 |
magazine / so07
 |
September/October 2007 issue |
|
|
|
My wild night with George
George Street in St. John's is as much fun as you can cram in before dawn
By Russell Wangersky with photography by Greg Locke
Rooms with a view
If you tire of St. John's nightlife, you
can always stretch your legs in the daylight.
One flight of stairs up the hill is
Duckworth Street, a main thoroughfare
and the start of a number of walking
tours, ranging from local architecture,
Newfoundland women in history and
a regular evening tour of noted
St. John's hauntings.
At the eastern end of Duckworth
, past bright
stores and tangles of restaurants, make
a left turn along King's Bridge Road
to the camel-backed Gower Street ,
with its dips and hills and rows of
shoulder-to-shoulder three-storey
Victorian houses.
Head uphill on Cathedral Street
(which becomes Garrison Hill and
then Bonaventure Avenue) and you'll
soon stub your toes on The Rooms,
Newfoundland's $40 million museum
complex, archives and art gallery.
The Rooms sits on the site of Fort
Townshend, an old British emplacement,
and boasts the best bird's-eye
view of the city to be found below
Signal Hill.
|
It's a miracle of concentration:
George Street in St. John's is just two
blocks long - a mere 393 strides -
but it boasts 41 bars and clubs and
another 40 or so in the immediate vicinity,
each with its own personality and
customer base.
At the low numbers, you'll find the
low-rent district. You can reach out and
touch the cold, slick stone of the old
post office, now a pool hall. There are a
couple of strip bars across the street and
some dance clubs and pickup bars on
the next block.
Farther down the street, the stage at
O'Reilly's Irish Newfoundland Pub is
a great place to hear traditional and
slightly bent Newfoundland classics.
Stay the whole night, and the lead singer
might come down and chat. There's
the Fat Cat Blues Bar for live blues,
and Lottie's Place, which prides itself
on being the White Russian capital
of Canada. And there's Sundance, a
bustling bar that stretches on forever,
with various wandering dance floors
and decks that can accommodate up
to 1,800 patrons.
George Street is the place where, on
any given night, you might find a bridal
party of 20 - short skirts and
tiaras - unloading themselves
from a stretch limo, each one
kissing the driver a lighthearted
goodbye, or knots of older people,
looking half-lost and a little
dazed, just out to hear some
tunes. And then there are the
conventioneers: on one warm
June night, I was on George
with the United Steelworkers,
the Newfoundland and
Labrador Association of Fire
Chiefs and Firefighters, an offshore
developers' conference
and the Society of St. Vincent
de Paul (they likely made it an early
night). Oh, and there were the teachers
- when school's out for the summer,
it's not just the kids who let loose.
For the rest of this story, visit your local newsstand or go to our store to buy this issue.
top
|
|
|
