I just checked its website - still looks great assuming the images are relatively recent. Looking forward to my next trip back home (if my sister will still put me up that is? )
The best one was a beer Nellie used to bring up in a jug from the cellar. Sorted the men out from the boys. 5hink it was a Sam Smiths one. There was only Nellie's and one other pub it was supplied to in the end. When Nellie and her sister passed on they stopped producing it.
Remember the 2 ladies well - quite old when I started going in there. Recall a wooden table with a wooden bowl on it full of water where they rinsed out the used glasses and poured the next orders from the big jug. Don't recall them drying the glasses mind. Happy days.
Last time I was in there (Beverley Nellies), a bit before the first lockdown, was at the end of a 'gin crawl' with my missus. We'd been in 2 or 3 other places first, where choosing what gin to have was a major, and expensive, exercise. Went in Nellies and asked what gin have you got. The bar lady pointed to the only one. It cost literally less than half what we'd been paying elsewhere .... and I really couldn't notice the difference. Maybe I was half cut by then. Nevertheless, brilliant.
Didn't Durty Nelly's start off down Baker St, and then change to O'Neills or something? There was Scruffy's on Bev Rd round about the time of that change too.
I wouldn’t be opening a pub under any circumstances. Very tough to make a return these days. Successful pubs are few and far between.
I took a pint back there, and the barman asked me what was wrong. I said 'it's off' his response was 'nah, it's not off, it's just ****'.
Sam Smith often goes around drinking in his own pubs, by chauffeur. If he hears any swearing, he personally throws you out and bans you from entering a Sam Smith establishment.
If Mr Dewhirst had that attitude he wouldn't have lent Mr Marks £5 to start up. Then Marks goes into business with Mr Spencer who had never run a business...
He is indeed a bit of an oddball. But on the other hand they have the only dray horses left delivering beer.
I assume you mean Humphrey Smith, as Sam Smith died over 200 years ago. He's fairly eccentric, they banned music, TV's and mobile phones from all their pubs.
"On his arrival in England, Marks worked for a company in Leeds called Barran, which employed Jewish migrants (see Sir John Barran, 1st Baronet). In 1884 he met Isaac Jowitt Dewhirst while looking for work. Dewhirst lent Marks £5 (equivalent to £538 in 2016)"
I don't know if it's true but at school we were taught that when he emigrated from Russia (as was then) he'd paid for passage to America. Then when the ship docked in Hull the Captain told all of them they were in the US. As none of them spoke any English it was only days later they realised they were in England. That's when he made his way to Leeds to join up with the Jewish community there.
