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Home > Devon > Plymouth > The Antelope

The Antelope

Date of photo: 1984

Picture source: Lee


 
The Antelope was situated on Union Street.
 
Remember being at Devonport High for Boys with a young Shaddick whose father was licensee of The Antelope in Union St. Plymouth. The pub certainly had a reputation. I recall as an adult walking past it one night to be greeted by a young woman looking through a window soliciting me as a prospective client: navy not in port perhaps!
Raymond Milford (August 2019)
 
When I arrived at Plymouth School of Navigation as a Deck Apprentice in 1968, we were sternly warned to stay away from the “An-tellopy” (as it was always pronounced), as it would place us in breach of our Apprentice's Indentures, by which we had bound ourselves to “…avoid visiting houses of ill-repute”. Which “The An-tellopy” most certainly was! The car park out the back was always carpeted with condoms!
On Sunday evenings, BBC used to have a program named “Meeting Point”, which was about religious and sociological themes. We used to watch it, because in those far-off days, there was nothing else to watch! One evening, the program was about Union Street, and its social problems. The TV camera was set up opposite “The An-tellopy” at Closing Time.
A drunken figure staggered out of the pub, across the pavement, grabbed hold of a lamp-post to steady himself, and vomitted prodigious quantities of beer into the gutter. The camera zoomed in, which revealed that the Prodigious Vomitter was one of the Senior Apprentices!!
Next morning, we Apprentices were mustered on the Parade Square for the Flag-Raising Ceremony.
completed our Drill Instructor, Chief Petty Officer Tozer bellowed “PARAAAAAAADE. FOR HINSPECTION, OPEN ORDER, MARCH!
The front rank stepped forward; the rear rank steppped back. C.P.O. Tozer, accompanied by the Cadet Captain began to inspect the ranks of Apprentices. When he reached the Senior Apprentice who had been seen vomitting outside the “An-tellopy”, C.P.O. Tozer came to a halt, staring at the Apprentice. The atmosphere was electric. The silence went on and on. At last, C.P.O. Tozer growled “And ‘ow’s our f*cking film-star this morning!”
Alan Knight (April 2021)
 

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