GAVIN AITCHISON finds film footage of a vintage York pub.

YOU may have read earlier this week about the quest for vintage film footage of life in York's pubs.

Staff at City Screen Cinema in Coney Street are appealing for people to come forward, hoping to piece together a collection in time for the city’s beer festival on Knavesmire in September.

They’re hosting a special showing of some national films next month and hope it will prompt those with local material to come forward.

Being an immigrant to these parts, I don’t have any such footage of my own, but the appeal rekindled a distant memory of something I had read, about a York pub being used in a TV drama in the 1970s.

A bit of digging in The Press’s library paid off, and my satisfaction turned to delight when I discovered that the footage in question is even available online.

Days of Hope, shown on BBC in the mid-1970s, was a four-part serial directed by Ken Loach, following one family’s struggles from 1916 to 1926, from the First World War to the General Strike. And, mid-way through the first episode, one of York’s finest pubs has a starring cameo role.

Granted, if you didn’t know in advance, you probably wouldn't recognise The Phoenix from the footage. But that’s where it is. The servicemen, young women and pensioners enjoying a right merry sing-song, before the youngsters’ departure for the front line, are in the pub’s cosy front room; a mere pint-splash away from York’s Bar Walls.

The Yorkshire Evening Press article from the time tells us that the real-life landlord Charles Herbert enjoyed a moment of fame, as barman in the scene, and the pianist we can hear in the background is Walmgate pensioner Kitty Bagnall – who also played at the nearby St George’s Church.

Staff from John Smith’s Brewery redecorated the front room to give it an early-1900s feel – but in an endearing indicator of local sentiment, the production crew had to leave the back bar open and untouched so the regulars could enjoy their pints in peace as usual, away from the cameras.

The Phoenix today has an admirable “no-phones” rule in the front room, which is always pleasing. But it was otherwise empty when I popped in on Wednesday, so – using the wonders of modern technology, on minimal volume, but feeling rather furtive nonetheless – I had a surreptitious look at the film in the very room where it was shot.

The curved bar is unmistakeable, various parts of the furnishings are recognisable and you can easily imagine the room being packed to the rafters almost a century ago, as the film depicts.

The enduring beauty of The Phoenix largely stems from the fact that so little has changed over the years in that front room – although the beer is surely better now than it has ever been.

In the film, Keily's Pale Ale is promoted above the bar, but in the absence of that I enjoyed a pint of Hop Beast from The Liverpool Craft Beer Co, a brewery that launched in 2010 and whose beers are gradually being seen more and more around York.

A Night of Hop with the Days of Hope, you might say, and a pint that drinkers of any era would cherish.

City Screen Cinema will show a selection of old pub films at 8.30pm on Monday, February 4. To book, visit the cinema box office, or online at picturehouses.co.uk/york or phone 0871 902 5726

​See the film here - The Phoenix features from 33 mins 12secs to 36mins 21 secs.