Sent to the Viking by social worker
1969
“I got myself in a pickle one night and this social worker or advisor told me I needed to think about where I was going, and asked if I’d heard of the Viking. Well I’d never heard of the gay scene in any shape or form. I was very brave; I set off one night all by myself to go to the Viking. I stayed most of the night and talked to some of the women there. It was mixed and on Smallbrook Queensway, it was quite seedy in some respects, a little bar downstairs with no windows facing onto the street. It was quite a nice place to go as there were women there and most of the other places in Brum were not that women friendly. That was the end of me sleeping with chaps. I made some close friends there. Once there was a punch up going on out side between a man and a woman, we intervened to protect the woman and they both turned on us.”
Contributed by: Wash, 57