The Flying Horse Pub


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Remember it?

How on earth could they allow its destruction. More crimes of the 1970 Planners.

I remember the glass panel in the bar floor where you could see the cellars

below.

When did it finish trading as a pub?

What do you remember about the place?

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Nicked this painting from Facebook. I think it's lovely.  

Just reading the posts about The Flying Horse being a "gay" bar reminds me of a grand old "queen" Albert Brown whom I frequently took home (on the #43 bus to Trent Bridge).Used to wear a white suit an

Just found a sort of business card for the Flying Horse Hotel in the Poultry , Nottingham in my parents stuff . As you see the prices are in £sd and my parents left Nottingham in 1966 so must be pre

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B) A little bit of histoy first.. B)

B) The interesting house in this row is the "Flying Horse" Hotel which bears on its signboard the year 1483. Its architecture, however, seems to point to a little later date than then and I should assign it to Elizabeth's reign, probably contemporary with the Spanish Armada. Mysteriously enough this interesting house can supply very little gossip, all that is known about it is that in the 18th century it was called the "Travellers Inn." But all it lacks in gossip it makes up in architectural interest for it is a most excellent example of the filching of public land from the streets which took place all through the Middle Ages. The timbers carrying overhanging upper stories were apt to become weak and were strengthened by posts ex­tending from their outer ends to the ground and these posts curiously enough have been suffered to remain for centuries and are now represented by pillars which intrude very much upon what centuries ago must have been the public roadway. Its modern name of "The Flying Horse" is interesting. The Flying Horse is Pegasus, the steed ot the Muses, upon whose back Bellerophon mounted when he went to destroy the Chimera. But it has a more interesting origin than this reference to classic myth for the Flying Horse was the badge of the Knights Templars who were suppressed in 1309. This order of military monks undertook to pro­tect the Temple at Jerusalem from the assaults of the infidel and in order better to perform their work they vowed themselves to poverty and to emphasize how poor they were they took for their badge a picture of two men mounted upon one horse, showing that they were too poverty stricken to adequately horse their knights. This badge was copied and re-copied and although it always remained evident what the horse was meant to represent the two human figures upon its back seemed to have mystified the copyists and they became less and less like men and more and more like wings so that when the Renaissance came along and men's minds were filled with all sorts of classic stories they recognised in this weird, winged horse Pegasus the Flying Horse of the Muses. B)

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Interesting stuff BIP.I remember the Flying horse really well, it was chockers on Friday/Saturday nights,why in gods name it was pulled down I will never know, when they find whoever is responsable for that they need a good slap. They just don't realise what a travesty it was. There are a lot of shires over here who do anything in their power to preserve old buildings & take pride in doing so, & thank god they do, with the little history we have over here we are grateful for anything we can preserve for our kids & their families.

Caz

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In january 2005, the new freedom of information act comes into force.

Anyone in the world can apply for copies of documents held by govenment

bodies Police Planning etc. With very few exceptions they have to provide information, or would be subject to high penalties.

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why in gods name  was it pulled down.. Caz

B) You might have the wrong end of the stick there Caz, it hasn't been pulled down [well not that i'm aware of ] i walked by their a month or so ago, the facade is there but the inners i think are gone. We have a tram system now running in and around Nottingham and the new trams run down Cheapside pass the Flying Horse.. B)

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That's nearly as bad as pulling it down, taking the whole fabric of the place apart.

I saw the trams in 2003, are they proving to be popular? most of Nottingham was being dug up when I was there in fact I think it was much the same in 99 too.

Caz

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I did hear through the grapevine that the landlord opened up one sunday morning & you were still under the table :P:P B) B)

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Right Caz

They ripped out all that history to make it into a Bootique! :angry:

The Trams are Brill you can travel all day to Hucknall and back

for two quid :D Oh yes you can get off

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Sounds kool, I must remember to use it next time I visit, which hopefully won't be too far away. We have trams here in Victoria & they are a great cheap way to get about the city. Do they cause any problems with the other buses?

