[Closed] Walking into dodgy pubs - etiquette?

[i]singlesteed - Member
This thread reminds me of a time when I walked into Newton Abbot's finest " cider bar " where you literally think you've just stepped onto a pirate ship.

I casually ordered two steak and ale pies and two pints of strong cider and was presented with a plank of wood to perch on which was all very basic but man that pint and pie did the job!
I actually quite liked ths experience as a teenager as it felt " proper jobby " in a historic kindaway.

If I went further south and found this place then inbreds would deffo be found.

Tbh I can't stand going to my local nowadays or in past as it's unfortunately full of inbreaded toffs and rich so called " farmers ".

So I have now found a great ph on the canal with great scenery and countryside walks whilst topping up on black dragon cider ( is a must try ).

Rev James is a really good cask ale but I have to go into town to get it. Sigh lol
[/i]
As a student I lived about 6 doors down from the cider bar. Now that was a proper boozer. Quiz at the jolly farmer wasn't bad either.

I remember that 'hit' Bregante. I wouldn't have gone near that boozer. We drank at the Woolpack up the road. That was apparently the only pub in Salford not paying protection. There was a bloke in there called Johnny Red, who booted the scrotes out. Apparently he'd been shot on a number of occasions, and was generally regarded as unkillable

also used to love in Eccles and used to drink in the Inn of Good Hope, which wasn't a bad boozer. Left there after a few scoops just as 2 people got shot in a drive by.

Got to love Salford! I do miss it! 😀

[i]but we stayed in the log cabins next to Goytre Football Club with an attached bar.[/i]

ha.ha. God, everything was made of formica...

The old-boy sat by the corner. "for a good night out, you need to go to Measteg, if you're a supermodel, you go to Swansea"

Or the farmer (with baling twine detail on his trice handed down tweeds)

"Mountain biking is it? Take it up the arse do you?"

Drunk in that Salford pub Bregante posted, as a mate used to live in one of those high rises begin it - never did it again!

Once did the 'walk in, order beer & then look round' in a bar in Daytona, Florida. Don't know whether it was the club patch painted on the wall or the fact all the patrons were in cuts, heavily tattooed & wearing beards that made them look like they'd eaten a bear & left its arse hanging out.
In retrospect the Harleys parked outside adorned with shotgun boots on the frame should have been a pointer..

The Brown Cow was on our Friday night pub crawl list Tobago.

Ye gods. Mind you, I've been in some pretty awful pubs in my time (Smithdown 10, anyone?)

Is the Flying Shuttle in the middle of Bury as dreadful as it looks?

what about pubs next to train stations

on a work trip to nottingham. our hotel was shut?! so we went in the pub right next to the station. 😯

It is as follows: without fail.
Enter pub, march to the bar.

Do not acknowledge anyone but the female attendant. Real hard pubs don't employ men.

Ask for a pint of heavy. You will be asked which one, your response is "the cheapest".

Drink half of it in one. Buy a Bells and say "one for you too love".

Roll a fag.

Pick a spot and stay alive as long as you can. I can only speak for Scottish pubs with flat roofs.

Edit: You know what, I love a dodgy pub. IME though, you really have to be alone, or "away" with another 10 000.

building a couple of log cabins up near irvine somewhere, can't remember the town, me and another lad walked into a bar, everyone turned round and stared and then carried on. we stood at the bar, bar man looked up, carried on talking....still talking...still talking, a couple of locals came in, got served straight away. barman looks at us again, carries on talking...still talking.. still talking...we turn around and leave, fast

all the local, feral, unemployed inbreds

'ere! I resemble that remark 😐

Don't laugh at the strippers.

Oh, and yet another vote for Glasgow "Flat Roofs".
My favourite though, of all time, for various reasons is the Station Bar in Fort William.

suburbanreuben - Member
Don't laugh at the strippers.

Especially at The Flying Scotsman near Kings Cross...

Jesus! Is that still going on? Not been there for ten years and it was dodgy back then.

I usually just enquire whether the olives are organic and if they are order a small glass of rose. Seems to break the ice.

