Found in old disco, snapshot of the 80s in a long-lost purse
Now top lawyer says: Give me my 12p back!
IT’S a little reminder of how much life has changed in the last 30 years.
A purse that lay behind a dusty radiator at a Manchester nightclub since the 1980s has been unearthed by workmen refurbishing the building.
In it was 12p, a black and white photo ID of young woman with a bob haircut and a crimped top, and a cheque card for the Midland Bank.
Determined to locate Sarah Dale, the woman on the ID, the club appealed for her to get in touch. Yesterday it emerged that Miss Dale, originally from Thelwall, near Warrington, Cheshire, is now 51 and a top lawyer, living 200 miles away in Morden, south-west London.
She admitted being a regular visitor to the Ritz nightclub in the 1980s, adding: ‘It’s me.’
She joked: ‘It’s a nice story and now I want my 12p back!’
Miss Dale was a hard-up law student when she misplaced her brown leather wallet during a night out at The Ritz in the 1980s. Bemoaning her ‘bad hair,’ Miss Dale said she was not surprised there was just 12p inside the purse because, back then, she lived on a £10 a week.
She said the discovery of the purse brought back happy memories of dancing at the Ritz to eighties hits from Bananarama on the beersoaked ‘ spongy floor’ and drinking beer at 70p a pint.
‘We used to go to Ritz all the time,’ she told Mail Online. ‘We went there quite a few times but you’d think I would remember something like having my wallet taken, but I don’t.’ As well as the 12p and the ID, the purse contained a card from the Midland Bank – now HSBC – and a Cheshire Libraries and Museums card, a University of Manchester Whitworth Park Residents’ Association card from 1985/86 and a payslip.
Miss Dale admitted she was slightly disappointed that her wallet contained a library pass and a residents’ association card because ‘it’s not very rock n’ roll’. She added: ‘It doesn’t surprise me there was only 12p in it, I was a hard up student in those days! If there was only a few pence left I must have lost it at the end of the night.’ In 1985 – the year A- ha released Take On Me and Phil Collins brought out Sussudio – a four- bedroom detached house could be bought for £45,000, and a decent bottle of wine could be had for £2. The Ritz, which became a Grade II listed building in 1994, has hosted Frank Sinatra, the Beatles and the Stone Roses in its 90-year history. Chris Mann, bar manager, said: ‘It’s coming up to our 90th birthday but this wallet has been here for about 30 years, so we just figured it might be nice to reunite it with its owner.’