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:o It's been a while since this thread was started so i thought i would give you some useless imformation about phase 2 of the tram saga. B)

B) As you my or my not now i live in Chilwell, the proposed second phase of the tram network if all goes well supposedly according to the plans is comming my way, University boulevard, Beeston, Chilwell, Gregory's rose gardens A52.

:ph34r: The proposed route through Chilwell will mean that it will pass within 100 yards of my house and within touching distance of two schools at the bottom of my road [ one infants & one junior ] plus two old peoples awardinated flats complexes and a doctors surgery, also on it's way through some house will have to be demolished, [ Chilwell high road ] a perfectly good chinesse and a chippy and mybe a good pub. [ OUTRAGEOUS ]

We have a perfectly good bus service running from 5-30am until gone midnight so why do we need a tram system. My nearest bus stop is 50 yards away, if the tram does follow the proposed route the nearest stop for me will be a 8 minute walk away. That makes sense... :ph34r: NOT..

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On the other hand, for those people who work in the city centre the trams are quick and convenient and mostly reliable. also every ten minutes or so where as if I miss my bus to Arnold I have to wait at least half an hour sometimes more, and at the end of a long day at work I just want to get home asap. So I would welcome the trams coming my way but don't know if there are any plans to.

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  • 11 months later...

Didn't the "Flying Horse" have a reputation for being a gay bar in the early 70's?

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I do believe that the manager was a bit that way. Mr Phillips he was known as. He passed away many years ago. His friend, was quite a character in Nottingham named Brew. How do I know this your asking?No Im not that way, but I did play the Organ(The musical instrument type) for a while in the lounge bar. the one on the left as you walked in>

Neil

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Ok - this I can't believe! They knocked the Flying Horse down? As in demolished? :(

It was a fantastic pub! Truly awesome.

The gay part - well it is true, but mostly they hung out in the first room on the left as you walked in or if you turned right towards the two smaller bars, they would sometimes overflow into the one on the left. I know htis becasue I pulled an absoultely gorgeous girl in there one night only for Micky Norton (yes the one who managed Annabelles) to suggest I just feel out the territory first - and yes it was a man! Oops. !laughing!

Mind you there were a lot of places popular with gays, one of the best (and most exclusive0 being a club down on - was it middle hill - with a chinese next door - maybe the pagoda? Now i can tell you the the girls that were guys were truly scary and the girls that were girls were fabulous - oh and the guys - well, they were without a doubt party animals and verry, very funny! A great place to go after hours!

of course the other great place to go after hours was the Cabin Club, next door to the Hippo and on the way up to my flat! In there you could meet the rich, the crooked and the completely drunk - twenty-four hours a day. I did actually mange one or two twenty-four hour drinking bouts in those days. These days a couple of pints and I'm as happy as Larry!

Cheers,

charlie

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Not sure if anyone has mentioned this but The Flying Horse pub is now called The Flying Horse Arcade I think. The old yard down the middle of it is a walkway through several smallish shoplets, including a deli and a boutique. It's possible to walk straight through to St. Peter's Square?? near Marks and Spencer What a waste.

My favourite story about The Flying Horse was about the ex-Forest and Scotland international footballer, Jim Baxter who played in the city around 1968-ish. 'Slim' Jim always known as a playboy and a bnig drinker got into an altercation with a couple of doormen when on a night out and took a beating. The chairman of Forest allegedly had to be called out in the early hours to come and collect him out of the gutter outside the pub. Jim's face was so badly smacked about that the Forest manager had him train in the afternoons when the other players had left for home so that they didn't have to see the state of him.

Getting back to the actual pub, closing that place as a public house was an absolute crime. You just can;t replace history like that ancient building had. Just what Nottingham needed eh though - more shops!