Cougar, are you thinking of JB's in Dudley, I went to the Indie Rick disco there. It was pretty friendly as I recall.
'The Nelson' in Cowley (Oxford) was finally closed a few months ago. Another flat roofed hell hole. Some of the girls from my work drank in there, you'd be openly offered smack, and full scale armed raids weren't that uncommon.
I never set foot in there.

[salvation_army]
Hand out your copies of the War Cry and get back in time for band practice.
[/salvation_army]

An old uni mate of mine used to work behind the bar at the Flying Scotsman in Kings Cross.

I fondly remember the Lord Nelson in Keighley, real spit and sawdust place that had such a bad rep., the council had the grassed area in front of it, turned into a mound to make it more difficult for the regulars to square up to each other. Happy days.

2 Pina Coladas please

[url= https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3646/5789447527_943994b20b_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3646/5789447527_943994b20b_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/9PAr3P ]The 524 Cocktal Bar, George Street, Aberdeen[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/11026847@N02/ ]8333696[/url], on Flickr

Cougar, are you thinking of JB's in Dudley,

Computer says no.

My Local

Two rather well dressed young ladies walk in . Obviously "not from round here".

Whole pub goes completely silent whilst they decide whether to stay or flee.
They stay and walk hesitantly up to the bar.
Our barman looks down at them an sniffs twice " You got shit on your shoes ?" The young ladies check quickly and reply "No"
"Right then **** Off and don't come back till you have"

Newcastle is full of dodgy pubs - The Burglars Dog is worth a read if you like pubs there.

Oddly places such as The Ship in Byker are now student hangouts, Ship had its own personal CCTV camera pointing at it in the late 90s/00s

The Scrog in Pottery Bank - my mate lived next to it and would never go in with me, even though he fit right in. I seem to recall the turnover of landlords being quite high due to persistent dope growing in the upper part of the pub.

Star inn at bottom of Westgate road - get shot in there, even though it only ever happened once.

Never had any bother in any of the rougher pubs, the popular shit ones though, regularly would have 'have a go twunts' being a bit of a hard man with me.

I used to drink in the Nelson in Oxford. My parents had their wedding reception there. I went to school with the landlady's sons. One of them was murdered in the car park.

Interestingly I also lived right by the Flemish Weaver. My Oxford accent blended right in 😆

Ye gods. Mind you, I've been in some pretty awful pubs in my time (Smithdown 10, anyone?)
Is the Flying Shuttle in the middle of Bury as dreadful as it looks?

The city end of The Smithdown Ten was unbelievably rough. Got told I had 30 second to drink up and F off, not a threat, advice.

[URL= http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o42/Citroenxsara/3DDA7B1A-C5D6-4120-A74D-7E5E3E14646B.jp g" target="_blank">http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o42/Citroenxsara/3DDA7B1A-C5D6-4120-A74D-7E5E3E14646B.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

I can't remember any really rough pubs that I've drunk in. Mainly ones that don't have anything decent on the pumps I've walked in then out of. I've lived a sheltered life 😀

But then- I wouldn't walk into any pub in the middle of a sprawling estate near the city grounds or parts of Salford.

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I'm disappointed to see that the two pubs we were most scared in in leeds have both closed. Both obeying the flat roof convention.

Well I made it out alive! And un-bummed! Literally and metaphorically!

£2.60 for a pint of Kronenberg! Difficult to see how they could do it and still finance the elaborate decor

You went through all that anguish and then threw away your money on a glass of Europiss?

[i]Shakes head in pity.[/i]

You went through all that anguish and then threw away your money on a glass of Europiss?

I remember going into a footie pub near the old Dell at Southampton [s]years[/s] two decades 😯 ago - I asked for a glass of red and the barman said 'are you sure'? I said yes (he shrugged). I didn't realise that would have marked me out. Hang on- I remember the night Moss side shot someone in Picadilly 21's 😯

I recall a rough old looking dive in the Welsh valleys when briefly living there, bunch of us IT folk walk in, sawdust on floor, bar and a dartboard and that's it. Toothless types about that place, odd looks walking in.

