone remember the Bar/Restaurant - into Kingsway second turning on left opposite the Port Library - Tony the Head Waiter could go round a table of 24 where everyone ordered a different drink or cocktail [no pad], come back and put your drink in front of you. The rainbow cocktail was poured layer for layer and you could, very carefully, drink layer for layer. Tony called you a Philistine pillock if you picked it up and disturbed the layers. But what a way to get sozzled on payday.

Put your thinking caps on Lascaris people and come up with the answer.

No prizes - just memories.

Dave H

[RonHowell]

Hi Dave
Spot on with your memories, I knew the Bamboo was not far from the bridge. I am glad the Britannia was pretty much where I imagined it was. We forget its over fifty years since we ' tripped the light fantastic' through the streets of Malta. And yes 'Tiny' the policeman outside the toilets, I can see him now.

Ron

[Derek Dicker]

Mng Guys,

Here's one of the Gypo Queen, sad to see in that state.


Derek (Bunts)

[alanandbren]

Mng Guys,

Here's one of the Gypo Queen, sad to see in that state.


Derek (Bunts)

The last photo I took in 2007 of her, she still had all the glass in one piece. Don't these people know what the're doing to our Naval history.

[Alan Markland]

I was a features writer for the Maltese Sunday Circle for a couple of years and did an article on The Gut based on my RN memories of the 50' - 70's visits. Doing the research in 1996 at the age 60 odd I walked down the deserted street with my daughter in law on my arm. She was heavily pregnant. An old woman passed us by heavily laden with shopping. She eyed us both up and then said to me 'still at I see!' Turned out she'd been a 'dancing girl,' at the Gypo Queen in 1957 and swore she remembered me!

I am still doing articles and have in mind one on 'women connected to the RN' (see my Thread elsewhere on this site.) But while I am here does anyone recall the actual Sparrow? the one who married a Chief Stoker/threw herself off the Barracca Lift/ Emigrated to Australia or whatever? and what about Molly, the Mullatto lady who sang, when pissed on seven eleven perfume and meths, that lovely song 'Seventeen,' she had a mate aqbout three foot tall with hair all down her back who was said to be one of the Romanoffs and danced the seven veils. Bobby of course was a Greek not Maltese and played beautiful piano. He emigrated to Guzz in the 60's and appeared at the Polish Club in Devonport. Later he became the mascot of the Old Illustrious Soc. which is when I re-met him. I gave him my address in Senglea Malta which turned out to be his home when he was a lad.

[Mitch Hinde]

Now I have your attention and I have asked this before - does anyone remember "Chez Venci's" in Floriana - great food but an arm and a leg in the 50's. Also does anyone remember the Bar/Restaurant - into Kingsway second turning on left opposite the Port Library - Tony the Head Waiter could go round a table of 24 where everyone ordered a different drink or cocktail [no pad], come back and put your drink in front of you. The rainbow cocktail was poured layer for layer and you could, very carefully, drink layer for layer. Tony called you a Philistine pillock if you picked it up and disturbed the layers. But what a way to get sozzled on payday.

Put your thinking caps on Lascaris people and come up with the answer.

No prizes - just memories.

Dave H

Hi Dave H
Chez Venzi.

Under the arches on the left in Floriana going towards Valletta. As you say,
best steak in the Med but pricey. Last time I was there was 1963.:eek:

Mitch Hinde

[RonHowell]

Another memory I have as an 18 year old EM2 in 1956 on the 'Corunna' was an old 'crone' doing magical things with a bottle of Blue at the bottom of the Gut. After a whip round she produced the exhibition to the shocked audience of so called experienced 'men'. I now shiver at the thought of it, anyone else remember her?

Ron

[Alan Markland]

What about this one Keith.

Just up from the Bing Crosby on the left hand side. You got your shoes cleaned and a glass of sticky tea thrown in. Alan

[Alan Markland]

Yes I do and I once saw one of our killick stokers drink from the bottle post enactment. Alan.

[Dave Hutson]

Yes I do and I once saw one of our killick stokers drink from the bottle post enactment. Alan.

