Frew's Bar

Had a lovely day out and lunch with Willie Frew today, our old friend and inspiration for the name of our dog, Frew. Dougie and I were there on the night his pub shut down - massive party - and he was presented with this hand scripted dedication. The pub had to close because it was one of the last standing in Dundee's Hawkhill, once famed for umpteen hostelries, and was to be bull dozed for future developments. As this shows, Willie catered for a very varied clientele as the pub sat beside the Whitehall Theatre, above the art college and university and round the corner from a haulage depot. The lorry drivers would regularly organise lifts for poverty stricken students all the way down the country to London and back again, passing them from lorry to lorry, to make sure they got to their destinations. Actors from the theatre might appeared in full make-up and costume. Students could often be found sharing a drink with their lecturers, lunch time as well as the evening and the bar closed at 10.00pm.
I fitted into several of the categories listed here - student / painter / artist / girlfriend. Does this list make the assumption though that women really weren't expected to fit any of the categories other than girlfriend? I don't think so, mind you, the pub certainly didn't have a ladies loo but both men and women seemed to work around this without any problem. Very changed days as far as pubs are concerned - much more sophisticated but often missing the magic that can happen by accident.