First and second pictures are The Pickwick Club, the third is the Newtown Country Club. Belize City, 1975. On Newtown Barracks....
Both clubs were well known in the mid-century Belize City days for entertainment for the more well off folks. A Golf Club and a Polo Club existed at the Newtown Barracks in the 1920s. The Pickwick Club was established in 1932. Lots of “properness” at Pickwick but all out jamming at Newtown! One for the well to do and the other for the not so well to do classes. When the Pickwick was on North Front St, if you didn't have status you'd better take the back entrance.
The Pickwick Club was was a big venue for weddings in the 1980's. Pickwick was initially on North Front Street but moved to the Barracks when it bought the Belize Club and became the Belize Pickwick Club. Pickwick was on the river side in front of the Eden Theater.
Let's talk about some history that some may feel uneasy to go into.
PICKWICK CLUB, where only Privileged and once in a while one or two of us could become members. I got in without because I was a ball boy on the tennis court, and since my mom worked up stairs I also frequented different dining areas and ate the nicest ham and cheese sandwich ever. I recall Rabbi Ilsle, Billy & Said Musa, Lance Sabido, Roy Canton, Sonny Meign/Main and two other kriol guys that were good at tennis. I was just a kid so I really don't know the rules that existed to become members, but now whenever I bring up the club older folks than I always say those were class distinction days. Let's talk, and regardless of where you stood in those days, you can still fill in the younger generation without being mean spirited. Reggie Trapp
Me mi so po, I kudint set foot anyways close to Pickwick or Newtown Club. I was more of a Minga's and Riverside Hall type of fella. Also Scout Room, FYA, Independence Hall, Liberty Hall, many of which I use to sneak into because I didn't even have shilling fu go een.
Steve
Allan Vernon:
Newtown was the only one fi we KERUBBEANS when i was a boy growing up in CITY.
Wellington Chee:
I think our class of SJC 1970 had our Prom at the Pickwick Club. Those were the place to go after Midnight Mass - Christmas and New Year's, although not for me. The great places in those crime-free Belize to go and socialize and enjoy life.
Photograph by Infrogmation of New Orleans
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