What else would you expect from a member of the Black Gang. :confused:

[Alan Markland]

About the Brit. There were two. The one in Valletta where the Gharry horses stood, downstairs as has already been mentioned. Red leather seating and gentlemen waiters. They used to do tea dances in the 50's, popular with married accompanied's.

The other Brit is in Gzira at Manoel Island Bridge. Run by Yorky in the Ranpura days and still popular but with oilmen in 1985 - 90 when it was run by his widow and her two sons. The Bamboo was neaby and owned (in 1957) by the Messina Bros. of East End inafamy. Another favourite near there was Jacks Bar - the only one open on the death of Pope Pius 12. - and The Brown Jug, a comms. pub. (Not to be confused with the Little Brown Jug in Floriana.)

But who remembers the Barbary Coast and the Black Cat. The Manchester - still going but as pizza take-aways now. I was on Daring and Meon both tied up in the Creek and within easy swimming back distance from shore. Alan.

[Dave Hutson]

All remembered , altho I had forgotten "The Brown Jug" , If you look in the Brit, Gzira you will probably still find my second watch hanging behind the bar waiting for me to redeem it. The "Bamboo" was also a popular haunt for Comms [Lascaris living in Phoencia] , MFCDT and the 108th Minesweepers.

You forgot the "Cock and Bottle" ;)

Dave H

[Alan Markland]

Yet another on Malta! Scene: The Bing Crosby Bar at the bottom of the gut. I am a young stoker on loan to the Picket House, stood in my belt and gaiters, flanked by two hairy faced RPO's. Molly comes out of the pub, unsteady, a bottle of mixed seven eleven perfume and meths in her hand. She stops, eyes me up and down and then:

'Jesus Keerist! They done opened up a new box o' sailor boys! Oh! Ain't he pretty?' She strokes my blushing cheek.
'Bugger off Molly' snarls a regulator.

'So purty!' an' now listen up little sailor boy. While you down the Gut - Keep your big eyes open, your big mouth shut. Your hand on yo' ha'penny an' you be all shook up!'

I never saw her again until about 1982 when I heard she was in what used to be the King George the Fifth Hospital for Sailors up Crucifix Hill.

'She's away with the fairies,' a nurse told me kindly. So I sat by her bed and reminded her about Minko and Bobbie and the Russian Princess and the girl saxaphonist who got left behind by the Ivy Benson's Band and I hummed her song 'Seventeen, seventeen - prettiest girl I ever seen... I think she smiled. Alan.

[Alan Markland]

Yet another. I should do this for a living! Tony's Bar at Sleima Ferry. main clientelle HMS Woodbridge and the Sweepers. Had a mirror over the urinal in the gents which did remarkable things for your masculinity. And the Kiosk across the road, now a thriving restaurant, behind which the Magic Stick Picture House stood. Woolworths on the corner was still there in 1985. And what about the Primrose Bar at Guardamanjia, named after the one time Commander of HMS Forth which tied up there for years. You got a lot of WRNS in there from Whitehall Mansions at Ta'x'biex and if you slipped the sweeper in the periscope workshop half a tot he'd let you have a squint through an attack periscope at the said WRNS sunbathing. I mentioned this at my local RNA the other day and a lady member told me that she and her mates knew all about it and would put on an innocent but revealing show for us.

Floriana and the Klondyke Tabarin which, having a full band, was able to charge threepence extra for its Marsovin (ambit, or skreech.) The Flagship was next door and I once got Stan Mathew's autograph there after a game Sliema v Floriana. (I think he played for one or the other.) Go on, stir my memory! Alan.

[exile1]

After your time Alan I suspect but a dit from a combined ops mate on another site when coincidently talking about Strait St.

