Butlin's Beachcomber, Minehead, England (bar)

Name:Butlin's Beachcomber
Type:bar
Street:
City:Minehead
State:
Zip:
country:England
Phone:
Status:defunct

Description:
There are several posts with information on all of the Butlin's Beachcombers (I think there were 5), but I wanted to start one specifically for the Minehead location. This Beachcomber seems to have the most ephemera and looks to have been the most decked out. I have a bunch of postcards and the menu.

I thought of making this post when I found this great photo of the exterior from Minehead.

The Beachcomber Bar was packed with stuff wall to wall and floor to ceiling. The Tikis left something to be desired however.

They used the hula girl sever concept as well.

The SS Beachcomber ship was a cool feature.

This view as well as the ship seem to have been the inspiration for the menu art.

(Menu photos courtesy of Taboo Dan and 54 House of Bamboo).

Look forward to seeing some more stuff from the Minehead Beachcomber.

DC

Did a little more research on the Minehead Beachcomber. This holiday camp was built in 1962 and the Beachcomber opened shortly thereafter. It was the last of the Beachcombers to close in 1997.

Here is a photo from 1973 from the Butlins archives. Groovy man.

DC

This place looks amazing...I love the boat docked next to the diners....crazy.

Jim,
it looks more like its run ashore that docked.
:wink:

Jeff(btd)

Items common to all Beachcombers... just for completeness in this thread.

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Good idea for a post DC. This almost sums it all up though. You've got the postcards, menu and a couple cool pictures. You now have the mug, souvenir ashtray and matchbook. What else is there??

These were holiday camps right across Britain. There has got to be tons of photos in personal collections and in family albums of these get aways! We gotta call out our Englishmen here to help dig up some of the information that's waiting to be discovered over there!!

We moved from England when I was about six and didn't get to go to any of these camps but my parents did. They didn't have pictures of the specific Beachcomber bars but do remember them.
There's gotta be more relics over there to find. I thought us Englishmen kept everything?? Well...that's what my fiancee keeps telling me! :)

TabooDan

See http://www.butlinsmemories.com

Archaeology page at http://www.butlinsmemories.com/minehead/overyears.htm

214 search results on the associated forum for 'beachcomber'!
This is the saddest, a link to here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=128683&id=626917945&l=045802455b The pictures of the demolition... you can see some detail on #7

PS I was born 15 miles from Minehead...

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The Stevenson Wedding Mug by Cheekytiki, 2006

[ Edited by: 54 house of bamboo 2010-02-21 03:11 ]

[ Edited by: 54 house of bamboo 2010-02-21 03:16 ]

Minehead (Beachcomber Bar) 1966-1997

Originally known as the "Stadium Building" with the Beachcomber Bar on the ground floor and games and other facilities on the first floor
Renamed "Beachcomber Building" in 1970. New Children's Theatre added the same year. Also Chinese restaurant & Disco.
In 1986 this Butlins site became 'Somerwest World'.
1997 Beachcomber Bar closed. The whole building was left standing, but not used. Finally demolished in 2006 prior to new BlueSkies apartments being built on top of adjoining boating lake. The area is now grassed over.

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[ Edited by: blue.octopus 2010-02-22 10:31 ]

Pictures of the vacant Minehead Beachcomber:
http://www.beachcomber.bygonebutlins.com/

More pictures of the demolition from 2006:
http://www.beachcomber.bygonebutlins.com/demo.html

Billy Butlin got his inspiration from the LA Beachcomber.
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another article
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A little info on the man himself.
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inside of the butlins beachcomber menu
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This is a GREAT 1964 video clip from the Beachcomber Bar.

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=1802

DC

Here is another postcard from the Butlins Beachcomber in Minehead that I tried to win on ebay recently. I had not seen this one before. It has an outrigger canoe that was used as a fish pond, great idea.

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DC

Hilarious vid clip DC .

love this thread... brought back so many memories.

Having spent most of my life in the UK it was my only experience of anything approaching a Tiki Bar!

On 2010-03-18 16:57, Dustycajun wrote:
This is a GREAT 1964 video clip from the Beachcomber Bar.

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=1802

DC

And another one:

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=1550

Slacks, I believe that cool video is actually from the Mayfair Beachcomber and not the Butlins:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=35909&forum=2&vpost=518345&hilite=mayfair%20beachcomber

Found a nice tourist photo of a Tiki from the Beachcomber Bar in Minehead.

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DC

Wow! Mean Moai with make up! Very cool. So sometimes tourists/ customers DID photograph only the Tikis!

Spotted this coaster from the Butlin's Beachcomber Bar on ebay a while back.

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Can't remember seeing one of these before. I like the Tiki. Reminds me of the Mayfair Beachcomber logo.

DC

Photo of the staff at the Butlins Beachcomber in Minehead.

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DC