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Picture source: T C

The Coach & Horses was situated at 99 Heath Street and is now in residential use.

I was at University College School till 1973. The Coach was a regular haunt for pupils and old boys. I guess I first went there when I was 15 or 16 about 1971. It was run by Harry and his sister Doris. There was a bar billiard table in the back room. I went there with a bunch of friends every Friday night, when I was in town, for over ten years after I left school. We usually played darts. I think we stopped going when I was about 30. Harry died about then. They served Courage beer and unheated steak and kidney pies. The pot man was Frankie who I guess was in his fifties. He came from Oswaldtwistle in lancs and had trained as a priest but somehow not made it. He told me, more than once, he had a cassock in a trunk in his room. Harry took care of Frankie’s finances and every now and then, when Frankie got into trouble for shoplifting, he’d go and settle the fine. I saw someone mention Peter O’Toole. I do remember seeing him there once, with Kingsley Amis. Back then I thought we’d always be going there.

Murray Allison (June 2019)

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Name	Dates	Comments
Nik Henville	1959	The first ever drink I had bought for me was in there, by Peter O'Toole. He and my father were "the two Peters" and dad took me in one sunday for "a swift half" which meant the rest of the afternoon. I got a ginger beer and a copy of the Eagle - kept me quiet for a while..... Lovely gay couple ran it back in the fifties, had a couple of boxer dogs. There was a "garden" out back, a concrete yard where kids were tolerated, but to be allowed inside and sat on a proper pub seat, and actually asked "what are you having" at eight years old was something special back in 1959. Happy days...
Claudie Tailleur		TI have fond memories of running around the back yard with the other children circa 1970s. My father & Uncle (Peter & Roger) were Old Gowers from UCS - current & previous students filled the pub & Friday nights were like a party in a friends house. I loved Harry the Landlord & his sister - for years the pub was my first port of call when I reached London. After my father Peter died we all had a final drink at the Coach & Horses for old times.
David Hemstock	1979/1981	I remember Terry Jones and Michael Palin having a pint in the pub early one evening, leaning on the bar. Proud to say I resisted the tempatation to introduce myself to a fellow Sheffield Wednesday supporter (Mr P), but sadly one over-excited contigent took to mimicking subdued 'silly walks', rather disrespectfully.You know who you are.