Gordon Harper recalls his time working at Derry's old City Hotel as he prepares to turn 90
When Gordon Harper arrives in dapper style to celebrate his 90th birthday with friends and dignitaries at the City Hotel next month, it will be a milestone in more ways than one. For Mr Harper is the last surviving former staff member from among those with whom he worked in the original City Hotel on Foyle Street, on the site of what is today the Peace Park. And the years have dimmed neither his wit, his wisdom nor his vivid recollections of his time there.
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00:00I moved in, out of the agrotown, into Derry in 1948.
00:051948.
00:06Yeah, and went to work at a place, a fish and chip shop called Selfridges.
00:11That's very well known.
00:16Where was Selfridges?
00:17In Jug Street.
00:18Right.
00:19Yeah.
00:24And then, you ready for the next thing?
00:27Yeah.
00:28I left Selfridges and went to work in a shoe shop called Pollocks in Strand Road.
00:33You've heard of it, haven't you?
00:34Yes.
00:39Strand Road.
00:41This is now the start of my catering side.
00:45Yeah.
00:46You've seen it on the...
00:48On the sheet here.
00:49All the people that are...
00:50I'd like you to mention those people because they're very important to me.
00:53Yes.
00:54You start off with Joyce.
00:57That was Bill House at McGee University.
01:00Right.
01:01McGee College then.
01:02And they housed, during the war, they housed the troops there.
01:07Right.
01:08And then it became a student residence.
01:11And you worked there in catering?
01:13Yeah, there was an advert for a houseboy and I applied for it and I got the job.
01:22And this was an English lady and when she heard that I had ambitions to work in a hotel,
01:30she trained me in, gave me basic training in waiting, which inspired me then.
01:36Now, I left there and went to work in Samuel's in...
01:40You're getting a lot of Burbage here, aren't you?
01:42Yeah, it's okay.
01:44But I can condense some of it.
01:47Yeah, you'll make a little rounded thing up.
01:50Yes, I have them.
01:52Samuel's Inn.
01:53It's Samuel's Inn.
02:01And the Mason Arms, is that the name of it?
02:03Now, what happened here was, I used to have to take the banking down Shipley Street down to the...
02:07The bank's still there in the corner, by the way.
02:09Right.
02:10And there's two little steps down in there and they had adverts and I put an advert in.
02:17A boy would like to be a... would like a waiting job.
02:20Right.
02:21Yeah, just as simple as that.
02:26And that's how you ended up then in...
02:28I went in there one day and she said, I've got something for you here.
02:31And Mrs Mason is like, around the corner.
02:34Mason's Arms is still there, by the way.
02:36Right.
02:37Yeah, in Butcher Street.
02:39Ah, I know it now.
02:40Yeah, but it was called Mason's for a long time, wasn't it?
02:43And Mrs Mason's grandson runs Cool Discs.
02:46Right, her grandson.
02:48That's the grandson that runs Cool Discs.
02:51Lee, is it?
02:52Sorry?
02:53Lee?
02:54Lee, yeah.
02:57I always wondered where the name Mason's came from.
03:00It wasn't called the Mason's Arms and I think it was just Mrs Mason.
03:04They were a lovely couple.
03:06And when she got to hear that I liked...
03:10When she got to hear that I liked the big hotels, I'd seen them in the films, you know.
03:15Yeah.
03:16Her husband, Fred Mason, who was a friend of Mr Tweed.
03:20That's when we come to the tragedy, by the way.
03:24He was a friend of the assistant manager, Mr Tweed.
03:28And he took me down for an interview.
03:32And I got started.
03:36And that's how it came about, really?
03:38That's how it came about, yes.
03:39That's how it came about.
03:40I like those people here at the Mason's because they're very important to me.
03:43Yeah.
03:44And what have I got after that now?
03:46And then we have...
03:47Oh, the City Hotel.
03:48Yeah, we have Mr Mann, is it?
03:50Oh yeah, Mr Mann was the manager.
03:53Mr Tweed was the assistant manager whose wife and young son Brian would later perish in that accident in Nutts Corner.
04:01Oh, right.
04:02We'll come to it anyway.
04:03Mmm.
04:07And was it daunting when you first went down to the City Hotel?
04:10I had a breakdown.
04:13They put me to bed.
04:16Yeah, it was the pressure because it was still being refurbished.
04:21Right.
04:22And they were moving doors here and there and everywhere.
04:25And I got lost. I got totally disoriented.
04:27I'd been a boy of 16.
04:28Yeah.
04:29I got totally disoriented.
04:30And there were men hammering and they were running about with this, that and the other.
04:36And I collapsed.
04:39It got me better again and I just went off from there quite happily.
04:42Mr Mann was marvellous.
04:44And the staff all round it brought me all sorts of things, you know.
04:48Sent out for the minister.
