Lockhart Rd - Lily Bar - Pussy Cat Bar

Submitted by bar124cafe on Mon, 05/25/2020 - 12:29

Hello, I'm new to the group so if I mess up, please forgive me.

I'm after some info for a novel I'm writing. To keep facts straight I need to know when the Lily Bar changed to The Old China Hand & also when The Pussy Cat builing was demolished. Can anyone help? The Pussy Cat was still there in 1984 but gone by 2011.

Also, and this is a long shot, does anyone have a photo of the painting of Lily mentioned in this blurb. I picked up this info whislt having a few pints in the OCH in 2011

.Many thanks

Tony

w1.jpg
w1.jpg, by bar124cafe
w2.jpg
w2.jpg, by bar124cafe

 

Tags

Hi bar124cafe,

I presume that the Pussy Cat Building your question refers to was the one at the south west corner of the junction of Lockhart Road and Fenwick Street. I recall the Pussy Cat bar being there on the ground floor in the early '80's. The building was one of the old ones with the 1/F built out on pillars over the pedestrian pavement. If I remember correctly, it was demolished in the mid to late 80's with the Empire Hotel constructed on the site plus the adjacent site at the corner of Fenwick Street and Hennessy Road. 

By the late '80's a large bar/disco called the Pussy Cat was operating closeby at the 1/F of the building at the south west corner of the junction of Jaffe Road and Fenwick Street. I don't know if the two Cats were related.  

Somewhere on this site I recall reading instructions of how to check online for the year in which an existing building was completed. The Pussy Cat building would probably have been demolished a year or so before the Empire Hotel was completed.  

My reading of the history of the OCH is that it was constructed in 1977, and it was during that fit-out process that they discovered the relics referred to. But that's before my time, so I can't confirm that.

Just checking that you are aware that the OCH on Lockhart Road closed a few years back? There are now two establishments of the same name (and, I assume, with some connection to the previous incarnation) - one in Kennedy Town and one on Peng Chau Island.

Hello, thanks for your input. Yes, the building on the corner of Fenwick & Lockhart. I've managed to find a photo of the building taken in '85 so this narrows it demolition time down slightly.

Many thanks for your input. Yes, I understood the refurb took place around that time. The blurb I posted was from a visit in 2013, if I remember correctly... There was no sign of the painting supposedly hanging on one of the walls and the bar staff had no idea of it whereabouts. I beginning to think the painting of Lily is just a story to romanticise the bar a little.Yes, I'd heard. I read that high rents forced the relocation of the OCH. Such a shame. That leaves just three signs, The San Franciso club, The American Resturant (I believe the same building too) & The Crazy Horse Club, that still exist from my first visit in '84, the rest all gone.

 

"Somewhere on this site I recall reading instructions of how to check online for the year in which an existing building was completed. The Pussy Cat building would probably have been demolished a year or so before the Empire Hotel was completed."

You can use the Govt Ratings nad Valuations Dept "Names of Buildings" document which tells me the Empire Hotel opened in 1990. So I would guess that the block that preceded it was up until 1989 at the very latest.

You can see an image of the Pussy Cat Club here.

The American restaurant and Crazy Horse are both definitely gone too. I can't remember if San Francisco is still around, but many of those brothels are gone - victims as much of Tinder as of high rents.

Yes, I've just taken a walk down Lockart on Google Earth and noted that both the Crazy Horse & The American Resurant signs are gone. The San Franciso Club sign is still there, at the moment. Apart from that all that remains are the street names. Lockart looks like such a souless street now. Lucky to have had a taste when I did.