Ok SB I will go with nostalgic, just getting worried about how many pubs I am getting nostalgic about
I spent many a Friday night propping up the bar in 'The Oldfield' then pop in next door to 'Oscars' (Now all down and houses in its place). Also used to meet mates at 'The Tally Ho'......Reckon I must of bumped into Cate at sometime without realising it at the time....... First pub I ever visited, during 6th form lunch break, was 'The Target'.....sad when that became a McDs...... Now even 'The Crooked Billet' in Staines has finally gone a become yet more houses....... Just a sad indictment of our times when it's far cheaper to drink at home with your mates, with a crate or 2 from Tescos..
I never drank at The Target, but it becoming a McDs was the first pub I remember that happening too, it was a sad day in the life of traditional pubs!
No problem Stan, been a long time since I was down there drinking, and all the old haunts seem to have long disappeared - time to look back with fond memories!
We used to shoot down to Northolt village, Target was just a little but too far, but damned if I can remember the name of the pub the pupils and teachers used to go into some lunch times!
The Target was run by a fella called Frank who was Qpr mad, spent many a lock in there, scantily dressed young ladies gogo dancing, must have been 35 years ago
For me the rot set in some 20 odd years ago when the Yorkshire Grey at Eltham became a McDonalds, that was a proper pub that regularly hosted amateur boxing shows and I had some great nights in there. There isn't a week goes by without seeing a pub I've drunk in over the years disappearing and it truly is depressing. Yet paradoxically, the first pub I ever had a pint in, the Effra Hall Tavern in the backstreets of Brixton, a little family run boozer that you would imagine to have been one of the first to bite the dust is still going strong, it defies logic but is a rare success amongst a failing 'industry'...
Noooo My sister lived on the estate behind it You could get just about anything you wanted in there on a Sunday morning And booze too
I'm slightly oblivious to that kind of stuff, but after moving from the 'Bush' at the age of thirteen I moved to Lampeter Square which is behind the aforementioned pub. The estate that was built up around it came about in and around the time I married my wife and moved away ... as many did ... and found finer pastures along the A3 and ventured into Surrey.
Hi folks, I was trying to find photos of some old Aussie pubs that have closed .................... and came across this classic. Sorry but it's not a dead pub, more so a pro-active forward thinking pub. It could only happen here in Oz. Don't ya just love it! please log in to view this image
Any one familiar with the Easter Road area of Edinburgh confirm that the Cabbage Patch has closed? Last time I was there it was boarded up, I was hoping for renovation, but perhaps not. Always rammed before and after Hibs games, great atmosphere. But while the Volly (Volunteer Arms) on Leith Walk and Anfield Arms in Leith are still going I'll have places which haven't had the character tarted up out of them and serve beer (in both cases crap beer, Guiness the only option) rather than bad gastropub nosh, I'll be ok. Aargh! Just discovered that the Racana, a truly wild pub in Milan that I was planning to visit this weekend, has also gone. 25 years ago the pub sponsored the football team I played for, which was mixed nationality but with a slight majority of British.
Interesting you say that about Milan as I was going to say it's not just England. I used to go to Brussels a lot and 2 of the main ones in the Eurodistrict have closed - both used to be rammed. Closer to home, I see the Flora on the Harrow Road is closing - used to play in the same darts league as them - and the Springbok bizarrely...
I went to Wood End and the Oldfield/Oscars. Left Wood End in 74 I think. Lived in Wadham Gardens. The Greenwood used to have a wet fish stall on a Sunday afternoon. Pint of cockles please!!
Though in the US and Canada new micro brewery bars are springing up all over the place, as they discover beer which tastes of something. many of them are very good indeed. I used to drink in Delerium in Brussels centre, but it has become too big, a bit seedy and too touristy. Shame.
Not strictly a pub but spent many a Friday and Saturday night at the Hammersmith Palais in the late 70's hoping to engage in polite conversation with the local female clientele!!!!!!!!..........now it's gone for ever, just a shell of a place the last time we went past there earlier this year........apparently they sold beer in there, well kind of beer, it helped if you had a few pints before venturing in there....... Also the local Hammersmith Fire Station on Shepherds Bush Road is now a Nando's or something similar......
