Colin Hamilton – Socialising in Gosport

Simon: What about the earlier days of socialising in Gosport? Were there  favourite watering holes there?

Oh yes, the Royal Arms where the bus stops. I mean that was a very popular place.

Simon: That was full of submariners was it?

Oh yes, there and there’s one down at Squeezecot Alley, there’s a narrow passageway down on the left, the George and Dragon, that was popular. They used to get the Wrens under training, the Nurses from Haslar were drinking.

Simon: And strangely that’s where all the blokes ended up as well.

Oh yes, but it looks exactly the same outside and I think they’re going to refurbish some of the area there, but the Nurses used to come up and they used to drink cider, pints of cider which I think was about seven pence …

Simon: Because it was good value?

Oh it was, very cheap. I mean beer was one and two when I was up in Barrow. One and a penny for bitter and one and three for mild, which is what, 15 pence and 30 pence or something, but this was very cheap. The Landlord said, “I can’t cope with this, they’re getting drunk every night” so he doubled the price and the Wrens were up in arms.

Well, they weren’t Wrens, they were Nurses, but it was good fun, and they had a Swimming Pool in Gosport as well. They’ve got the Boating Lake; you know the sailing lake.

Just the other side there, I’m trying to picture it, there was a Swimming Pool that we quite often stopped off at 11 o’clock at night for a dip.

Simon: It wasn’t open, but you opened it somehow.

On your way back over Pneumonia Bridge (laughs), back to Part 2 Training. I have a lot of fond memories of Gosport. As I say, I go over there quite often now.