04:49Would you believe it?
04:51Really?
04:53That's how things were in those days.
04:55Yeah.
04:57And the doctor just sort of said I was a highly strong person and, you know, that I would get used to the environment.
05:05I didn't realise it was so much.
05:08It's probably not right.
05:09You see, you'll see later on, the kitchen, the chef was going mad because he called it,
05:14Here am I working in Hale's kitchen.
05:16Right.
05:17Until they got the new kitchen done, you know.
05:19That's how things were.
05:20Because he had to make do like with everything.
05:22Yeah.
05:23The dining room was upstairs.
05:24The dining room was upstairs.
05:26And you had to bring everything up in a lift.
05:28Right.
05:29Sometimes a lift, a little, an ordinary rope lift, you know.
05:32And some, a dummy waiter they called it.
05:35And that would break down and there'd be all sorts of panic and pandemonium.
05:39So you could see that I collapsed in the middle of it.
05:43And it's a totally new world to you that that was.
05:45A whole new world but a lovely world.
05:47Yes.
05:48Turned out to be a lovely world.
05:51And then.
05:52Some of these people are named by the way, chefs and all that.
05:55There might be, there might be descendants.
05:58You know, great-grandchildren.
05:59There could be.
06:00You never know.
06:01Yeah.
06:03I'm the only surviving member of the hotel.
06:06Right.
06:07You're the last one.
06:08Surviving.
06:11But there might be lots of.
06:13Children and grandchildren maybe.
06:14Well, if you look at Mrs. Duddy, that started in the cocktail bar.
06:19She's, her Duddy family are now, her husband is Lawrence.
06:25She's got Brendan Duddy.
06:27That's Brendan Duddy's mother would it be?
06:29Yes, that's her.
06:30The eldest one would be her son.
06:33And then the others were grandchildren all the way along.
06:36The whole Duddy dynasty, dynasty.
06:38Really started there?
06:40Yeah.
06:41You mentioned in your email as well about the.
06:47Have you got enough light there for Lincoln?
06:48Yeah, that's good.
06:50You mentioned in your email about the cocktail bar.
06:52Was that installed as part of the refurbishment?
06:54Yes, we did.
06:55They were getting well done with the bottom, with the ground floor.
07:00And they brought the restaurant down, which was opposite Madden's, the tobacconist's.
07:04Right.
07:05I did an article once for Waterside Motion.
07:08I called them class, and they were class.
07:10And they sent for me.
07:14They were lovely.
07:15They were lovely.
07:16And that faced them.
07:19And then they moved it round to the other side.
07:22The entrance with the swing door.
07:23Right.
07:24And that cost quite a lot of gold, the swing door there.
07:30Where was the cocktail bar?
07:32Then the cocktail, you come in the reception.
07:34And you went down the corridor.
07:37And at the bottom was, open up in the river, was the cocktail bar.
07:42Which had this lovely big mural of Derry.
07:45And Mrs. Dottie in her black dress, she was a lovely person.
07:50She used to listen to me talking about all my ambitions, about going to England,
07:54and working in the big hotels, which I did eventually.
08:00And so you were bitten by the hotel bug there?
08:05Once you get into it, it's a lovely, because you're meeting so many interesting people.
08:11You know, working in Pollock's shoe shop, women would come in and shoot all over the place.
08:15Oh, I'll think it over, you know, all that.
08:17But the people in catering, they were interesting people.
08:20I mean, I served the, what do they call them those days?
08:27I served a party of them on my own one afternoon.
08:30They left me a ten bob tip, which was only a bob less than my wages.
08:34Right, there you go.
08:37Meeting these sort of people, you know.
08:42And it's a very unique perspective as well, because you get to see the outside world come to you.
08:48Yeah, that's when I started to sort of grow up as well.
08:53Meeting people, having to adopt mannerisms, you know, how to be polite.
08:59And we were very, very strictly trained.
09:07And then, how long did you stay there? A couple of years or something?
09:11Oh yeah, sorry.
09:14I stayed there till, yes, August 1952.
09:18That was two years.
09:26And did you move to England straight after that?
09:28Move straight to England.
09:29I went to work then at a Piccadilly hotel.
09:33In London?
09:34Yes, I got that job straight away.
09:36And then, Mr Mann sent for me, had a letter, a telegram one day,
09:42please contact me at Greyhound Hotel, Croydon.
09:47I'd given him my address.
09:49This was the same Mr Mann from the city hotel?
09:51Yeah.
09:52He moved over and took over the Greyhound.
09:54All right.
09:55And Mr Tweed went with him.
09:58So they both went?
09:59Yeah, they both went.
10:01And this is where Mrs Tweed and Brian and I associated,
10:07because they came to spend Christmas at the hotel where her husband worked, Mr Tweed.