"Quote"
The only "battle of Malta" I recall was in the autumn of 1974 when based in St George's Barracks (named after me!) and prior to a 3 Commando Brigade's amphibious deployment to the eastern Mediterranean. UK-based 40 Commando Group came ashore off the Bulwark into Paceville which was the entertainment area close to the barracks and where several hundred Libyans lived. A fracas saw one of the Marines stabbed and ended in a massive riot with the Booties of both 40 and 41 (the resident commando in St Andrews) plus some of the battery boys involved in street battles particularly around the Cable and Wireless premises, which wrecked the area. The Maltese police and Libyans were surrounded and ambushed as the squaddies moved them into untenable positions and submitted them to severe beatings. The shore patrols from Bulwark, Hermes, Intrepid, the escort vessels, RMP police, RAF police from Luqa eventually restored law and order and 40's men were rushed back to the Rusty B. The sailing of the Task Force was brought forward to an unearthly hour as 41 Commando and the Battery were recalled to barracks for an early departure. A dozen ships (big in those days) sailed out of Grand Harbour without ceremony and when we returned six weeks later it was all quiet on the island. The Libyans stayed well clear of the squaddie bars and the police were rarely seen in Paceville. Mind you there were many good coppers particularly those who used to drink in the Hole in the Wall in Sliema. Many hated Mintoff and his collaboration with Gaddafi which left a bad taste in the mouths of the majority of Maltese people. Been back to Malta a couple of times and still a lovely island with plenty of good memories.
George "Unquote"

[exile1]

Took the missus and her mate down the gut one morning a few years ago to show her that it was quite civilised and nothing happened when I went away. Sat her ouside the London bar, bought her a goffa and took the following pic. being an ex-Jenny it didn't wash of course:o

[barracuda]

Here's a link to a very interesting YouTube video of Centaur at Malta in 1959. It was filmed by a FAA officer but does have some footage of "The Gut".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glLP_Nqpo-o

He took a whole series of films of places Centaur visited in 1959. Just search for Centaur 1959 at YouTube.



Hope this hasn't been posted previously - did a search and nothing came up. Apologies if it has.

Peter

[Nobby_N]

In '56, at the very bottom of Strait St, across the road and facing the street there was a bar that some of us from Bulwark always used. It wasn't like the bars further up the street, nothing naughty in there - unless drinking is naughty. They had a stack of records, 78s mainly and you could choose from them and put them on the record player yourself: there was loads of Dean Martin and Tennessee Ernie Ford mainly. Does anyone remember that bar and what it was called? I don't remember the name, I just remember the Dean Martins, and Imbit and Marsala. What was the girl behind the bar called? Mary I expect.

Another one, in 1956 matelots who'd been before were still talking about the Marines trashing the Gut from top to bottom and beating up the police. I never did find out what that was all about. Does anyone here know? It was sometime between the end of the War and the early 50s.

John (Nobby_N)

[Mitch Hinde]

Hi Nobby N

The only two at the bottom of the Gut that I remember were the Lancaster and the Bing Grosby. Ring any bells?

Mitch Hinde

[Nobby_N]

Thanks Mitch. Lancaster seems likely, my mind is a blank - must have been the Marsala. Bing Crosby was a year or two before Dean Martin I think :). Until recently I had not thought of that place at all, and then I discovered all the Dean Martin videos on Youtube. It brought it all back. I can see the place in my mind, my visual memory is not too bad, but the name had gone.

Nobby_N

[MelQuick]

The Maritime Museum, in what I understand used to be the Naval Bakery, has the front of one of the old Strait Street bars erected against one internal wall of the first floor.

The museum is well worth a visit. The exhibits are well laid out and they cover Malta's entire maritime history. There are many Royal Navy exhibits.

Mel

[Thomas McSweeney]

Hello Alan,
You know me for sure.
Molly has long passed away. Her singing was only matched by Joe Barrows when he sang 'Mammy". The Gut has long died and even the bars are gone. Smiling Prince, Retainer Bar, Piccadilly, Carmen Bar, Tic Tico and one others remain, but just the signs. The Wilson and Malta are now classy resaurants, old Charlie the tattoist has long become fertiliser. The Old Vic dancing hall is now a church store and the Gippo's sign fell and broke. But many of the girls, now old, grey, wrinkled and toothless are still there, as you've experianced when there. Only the latrine on the corner got a first class uplift and you have to pay to use it.
The old lodgings are now becoming high class insurance offices with lkifts, a/c's and the works, costing six figure jobs.
If you remeber Tony from Malata, he now does tours at the Lascaris War Rooms. Remember his mum, Josephine? Grey bun and all! A film-thin steak, two smiling eyes and a banger for 1/6d!!!!!!
There's a book out now on the Gut, but maybe in Maltese - STRADA STRETTA.
Long time since you gave talks at Bormla. Cheers.