The underground bar that carried a ‘dive’ reputation

EXPLORATIONS in to the past of Southport’s submerged seafront street – featured recently in the pages of the Visiter – brought back memories for Iris Whitaker.
Unfortunately they aren’t ones she cherishes.
The reader from Burnley Road in Ainsdale let us know her recollections of the old Victoria Hotel, which stood on the corner of Nevill Street and The Promenade. Nevill Street Bridge – the subway which formed the street’s lower level until it was covered up in 1903 – provided access to the vaults of the hotel.
Iris recalled that The Victoria – now replaced by flats – “had a very grand wrought iron veranda at the entrance�.

The long-gone Victoria Hotel is on the right of this postcard image of Nevill Street, circa 1910. Reader Iris Whitaker has far from glowing memories of its underground bar

She told LookBack: “Part of this hotel was a bar known locally as the ‘Vic Dive’ as it was underneath the hotel with the entrance in West Street.
“I can remember visiting this bar one night in the late 1950s with a group of friends.
“We had arranged a coach trip to the Blackpool Tower Ballroom and all agreed to meet up at the Vic Dive. We had booked a Gores Coach, as their garage was just across the road on the corner of Nevill Street and Bath Street this seemed an ideal meeting spot.
“From memory it was a very gloomy place – small, crowded, underground and airless; accessed by a narrow staircase which I think was on the outside of the building.
“This is my only memory of the place, as we all agreed at the time it was a place to be avoided, – a dive by name and a dive by nature.�

How the scene looks today, with the Victoria Hotel since replaced by a large block of flats

Send in any photos of your nights out in Southport past to LookBack, Southport Visiter, 26-32 Tulketh Street, Southport, Merseyside PR8 1BT, or email them to visiternews@soutportvisiter.co.uk
What are your memories of Southport venues of yesteryear which have now gone for good? Let us know below.