10:16And they were still living here where they lived and travelled over?
10:19And they travelled over.
10:20All right.
10:21They travelled by air, and on New Year's Eve night I'd serve drinks to Mr and Mrs Tweed.
10:32Yeah.
10:36And so, where did you live in London, in Croydon itself, or did you live in a hotel?
10:40I went to live with a sister, my eldest sister, while I worked at the Piccadilly hotel.
10:48And I left the address with Mr Mann.
10:51We were all asking for references, and he said to me,
10:54no, he said, I'm taking you, I want you to work for me over.
10:59Yeah, brilliant.
11:00And he bought me a tail suit, so after my training I was in my tail suit.
11:08And what was it like going to London itself? It must have been a bit of a culture shock?
11:13I will never forget coming up, I had a brother-in-law who took me out to show me the sights.
11:19And I remember coming up into Piccadilly Circus, up the steps,
11:24and I just couldn't believe it was like an MGM film.
11:29You could almost hear the music, you know.
11:32And Leicester Square was just along the way.
11:35And there was all these film stars that I had seen on the screen, and I was pointing at them.
11:40And I remember my brother-in-law saying, stop jaywalking, you'll be knocked out.
11:46It was green. And he showed me how to use the tube stations.
11:51That's the brother-in-law, by the way.
11:53It would be nice if you could mention him, because he was...
11:56What was his name?
12:00Ralph. Ralph Jefferson.
12:02It would be nice for his son to see his name there, if he could.
12:10Ralph Jefferson, my brother-in-law, took me around and showed me everything about London.
12:16And I never left the West End when I was off duty.
12:20And there was great shows then, too, was there?
12:22Oh, marvellous plays and shows and things. Not what you've got today.
12:28The cinemas in those days, the films, when they were not released around the country until the West End show was finished.
12:38So you got to see them first before anyone else did?
12:40I was up there to see them first, and I could boast to people, I've seen that.
12:43No matter what.
12:44I've seen that.
12:45Do you remember any ones in particular that kind of inspired your love of music and things like that?
12:50My love of music?
12:52Well, let's go back to just before I went to work at Dill House.
13:00I was homeless, so to speak.
13:02I had a little oil lamp, light it for me, put it on top of the piano,
13:07which was dangerous, really, the way I was thumping.
13:11And I sat there and I explored, without any knowledge at all of the keyboard.
13:18The keyboard is a geography.
13:20Unless you know that geography, you shouldn't really start playing.
13:24But I was just going all over the place.
13:27So you were completely self-taught then?
13:29Yeah, and then I just kept on teaching myself.
13:32From then on, if I got a piano, I would teach myself.
13:36And then I just kept on teaching myself.
13:38From then on, if I got a piano near me.
13:40I've got two pianos now in the other room, well covered.
13:45But that's how I got the love of music then.
13:49One of the first tunes I learned, and I'm going to be playing it at the City Hotel,
13:54was Fascination.
13:56And I kept on with this tune all the time as it was going round.
14:02And I eventually managed to get the skeleton part of it.
14:07Just through diligence, and you just kept on?
14:14I would say that that's how young people should learn.
14:18They should learn by going to the deep end and explore.
14:22And then get help. I didn't get any help.
14:26In those days, little boys didn't have music lessons.
14:30Look how many guitar players we've got now.
14:32Yeah, that's it.
14:35I suppose that's important that you learn.
14:37You're allowed to make mistakes, you allow yourself to make mistakes, isn't it?
14:40And then you learn through that.
14:42I love it when I make mistakes because that reminds me that,
14:45come on, we're all put together.
14:48I've been doing it now for...
14:49Then, if we go over to England,
14:52there came a time in 1964,
14:56what was more or less my last catering job.
15:02And one day, in a small hotel,
15:05I went into another room where there was a piano.
15:14Whereabouts?
15:15This is Staines, Middlesex.
15:17Staines, 1964.
15:20When a cousin reads that, she'll remember that.
15:25And was this a hotel as well?
15:27A small hotel, Railway Tavern, Staines.
15:30A small hotel.
15:35And you found a piano there?
15:37No, there was a piano in the other room with a small part.
15:39And I went in there and I was imitating Charlie Coons, which was very rhythmic.
15:44The manager came through, the young manager.
15:46Was that you playing? I said, yeah.
15:48Did you object? No, he said...
15:50And in those days, these places had
15:54a saloon bar, a lounge bar, a saloon bar,
15:58a public bar and a private bar.
16:00It's all one now, isn't it?
16:02Yeah.
16:04And he said, I'm putting you into the...
16:06You can see it on there, by the way.
16:0875, 15 box, 75 pencil performance.
16:11Wow.
16:12I'm putting you into the saloon bar.
16:15And he put all these notices up,
16:17telling there's got to be a pianist in the saloon bar.
