Walking into dodgy pubs – etiquette?

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.

you say this like it is a bad thing

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 was “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

I’d have sold my soul to go to a party like that when I was a student. All I got was earnest discussions on the evils of patriarchy 🙁

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

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.

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

The Kings Arms pub, Salford. Music & theatre.

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):

Though they do have another hits (probably NSFW):

This one looks like it actually had a bit of a budget:

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 the Castle 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.

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 Jism 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.