Back in the day: Pre-performance photo?

Last Friday’s photo — The Empire Club

The influx of memories stirred by last week’s photo was very educating! Steve Kendell, Margaret Lines, E. Cann, Margaret Burgess, Kimberley Miller, and Ellen Coelho helped to identify the popular Queen Street location.

The group of businesses, known en masse as ‘The Jungle Room’ to many it seems, stood where Windsor Place is now, across from KFC. The gentleman in the photo is Mr. Eric Harvey, who was simply known as ‘Harvey’ to patrons.

Steve Kendell, providing some in-depth history, said that many years prior to this photo, the building was known as the Windsor Hotel, and had a nightclub called the Jungle Room.

When the hotel closed, it was converted into the businesses in the photo;

• The Empire Club was a ‘key club’, a private room that required membership to access the inner sanctum;

• The Barracuda Lounge, (E. Cann said this was run by Fred Butterfield)

• The Jungle Room, in the same location as the old hotel’s Jungle Room;

• The Hofbrau Restaurant, serving German food a la carte (apparently where the Speciality Cinema is now, according to Ellen Coelho);

• Gigi’s, a garden bar at the back of the building

E. Cann also let us know that The Jungle Room had a local limbo show and a fellow who walked on broken glass (from beer bottles). 

Do you have any unusual, old photos to share? E-mail Photo Editor Gary Skelton: [email protected]. Or call him on 278-1880

Pre-performance? What’s going on in this photo? Where and roughly when was it taken and do you recognize any of the people featured? What can you tell us? And do you have any unusual, old photos to share?

E-mail Photo Editor Gary Skelton: [email protected]. Or call him on 278-1880 

*Photo courtesy of Scott Stallard