Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 102 total)
  • Never drink in a flat roofed pub
  • howsyourdad1
    Free Member

    2 pints of lager and couple of E’s please

    Good that they are vanishing?

    https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/jul/11/never-drink-flatroof-pub-manchester-estates

    irc
    Full Member

    Glasgow is full of them. When tenements were torn down in the 70s they were often demolished around the ground floor pub which then had a flat roof stuck on.

    Ranging from the scary people drinking establishments

    to the gentrified with wifi, coffee, real ales and decent food

    Note that only the second has any windows. A good starting point IMO for assessing the vibe of a pub. Bricked up windows often means interesting area.

    shermer75
    Free Member

    I noticed the whole windowless pub thing when I was in Glasgow. Inviting! 😉

    km79
    Free Member

    Non-flat roofed pubs are boring, they lack atmosphere.

    davidtaylforth
    Free Member

    I used to live near one (it’s not there anymore) where there was a gang land shooting, but the shooters actually got set upon by the pub goers and ended up shot themselves! Mental spot.

    It’s a shame they’re dying out though, have heard loads of interesting stories about estate pubs.

    lazybike
    Free Member

    I remember going to a pub like that on the outskirts of Glasgow. I remember it being in the middle of a housing estate, it was the most un pub like building I’ve ever seen…it wasn’t the sort of place normally frequented by an 18yr old gobby Essex lad, luckily I was with a local guy who managed to keep me out of trouble..Jesus, that was back in 1979!

    Nobeerinthefridge
    Free Member

    Coffee has no place in a pub. Nowt worse than trying to get a quick pint In, and some bloody yummy mummy is ordering a load of lattes.

    esselgruntfuttock
    Free Member

    Ok, no flat roof but it should have one…

    Me & a mate had been fishing off Middleton pier & saw a bloke come out of there, he got to about where that Transit’s parked then turned around & went back in. He must’ve covered 500yds in that ‘journey’. I’ve never seen anyone so pissed stay upright. not fall down.

    gordimhor
    Full Member

    Used to make occasional trips to a pub in Ayr called The P.O.W. (Prince of Wales) .Can’t remember if it had a flat roof, and pretty sure it had windows but the furniture was bolted to the floor at one time.

    lazybike
    Free Member

    The one I went to looked like a building you’d find at your local football pitches..complete with steel plate doors.

    bencooper
    Free Member

    The Strathmore is very posh now – it wasn’t like that years ago. We went in once as students, one friend* somehow got into an arm wrestling competition with a regular and broke his thumb, so we left rapidly.

    *Female.

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    When I was growing up there was a pub in the village that was literally a portacabin with wire over the windows and a Tennents sign outside.

    That was a bit rough. 😯

    doug_basqueMTB.com
    Full Member

    I walked into a flatroofer in Glasgow a few years ago and ordered a Guinness and a whisky. There was a silence and the barman said, are you a f-ing catholic? It was only when I left that I realized the name… Bar Gers! Unfortunately I’d just bought a flat opposite and was there checking out the local bar. The bar is flattened now, the flat is for sale if anyone is interested 🙂

    peekay
    Full Member

    The blog that the The Guardian article is based upon is worth a read.

    Sad to think of all the happy memories that were formed in these places (and all the other pubs without flat roofs) as they close and decay before the inevitable conversion to a Tesco Express.

    https://manchesterestatepubs.wordpress.com/

    Nobeerinthefridge
    Free Member

    Used to make occasional trips to a pub in Ayr called The P.O.W. (Prince of Wales) .Can’t remember if it had a flat roof, and pretty sure it had windows but the furniture was bolted to the floor at one time.

    Was across from the racecourse, it’s gone now, thankfully.

    lazybike
    Free Member

    One of the pubs near me is now a bed shop!

    scandal42
    Free Member

    I occasionally drink in this one before Leicester games, it’s often a very interesting pint.

    gordimhor
    Full Member

    @ Nobeerinthefridge That’s the very place. In my defence it was the cheapest pub in the town I think

    squirrelking
    Free Member

    Used to make occasional trips to a pub in Ayr called The P.O.W. (Prince of Wales) .Can’t remember if it had a flat roof, and pretty sure it had windows but the furniture was bolted to the floor at one time.

    As Nobeer says it’s gone, block of flats now (as if the area needed any more). Rest of White City is still a shithole.

    (wow, didn’t realise it had been knocked down in 2008 –

    howsyourdad1
    Free Member

    cheers @peekay interesting read.

    Spin
    Free Member

    Ranging from the scary people drinking establishments

    to the gentrified with wifi, coffee, real ales and decent food

    Christ, I’ve been in both of them. The Strathmore has upped it’s game a bit since though.

    My old boss claimed to have gone into the Louden, ordered a pint, pointed at a picture of William of Orange, said ‘who’s the big poof on the horse?’ and survived. Don’t think I believe him.

    joshvegas
    Free Member

    Glasgow is full of them. When tenements were torn down in the 70s they were often demolished around the ground floor pub which then had a flat roof stuck on.

    Ranging from the scary people drinking establishments

    to the gentrified with wifi, coffee, real ales and decent food

    Not even a mention of the press bar refusing to sell up?!

    doris5000
    Full Member

    I used to live near one (it’s not there anymore) where there was a gang land shooting, but the shooters actually got set upon by the pub goers and ended up shot themselves! Mental spot.