Jeezus, imagine, you're having a quiet pint in your local and a bunch of IT nerds wander in talking about coding and Audis and mountain bike wheel sizes. 'IT folk'... 😥

i'm in Rawtenstall

Did you go to the Sun Inn before they knocked it down? Having grown up in Rawtenstall the Sun still acts as my benchmark for shitty flat-roofed pubs!!

As students we used to go climbing in Wales and would stay near Bethesda so the nearest pub was the Bull, I think. I went to the bar with a GF who ordered a round and the barmaid told her: "That'll be nineteen shillings and ninepence please!" - this was in about 1979. My GF was confused and replied: "Oh blimey.... is that more or less than a pound? I can't remember!" This was exactly what the barmaid was hoping she'd say because back came the reply in a loud sneer: "I can tell you're English - you've no educashun!"

In the front room there was a pool table with seats rather close around it and I remember one of the local lads lining up his cue just so that the end was prodding in the ear of a pal from Belfast, who just sat there smiling vacantly, ignoring the provocation. He left Belfast just to get away from that kind of behaviour, mind you.

The looks I got when I went into the Inn at Whitewell with last seasons tweed aren't easy to forget

I like a dodgy pub too but there's dodgy and too dodgy but as some people have pointed out some don't look bad but go very wrong.

I once sat at the bar in a near empty pub and a bloke walked in, walked up behind me and whispered in my ear "That's my flipping stool you cur" (swear words were actually used) "why don't you take your drink and flip off before I kick your flipping head off your flipping shoulders" then he walked off to the gents. The barman reckoned he was a pussy and I could take him but I did the decent thing and necked my beer and left.

My Local

In my student days, I used to frequent a legendary place in Blackburn called The Vulcan.

The Vulcan was a proper full-on rock / biker pub. Dark, moody, and full of "characters." We drank out of bottles, because we didn't know where the glasses had been. The sign behind the bar read, "anyone caught dealing or using illegal drugs will be barred permanently." Underneath in black Sharpie someone had added, "unless the barman gets a cut."

The place had, like many biker bars, a nasty reputation that was largely unfounded. There was never any bother because, well, the term would be "self-policing". You'd have to be a special breed of stupid to start trouble in The Vulcan.

One summery afternoon, a mate and I had visited The Chippery round the corner for a portion of hangover cure, back when it was the best chippie in a 50 mile radius. Retired to a bench outside The Vulcan to consume our greasy loveliness and contemplate a gratuitous Kaltenberg.

Two lads in lurid shell suits de jour walked past, and popped into The Vulcan. Oh, this should be good, we thought.

30 seconds passed, and both lads left the pub, much more rapidly than they arrived, and horizontally, as one of the scarier residents we knew only as "Pink T-Shirt Man" had taken one in each hand and ejected them.

Legend has it that Pink T-Shirt Man was eventually barred after deciding that he liked the jukebox so much he'd torn it from the wall one night (with his bare hands (bear hands?)) and taken it home with him. The jukebox in question was one of those header unit things, there was no actual music in it.

The pub's now long demolished. Its sign spent a while residing as a souvenir in one of Blackburn's other rock haunts, The Napier. That place had a similar warning about drugs, "anyone caught dealing or using illegal drugs will be kicked in the bollocks by Mick."

Happy days.

bloody hell Cougar, i proposed to my wife in the Napier. The Vulcan was stuff of Legend in the 80's, never went in. I did wander into one of the pubs on the Barbary Coast (?) on Mincing Lane one new years eve, didn't even make it to the bar.
Where were you a student, I was a St mary's college ponce

For Manchester folk - I used to DJ at club nights at the Phoenix - the place where Damien Noonan got shot outside (not when I was there). Did see some interesting things though. 🙂

Mincing Lane

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Mincing Lane was a bit of a mis noma, it is the red light district. Not that I knew that at 17 years old 😳

bloody hell Cougar, i proposed to my wife in the Napier.

That's ace. Shame you never made it to The Vulcan, it was a very special place. Blackburn used to be a haven of rock bars though, The Courts, and the Fox and Grapes were other regular haunts.

