[Philthechill]

I was telling my daughter about that amazing bar in Greenock, (Clock Hotel?), and wondered if anyone remembers it.

From what I recall you went down some stairs to get to it.

There were pressure-gauges on the walls, (all with their needles "indicating"), a telegraph and the fireplace was built like the front-end of a boiler.

Doubtless the fog of 50+ years has dimmed this memory but I'm reasonably sure about my description. Fingers X'd someone remembers it! Phil

 

[spongebob]

Phil, In the 1950/60's Auckland's Waverley Hotel had a small bar called 'Crank case corner' that frequently contained engineers from all sorts of ships that went there to pull,pistons and talk shop !

Bob

 

[Basil]

Can't recollect any decked out like an engine room.
There was The Gantock Hotel on the Cloch Road near Gourock which burned down in 2008. Can't recollect the bar decor. Davey Jones Locker in Gourock, which you entered via stairs from the street, now long gone. The Bay Hotel, I discovered many years later, was frequented by 'working girls'. Just as well I never went there :sweat: I once mentioned The Bay to my wife and she said "Even I knew about its reputation!"

Although I'm a Greenockian, I've only been in Greenock bars on fewer than a handful of occasions. It would usually be Gourock, Largs or Glasgow.
IIRC, the only place you'd even consider taking a girl in my hometown was The Tontine Hotel.

 

[Varley]

I also remember the Tontine.

 

[Norm]

Can't recollect any decked out like an engine room.
There was The Gantock Hotel on the Cloch Road near Gourock which burned down in 2008. Can't recollect the bar decor. Davey Jones Locker in Gourock, which you entered via stairs from the street, now long gone. The Bay Hotel, I discovered many years later, was frequented by 'working girls'. Just as well I never went there :sweat: I once mentioned The Bay to my wife and she said "Even I knew about its reputation!"

Although I'm a Greenockian, I've only been in Greenock bars on fewer than a handful of occasions. It would usually be Gourock, Largs or Glasgow.
IIRC, the only place you'd even consider taking a girl in my hometown was The Tontine Hotel.

The Gantock Hotel, named after the Gantock rocks just off Dunoon, was a Stakis hotel. It burned down in mysterious cir***stances. We used to go there for roast beef and Saturday dinner dances. The view across the Clyde was spectacular. The Cloch lighthouse still stands, but its friendly light is seen no more. I remember when I was 4th eng on the Lairdscrest, being asked by the Chief to wake him when we got to the Cloch. Right on cue, I put him on the shake. OK he said, and turned over and went right back to sleep.
There is a nice looking new place called the Tail O' The Bank in Greenock harbour. Must take a look in to it this year. However I do remember drinking in The Viking ? Just outside James Watt Dock, when I was with Harrisons.

 

[kauvaka]

Can't recollect any decked out like an engine room.
There was The Gantock Hotel on the Cloch Road near Gourock which burned down in 2008. Can't recollect the bar decor. Davey Jones Locker in Gourock, which you entered via stairs from the street, now long gone. The Bay Hotel, I discovered many years later, was frequented by 'working girls'. Just as well I never went there :sweat: I once mentioned The Bay to my wife and she said "Even I knew about its reputation!"

Although I'm a Greenockian, I've only been in Greenock bars on fewer than a handful of occasions. It would usually be Gourock, Largs or Glasgow.
IIRC, the only place you'd even consider taking a girl in my hometown was The Tontine Hotel.

Hole in the Wall in Greenock but can't recall if it was a bar or a dance place. Kia ora!

 

[david freeman]

I was telling my daughter about that amazing bar in Greenock, (Clock Hotel?), and wondered if anyone remembers it.

From what I recall you went down some stairs to get to it.

There were pressure-gauges on the walls, (all with their needles "indicating"), a telegraph and the fireplace was built like the front-end of a boiler.