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There used to be a fellow in the entrance hall of a weekend evening selling Steak Butties (Really thin sliced reformed Canadian steaks) with a bit of onion for a quid

And as I have said elsewhere,you see that big metal and glass porch type thing that housed the statue of 'Pegasus' well I delivered that (I think it was made by Beechdale engineering)

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Not sure if anyone has mentioned this but The Flying Horse pub is now called The Flying Horse Arcade I think. The old yard down the middle of it is a walkway through several smallish shoplets, including a deli and a boutique. It's possible to walk straight through to St. Peter's Square?? near Marks and Spencer What a waste.

My favourite story about The Flying Horse was about the ex-Forest and Scotland international footballer, Jim Baxter who played in the city around 1968-ish. 'Slim' Jim always known as a playboy and a bnig drinker got into an altercation with a couple of doormen when on a night out and took a beating. The chairman of Forest allegedly had to be called out in the early hours to come and collect him out of the gutter outside the pub. Jim's face was so badly smacked about that the Forest manager had him train in the afternoons when the other players had left for home so that they didn't have to see the state of him.

Getting back to the actual pub, closing that place as a public house was an absolute crime. You just can;t replace history like that ancient building had. Just what Nottingham needed eh though - more shops!

No - the best story was the copper cauldrons that used to hang in the main walkway -from a beam as I recall. They started with a very small one and worked there way up to a really big one. After about half had disappeared they had the police in (disguised as punters but looking like police) to stop any more going. of course, they kept going. What I can't quite remember is if the were all finally knicked - does anyone else know?

it was just the best pub in town - well, except maybe for the Yates's wine lodge - does anyone remember the very old lady (possibly dead even then) on the piano and the girls with prices on their shoes - oh and the way the folks upstairs used to spit on the folks in the sawdust downstairs!

C

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No - the best story was the copper cauldrons that used to hang in the main walkway -from a beam as I recall. They started with a very small one and worked there way up to a really big one. After about half had disappeared they had the police in (disguised as punters but looking like police) to stop any more going. of course, they kept going. What I can't quite remember is if the were all finally knicked - does anyone else know?

it was just the best pub in town - well, except maybe for the Yates's wine lodge - does anyone remember the very old lady (possibly dead even then) on the piano and the girls with prices on their shoes - oh and the way the folks upstairs used to spit on the folks in the sawdust downstairs!

C

I popped my head around Yates' door last Friday night and scarpered straight to the Bell. I do have some happy memories of the place years ago though. Remember the Palm Court Trio that used to play upstairs? Saw somebody scale a pole to the balcony on at least three occasions.

What about the Yates sweet white wine? Then there was the separate little bar up the back alley where I used to drink double Yates brand brandies. How about the bar underneath at the fron of the building on Long Row? Can;t quite rmember what it was called but it was a bit of a quiet haven away from the madness upstairs.

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I seem to have had the same experience as you regarding Yates's,when I came over a couple of weeks ago we stuck our heads round the door and couldn't hear ourselves think and walked out to the Bank (Narrowly missing bumping into Radford Red on his way out)

Aussie white wine so called cause it was red ......eh? Daft as it sounds a few pubs round here sell it, and it's a local custom to have large one when 'Wetting the babies head@

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Ah, yes - Yates Wine Lodge!

Actually, the best story I know about Yates' came from my mum. During the war, she and her workmates went to Yates' to celebrate on of their mates engagement. They must have got pretty rowdy 'cause they all got thrown out!

Had you known my mum, you would have realised how totally out of character this was - I don't think I ever saw her drunk. However, whenever she gave us flak about our drinking habits we would always claim "but we never got thrown out of Yates'"!

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Now that would be the Australian sweet white wine - at 10p a shot, as I recall! !jumping!

But - it tasted awful - till the third one and then it kind of grew on you! We only drank it when we were almost totally broke.

I'm glad the Bell is still there! Brill pub. What about the Dog and Bear and the Fountain - both on Bridlesmith gate?

Even in the 70s they had a bouncer at the Fountain - a fine pub if you liked fighting!

Then along a littyle and left up to the Cross keys - is that still there too?

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