Wal’s memoir explores his memories of growing up in Clifton. Here he tells us more about The Imp.
The Imp was a large Camerons pub on the corner of KN (now the Burton Green leg) and Crichton Avenue. Again, it suffered a bad reputation with (apparently) weekly fights. We youngsters, tucked up in bed by ‘fight’ time, were happily oblivious to these (if they ever occurred). It was in this pub that I enjoyed my first ever pint of ale (at 15yrs 9mths), bought for me by Eddie Mackie, brother-in-law of my best chum Graham Hardingham. I’ve enjoyed plenty more since!
It housed an out-sales entrance in a side door on the Ashton Avenue side and it was here that we would buy our bottles of pop and packets of crisps with a large choice of plain or plain - with the little blue packet of salt. I also remember being sent there to buy my dad cigarettes on Sundays when the usual outlets were shut. You could also buy these at the chippy and the chemist, surprisingly. There wasn’t an age limit for buying cigs in those days ‘as long as they were for an adult’. I wonder how often this ethic was abused.
Despite the Imp’s unseemly reputation, the barmen were always pristine, immaculately bedecked in a white tunic with the Cameron’s red lion logo emblazoned on the breast pocket. To add a further touch of class, they also presented themselves with a perfectly folded lined towel draped over their forearm.
It was shut for good in 1994 and spent the rest of the decade derelict. The story goes that the developers didn’t have much to demolish come the time as the local anti-socialites had already done a pretty good job of this themselves!