The Coatham Hotel with the Windsor Ballroom on the left

Supposedly the builder of the Coatham Hotel in the 1870's ran out of money and was unable to complete the left side of the hotel so the Windsor Ballroom was added later and built in a different - and cheaper - style.

The Windsor Ballroom hosted most events and held well supported weekly dances while in the cellar bar beneath, called The Grotto, a three piece band backed anyone prepared to get up and sing. I even got up a few times before I discovered (through a tape recorder) that I coudn't sing! I should have had a hint of this when Thelma Massey threw a pint of "black and tan" over me when I was on stage one night. To add insult to injury, it was my pint! The Grotto later became "Digby's" and later had another name change (but no live music) before the whole building was sold and became a "lifestyle" gymnasium.

Meanwhile The Coatham Hotel also went through several changes. Home of the Charles Amer Orchestra, Mr.Amer eventually bought the whole hotel complete with the Windsor Ballroom. Today the Coatham is known as Regency Mansions having been converted into apartments completely changing the internal layout. Whenever I go in there I feel disorientated and can only think "...the toilets were down a passage through that wall..."!

In the fifties and sixties The Coatham saw its heyday and was famously the home of the Redcar Jazz Club and hosted several big names. Even after the Jazz Club folded the hotel still occasionally attracted famous outfits. The last one I saw there was Ronnie Scott and his band put on by Redcar solicitor and jazz fan Peter Nixon. Really, the Jazz Club was too important to just be featured on these pages so it will have a website of its own. (See below)

In the early sixties when the gaming laws relaxed it also housed a Casino run by Sunderland entrepeneur Dick Smith and then opened a bar called Capone's which for a while gave employment to small groups of musicians.