FOR decades it was the centrepiece of a St Helens weekend night out; THE place to go and let off steam after a long, hard week at work.

Throughout the 70s and 80s Cindy’s was an institution. A nightclub for late teens and twenty somethings to go and drink, dance, have a laugh and maybe get lucky.

With last orders at 11pm, with no late bars back then apart from behind the doubly thick-curtained lock-ins, clubs were the only places where you could drink up until 2am.

And so, from 10.30pm, revellers from across town would converge on the big building at the Duke Street/Crab Street corner.

Many a reader will have fond memories of big nights out at Cindys, and plenty of townsfolk will look back with a smile at relationships started by exchanging numbers on the back of a fag packet while sloping off the dance floor and across the sticky carpet.

It was a brash, loud and lively pheromone-filled place; and each year would probably have a tune associated with the place and in 1986 – back-to-back 12 inch mixes of Jingo by Jellybean, with the whistles going, was probably a signature tune.

What do you remember about Cindy’s? The tunes, the plastic glasses, the carpet, the code sent from the DJ to direct bouncers to any trouble – or heading over to Chips over the road afterwards, munching them while laughing at the bizarre paintings in the window of St Helens egg and sausage artist.

The Oxford Building, which housed Cindy's, is now split into several units – including the Cinema Bar.

It was designed in a Georgian style by architect William Pearson and had started off life as the Oxford cinema in 1912 – and decades later you would still hear taxi drivers refer to pick-ups at the Oxford or the Occy.

After the picture house closed down, it became the Plaza and was graced by an up and coming Liverpudlian band by the name of the Beatles between 1962-63.

It has experienced a number of re-incarnations.

After two decades as Cindy’s, it was re-named as Lowies, before having another crack at being the Plaza. After its closure as a club, no doubt hastened by the change in the licensing laws allowing later bars and a new late-night focus on Westfield Street, it was converted into a pub – The Orange House.

But it is Cindy's we are featuring as part of our latest string of features about bygone St Helens places. We would love to hear your memories of Cindy’s – and we will share those with readers in a follow up story in a week or two.

Leave a comment below or on this story when posted on Facebook or Twitter, or email: mike.critchley@nqnw.co.uk