Cheltenham Nightspots - 7

The Dobells pub, at 24 Promenade, is the sort of place that I call a proper pub. It has wooden floors and furniture, lots of brass fittings, serves real ale and has good pub grub, like bangers & mash and roast beef & Yorkshire pud. The pub has been there as long as I can remember and always seems busy. It has a lively atmosphere, with a good mix of people. I highly recommend it for a pint and a bite to eat!

Cheltenham Nightspots - 6

O'Neill's is one of the only Irish pubs in Cheltenham and is a fantastic place to go for a few pints on St Patrick's Day. It was the other choice for my post that day but I settled on a Guinness Toucan instead! The pub is on Montpellier Walk and takes advantage of the wide pavement for extra tables, on warm summer evenings the place has a huge crowd outside. O'Neill's is part of a chain of pubs named after the number one Irish jockey Jon Jo O'Neill. He is now a racing horse trainer and I should imagine he gets a good renumeration package for the use of his name!

Cheltenham Nightspots - 5

This post is especially for Glenn of http://torundailyphoto.blogspot.com/ who mentioned this bar in his comment last week. I should imagine it has changed a bit since he last went but the same crowd go there and the music is the same. I used to go there often with friends for the Saturday night Pop and Chart music on the ground floor. The rest of the time the 2 Pigs is known for Rock and Indie music. The people that dance the night away there are a mixed bunch but the atmosphere is always friendly and relaxed. And at only a couple of quid to get in, you can't go wrong!

Cheltenham Nightspots - 4

Continuing the series of the towns bars, clubs and pubs here is The Night Owl. This club, on the High Street, is not the sort of place that plays my kind of music, so I've never been inside but I wanted to tell you something about it. Not knowing anything about it I checked out their website http://www.nightowlclub.co.uk/ and I was so suprised by the history of the club behind the door that the info below is taken from their website :-

"Going back to the early 60s when it all started as a milk bar frequented by the mods on their scooters. Egg & Bacon was the local hang out for the young and restless of Cheltenham. For a while it was a dancehall under the name SPA Lounge. In the late 60s it changed incarnation again. This time the venue was called Blue Moon. It became the premiere circuit venue for the Gloucestershire area. Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Mott The Hoople, Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart to name but a few, played up the stairs in the corner stage. The Four Tops played their very first UK show at the Blue Moon, which it remained to be during most of the 70s.
Then in the early 80s the club changed management yet again and turned in to The Night Owl. What started with the scooters and the mods back in the early years, now turned in to a dedicated bikers and rock venue.
Another name change to Mistys didn’t mean it changed genre. Still a rock club up until 1996 when it turned in to The Attic which is when Stuart “Stu” Challoner got involved. Still focusing on rock music, with up and coming bands playing live, The Attic featured artists such as Stereophonics and Feeder."

Now the club, once again The Night Owl, is undergoing a refurbishment and has a promising future. Who knows whether todays unknown rock bands featured here will become as famous as some of those that played The Night Owl in the past? Lets hope so.

Cheltenham Nightspots - 3

This nightclub will always be "Time" to me. Thats what it was called until a couple of years ago, when it changed to Moda, and its where I normally ended up on a Friday night. Friday night was the best night - it was Cheese Night (70's, 80's & 90's disco and cheesey songs!) - and I had many a good, and drunken, time with my friends. It used to be held in the ground floor bar and you had to wait upstairs until they opened the doors at 11pm to the downstairs area (oh, the anticipation!). The Cheese Night is now held on the middle floor and just isn't quite the same, I haven't been for a while now as everybody seemed to be getting younger (it could be me getting older I suppose!) and I missed the sticky floor! Since the make over its Cheltenhams largest club, spread over three floors, but its not exactly huge. The owners of Moda are in the planning stage of accquirring the former Odeon Cinema to transform it into the new largest club in town, though the police have objected, so we'll see what happens. I bet this even newer venue won't have sticky floors!

Cheltenham Nightspots - 2

Continuing my series of bars, pubs and clubs in Cheltenham, this is the 21 Club in Regent Street. As you can see its in the basement, the basement of a wedding dress shop! I am pretty sure the two are not related. I've never been in this club but I guess its quite small inside and, as the sign on the gate says, serves cocktails. I think I'll have to do some research and pay the club a visit. And try some cocktails (for research purposes only).

Cheltenham Nightspots - 1

Cheltenham has a relatively small town centre with one of the countries highest number of bars, pubs and clubs in a square mile town centre. This picture starts a series of photos of Cheltenhams nightspots.
The entrance to Boogie Lounge is just a small door tucked in amongst the regency buildings opposite the Town Hall but opens into a large room with a bar and dance floor. Like many of the towns nightspots the name is new but the venue the same. Boogie Lounge has been known as Bohemia and the Fish and Fiddle, that's the last time I went (quite awhile ago), when they used to have an open mic night. The music was always varied and the singing talent different!