How many still have separate b ar & lounge restaurant? Was in the Derby last week & there's kids running about all over. Can't even have a bit swear these days. All going open plan now.
Under 16's shouldn't be allowed in pubs, it's a disgrace. I went in the Dolphin in Farra a couple of months ago and there was a couple standing drinking and they had their baby sat on the bar, proper charvers, couldn't believe it, needless to say I haven't been back since. Stick to the decent pubs like the Isis or the Dun Cow, bit more expensive but it keeps the rif raf out.
Most getting that way now. Food n families = more money. Very few proper spit n sawdust pubs although the Kings Arms n the Saltgrass down Deptford still decent. The Musuem Vaults at Silksworth Row is a proper boozer with an absolutely brill jukebox.
I'm all for family pubs etc, but there should be a balance where they are limited to those serving food..
I bet 90% of the pubs who didn't serve food or allow kids are closed and probably bed sits now. Seems that way in darlington. Loney blokes drinking themselves to dearth are quite literally a dying breed. Pubs want to stay open the need to allow kids in and serve good food just to stand a chance, even then the freehold pubs will probably see to it they still close down. It's a dead industry. Off licences get all that trade now.
Supermarkets in my opinion. Cheap beer with the power supermarkets have has helped kill pubs. The pubs serving food, I dont blame them they needed to adapt. Just my age, my generation but I like the old battle cruisers with proper barmaids who can serve more than one effing pint at a time, good craic with locals amd most importantly keeping the beer right.
Same thing mate. I included those in my sentiments as a whole. Same licence used to sell alcohol, just on a bigger premises. It's also the government taxing it and online shopping killing the high streets too wiping out passing trade. So many contributors. A persons best bet is get a membership to a popular working mens clubs in place ready because the Pubs are going to die for the purpose Billy has mentioned.
When I worked in the club 1971 I was well trained by Good sold barmaids who new there job They could serve two or three at the same time no messing. I soon got the hang of it. Today these bar people don't now how to add up never mind serve. The wetherspoons pubs are the worst. When they have served a Someone they just wander about and not look for the next person .
It's been said for years now that breweries are killing the pubs. They've bled them dry for short term gains for years with no thought to the longer term, and without gIving a second thought to the social impact of their business plans. Our own village had several pubs 15-20 years ago. Now there's one. How many villages across England can say the same? Hundreds probably! I've no idea what the brewery charges the landlord per barrel, but I'm betting they probably charge at least £30-£40 a barrel more than would be available to the landlord at any wholesalers. That might be £180- £250 a week to the landlord, a grand a month, maybe a lot more. If a landlord can buy the beer that much cheaper than the brewery is charging him/her, but isn't allowed to, how is he supposed to survive? And if the last pub in the village closes, what then? That's all my own speculation, but I'm guessing I'm not that far out! I was on the committee of a local club a few years ago before I moved. I know the power of the brewery. Local pubs and restaurants are the heart of hundreds of villages and small towns but the breweries seem to be systematically reducing their numbers and in so doing destroying the heart our communities everywhere.
I love working bars. Worked many, busy ones and not so busy ones. Nowt longer than a shift in a dead pub. But when they're busy I just thrive off the whole manic process. Glass collecting too, when I lived in Newcastle I was head glass collecter in The Lounge by the end of my second shift. Young, manic and the ability to carry over 100 glasses at once meant I could have a club looking like it had just opened at 2am in no time and the Bar never ran out of stock or glasses. I've ran cellars too. The whole industry is fun to work at any level providing the trade is there. Crying shame it's struggling so much at pub level.
“When you have lost your inns, drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England” – Hilaire Belloc. Talking b*llocks or too near to the truth?
My Sis was telling me this, or something similar - she runs hotels. The breweries are massively to blame, on the supply side of the equation. It's impossible to take on a decent boozer if it's a brewery one, as you can't compete with the market. Add in the demand-side trends and it's a big fookin problem. Everytime i get back up north i see pubs , which used to be great pubs - both spit and sawdust and the nicer good grub variety - on their knees. Not the same problem in London, where all sorts of places are thriving.
Yeh collecting and washing glasses all part of the shift. When it's buisy time flys and you enjoy your time I enjoyed my year working at the club
I have mate who's in his 70's. He swears blind that it started when the WMC's started opening. Now the clubs are **** too as the younger people want nowt to do with them.
Yeh the working mans club hasn't been on the go that long There now failing but some pubs are ok Infact in Chester le street we have a price war with most pubs selling beer and lager for less than two pounds. The clubs can't match this. In the 70s and 80s before all day opening the pubs were more expencive than the clubs by a big margin
Beers far cheaper and everybody knew each other. Sadly the clubs are dying as the younguns would rather pay extorted prices for shots, jaegerbombs and fancy cocktails. F*cking idiots. Get a few down ya neck for virtually half price in the clubs and then off to the town.
Our club is ticking over but the old boys are dying out - can think of about 10 in the Last 2-3 years. No-one is replacing them.
Thats the problem the oldies dying out. I frequented Pennywell & Grindon Working Mans clubs for about 30 years. Fab times. Like I say good beer, decent craic, snooker, the turns both good and bad and generally the place to meet. To be honest only visited them on days with the letter "Y" in them tho.
