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When I lived in Hong Kong, I not only learned to adjust my vocabulary to British English, but also learned a slew of foreign words adopted into the English language there.
Like godown. It’s a Malay word for warehouse, preferably dock-side. And shroff, which comes from the Hindi/Urdu/Arabic word for money changer. Then there’s amah, a Portuguese word for wet nurse, which in Hong Kong translates into nanny. Breastfeeding isn’t involved.
When I think of godown, I think of the popular expat hangout in Hong Kong. In this 1972 tourist book, the Godown boasts that:
It is the first place in town which had European secretaries serving on tables and is really worth a visit.
I’m sure it was.
Rumor has it that the man in the bottom photo was the Godown’s owner, Bill Nash. Years later the Godown moved across the harbor to Hong Kong Island.
It’s a standard expat bar, and no longer a Chelsea-type restaurant with a concise, but first-class menu.
I used to regularly visit the Godown from 82 to 87 on a Wednesday to enjoy the VJB. I lived in Singapore but we had an office in the Hopewell Centre do it was an easy choice. The drummer was Keith Vitty in those days and I bought an audio cassette of the band. The cassette is long gone but I wondered if there is any music I can get hold of from those days?
I remember the GoDown very well as I played the piano with the Jazz band that played on the Wednesday evenings. I was there 1972-1973. On one famous occasion I was playing away, just vamping and minding my own business when I noticed a few familiar looking guys walk in and past me into the main part of the club and bar area. It was only when the last one came in with a great big Souzaphone round his neck that I realised it was the Temperance Seven who were playing at the Mandarin Hotel over the Christmas holiday period. One of them came out with the immortal line – ” Do you mind if we join in for a jam session?” The rest is history – one of the best nights fun and crazy jazz I can ever remember. Great bunch of guys.
Mike Parker (recently retired Professor of Surgery – then a medical student on secondment in Hong Kong for a few months)
Wish I had kept a picture of the GoDown and Carol Alan who was the manageress at the time.
This is a wonderful story! That’s so great you played jazz piano while you were in medical school and could train in Hong Kong for a few months!
I worked at The Star newspaper during 1975 and spent many nights hanging out at the Godown on Kowloon side. Does anyone remember the manager, Helen Birmingham? I’m trying to get in touch with her.
Cheers,
Hendrix
Thanks so much for your comment? Are you on Facebook? There’s a Hong Kong in the 60s page and people on that might know how to contact Helen. I hope you can find her!
Hi Susan
I will check out the fb page….thanks for the advice!
The man in the photo is Bill Nash. I worked as a waitress in the Go Down from 1978-1983, when not attending college back in the U.S. There was a pop band six days a week, and a jazz band on Wednesday nights in the main bistro, and there was a little hole-in-the-wall called “The Back Bar,” with a jute box. For two to three decades, it was one of the top places to go for expats, tourists and celebrities. So much fun! Bill Nash was a really nice man, spoke fluent Mandarin, and had lived in HK since WWII.
It is definitely Bill Nash in the photo. The Go Down Bistro was on Kowloon side, but the bar and night club, which was the real place to go, was always on Hong Kong side.
That is Bill Nash, he worked for ICI and made a lot of money on the HK stock market in the late sixties which he started the Godown with, I remember being there from 1970 to 73 Carroll Alan was the manageress. I was the first one to loose my tie and had it pined to the light shade above the main long table, many more were to follow. The small back bar was where we played darts. There were 2 regular British girls there one was called Lottie the other I forget. One of the great characters who was a regular called Alan Tweedi. I last called in to see Alan and Carroll in 1983. The early days were fantastic we used to race up to the peak hospital and back across the ferry to Kowloon and back to the Godown again via the ferry in our Triumph TR4A sometimes just for a bottle of wine. Cliff Richard was the first celebrity to come to the bar after his first HK concert I think it was 1972. Happy days indeed.
Jeff
Hello. Actually, I wish to correct you a little: Bill Nash did not work at ICI. His business partner, Norman Marsh was the one who worked at ICI and made a lot of money on the stock market!!! I was travelling the workedand worked as manageress at the GoDown for six months in 1970. They really were wonderful times indeed!!.