Author Topic: Orchid ballroom Purley  (Read 9952 times)

Col

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Orchid ballroom Purley
« on: Nov 10, 2016, 12:41:04 AM »
I remember the Orchid at Purley.Ted Heath used to play there (Jiving strictly in the corner) Hot Toddy was my favourite. Do you come here often was the opening line, followed by where do you live. You got to get yourself back if you took her home don't forget. Course the nurses in quarters were always great to meet. Ah happy days!

zoony

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Re: Orchid ballroom Purley
« Reply #1 on: Nov 10, 2016, 12:46:00 AM »
Hi Col. I lived in nurses quarters for a while in the mid-6o's and my experience of those girls was very different...Very few or none were slags or slappers plus the homes were well overseen at all hours. You must have had a cunning plan to weasel your way in there mate. ::)
"Listen to the wind, it cleans the mind."

"Never use money to measure wealth, son"

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sparky

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Re: Orchid ballroom Purley
« Reply #2 on: Nov 10, 2016, 09:05:05 AM »
Zoony, Not all nurses homes were well overseen, in the 60s I had a couple of weeks electrical work in a home in Enfield, and it was not unusual when starting work about
 8 AM, to see a bloke scurrying down the corridor and out via the fire escape.

Scrumpy

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Re: Orchid ballroom Purley
« Reply #3 on: Nov 10, 2016, 05:41:43 PM »
I just had to answer this post... The Orchid Ballroom is close to my heart.. Me and my mate Connie would go there on a Friday or Saturday depending what our rota was at The Majestic Cinema in Reigate. We loved it ..The staircase that led down to the dance hall..The big crystal ball light that spun slowly round.. The Teddy Boys standing in groups smoking and eyeing the talent up..
We used to rush out like Cinderella at the ball hoping to catch the last bus home.. If we missed it ,we hitchhiked..
Sam,my husband, was a Fire Officer at Reigate..The nurses home was a short distance away.. I remember hearing about what they got up to...
Welcome Col.
Everything will be alright in the end, and if it’s not alright, its not the end.

Alfred

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Re: Orchid ballroom Purley
« Reply #4 on: Nov 10, 2016, 06:28:53 PM »
Welcome to the forum Col. 

forrestgumph

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Re: Orchid ballroom Purley
« Reply #5 on: Nov 10, 2016, 08:14:16 PM »
I lived in Dulwich and would go to the Orchid with my friends and my brother who always made sure I got home safely!  Later we actually bought a house in the road directly behind the Orchid and at this stage it was called Cinderella's but still a dance venue, mind you I hated it when the people came out on a Saturday night because they had over indulged in the booze and could be heard suffering from the effects after midnight, none of the ladies sadly sounded like Cinderella and the carriages were not a nice as hers either! :o

I passed there a short while ago and it is now a gym I believe and the Fire Station has been extended right back, also the old town hall was up for auction, but had a preservation order on it I believe so the developers are going to be forced to keep the exterior which I for one am pleased about. ;D

Col

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Re: Orchid ballroom Purley
« Reply #6 on: Nov 11, 2016, 12:08:13 AM »
Thanks guys for your replies. I'm referring to 1951/2 before my conscription.
Everybody had charcoal gray suits. Almost like being in the Army before your time. All the Gals used to be on one wall,while we were on the opposite side or standing round the band. Then with trepidation y'all crossed the floor to ask if they'd like to dance. If you were cool (to use the present vernacular) y'all would say "you dancing"to which she would reply " you asking",and you'd know you were in.
This was one of the few ways y'all could meet someone of the other sex.
With regards to the Nurses in those days, they didn't wear trousers.all of them had  black stockings ala Benny Hill. Even at my advanced age I'm glad to say the imagination is still working. Sorry to ramble on. Again, Ah happy days

zoony

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Re: Orchid ballroom Purley
« Reply #7 on: Nov 11, 2016, 12:40:53 AM »
Interesting use of "y'all" Col. When I trained as a nurse, early-mid 60's, most of my male contemporaries, what few there were, were mostly gay men. It was in the days before tights were common and I was the only male student nurse, not only in my class of 26 or so, but in the 1200-bed teaching hospital I trained at, one of only two as far as I know..I had an enormous amount of respect for my fellow student nurses, we worked bloody hard, but one would have to be brain-dead to not notice their allure. (not to mention the stockings held up by proper sussie belts, glimpsed regularly by male patients which, in my opinion, contributed to their recovery...) The fatal flaw being that these girls often had their eyes on higher prizes. Like Drs, firemen and policemen. NOT other student nurses. I dated one or two but my sweetest memory is of a young lady doctor. We just 'got on'. Used to play scrabble late into the night when all was peaceful. (Loved nights!) Anyway, that's not my point..Something like "The Orchid Ballroom" wasn't really available up here. You took your date to The Sound Of Music or some such. ( I saw that film about 6 times)..and enjoyed a coffee, if that was all there was on offer, together afterwards. Different memories, similar times. I'd bet most of us enjoyed what the 60s allowed us.
"Listen to the wind, it cleans the mind."

