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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