As I drank I tried to keep obvious observation to a minimum. Shadowy figures came and went through the door down to the toilet in processions that suggested something other than the call of nature. Men bent their heads together just out of the pools of light cast by the big tables where the cues and balls clicked. It wasn’t the sort of place in which to pay too much attention to what other people were doing.

A blonde woman in a pink, tight skirt that didn’t come down very far over her fat thighs, squeezed in beside me at the bar.

‘Wanna go along?’ She shot a furtive look at the barman who had his back to us and his hands full.

‘Fair go, love. I just got here.’

Nothing showed in her face-not disappointment, annoyance, nothing. She nodded and moved to try further along. She watched the barman like a cat watches a bird, only moving when she judged the time to be right. She also had to watch out for other whores and pimps and predators. On the third try she scored, a tall, thin man with a prominent Adam’s apple drained his schooner and followed her wide, weaving bottom out of the bar.

If you think drinking in a place where you don’t want to be isn’t work, try it. I paced myself, ate chips, watched the pool games and had a brief conversation with a man about horse racing. He told me it was all fixed; I bought him a beer and agreed. He bought me a beer and said it was all fixed.

A visit to the toilet depressed still further: the authenticity there was overwhelming-authentic old drains, authentic cracked bowls, authentic mould. The tiled floor was a Sargasso Sea of soggy cigarette-ends and discarded paper towels. A blood-encrusted sock was lying in a corner near the urinal and a trail of smeared, bloody footprints led to one of the cubicles.

The mirrors in places like that are not for the vain. I washed my hands in the thin trickle of rusty water, and looked up at a man with crinkly dark hair, a broken nose and deep grooves in his cheeks. He bared his teeth at me and said, ‘Cliff, you’re starting to look as if you belong in a place just like this’. I wanted to think of something smart to say to put him in his place but I couldn’t. It was a relief to leave him there and go back up to the better company in the bar.