"Never use money to measure wealth, son"

                                           cowboy wisdom.

Johned

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Re: Orchid ballroom Purley
« Reply #8 on: Jan 11, 2017, 07:01:39 PM »
Despite being a "Big Band" devotee, I am a lousy dancer and in the fifties usually was pretty good at propping up the licensed bar!  Far from home whilst in the army over sixty years ago, I got talking to an attractive girl at an All Ranks Dance.  We exchanged snippets of information about one another and by one of those thousand to one coincidences found our respective families were related.  Seen her once since at a family wedding.  Strange or what?

Col

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Re: Orchid ballroom Purley
« Reply #9 on: Jan 11, 2017, 09:18:10 PM »
Hi Johned,I to was in the army and far from home.60 years ago.Stationed up in the new territories in Hong Kong. Gawd we both must be ancient.Im 82,how about you? The body ain't so good but we must keep the mind going.
My number was 22813123. Do I need to get some in?

Johned

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Re: Orchid ballroom Purley
« Reply #10 on: Jan 12, 2017, 11:43:30 AM »

I cannot compare my inglorious inactive service with your active service Col in Hong Kong.  Luck of the draw I suppose.  We were trained up to go on draft to Korea but the war fizzled out and I don't think they quite knew what to do with us.  Most went to BAOR but they found me a job in the unit Orderly Room at the Leicesters' Depot.My late uncle, a 14th Army ex Burma Chindit once told me that was the best place in the army as you were in the warm with mugs of tea always on hand and to an extent, I guess he was right.
My number was 22874609 and it is funny how the mind works.  I typed nominal rolls of names with their numbers so many times that even now although I have forgotten the faces I can still recall the regimental numbers and names, daft or what?  What I got out of the NS experience I don't know.  The army taught me to "touch" type and they issued me a truck and motorbike license in due course which was very useful obviously in civvy life.  I stayed in the TA and reserve army for many years and used to spend annual camps training with the regular army mainly in Europe.  I remember some really nice guys in my service but there were a good few nutters and social misfits as well.  I sometimes wonder if they are still extant and what they did with their lives?  I also am 82 and if I have achieved nothing else much, I have surpassed my poor old dad and both grandads who all died at 72!  Bless them.





zoony

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Re: Orchid ballroom Purley
« Reply #11 on: Jan 12, 2017, 11:54:49 AM »
Respect to you sweats..I'm a relative bairn at 24044090 RA/RAMC. Very much enjoyed my training, disliked the bullying.
"Listen to the wind, it cleans the mind."

"Never use money to measure wealth, son"

                                           cowboy wisdom.

Johned

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Re: Orchid ballroom Purley
« Reply #12 on: Jan 12, 2017, 11:58:37 AM »
All this rambling about our army days Col takes us away from the Orchid ballroom Purley of which, I confess to have no knowledge. However I must say one of the highlights of my big band experiences was back in 1954 when in the army we were given some free tickets to Ted Heath's appearance at the De Montfort Hall, Leicester.  Supported by Dickie Valentine, Denis Lotis, Lita Roza and Eve Boswell it was a fantastic night.  I don't know how everyone was crowded in, today H & S would have a fit!  They were sitting in the aisles, standing at the back, any old where.  I could never understand how in such a short space of a few years, the big bands had all but gone to be replaced by spotty youths with little talent strumming guitars.  Thanks to folk like Syd Lawrence, the bands did not quite die completely (he did, poor old Syd) but Chris Dean brings them out and revives them occasionally.

Sheila

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Re: Orchid ballroom Purley
« Reply #13 on: Jan 12, 2017, 12:05:51 PM »
My cousin was in the Syd Lawrence orchestra for a while Johned and was still a professional musician (in his seventies) until recently.  I do have memories from when I was a child and he was learning to play the saxaphone and clarinet.  It wasn't good!

Johned

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Re: Orchid ballroom Purley
« Reply #14 on: Jan 12, 2017, 01:18:45 PM »
I wish I could boast of a distinguished connection like yours Sheila.  A cousin who played for the great Syd Lawrence, he must have some stories to tell.  I had an old friend who played clarinet with some of the top flight orchestras and he ended up in Hollywood working on film music arrangements.  An odd career progression in his case.  Showed no apparent musical interest until his late teens, then after his RAF service entered the Royal College of Music and never really looked back.