Where were you a student, I was a St mary's college ponce

Accy College for me. Then [s]Preston Polytechnic[/s] [s]Lancashire Polytechnic[/s] The University of Central Lancashire.

I went to Uni at UEA in Norwich (BITD), no Pub was out of bounds there all in fact welcomed us all in. Such friendly folks Norfolk'ists.
On an "exchange" trip over to Manchester Uni for a couple of days we were cordially invited to go for beers down the road from the Uni.. We exited the main entrance (across from a huge red brick building, if it's still there) whereby a scrote was performing handbrake turns in his fiesta in the main road, then we headed to what I can only describe as a shit hole, turned out it was a Pub and being soft southerners we turned back and headed back to the Uni where we felt safe. Later that evening we were invited to a student party, turns out it was in some shit hole of an estate on the edge of long terrace housing slums. I lasted about 15mins before a Girl got her tits out and I promptly left for better climes.
I went home the following day.

I hope Manchester is better these days.

I had some interesting nights out in Accy, usually culminating in the Bees Knees. Sunday seemed to be the happening night for some reason

I lasted about 15mins before a Girl got her t...s out and I promptly left for better climes

Sounds like the start of a good night to me. (-:

I lasted about 15mins before a Girl got her tits out and I promptly left for better climes.

Yeah well you know, I'm a bit (very) prudish.

S'pose I should have given it another 15mins, but I just couldn't face a growler being presented so early in the evening. 😆

I've found the best approach is to loudly ask the barman "Is there a straight pub around here?"

Bikebouy - you've just described a normal big-standard night in Manchester

Newport had a pub called the Trout Vaults, had a serious reputation, went in only the once. First thing I saw was a Space invader machine on its side being used as a table. Hasty pint and out we went. There is a pub called the Open Hearth in Ringland, just not worth going in.

Worst place was a club called the Queen of Hearts in Nelson 😯 terrifying, the bouncers were renowned for being vicious bastards and people who thought they were tough would only go to take them on. It had all sorts of weird codes, if you turned your empty glass upside down and put it on the table meant you were willing to fight anyone in the building. I think it was finally closed down in the mid 80's.

I don't really expect anybody on here to know it, but I thought it worth a punt as this is about "alterntive"-type pubs. This [i]was[/i] "back in the day" mind, which for me is considerably far back in time.

The Three Fishes, Kingston-on-Thames. Anybody?

http://www.eelpie.org/epd_20.htm

I had some interesting nights out in Accy, usually culminating in the Bees Knees. Sunday seemed to be the happening night for some reason

Yeah, it went that way for a while, I never really understood it either. I stopped going out at weekends in the end cos it was rammed and I was getting too old and grumpy for it, so I don't know if that's still the case. Far more likely to go out for a couple midweek these days rather than a messy weekender.

Was never really a fan of the Bees Knees if I'm honest. It's always had a bit of a "neither one nor the other" identity crisis, but turned into a brash "when we grow up we want to be a night club" affair and that wasn't for me. The only time I spent any real time in there was when they used to hold a pub quiz.

My 'local' for a long time was the Hope & Anchor. That was sort of a Vulcan-Lite, with a similar largely undeserved reputation. Had a lot of good nights in there, but it basically died when the incumbent landlord left. It went through a series of owners who had great ideas but didn't really understand what they had and never lasted very long. Shame really.

Been in a few rough ones over the years. I work in shipbuilding, and there are some charming pubs near shipyards.

The Crow Bar on Dumbarton road in Glasgow was a good example... the kind of place where if you didn't take a crowbar with you, the bouncers would probably lend you one.

There are some horrific looking flat roofed pubs in Glasgow!

I'm in Rawtenstall. It's more of a 'Deliverence' type of scary!

i grew up in that town and although i have never been in any of the pubs i know of all their reputations

Rusty - The queens Arms. I've not been in pub that smelt that bad since the week the smoking ban came in! More tracky bottoms than you can shake a spliff at!

