Pubs with an escape route.

[John Albert Evans]

I was on tankers in the late 1950s and we used to call at a place called Bluff , South Island NZ.
There wasnt a lot there at that time ,I think it was just one road.
The pubs all closed at 6.00pm. and we all left by the front door and walked around the back and into the pub via the back door.
Sometimes the Police car came down the main street and saw everywhere was locked up and then leave.
There was little doubt that he knew we were all inside.
Happy times

John Albert Evans

[Ivan Cloherty]

Hi John

Spent 30 days in Bluff in early 1956, seemed like 30 years !, it was probably one of the only ports in NZ where nobody jumped ship-- not a lot to do there.......... not when you'd been used to the West coast of South America!!!!!!!!!!

Think they've got more than one road now

Ivan

[happy daze john in oz]

Sounds familiar Vernon, there was a nother pub/club opposite the Criterion, not sure of the name. But the Criterion was the one with the customs post, give the customs guy a couple of pairs of kippers and you could take anything through. Could have been at the begining of Point road but was in the old dock area. Lady friend here from Jo'burgh but brought up in Durban tells me she had some memories of it.

[Doc Vernon]

Hi John
This is a bit of a Mystery to me,as my Wife also was Born and Bred in Durbs and her Dad was on the Ships too,we spoke many times about that Area,and i cannot recall a Pub of that name there!
I know there was a Customs House at the Dock Gates and possibly that was called Criterion for some reason,but the only real Criterion Hotel was as i said near the end of West Steet (In West Street) but where the Point road started!
If you kept on down West Street you came to the end and on the left not too far from the Criterion (which was on the right)was the Beach Hotel,and downstairs was the Cockney pride Bar (this was of course later on) remember how we used to have a go at Drinking the Yard of Ale! Upmhhhh!!!
It definately wasnt anything at all to do woth the Customs,too far away from the Docks !
But hey mate,if others remember it,well then it must have existed!
But i am very very puzzled!
Yes the other Pub opposite that place was indeed the Alexandra Hotel,and most of us used to go there for a quick Drink before Entering the Smugglers!
In fact a load of us used that place to buy our Bottles to rake in the Smuggies! haha! Cheaper that was ,as the Drinks in the Smuggies were a lot more expensive!
But the Booze had to be (excuse the pun) Smuggled in!
Cheers

[happy daze john in oz]

Tis indeed a mystery mate, but I can assure you it existed. The problem with it was that many of the guys never ever got into town. Off the ship, through the custom post, into the bar for a beer and never got out.

[Doc Vernon]

Wel John at least i can agree with you on that score mate!
Not that as i said i remember that place,but a few times i got as far s the Smugglers,and that was that,rolled back to the Ship! haha!

Cheers

Brings back the memory of a Girl i met near the Smuggies,She lived just near the back of the place , well to cut it short i used a very Pommy accent (as she was of course SAfrican) so as i could get a date with her!
Worked like a charm,and Bingo! She took me home !
I had said i came from Southampton! Chancers we were at times,but it worked! haha

[happy daze john in oz]

Sat in the Criterion one night talking with a local. He knew a few of the lads and we were having a good time when out of the blue he told me there was a young girl over in the other side of the room who had asked him if she could take me home to bed!!! Being the gentleman I was I could hardly refuse. Seduced by what turned out to be an English girl from Surrey, name of Gwen, who had been brought out to live in Durban by her family some years previous.

[Doc Vernon]

H John
Well this article now solves my delimma on the Pubs etc!

Headline: Pirate's den gets new neighbours
Mention the name Smugglers' Inn to any red-blooded Durbanite and it is likely to raise a smile, an eyebrow or a chuckle - but it will definitely provoke a response.

Affectionately known as Smuggies, it was never far from the headlines, mostly for the wrong reasons because it first opened its doors in the early 1960s in Durban's unofficial red-light district.

Now just part of the derelict sky-line waiting for much mooted development, Smuggies is a ghost of its former self. If the walls of the Alexandra Hotel (in which Smuggies is situated) could speak, the stories will beat the best B-grade Hollywood movies or soap-opera plot lines.

Smuggies was first housed in the Criterion Hotel - a building with its own shady past. Built in 1856, the Criterion was once the world's only hotel to have a customs gate and immigration official to prevent smuggling.

It is likely that this is where the name Smuggies comes from. As with most harbour towns, Durban has had its share of characters that worked at, or frequented, the watering holes. As writer Lawrence Green recalls in his book Harbours of Memory, Point Road hotels had some of the "most talkative and wittiest parrots of all time".

And it was not just parrots who drank rum and could swear in five languages that made for many a tall story, but also the feisty barmaids, including Hellcat Peggy, who reportedly dealt with unruly customers by dragging them out of the bar by the ear - with her teeth. Some ears got bitten off in the process and, according to sailor lore, they ended up in a jar behind the bar as a warning to others.

Hellcat Peggy and the parrots might have disappeared, but Point continued to be the unofficial red- light district in Durban. Smugglers' Inn was opened in 1962 at the Criterion Hotel by Cecil Grieve. It soon built up a reputation, but a mere three years later, Smuggies had to vacate the property because the Criterion was to be demolished.

However, Smugglers' Inn continued to be a favourite drinking spot when it re-opened only a few metres from its original home. The new Smuggies moved to the Alexandra Hotel and had been "re-invented" several times. From music venue to strip club and most notably as an "executive gentlemen's club".

In the late 1980s the "who's who" in Durban was rocked when some top professionals were named as members of the Playmates Executive Club that was operating from Smugglers' Inn. At the time the owner, Grant Grieve, and his mother, Carol, were charged with operating a brothel from the premises.

Despite protests, the names of the 100 or so men were made public in court and published in the local media. The names on the list included accountants, attorneys and several high-profile Durban professionals. The Grieves were later acquitted, but it took a lot longer for some of the people involved to forget.

Smuggies itself quietly disappeared from the social scene, with just the name on the hotel a reminder of its hey-day. While there will never be another Smuggies, it is not out for the count.

With new development in the Point area, the Alexandra Hotel will be given a new, and respectable, lease on life. It will also boast a small gallery and a new and improved Smugglers' Inn.


Cheers

However ??

Smugglers' Inn was opened in 1962 at the Criterion Hotel by Cecil Grieve. It soon built up a reputation, but a mere three years later, Smuggies had to vacate the property because the Criterion was to be demolished.


The above statement now baffles me or am i reading it wrong!
It says Smuggies was opened in 62 but i was going there in 58/9 and before which was was the one on the opposite sidfe of the Point Road!? I know for sure i am not dreaming!
And the name of the Hotel i think ws the Alexandra! As you say theCriterion was on the Dock side,must have been to be able to house the Customs! ???????????????Grrrrr!! How baffling!!
Cheers
Do any of the others recall the Smuggies on the opposite side to the Docks! around the 1958 mark??
Please help haha!

[happy daze john in oz]

Certainly a bit of a mystery mate. But yes the customs gate was there in 1961 and I knew it until about 1963when the UCL moved to the new berth up town. Now we called that pub the Criterion, but maybe it was just a name used and the pub had some other name. As I say I do recall another one on the opposite side of there road. From the bottom of the gangway to the customs post would have been about 75 meters as the dock was very wide there as I recall. I also have some vague recollections of a café or restaurant of sorts close by the pub on the other side of the road.

[bill roberts]

Hi Colin the Grapes is still a pub it was all done up last year and the oriental is flates All the best Bill. BE GOOD.THE GRAPES - My Photo Gallery