16:21And I sat down, riveted.
16:24Were you nervous then?
16:26Oh, yes.
16:27First time in public, you see.
16:29Before, that was all private.
16:31And I'm sitting there, screwed to the...
16:33And then suddenly, south of the border came into my...
16:36Have you heard the tune?
16:38No.
16:39I may have heard the tune, but don't know the name.
16:41South of the border was very popular back in the 40s.
16:45And as a youngster, I picked it up
16:47and was always kind of singing it.
16:50And suddenly I started,
16:52and all these floods of songs came in afterwards.
16:55Right.
16:56Or popular sing-alongs.
16:58I obviously had picked them all up
17:00and put them into the storage in my memory.
17:03So you surprised yourself, didn't you?
17:05Yeah, this friend came up and said,
17:07Gordon, they're tapping their toes.
17:09Gordon, there's someone humming the song that you're playing.
17:12And of course, that was it.
17:13Then I was on a career as a pianist.
17:15Brilliant.
17:16So I went into the East...
17:17You'll see the East End pubs there, where I went into.
17:20I got on with an agency
17:21and they sent me to all these different pubs.
17:25I graduated from pubs.
17:27I didn't like restaurant work.
17:29Because people don't come to listen, they come to eat.
17:31Yeah.
17:32Yeah.
17:33I loved the pubs.
17:34Loved the sing-alongs.
17:35Loved the coffees.
17:36And the East End of London then?
17:37East End of London, yeah.
17:39And that must have been amazing.
17:40Fantastic.
17:42It was an exciting time too, the 60s.
17:43Well, there's a sad story there.
17:45I used to play...
17:46It was Harley and Mary.
17:49Real old cockneys.
17:51She was a Mackleson Starter and he was a Pint of Mildred, you know.
17:54And they used to come into the bar
17:56and they would stand at the door until I played
17:58to see them shuffle along.
18:00And then they would shuffle across the floor.
18:02Right.
18:03To be playing now.
18:05That's one of the humane things about it.
18:07Then once they didn't turn up,
18:10and I said, what's happened?
18:12The governor said...
18:13We called the manager governor then.
18:15The governor said,
18:17Harley has died.
18:19So the young men went round
18:22and got Mary,
18:23brought her round,
18:25stood at the door
18:26and blinked on her
18:27while I played to see them shuffle along.
18:29Oh, very beautiful.
18:30So she kept coming back after that on the Saturday.
18:33That was a little human part of it.
18:36Real sense of community then in those...
18:38The cockneys were marvellous.
18:39Yeah.
18:41There's another beautiful comedy one.
18:43Would you like that one?
18:44Yeah.
18:45Yeah.
18:46At the great...
18:48What's it called?
18:49The Swakely?
18:50Yeah, there again.
18:51They called it Hotel but it wasn't.
18:52They called it the Swakely Bar in Shepherd's Bush.
18:54Right.
18:57I was on stage
18:58and had a young drummer
19:00down on the floor
19:02just old as there by the mic.
19:04And although I didn't accompany people normally,
19:07this man came up and said,
19:09I want to sing.
19:10So I said, come on then.
19:12What is it?
19:13It was Delilah.
19:14Ah, very good.
19:15And when he got to the point where,
19:17forgive me,
19:18I can't take any more,
19:19he fell over.
19:21The drummer went hi-hat, cymbals,
19:24drumsticks, the lot of it.
19:26They're all over.
19:28He got so drunk he lost his balance.
19:31And that was the fun part.
19:33So you got two there,
19:34you got tragedy and you got fun.
19:36Yeah.
19:37That was the fun part.
19:38And it was everything in between,
19:39as I imagine, too.
19:41Ah, there was lots of things,
19:42you know, like
19:44you'd get someone,
19:46he's a lovely piano player,
19:49we want him next week and all this, you know.
19:51And it was going down because
19:52you know what I was doing?
19:53I was playing what people wanted.
19:55Yeah.
19:57Don't ever sit down
19:58and play a piano for yourself.
19:59You play it for the people.
20:01The people are what makes the music.
20:04And I came back in 2010.
20:08And I've settled here.
20:12And did you find it very different
20:13this time when you came back?
20:15It's a different place.
20:16Yeah.
20:17Derry is no longer the old Derry.
20:19It's no longer what the harp
20:21used to have.
20:22But it is coming along, you know,
20:24it's the safest place I can think to live.
20:27Yeah, it's very safe.
20:28It is the safest place.
20:30And my next job,
20:31it is the safest place.
20:32And my nephew's from Brighton,
20:35he rang me, he said,
20:36Derry looks lovely now.
20:38I said, yes, it is lovely.
20:39Have a look at the Peace Bridge
20:40where I'm not far from there.
20:41I live quite near there.
20:43So he wants to come over after the party.