Two views of the Metropole Hotel on Bridge Road, Stockton.
Taken in January 1969 by Len Toulson. Courtesy of Neal Toulson.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Two views of the Metropole Hotel on Bridge Road, Stockton.
Taken in January 1969 by Len Toulson. Courtesy of Neal Toulson.
Picture Stockton Archive 
My original drinking hole, the cellar bar, remember Lil well, a good woman, always kind
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Mick Higgins…….not seen you in a long time, you where more a Talbot cellar bar man as I recall…along with Bob Padget, McNally, Brian Hoar…..
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The cellar bar in the Metropole, it was a good standard hotel, very welcoming. My mother, Lily Blakemore managed the Cellar bar and looked after the young people who frequented the place It was the start of the hippy years and a great time to go through our teenage years, the music that was coming out of the U.K. at the time was the best ever. It makes the music the kids are listening to today sound quite infantile.
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My Mum worked in the Metropole in the evenings during the late 1950s while I was left home alone listening to the Light Programme because we couldn’t afford a television. Am I right in thinking there was a bar at the side called The Buttery or something like that? I am sorry to hear from John Callender that it was demolished.
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My mums got beams and light fittings out of the Met in her living room, so she says, when they knocked it down they were rescued…
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I guess this is why the bar now on the site of the Metropole was renamed The Met @ Stockton! (former Walkers/Lasers etc.) Didn’t click till Maureen called it the Met! doh!
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Some great photos by Len, thanks for posting them Neal.
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My first job was in the Met. I loved eve hour. Great bar staff. Edna May, Bridde Case, and a very nice cleaner – Maggie Baldwin, who I thought the world of. I felt sorry for her, a good grafter on very little money. |I used to give her potatoes, eggs, bread etc. to take home.
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I have a story about Edna May. I worked there in 1973 till it closed as a trainee manager. I don’t really know what happened but the manager sacked her and I believe she claimed unfair dismissal. The manager instructed me to lie and back him up which I felt very guilty about, but hey I was only 17… I met her years later when we both worked for Incognito nite clubs, she never forgave meb but I can’t blame her. She lost. She was an excellent barmaid.
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I never realised there was once a street full of houses behind the Metropole.
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First pub I ever went in down the town. I seem to remember there were lots of different bars in different rooms. I was only about 15 or 16 but my mate was older and after being turned down in a couple of the bars we eventually found one that would serve us so I hid in a corner somewhere while he bought the drinks. We never got a second one though as we were spotted by someone who knew we were not old enough and escorted out. Never went in again as by the time I was of drinking age I think it had been demolished.
John Callender.
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I remember it well the Blue Room at the Met. We often went in like you say, I was underage also, nobody bothered us. Does anyone remember the Astoria on a friday night? We used to get the O BUS to boro and walk back across the wilderness home, happy days
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