Lots of pubs near me have closed and are boarded up, a few i ride past have about 3 customers inside, is the public house a failed institution,due to smoking bans, drink driving laws or just the cost of a pint, or are people just anti social and spend nights chatting to strangers on the internet.

Discuss.

I do. Just got home after a couple of beers and reading before dinner and the place was packed.

Price of a pint is getting daft innit.

Yep – me. I go to the village pub once a week and 2-3 times when on holiday. It’s a haven.

I go as often as I ever have.

Maybe once or twice a week for a few drinks.

And its never quiet when I’m in there.

I do, and I’ll be there tomorrow night. I’d be there Saturday night too, but I’ll be seeing Katzenjammer in Bristol instead.
Sadly, the beautiful Lauren won’t be there to serve me, but I guess I can survive a week… 😀

In the pub now…. Bad day at work, price of a glass of red and a pint £8, too much to do regularly

^^^^ it’s the price of wine that kills it in a lot of places – a pint of their own ale is under £3 (with camra discount) in my local brew pub (which is usually packed btw)

After many (many) years of visiting the pub after work it has sadly become financially unjustifiable more than once or maybe at a push twice a week…. and to think I remember complaining that lager (yes soft southern !) had reached £1 a pint, if only !!. Fortunately the Man cave is now almost fully equipped… though sadly Mrs Lc sent the barmaid packing 😉

I have ‘2’ locals (*gf lives and I live seperately during week, so alternate weekends at each house – and we go down most weekends at hers(better pub) and some at mine and, and also the hockey club go to mine after the game at 10pm on Thu)

I think a ‘good’ pub is a true social amenity and yes without a shadow of a doubt it’s a hard time for them. (And I guess good varies per person)

I’d like to see something to encourage ‘social facility/inclusive pubs’, as a basic maybe intelligent vat/tax, on open alcohol sales – do something to help pubs, on closed alcohol sales – do something to control minimum pricing, so at least pub price is nearer supermarket and yes I know that falls down badly in the throbbing, 14-25 packed, standup then lie in gutter bars.

Of course I go to the pub what kind of a man do you think I am..?

My local is a micro brewery of distinction, many awards, uses local hops and ingredients. He produces 5 beers and 1 special depending on the season.

Damn
Fine
Beer.

He’s a kitchen to produce the finest of fare, menu consists of sausage and chips or egg and chips for the veggies ( like us) of the world.

Also during a ride out a couple of years ago I stumbled upon another micro brewery of distinction, they have a link to some other micro brewery over Somerset way, 12 beers from the barrel.

Most
Excellent
Beer’idge.

I hate chains, hate larga, hate frothy bitter called John Smarts or something like.

Of course I go to the pub, once a week,mind, not every night you understand.

Just back from an award winning pub in Newcastle and it was packed.

Two or three times a week at the waverly for a few pints of best.

Occasional pub lunch, the odd nice summery day will walk down the hill and have a few in the beer garden. That’s about it. Don’t regularly go out anymore, when I do go out it’s normally town centre so more likely to be bars than pubs.

Yes. I don’t really drink at home.

Looking forward to a few at my local before picking up Chinese food from there tomorrow night. I really hope ours keeps going as there will be nothing but a shop and church left if it does go!

When in the UK yes. Great pubs great places to be. Price of beer has gone up so has everything else.

Now in Oz not as much beer at $8-9 /pint (4.50-6 depending on how you take the exchange rate) is harsh but pubs are still busy. The main reason is that we live on top of a big hill which makes the walk home very unpleasant.

Love the pub, don’t frequent our local one as often as we used to purely because of the cost, but our MTB club shirt is sponsored by a pub and the local brewery too!.. Most of our rides finish there and it’s like a HQ for us all to catch up and have a giggle.. It’s on the front of the Good Beer Guide this year and best of all it only serves drinks so no tables exclusively for diners just refreshing post ride giddyness 😆

When on holiday, yes. At home, virtually never. Most of the ones near me are mediocre at best, plus I drink mainly wine now – must be an age thing.

yep went to my local one for lunch, was excellent and pretty busy but then it’s got a Michelin Star.

Yes. in one right now.

I go out semi-regularly with a mate or two, like maybe once a month now. It’s mostly time constraints that stop us from going more often really, (proper) beer is still about £2.40/pint here, so we can sink half a dozen pints each and have enough left out of a twenty for a pizza to munch on the way home. Not too shabby really.

Yeah, I go reasonably regularly. There is a couple of brew pubs within 15 mins walk that I go to and there are a good few in Brum that I go to when in town as well.

