We all have a pub somewhere ..but what do you think is the best pub in your area and why. Is the beer Is it the prices Is it the food or deals Kids allowed Sports or just cosy. WORST PUB Where and why?
In Ipswich it has to be The Dove as best pub. Worst pub? Everyone that sells John Smith or Tetley keg etc rather than a good pint of bitter! Best pub before going to a match is a pub in Huddersfield (name forgotten), but I remember how to get there!
Best Pub I ever went to was the pub in Disney Words English section in Florida! And the worst are all those bars in New York that serve Stella and the crap Blue Moon!
Care to elaborate on your obviously strong feelings on alcohol? Best pub will not serve food except crisps, will not allow children and will have a smoking area which is not the street outside (I haven't used the smoking facilities for many years, but clumps of blokes puffing away at the door is aesthetically displeasing). It will sell proper beer (don't need an exotic choice), And white wine for the ladies. Examples: - The Queens Arms, Mortlake. Don't look for it, tragically turned into flats. Just brilliant. - The Volunteer Arms (aka the Volly) Leith Walk, Edinburgh. Actually not a nice pub at all, in the smoking days it used to be like walking into a carcinogenic lung, and no good beer apart from Guinness. But great fun when you are pissed and very cheap - The Anfield, Leith Edinburgh. A tiny one room pub owned by an ex Hibs player. See description of the Volly - The Woodbine Arms, Leamington Spa. Proper old style public and saloon bars, good local beer - The Dun Cow, Durham. Another two room pub, lovely Castle Eden - The Union Brew Co, Carmel, Indiana, my home from home when working in the US. It's a concrete bunker, pure beer, brew their own and guest beers, no food whatsoever, but you can bring your own from the Jamaican jerk chicken shop next door. Or order in a pizza. Outstanding locals. - The Princess Louise, High Holborn. Proper Victorian boozer, good beer, after work pints venue. Bad pubs - those chains Harvesters, Wetherspoons, Yate's and their ilk.
What a wonderful pub, not been there in 35 years ( worked in Grays Inn Rd at the time) but I still remember and hanker after the fantastic atmosphere. Glad to hear it's still in business
Sadly I don't get there more than once or twice a year, now I hardly ever work in London. Also used to like the Cittie of Yorke, just up the road. A lot of the Sam Smith's pubs in town are pretty good.
My best pub was the Green Man in Harlesden - my first local and where I met all the people that are still my close friends 40-odd years later. Oh, and I met my wife there too. Total excess in the 80s when we would leave the pub to go to the Mean Fiddler around the corner, see what was usually a pretty good band, act very stupid on the dance floor and then return to the pub with the guvnor, who had joined us in the club after closing up.
You have to get this book, Stan (and GC, or anybody else). http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-London-Pub-Peter-Haydon/dp/1843302748 It's just beautiful. I reckon I've been to about a third of the pubs featured. Sadly, some no longer exist. PS You can get it on e-bay, I wouldn't like to be seen to be promoting Amazon.
Here are a couple of my favorite pubs from around Brisbane, Queensland and one from Kogarah in Sydney, New South Wales. The Kogarah pub was nothing to look at but it was renown for having the coldest beer on tap. On a hot summer's day, the first schooner barely hit the sides but by the second schooner, you had frost bight on the nose if you threw 'em down too quick. Kogarah was were I grew up and had my first drink in a pub. Many good memories. The Queensland pubs listed are probably the most famous and also most enjoyable I've been to. My brother always wants to head to the Breakfast Creek pub when he comes to visit. Great steaks too! please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
When I lived at Sydenham Hill a few years back there was a great local pub called The Dulwich Woodhouse which was the epitome of a truly local pub, log fires in the winter, lots of little alcoves you could sit in, no music, just a great place to meet and chat with familiar faces. In their infinite wisdom the brewery, Youngs, decided that it should become a 'Gastropub'. The place was gutted and reopened with a flash, modern and totally un-pub-like feel to it. None of the familiar faces returned, instead it was full ponces drinking lattes, yummy-mummys with their brat kids running in and out of the verandah at the back and prices that would make your eyes water for average poncey food. Not surprisingly, after barely five years it closed and is in the process of another makeover. An object lesson in how to destroy something that was perfectly ok in the pursuit of greed...
Marty's Bar in Oulart , Co. Wexford , just one of my old locals . Proper Irish pub and always good for a 'lock in'. The only music that was played was by the last pissed paddy standing in the early hours of the morning. They were good singers too. Best pint of Liffey water I ever had as well. If you ever went in for a couple at lunch time , guaranteed you would still be in there 12hrs later . Boy, can those Irish lads drink . Even the local priest was the first one at the bar after Sunday Mass. Great craic. In fact, most Irish pubs in the area and Wexford town were proper pubs and it was like going back in time to the old days in England when pubs were pubs before they turned into the local crèche , poncey eating establishment and whatever else they've turned into except a bloody pub!!
Same thing has happened to the Thatched House on Dalling Road, Hammersmith, a Young's pub (actually I think the very first Young's pub) which was special to me because it's where my Dad used to take me sometimes after matches in the 70s (given that he seemed to know everyone in there I reckon he spent a lot of time in there after finishing work in Baron's Court) and the first place we drank together, and then it became a fake 'local' for me in the early 90s. Gradually got ponced up, two bars into one big space, more restaurant than pub and has now been converted to something called 'The Butcher's Hook' which I will never grace with my presence. On principle. The original Thatched offered hot food. A sausage which slowly rotated on one of those conveyor belt heaters sat on the bar. I'm convinced the same lonely sausage went round and round in that thing for an entire decade.
Youngs have also Gastroed the Halfway House in Earlsfield and the Castle in Tooting. I'd criticise but at least they are still open, most pubs are owened by investment vehicles rather than breweries now, which is why so many are deliberately run down and turned into flats.
Crossed Keys (Whetherspoons) near Liverpool St. station. Brilliant choice of ales, good pub food and amazing architecture. Perfect stop on the way to HQ from Essex.
Here's a few of my very favourite public houses...just as pub should be... please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image ...and finally the best kind of public house of all... please log in to view this image
Ok, can I assume you don't like drinking or pubs? That's your choice, we all have our thoughts on it but I was hoping you might consider other aspects of Hotels & Taverns. Like architectural and history. Many old pubs here in Oz have wonderful stories related to them ........... floods, fire, gold rush etc and the pubs are often lined with photos of yesteryear. Many older style pubs have beautiful architecture, ornate metal pressed ceilings and cornices, sandstone / convict picked blockwork etc .......... all with stories to tell. These type of materials and styles lend themselves to creating a wonderful ambiance within the pubs. As some of the members have already said, old buildings combined with good friends and good food can make for a wonderful get together experience ..... without the need to get pisssed. I will see what images I can dig up.