    I’ve heard that one. Was that in Salford? Somewhere between Langworthy and the precinct?

    binners
    Full Member

    I used to live near one (it’s not there anymore) where there was a gang land shooting, but the shooters actually got set upon by the pub goers and ended up shot themselves! Mental spot.

    I’ve heard that one. Was that in Salford? Somewhere between Langworthy and the precinct?

    The Brass Handles. Now no longer there. I had the dubious pleasure of living nearby at the time too. Never went in there. Waaaaaaay too scary!

    That incident happened at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, on a match day, so the pub would have been packed. Not a single witness. thats Salford 6 for you.

    We drank in the Woolpack. Another flat-roofed pub on the other side of the precinct, which according to the Cook Report was the only pub in Salford not paying protection money to Paul Massey. The landlords hired hardman had apparently been shot on 3 occasions as a result, and as they’d all failed to kill him, they now left the place well alone. It also had 2 massive Alsatians running around on the roof. If you spent the afternoon in there (as lazy students, we often did) you’d be offered just about anything known to man, for sale

    Happy memories indeed 😀

    Gary_M
    Free Member

    Another of Glasgow’s fine establishments

    binners
    Full Member

    As we’re posting piccies, The Woolpack – our old local. Now closed, but still standing

    And the Brass Handles, where the hit-men were murderized, now gone…

    I do miss Salford 6. 😀

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    I suppose the difference between those ^ and the Glasgow flat roof pub is the latter are a quirk of planning regs. Those ones above had flat roofs on by design.

    Because they’re landmarks pubs and churches are quite difficult to get planning permission to demolish – both have to sit empty for quite few years – allowing options for them to come back into use before permission gets granted. In Liverpool that gives the distinctive corner pubs that aren’t on the corner of anything anymore and in Glasgow you get the ground floor of a former tenement.

    Thats what makes Glasgow flat roofers pretty menacing in appearance as they’ve got the scale and bulk of a structure that used bear the weight of another 3 or 4 floors above it.

    In the era those pubs were built drinking was a little taboo – window ledges were high and windows opaque and it wasn’t considered polite for drinking to be seen from the street – which adds the barrack-like feel to them.

    snaps
    Free Member

    Not just up north
    We popped in here once on the way back from the car auctions – it was a bit interesting 😕

    binners
    Full Member

    I remember at the height of the Gunchester thing walking into the Spinners, a flat-roofed pub in Moss side. There was an enormous gangster sat there watching Corrie on a portable telly. In front of him, just lying on the table, was a nine bar, a set of scales, and an effing huge machete

    Above the bar was a handwritten sign that said ‘will customers please purchase a drink before buying drugs’

    Nice place 😯

    Christ! Manchester was mental back then!

    franksinatra
    Full Member

    “[Estate pubs] are seemingly minor pieces of architecture … but they’re of great importance and should be treated that way.”

    Really?

    binners
    Full Member

    Surely the ultimate in flat-roofed drinking establishments….

    The round, flat-roofed pub. The Drum in St Retford. Now demolished and replaced with a Macdonalds. I doubt anyone mourned its passing

    doris5000
    Full Member

    ahaha some memories there binners!

    I left Salford in 2001 for the relative peace of the Hulme Redbricks. While in Salford I looked like a scrawnier version of Neil from the Young Ones, and so rarely went to local pubs. But you did just remind me of the time that my housemate was walking to the shop, about lunchtime one day, when he was asked by a random passing scally if he’d help drag the driver of a BMW (that had just pulled over to make a phonecall) out of the car so he could steal it. Friend said no, scally shrugged, told him to **** off then and went on his merry way 😆

    Didn’t know the Drum had gone. In later years I used to go past that every day and wonder what it was like inside. Not enough to actually go in though, ha

    In the era those pubs were built drinking was a little taboo – window ledges were high and windows opaque and it wasn’t considered polite for drinking to be seen from the street – which adds the barrack-like feel to them.

    quite like that little social detail – thanks 🙂

    BoardinBob
    Full Member

    This one is near me. Looks hellish

    https://goo.gl/maps/FXW17DnSCon

    doris5000
    Full Member

    This one is near me. Looks hellish

    I like the way google maps has used the dainty little cocktail glass icon for that particular establishment 😆

    joshvegas
    Free Member

    Can we add pubs under railway arches?

    BoardinBob
    Full Member

    It’s telling that the building to the left is the local police station

    That entire street could’ve doubled for west Baltimore before they tore down all the high rises.

    EDIT

    In a weird quirk, one random point in the street still has the old Google street view

    Pre high rise demolition: https://goo.gl/maps/tJxW9JyQPDT2

    Post high rise demolition: https://goo.gl/maps/fgbfJ3nR4xE2

    hatter
    Full Member

    Used to work in this one, the Gade & Goose, Hemel Hempstead.

    Not the period of my life I look back on with the most fondness I must say.

    *shudder*

    BurnBob
    Free Member

    Pubs under railway bridges? Sharkeys in Glasgow for one.

    spursn17
    Free Member

    We went to one of the in-laws engagement party at this rat hole in Leeds in the 80’s once when it was called The Sphinx…

    The Sphinx

    …and we had to fight our way out at the end of the night when the locals got a bit lairy. Put the women and kids in the first taxi’s to turn up, then had to fend them off like indians around a wagon train until more taxi’s could get there. Interesting! 😀

    Gary_M
    Free Member

    Pubs under railway bridges? Sharkeys in Glasgow for one.

    And from the other side of the divide, the brazen heid, in part anyway

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