I like a good pub, but they have to be good, not just serve your plastic, mass produced muck.

Love my local in south Brizzle. Always six guest ales on.

Yup least once a week when I can but Mrs is out tonight so grab a few takeaway bottles on the way past earlier, they’re for tomorrow though.

it’s the price of wine that kills it in a lot of places – a pint of their own ale is under £3 (with camra discount) in my local brew pub (which is usually packed btw)

I’m not sure when paying 3 quid for a pint became considered good value for money. I’m in danger of sounding old but I remember buying my first pint of bitter in a pub and it costing under a pound (in the NE of England in the very early 90s)

I go to the pub for a drink, but not as often as I’d like to really. Not through financial reasons, just struggle to find the time.
Our local has 4 guest ales & an excellent restaurant. Quite like going in every now & again on my own with a good book.

I remember buying my first pint of bitter in a pub and it costing under a pound (in the NE of England in the very early 90s)

IN-FLA-TION

and tax rises back then petrol cost 60p/l

however drinking wine in pubs needs looking at – DRINK BEER

Once or twice a week. Used to be more regular, especially when my (now) wife worked behind the bar. The evenings when I drank more than she took home were fun/embarassing.

It has also tailed off a little as our local-local (end of the road) doesn’t allow dogs, so I have to walk to the 10-minute-local with the pup, which makes nipping back to put dinner on between rounds a hassle…

ive not visited the locals near our new house yet (thats 8 months in …) not had time due to DIY coupled with the fact that when i drive by theres always trouble/police car outside one of them.

our old house had at 2 great pubs we would go to often.

When on holiday we often visit pubs as especially if they do food as generally on the whole we can usually get a good feed out of it as oppose to going to mega corp chain and getting a medeocore feed.

*by pub i dont mean a weatherspoons – thats just a supermarket with glasses

I’m not sure when paying 3 quid for a pint became considered good value for money

Beer is like petrol – most people will not consume less regardless of the rising price.

Also, try telling someone they should stop their smoking or drinking ‘habit’ – they’ll generally react like you’ve just vomitted all over their children and accused them of being a paedo.

We regularly nip down to one of our decent local boozers in the evening. We’re lucky enough to have a micro-brewery within a quick stroll, and another pub that does top notch food. Both are always really busy!

The nearest pub to us is dying on its arse though. As its had a temporary manager in there who’s a right miserable sod, and clearly doesn’t give a toss! The beer’s rubbish!

So everyone has voted with their feet, and just stopped going in. There’s a new proper landlord and landlady moved in this week, so we’re going to pop in tonight and check it out. If a round of drinks for 2 of us is going to cost £7-8 a pop, I want to go somewhere who actually give a ****! So does everyone else, I imagine. Hence a lot of boarded up pubs

Yes, 2-3 times a week. Last night I had some work stuff to read so I stopped in at the pub for a pint of locally brewed beer. Have a pint and pub lunch most weekends.

As an aside it was reported today that the average pint includes £1 in tax and duty costs.

Spring and Autumn …

[/url] Surrey Hills by JambalayaPhoto, on Flickr[/img]

[/url] Surrey Hills by JambalayaPhoto, on Flickr[/img]

Yep. My local is thriving*, which is great to see!

*Not solely on my contributions to their coffers, I might add!

I am not interested to go to the PUB. I don’t like drinking.

meh

pubs are ok but i only visit now and again since the wee-uns came along dont get much chance

the 2 nearest pubs by me are full of very unhealthy looking old men who quite frankly should probably drink a lot less

also a fight in a pub nearby end in a murder

what im trying to say is i think we have too many pubs anyway

let the shit ones fail

the nice ones can stay

Nopes, i don’t. I have a lovely country pub at the end of the road. It could hold about 200 people…. it generally gets 4-6 people in per night. It closed due to bankrupcy not long ago…. it will soon be closing again i’d expect.

Go there 3-4 times a year on a Friday after work when sunny and have a beer in the garden while my boy plays.

The pubs that tend to close tend to be the ones that are utterly depressing/on their way anyway for the main. A sweeping generalisation maybe but the ones I’ve seen shut always seemed to be the most depressive/half-empty etc before the smoking ban etc.

You’ll ALWAYS want to drink somewhere where there is a good vibe regardless of the price.

FWIW my locals used to be the Kirkstyle and the Bitter End in Cockermouth. 2 great pubs get out of the cities and get out of the south 🙂

Usually pop in for a quick pint or two when walking the dog – she loves the pork scratchings and is partial to a drop of Doom Bar.