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Now, I appreciate that this thread may require some creative age-indication, as I am sure that some of you (Ahem) may have been drinking in establishments before you were legally allowed to.
So, where you were supping in your earlier years?
The Lamb, on The Parade.
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6X straight from the wood, and fresh. A glorious introduction.
The Bishop's Mill (as it was known then!)
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There was a young lass from Wilton, and we'd meet here, sit in the garden and talk for what seemed like days. We're still friends, and still reminisce.
And, from those lazy, hazy days of summer, The Ferry.
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Just across the water, I suppose this was "the local" then. Had to get there by boat, which led to the odd amusing trip back later in the evening!
And, The Milbrook Arms, South Pool.
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Another that was accessed by boat. From memory, the bar had two bells. One for "Time, ladies and gentlemen!" and the other for "Tide, ladies and gentlemen!". Had a couple of entertaining late night dashes back down the estuary under moonlight from here!
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And not a flat roof amongst them.
Fuxache flashy....
The (old) Drunken Duck in rhe Lakes before it became a gastro version
Chicken in the basket, theakston xb, arrows in the back (ie darts) oh and lock ins!!!
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bloody hell flash, even embarrasses myself thinking of the pubs i went in as a youth.
wakefield was not known as the merry city for nothing. one favourite was The Ratcliffe bar. frequented by local celebrities such as, Paul Sykes, Ernie and Paul Field and Frank Heppy and the kalahari bushmen.
have a google peek at Mr Sykes.
Drac, what's the second one? That's quite the boozer there! A lock in might mean something rather different, by the looks of it!
Flat roof? Sadly, the rumour that I'm a single mother from Warrington is just that. A rumour. 😉
Drac, what's the second one? That's quite the boozer there! A lock in might mean something rather different, by the looks of it!
It was a court house then a night club now s****y apartments.
The Sloop Inn, St Ives. Oh yes.
I'm all class me.
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Lock ins , front door locked and curtains drawn - good times.
My old local is now a curry house
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Those were the days.....
Not so long ago, but still
The Leopard - Live music and dodgy locals trying to sell you snake eggs and bags of weed. Any night, any band, we'd just go and check it out. When I was about 17 they had to ban mosh pits in the band room as the ceiling caved in over the bar below. Very fond memories.
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The Ivanhoe - Proper local. Sam Smiths, so rocking up with a fiver you could get wobbly. Bitter used to be under a quid when I was 15/16ish. The place stank of smoke, even years after the ban. Not changed in the last 20+ years.
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As an underager, the Tron Ceilidh Bar
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Why? It was cheap and they never id'd you because it wasn't the sort of place underagers went. Ironically, it got all revamped and now it totally is the sort of place underagers go.
First real "local" was the Holyrood Tavern, now pretty different
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Turks Head in Reading, a microcosm of youth culture (lots of short black skirts and Doc Martins). 90's heaven.
Saracens Head, Calke, South Derbyshire.
No idea what the bitter was as it was always served out of jugs as the cask was in the nice bar next door which we never went in. 'Our' side just had long bench tables and a stone floor!
Now closed.
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The John Thompson, also south derbyshire. Monday night mountain biking followed by a pint or two (or three) of Summer Gold brewed in the shed you can see behind on the right 🙂
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George Inn Thruxton. Got kicked out celebrating my mates 16th birthday (1979) only as his mum gave his age away when she came in. We'd been drinking in there for more than a year. Different era.
The Alf (the Royal Alfred) in St Helens. Always rammed on a thursday night - because it was giro night probably - with a decent band, and a carpet that was black, shiny and sticky from spilt mild. I was an early adopter of cargo pants so I could stock up with as many drinks as possible on any trip to the bar because the place was so busy you didn't want to queue for drinks more times than you had to, I'd load my pockets with an evenings supply of Newcastle Brown.
I don't think I've ever been thrown out of anywhere (as far as I remember) but I was thrown [i]in[/in] to the Alf by the police once.
Went away to college, came back at christmas - straight off the train and into the Alf and it was dead. The party just seemed to move on and it was never the same again.
[url= https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Eston,+Middlesbrough/ @54.5597243,-1.1411304,3a,60y,268.9h,93.9t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sVkl0Tlxsu0w-fOhRUn6UCw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x487eedd5f2a2864f:0xab61f95dcf4b6163!8m2!3d54.560936!4d-1.144621]Brown Jug[/url]
[url= https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Eston,+Middlesbrough/ @54.5579947,-1.1557741,3a,42.7y,55.51h,90.85t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1scp03h2mONJqTIDoOLaE5Jw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dcp03h2mONJqTIDoOLaE5Jw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D159.02725%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x487eedd5f2a2864f:0xab61f95dcf4b6163!8m2!3d54.560936!4d-1.144621]The Normanby[/url]
The Waterloo - Wollaston Stourbridge
Cor dear, spent some cash in here in the past...now shut and an Indian restaurant.
I was once holding two pints and leant back against the cellar door that was in the middle of the pub, the steps down right behind it...it was off the latch and I went backwards like a plank of wood, contents of glasses down in the cellar, but held on to the glasses.....
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The Foresters Arms - Wollaston Stourbridge
Closest to home and where we first drank regularly - had some right cookie owners, but always cosy and safe and busy,...until i worked there and then they tried to make it into a bistro...it's still going great guns now and still pop in occasionally.
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The Crispin - Stourbridge
Had some fantastic nights in here in it's heyday it was the best pub in stourbridge (early to mid 90s) There was a bouncer/security we just took the piss out of, lovely bloke, but just so meek n mild, not bouncer material at all, but such a great bloke, happy days, once pulled a young lady on NYE, she passed out outside over the ringroad, i had no idea where she lived, her mate had gone, so me and the taxi driver carried her into my mom and dads house, her expression in the morning when she woke up on our living room floor was one of confusion and alarm - Not been in for ages.
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Hampshire Bowman. Mostly drinking fortyniner, followed by a long walk to get anywhere afterwards.
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here, worked behind the bar; some of the best nights of my youth were wasted there.
Having grown up in Canada, pubs were not exactly a feature of the landscape. However, I fondly remember visiting the Jolly Sailor in Southampton on my first visit to the UK as a kid.
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The Hampshire Bowman dundridge
The Jolly Sailor bursledon (pre Howard'sWay)
The Victory, Hamble
I might have said the Dolphin in Botley, but as it is the only pub I have ever been asked to leave for not drinking enough, I won't
Edit: Spooky!! Re. Jolly Sailor
jimw - all those are very familiar too from back in the day.
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Barleycorn too in Bishops Waltham.
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Most of my Friday nights were spent at this place from 18 to 20. Other country pubs on the other weekend evenings - Skirmett/Fingest area for some nice ales - names escape me.
Fuxache
I'm gonna take that as complementary plagiarism, great minds moment notwithstanding...
Allender bar in Milngavie - now a bad italian restaurant
then the throstles nest and the seymour inn in manchester
The world famous showbar and bistro would have been where my da took me for my first legal pint around 16 year old! 😆 would still class it as a local, though no in as much as I used to be. (Mostly due to the fact I just can't be ****ed drinking alot these days)
Mind I used to work with him and we'd go for a pint, well 5 in rapid succession, which would leave me half pished. Obvious sign that I was pished was you'd hear a loud smash as the pint glass would slip out my hand! Done that a few times before I learned the wonders of using your pinky under the glass to halt the tumblers downward trajectory! 😆
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Tanners Arms Alnwick, not changed much on the outside, cleaned up on the inside
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Tree still a feature, think I went there at about 16 ish... I think the slightly exposed Gents is still there with a Urinal behind a saloon door on the way to the other toilet!!
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The Dirty Bottles Alnwick always got served 🙂
and
[url= https://c4.staticflickr.com/7/6039/6240444779_de5fd4c7cd_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://c4.staticflickr.com/7/6039/6240444779_de5fd4c7cd_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/avrUPv ]Northumberland: Alnwick: THE GEORGE[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/emdjt42/ ]emdjt42[/url], on Flickr
Again, never batted an eyelid so long as you took your school tie off
This was down the road from the school, nice to be refreshed prior to the GCSE exams.
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When I finaly hit 18, did bar work at the weekend here, part Masons temple, part grunge bar.
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The Vic, as it was called in my youth
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One of two pubs that ever had live music
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The other. The Seven Stars. I doubt that sticking a pitched roof on it has improved it much.
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For a special treat one of us would drive and we'd all go here because my sister used to drink here with her mate, Lisa Stansfield (the Lisa Stansfield) and my mates all fancied her.
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Stewartc, Ash Manor boy?
I live just down the road from the Greyhound. Been in there about three times in 20 years!
Sill go in it now some 30odd years later and it is the spiritual home of the MNPR.
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...and Manto.
The Bowring PArk was my regular haunt, in Huyton just on outskirts of Liverpool. Lots and lots of evenings playing pool and drinking there.
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Special mention to the Cunard on Scotland Road though for my first beers and an Xmas tradition
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Now flats but started drinking there in 1991 @ 18, spent 10 years behind the bar too.
The arden house hotel, the Gordon arms, the masonic and for pool the royal. All in Kirkcudbright.
Thanks to playing rugby quite a few in Castle Douglas. Which, although it's 10miles away, I walked back from a few times. Having lost my compatriots and spent my money.
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new inn headingley. Not hard for 15 yr olds to blend in with the students, and then up to the carnegie disco... The 70s. Jumpers for goalposts.
It still has the clock outside with the line "no tick", which is unlikely to mean much to the current crop, extending their student loans via contactless payment at the bar. Took my dad for a pint there last night, so we could glare at the fancy-dressers on the otley run.
Mike, The George is where I met my wife.
Stewartc - I used to be a regular attendee at the ag, back around 2001-2006 or so. Shame I can barely remember any of it due to the excessive nature of our partying back then. Snakebite and black with added vodka was a favourite of that era.
Two old school pubs I used to frequent are now gastropubs and have none of ten atmosphere they used to. The Black Swan (aka mucky duck) in Ockham was a proper biker dive bar with poor lighting and cheap beer, the Bleak House by hotel common was always dead, had a pool table and dart board and a barman who looked like Roland Gift from the fine young cannibals.
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Golden Lion in Romford
The arden house hotel, the Gordon arms, the masonic and for pool the royal. All in Kirkcudbright.
Thanks to playing rugby quite a few in Castle Douglas. Which, although it's 10miles away, I walked back from a few times. Having lost my compatriots and spent my money.
all of those - plus the Smugglers in Auchencairn or Senwick at Borgue when under 18. (Couldnae get served in KBT)
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The place was an absolute melting pot, students, art college types, bikers, hippies, punks, Boro fans pre and post match. All presided over by the fantastic Roy Barnes, RIP, great bloke, super landlord. This from a 1989 Boro fanzine:
Issue 17 vs. Wolves 1989issue17_newdimDiv: 2
Date: 19.08.89
Attendance: 21,727
Result: 4 – 2
Scorers: Slaven (2), Proctor, Dav...
The Linny – End Of An Era
Most FMTTM readers will have visited or heard of “The Linny”, or to give it its seldom used title, The Linthorpe Hotel. It is part of the drinking culture in Boro and responsible for many a youth flowering into full scale drunken slobbery, so it is with a lot of sadness that the drinkers in The Linny heard of the retirement of the manager, Roy Barnes.
I have a lot of affection for the old Linny, circa 1981 to 85, back when it was a proper pub. In those days it was not unusual to see around 20 to 30 bikes outside, inside would be a fair cross section of styles, fashions, smells and standards of personal hygiene. The beer was at a silly price as well, 45p a pint was the opening price. Lager was about 50p. There was never any major trouble and the old place had a seedy run down quality that was somewhere between destitute and derelict. It was brilliant and controlling the whole show was Roy who always looked after the regulars making a point of serving them first and saying hello to anyone else he recognized.
The old Linny and many unusual charms, the snug for instance was a small room behind the bar which always had either a group of bikers or punks in it. In the middle of the bar in the main room was a certain spot that always stunk of vomit, god knows why, standards of cleanliness were as good as most pubs but this one spot just stank of puke. Mind you when the lights failed one New Years Eve at least you could find your way to the bar by smell alone.
In recent years the Linny has simply not being as good as it was. After a major rebuilding and redecoration project the place lost a lot of its character and charm. In a way it’s quite fitting that Roy has decided to leave now, the redecoration signalled the beginning of the end. Most regulars would agree that for some reason the beer and lager has just not been the same, whilst the prices have gone mad.
Perhaps it’s just a case of getting old, but the end of an era has come about
A lot of Stourbridge people on here, nice to see.
The Crispin has already been shown as has The Rock Station (I walk past that pretty much every day, it's now a takeaway), I spent far too much of my late teens in those places.
I also spent a lot of time in Halesowen, The Edward was a favourite as the beer was cheap and the ID checking was lax.
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The Rose and Crown in Hasbury also was a popular haunt, it went though a number of incarnations, music pub, really rough pub, football pub, a brief attempt at being a foodie pub, no idea what it is now.
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And finally, the legendary Waggon and Horses. 20+ guest ales every night, smelt of stale beer and fags, toilets outside, a prper dive of a place. But the beer was good and the pickled eggs were cheap.
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A lot of Stourbridge people on here, nice to see.
Can I just add to the list.
Jesters in the high street. Got turned into a shoe shop.
The Turf in the highstreet. Been told that's still a pub.
The Exchange in the high street, though I maybe spent more time out the back building five sheet constructions. 😉
The Bowling Green, Grafton Street, Manc.
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The Vaynol, Nant Peris
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And of course, the ODG
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No pub. Brother and I used to distil our own "whisky" in the garden shed. (Family tradition, gg/father briefly jailed for it by evil British govt suppressing local native culture and traditions).
Our parties were legendary apparently. I don't remember. 🙂
The Exchange in the high street, though I maybe spent more time out the back building five sheet constructions.
I think that was par for the course there actually.
The Mitre seems to have taken that mantel of late, I was in there a couple of weeks ago, live music, a bit rough, some real "characters" and a lot of weed in the beer garden. It took me back a bit!
The Mitre seems to have taken that mantel of late
I remember getting my picture taken by some plain clothed officers hiding in the building that overlooked the carpark of the Mitre a few times so we stopped going there. So nothing new there.
Golden Lion in Romford
Was a nice pub. I started off at a very tender age at The Bitter End opposite, then if you could blag it upstairs to Ben's Discotheque! So wish I'd took photos of it all.
There used to be a pub in the west end of Ashton-Under-Lyne, getting towards Guide Bridge, that had an indie night at weekends, around the Birch street area. Can't for the life of me remember the name of it or even exactly where it was, but spent many a happy drunken night there at the end of the 80's.
Looking on google maps I think it might have been knocked down when the motorway went through the area, which shows how long ago it is since I have been back home.
Ah, the Vaynol. The end of epic climbing days. The beginning obviously starts in Petes Eats.
The Raven in Wigan was where is all started.
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I then graduated on to The John Bull where I was resident for many years.
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Finally had my first date with my future wife in Raffles. Unfortunately it was bulldozed to make way for a new shopping centre and I can't find any mention of it on the web!
If someone wants to do some screengrabs from Streetview, feel free, but:
1) The Vernon Arms, Poynton - venue for my first ever pint bought from pub, with MartynS of this parish. 1991 (maybe 1990), Boddingtons it was, £1.12. Then scene of general sixth form pub shenanigans
2) The Kingfisher, Poynton - general late teens early twenties pub shenanigans
3) The Farmers Arms, Poynton - as above. Plus The Smokiest Pub In The World Ever
4) The Jolly Sailor, Woodsmoor - General sixth form pub shenanigans, plus gave the opportunity to ogle at the fit posh girls from Hulme Hall and Cheadle Hulme School, plus from Bramhall generally.
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The 'Bird', now shut, which is an improvement
The Deal Hoy, tiny little place and served me cider when I was about 14, I looked like I was 5. Had bar billiards, which took up half the space in the room.
Allthepies, yes but it was Yoemans Bridge when I started, changed halfway through my time there.
Control67, was working there mostly in the 90's, not sure I'm allowed back
All of my dinner money went in here
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All of my grant in here
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All of my wages in here
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Golden Lion in RomfordWas a nice pub. I started off at a very tender age at The Bitter End opposite, then if you could blag it upstairs to Ben's Discotheque! So wish I'd took photos of it all.
I also went in the Bitter End when it was the Ford and Firkin, after a few in there it was then of to either RM1 or Secrets.
Ironbridge has many pubs, not all of them equal.
This was my local.
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The Hatchet Inn, Central Bristol. An old mate used to DJ metal there all night.
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All gone, although the burnt out shell of what was the Barley Mow is still there.
The Cock & Magpies on the Hagley Road near Bearwood.
Now a Steakhouse or something.
Just mentioned how I couldn't remember our parties to my wife.
She reminded me that's where we met... oops!
In no particular order up to about the age of 20:
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Where I learned the bar tending trade and where I met my wife...
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And where the hold an annual tug o' war over the river every Boxing Day
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I practically lived in this pub when I was a youth - the best rock and metal 'get completely pissed, get barred, go back in tomorrow' pub in Bury.
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went in again a few weeks back for the first time in 20 years and bumped into 4 or 5 lads that were always in there when I was a regular.
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Living in a student bedsit upstairs helped 🙂
Welcome to The Griffin, Selby (Warning: this photo runs the risk of making it look welcoming!)...
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The Snake catcher.
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The woodpecker
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The Centurion
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The Rising Sun
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fFS
The Chequers in Stourbridge was our go to pub with the delightful Babs behind the bar
The pub I went to most weekends in the 70's when I was under 10 years old, my grandparents local in North Kensington, The Bridport Arms now housing.
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The White Horse Sheperds Bush, Been in there occasionally since my youthful days, the decor hasn't changed. Expected Regan and Carter to be in there propping up the bar.
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Royal Oak New Malden, Meh.
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The Mill Kingston Upon Thames, used to be a real alternatives pub in the days before kingston became gentrified.
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The Chequers in Stourbridge was our go to pub with the delightful Babs behind the bar
I once delivered some hire equipment to the Chequers at 8.30 on a saturday morning and the pub was rammed. 😯 😀
This was in the days of shorter licencing hours too.
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This was the next'house' down our road, less that two minutes door to door. Some of the happiest memory's of my formative years were made in there 🙂 unfortunately it was turned into a gastro pub, it never recovered 🙁 now an on off cannabis farm (not even joking! ).
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Just for balance, we used to walk up the hill to here as well 🙂 about five mins though, so not the preferred option if you had a thirst to quench.
The Prince Albert in wallheath, the park tavern in k,ford,Christophers American and dwarf throwing on ott nights at the kingfisher which burnt down a couple of weeks ago.
suburbanreuben - I used to frequent the Hautboy as well, somewhat random opening hours at times. Went down the 'Mucky Duck' when the Hautboy decided not to open.
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The Harrow, Shepperton, my girlfriend of the time lived down the road opposite,
I remember the night our eldest mate turned 18, we walked in, Babs spots his 18th birthday badge he had on ..... "You're 18?! But you've been coming in here the last 2 years!"