FFS of all the pubs in that town you end up in the biggest shithole of a pub if you can call it that!! its always full of chavvy little scrotes! the place has had more owners than punters but has always been a dive
dont tell me you were waiting for Q club to open upstairs! more affectionately known as Stickies to the locals. the reason being that the floor is always sticky from whatever fluid it is that drips off the ceiling

I lasted about 15mins before a Girl got her tits out

Has anybody ever been inside The Crescent in Salford? Whenever I drive past I think it looks interesting enough to warrant a visit:

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From gonzy's post I've just realised I've been in the pub binners is on about. As part of my youth work job I took a young DJ from Morecambe to play at a teenage 'donk' night in the club upstairs. 🙂

I don't remember the pub being that bad in comparison!

dont tell me you were waiting for Q club to open upstairs! more affectionately known as Stickies to the locals. the reason being that the floor is always sticky from whatever fluid it is that drips off the ceiling

Did anyone else go to any of the rock nights in stickies in the early 00's?

Globalti - The Crescent always wins CAMRA awards. We used to drink in the Black Horse down the road, as it was next to the police station. As it was full of coppers just off shift, they had a somewhat liberal aproach to licensing hours.

I took a young DJ from Morecambe to play at a teenage 'donk' night in the club upstairs.

I'm probably going to regret this but I'm at work and afraid to Google. WTF is a donk night?

As part of my youth work job I took a young DJ from Morecambe to play at a teenage 'donk' night in the club upstairs.

Grum i used to be a youth worker too. we also had a group of local lads who had a DJ night set up to play upstairs too...mainly on a thursday night
i think i only ever went upstairs twice...which was 2 times too many! downstairs wasnt too bad but you can make it the nicest place on earth but it will still fill up with the same unsavoury people!

Queens takes the title of the biggest shithole pub in rawtenstall simply because Madisons wine bar is now closed and the the Sun Inn eventually got demolished...now that was THE biggest shithole ever...full of the worst of the worst....mainly wannabe gangsters and drug dealers.

hora - Member
My boss told me about the Manchester tradition of buy a pint and tip the barman (20p?). Is that common place?

Many moons ago (early 90s) got a job in a rough pub just off Deansgate (long since gone) and on 1st day a girl bought a couple of drinks and said to me "And have one for yourself". Now I'd just rocked up from that there London and when you say that to a barman you'd literally mean have a drink for yourself. So I took for a pint for me and gave her her change. About 30 seconds later this big Manc charges up, grabs me by my shirt front and tries to pull me over the bar. Turns out that "Have one for yourself" does indeed mean take 20p.

I explained my mistake and we all laughed uproariously (not). Didn't work there for long.

Also many moons ago, me and a mate went to Merthyr Tydfil to score (long, long story). Met up with mate's mate and the deal was done. Went with him for a quick pint at his local. Every bloke there was bigger than me (I'm 6'4") and all they talked about was fighting and f***ing (usually at the same time) and how much time they'd done for inflicting various types of gbh on various poor sods. We were safe 'cause we were with a local but I was well happy to get out of there and I can happily say I've never been to a big city pub anywhere (and I've drunk in some well dodgy gaffs in the likes of London, Manchester, Salford, Bristol etc etc) that even came close to that pub

Stayed in Whitehaven a good few years ago to do a fell race. Few places there to get teeth in a basket! Also Wrexham has its fair share of friendly welcoming pubs!

Putting a banging donk on it is a Wigan thing, familiar to listeners to Rad Mac on 6 music, from the sample..,

"You know what you want to do wi that, right....?"

"You wanna put a banging donk on it!!!"

The music itself is awful!

A pal of ours who is a coded welder got a job in Harland & Wolf in Belfast and quite soon found himself being checked out because he's from Lewis and nobody could work out his accent and hence his likely religion. Once it was established that he was OK, he found himself being invited to some increasingly dodgy pubs in loyalist areas and then one day taken to buy a black leather jacket... at which point he realised he was getting sucked into something unsavoury and he left Belfast, quick.

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Govan late 70's - not the place to ask for two pints of bitter! (Off ship in local drydock).