Doubtless the fog of 50+ years has dimmed this memory but I'm reasonably sure about my description. Fingers X'd someone remembers it! Phil

I remember the clock, den of inequity, during our drydock of 65 for a tanker that had had a fire in the engineers accommodation. I cannot recall if the bar in the clock basement was there? There was a dancehall near by?
I maybe being mixed up with the Gourock Hotel, bar lounge on the first floor, most pleasant surrounds!
One went down stream from Greenock Drydock to Gourock I believe? so it proberably was not the clock we spent most of our time in off watch. But Hey!!! it was a most pleasant drydock.

 

[Basil]

Hole in the Wall in Greenock but can't recall if it was a bar or a dance place. Kia ora!

It's a bar, a couple of minutes walk from where I was brought up.
According to Google Earth, it still appears to be in operation.
And 'Be safe' too!

 

[Basil]

I also remember the Tontine.

I don't know why it is so named. Sounds interesting.
I'd always thought that being a member of a tontine would be a dangerous place to be.

 

[sparkie2182]

Was the Tontine a hotel or a pub?

I did some hydrographic work in the late 80's on the Clyde and the name rings a bell.

 

[howardang]

Was the Tontine a hotel or a pub?

I did some hydrographic work in the late 80's on the Clyde and the name rings a bell.

The Tontine was an old coaching inn/hotel. I stayed at the Tontine on a number of occasions in the 1970's and 80's, and from what I remember it was quite a reasonable place.

Howard

 

[Varley]

It remains a hotel proper according to its website. The last time I was there it was for an industry presentation - deck machinery? I have a half memory that a chess club to which Capt. Dougie Pollock invited me met there too. I regret not taking up that offer. Practice in those office years might have made the thrashings that I now receive at the hands of the thirty somethings less inevitable.

Too much Agatha Christie Basil? Any Will can cause familial strife. That of the Gentleman will probably not lead to murder a la Kind Hearts and Coronets. That of the pirate might well do so.

 

[trotterdotpom]

A Tontine is an old time investment scheme. Everybody puts money in the pot and the last one to standing after the rest die gets the lot. Presumably they try to make money with the investment in the meantime.

There's a big pub in North Yorkshire, backing onto the A19, called the Cleveland Tontine - a cousin of mine used to own it. Maybe the punters pooled their money and built a pub. This one goes back to about 1800.

John T

 

[Mad Landsman]

A Tontine is an old time investment scheme. Everybody puts money in the pot and the last one to standing after the rest die gets the lot. Presumably they try to make money with the investment in the meantime.

There's a big pub in North Yorkshire, backing onto the A19, called the Cleveland Tontine - a cousin of mine used to own it. Maybe the punters pooled their money and built a pub. This one goes back to about 1800.

John T

Subscribers are supposed to get the share of an annuity which increases as each member dies until the last one gets the all of it.

Origin is from Lorenzo Tonti (1630–95) a Neapolitan banker, who started such a scheme to raise government loans in France around 1653.

 

[sparkie2182]

Thanks Howard..... . I assumed it had closed down as most of the old hostelries seem to have done.
As I recall there was a story behind the name..... The website yields no info.

I do recall the police station looking like "Fort Apache.... The Bronx"

 

[Basil]

And here it is:
The Tontine Hotel, Greenock.
A wee bit more genteel than the HITW (Thumb)
(Also, like the HITW, not far from where I was brought up - we were on the border between two different sections of society. No prizes for guessing which Bas was on.)

 

[sparkie2182]

A very nice establishment as I recall.
I believe a former Greenock resident is the chap below.
Has anyone seen him and Baz in the same room?

 

[Basil]

A very nice establishment as I recall.
I believe a former Greenock resident is the chap below.
Has anyone seen him and Baz in the same room?

How did you get my picture?!

 

[sparkie2182]

Black Ops..... Baz.

Expats has been hiding in your wheelie bin since New Years Eve.

🚮🚮🚮🚮🚮

 

[Basil]

Buggah! Just put it out. Better go and see if he's OK.
What does he usually drink! :sweat: