Memories of theatres and old music halls ... A

TWO thirds of British drivers feel less confident on foreign roads and 20% are too scared to drive overseas, according to a TravelSupermarket survey.

Nearly half worry about breaking laws they don’t know about and 38% that they will damage a rental car.

I managed to break the law and damage the vehicle within 10 minutes of picking up a rental car in Paris the very first time I drove abroad in the 1960s. Whoops!

Perhaps it was the era of Peace, Man, but the car hire bloke who was in the passenger seat for an experimental drive round the block, gave a Gallic shrug, sorted out the slight bump, and suggested I be a bit more careful on my journey to the South of France. N old photograph of the Southgate Hotel that was demolished in the 1960s, fascinated 71-year-old Phil Bradley, who was born and bred in Huddersfield, but now lives in the East Riding.

He asked for information about what was, in its day, an impressive establishment.

Marlene Kelly was prompt to reply: “The Southgate was the first pub my mother and father (Frank and Lily Pearson) kept. We moved in, in 1956. It was also used for bed and breakfast.

“I remember most of the artists from The Palace Theatre stayed with us. We had Hylda Baker (‘she knows y’know’) stay one week. We were glad to see the back of her because she had two pet monkeys that caused havoc, racing up and down the curtains and on the seats of the pub.

“The good part about it was that we got free tickets to all the shows.”

Her parents, Frank and Lily, moved to The Zetland Arms on Queen Street South in 1960, the pub that later became the Amsterdam Bar.

Music hall and television star Hylda Baker was flamboyantly showbiz and renowned for keeping monkeys as pets. The Palace Theatre was famous on the vaudeville circuit.

It was built in 1909, rebuilt after a

I’m not sure if he expected I’d make it there and back but his smile implied: Do your best.

I have driven all over the world since without mishap and used to enjoy the challenge of the Arc de Triomphe roundabout where 12 roads meet and no prisoners are taken, in the same sense Lewis Hamilton must get a kick from the race to the first corner in a grand prix.

But 10 years ago I lost interest in adapting to foreign road conditions so I sympathise with and understand drivers who worry about getting it wrong.

No more foreign travel for me, where your brain hurts because they drive on the wrong side of the road, which is beyond the laws of nature and the British Empire.

I’ll stick to the UK and Ireland. fire in 1935, hosted stars such as Gracie Fields and George Formby, and continued producing live shows until the late 1950s.

It was the Continental Music Hall from 1959 to 1963, then became a popular bingo hall for an incredible 34 years until 1997.

Another change, to the Chicago Rock Cafe, and then nightclub Shout. It was converted to student apartments in 2014.

Somebody has suggested that the Continental Music Hall, a rather sophisticated cabaret bar, was one of the first in town to launch the era of chicken in a basket dining.

Memories, anybody? Of pub or theatre?

Music hall and television star Hylda Baker was flamboyantly showbiz and renowned for keeping monkeys as pets.