A pal of ours who is a coded welder got a job in Harland & Wolf in Belfast and quite soon found himself being checked out because he's from Lewis

A coded welder from Lewis with a tendency to get into 'scrapes'. Barvas?

No, Burns.

I've got a visitor from Cape Town coming for four days in April and he will be wanting to go on a pub crawl in Manchester. Suggestions welcome but I've already planned the Old Monkey because it's Holts and right next to his hotel, the Novotel. Next a taxi out to Salford to check out the Crescent, then I think we might head over to Rochdale Road to try the Angel and then the Marble Arch, maybe having some food there. How does that sound?

Ah, thought it might have been the same chap
i knew.

for those that know the Rossendale valley, the Roebuck in Haslingden was a shocker of place.

'stickies' or Q bar in Rawtenstall was terrible, Madison's wine bar was marginally better

globalti

http://kingsarmssalford.com/

Heh - gonzy it may have been their night I brought the lad from Morecambe to! It was full of a terrifying amount of very young girls dressed like Amsterdam red light district workers. 🙁

Cougar - donk is an onomatopoeic word to describe the off beat bass sound found in every single track. Sometimes known as bouncy house or scouse house or just bounce.

This is the defining moment of the oeuvre (make sure you get to 40 secs in):

globalti - Member
Has anybody ever been inside The Crescent in Salford? Whenever I drive past I think it looks interesting enough to warrant a visit:

It's a completely harmless student pub, with a music venue upstairs - appearances are very deceptive in this case.
🙂

Hora's suggestion of the King's is a good one.
Used to work in the old Gas Office building opposite - used to go there or the Salford Arms down the road - a lovely Pub run by Dave and Gwen until the local gangsters took a shine to it.
They took it over one weekend, painted the windows black and ran it for their own benefit.

Black Horse was ace, Pen and Whig not so much - both gone now.

Gwen runs the Briton's Protection now, another pub you should try, along with the Fringe on Swann Street, Circus Tavern and ooohhh loads more.

Anyone else used to frequent the Thunderdome on Oldham Road?
A refuge for people not 'connected' to those who ruined the Hacienda, at least for a few months 'till a certain Manchester boxer was shot one night whilst working the door.
Shame.

Globalti- try [url= http://thecastlehotel.info ]the Castle[/url] too

for those that know the Rossendale valley, the Roebuck in Haslingden was a shocker of place.

I stopped going to Haslingden when I was about 16-17 and could get into all the pubs in Rawtenstall (says a lot about the place)!

I stopped going to Haslingden when I was about 16-17 and could get into all the pubs in Rawtenstall (says a lot about the place)!

same here!

Gwen runs the Briton's Protection now, another pub you should try,

The Briton's is ace. Be sure to ask them for the drinks menu.

I remember quite liking this place as a very traditional Manchester boozer - not been in years though.

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I grew up in North Ayrshire. Dodgy pubs were its stock in trade.

A pint and a fight was most Saturday nights sorted - and a fair number of week days too.

But nothing really prepared be for the grimness of drinking in Fort William.

After being growled at by grim face locals - order drink, drink it quickly and leave in three pubs in a row we went back to our B&B. I might have understood if i'd been out with a gang of mates but I was just out for a quiet drink with the wife.

For a place that's meant to be touristy it really has some proper shit hole pubs

They're all dives (what's left of them) in Rawtenstall, apart from the White Lion just up Burnley rd. Well run, cosy, good ales and decent bands on a Saturday night. Always seems to be busy. Oh and the station bar as as already mentioned, not to be confused with the old [s]Jism[/s] Rhythm Station 🙂

The Crescent was my favourite Salford pub. It had a great juke box and loads of real ales on tap. Also had a giant orange juicer. I don't think proper rough pubs do pints of freshly squeezed orange juice.

Went into a pub in Bermondsy near London Bridge a few years back, wasn't just the looks that where the issue. We received a very clear "F Off, you're not drinking in here". Now its all gastro pubs & bistros round there.

Anyway, yes you can just walk straight back out.

FastHaggis; In all fairness the sportie is a cut above the tram and the 'hoe.