Rough pub stories
Discussion
a pub we drank in as teenagers had a visit by two opposing football supporters coaches,
you could cut the tension with a knife,
after 30 mins a barstool crashed against the wall over one lot, as they stood up they caught the next one full face,
it was like the wild west, one team supporters fighting the other lot, then the locals fighting anyone they didnt know.
you could cut the tension with a knife,
after 30 mins a barstool crashed against the wall over one lot, as they stood up they caught the next one full face,
it was like the wild west, one team supporters fighting the other lot, then the locals fighting anyone they didnt know.
was the foresters arms on southend sea front rough? looked like a proper dive, and once saw a mass brawl outside involing 100ish milwall and southend fans. was too young to sample it all myself, and when i remembered it existed it had been closed. cursory googling suggests it became an 'adult venue'.
apart from the goth the roughest ive been in (well dodgiest) is the circus tavern.
apart from the goth the roughest ive been in (well dodgiest) is the circus tavern.
AJB88 said:
rastapasta said:
thats that spot in temple bar that sinead o'connor worked in back in the 80s when she had hair? sorry man i dont mean to piss on your cornflakes but thats a tourist trap. Go out to Tallaght/Firhouse and go into one of the pubs when the old firm is on or the derby between rovers and bohs and celebrate when the team not wearing green and white scores.
Have you been recently? match days that pub is an army of green & white, "no away fans" on the windows etc. Its certainly not a "tourist trap" on match days. The whole area is but 99% of tourists would take a look through the window and say not for us that one haha. Edited by rastapasta on Monday 6th July 13:39
Just for context I'm a Lazio fan, I do away days all around Europe for Europa League etc, have been to some right dives (countries and towns) so certainly know the difference between tourist fans and ultras.
rastapasta said:
is it still on a narrow alleyway leading onto the Ha'penny Bridge:: the footbridge over the liffey? You might be right though because I emigrated 10 odd years ago but i never remember being anything other than 'the place sinead o'connor used to work'. The big 'tic haunts were always northside, so on/off o'connell st and then localized such as Tallaght etc. I dont think Celtic and Lazio fans have the best relations since that Europa league tie a few years back.
Its on Crown Alley and Temple Bar street its probably grown in size a lot since guessing they have taken over a few more shops to make it bigger. Weve got enemies pretty much everywhere we go haha,
Always wind my pal up, tell him my favourite player (Di Canio) has one blotch on his CV (Celtic)
fttm said:
PomBstard said:
Tyre Smoke said:
Used to be a flat roof pub in Bedminster, Bristol just down the road from Ashton Gate called unsurprisingly The Robin. Always looked as rough as a badger's behind. Particularly on match days.
Seems it's gone now, this would have been 2003/4 I guess.
That was a proper dodgy local place at any time but when City were at Ashton Gate tension went up a notch or six. Back in the late 70s City were in the top flight and visiting fans would be taken by train to Parson St, and walked down Winterstoke Road with mounted police. The Robins would be one of the focal points for local fans, with sometimes predictable results. Seems it's gone now, this would have been 2003/4 I guess.
some bloke said:
Garemberg said:
Ha, my mate and I went in once after an all day session and ended up with the stripper buying us drinks as apparently we were no trouble
Pennyblacks at 5am was a pretty grim place it's got to get a mention..
I used to go in the Penny Black quite often when I finished a night shift at the Balmoral at 8am. Sticky carpet and sticky glasses - great combination.Pennyblacks at 5am was a pretty grim place it's got to get a mention..
Edited by Garemberg on Monday 6th July 14:09
A good few years ago in our town we had a pub called Whitehall Vaults. Town centre in a road with several pubs, handy for pub crawls. This pub used to have topless barmaids. Most I saw were in the Championship league or lower for looks! We were there one Saturday night and my mate went round with an empty glass asking for £1 each for a “special show” by the barmaid in the back room. No show but he made a good few quid. There were loud complaints in the town about the pub and it made the TV news. It eventually changed to Barnums themed pub but closed a few years ago.
red_slr said:
My now wife then GF went to Salford uni in the late 90s and their halls were right next to the Brass Handles pub and we went in a few times and had no idea it was quite so "serious" in there. Her dad found out we had been going in and told us never to go in again LOL. Luckily after her 1st year at uni she decided halls were not for her and moved back home.
Not quite as 'shooty' as Brass Handles but opposite Salford College of Technology (now part of Salford Uni) there were three of Salford's finest establishments - The Woolpack, The Flemish Weaver and another one. I went in the other one once and the next week it had closed, been set alight and turned into a squat. These pictures of The Woolpack are pretty much how it looked when open. Not as bad as it looks but who'd be stupid enough to go in and find out? 
https://manchesterestatepubs.wordpress.com/2017/04...
Lotus Notes said:
I give you Brambles Farm Hotel Middlesbrough..
Not doing so well now
There was a pub in Holbrooks, Coventry whereby the local nutter wanted to play pool with his new mate (me..) and subsequently picked the black ball up and put it in the pocket, the locals just backed-off and let us play
It's funny that growing up in these cities makes you street wise.. I feel pretty safe in most places (..except Mexico City where the cost of human life is not so great)
Think I may of frequented that establishment when I was younger. Was it up the top end of Middlesborough road, take a right turn off heading out of Boro’? Not doing so well now
There was a pub in Holbrooks, Coventry whereby the local nutter wanted to play pool with his new mate (me..) and subsequently picked the black ball up and put it in the pocket, the locals just backed-off and let us play
It's funny that growing up in these cities makes you street wise.. I feel pretty safe in most places (..except Mexico City where the cost of human life is not so great)
sospan said:
A good few years ago in our town we had a pub called Whitehall Vaults. Town centre in a road with several pubs, handy for pub crawls. This pub used to have topless barmaids. Most I saw were in the Championship league or lower for looks! We were there one Saturday night and my mate went round with an empty glass asking for £1 each for a “special show” by the barmaid in the back room. No show but he made a good few quid. There were loud complaints in the town about the pub and it made the TV news. It eventually changed to Barnums themed pub but closed a few years ago.
Llanelli? The Whitehall Vaults were the workplace of Tinkerbell - the original topless barmaid in Wales in the late Seventies. Wasn't she arrested by the rozzers not for serving booze topless but because all the press attention it brought told the Met who were looking where to find her to answer theft and fraud allegations.
One of the pubs near my first flat in S.London was very, very rough. Two other boozers nearby were decent and cheap enough, so normal people went there. The lunatics, criminals, thugs and psychopaths went to The White Hart. I remember walking into it when looking for my first flat, and finding people openly dealing crack around the pool table.
Bar staff were nice enough for people that had clearly spent life on the wrong side of the tracks, but clientele were utterly awful. I had a couple of beers, and after being stared at a bit too much decided that my life was worth more than my pride, and scarpered.
Went in there once again about a year later for curiosity, was shouted at for being dark-skinned, and a nutter pulled a knife on me and demanded my phone. My friend and I left (with our wallets and phones - mainly because we were still by the door so just turned and ran).
Fast forward a few years (I decided to live in the area, despite this hellhole), and I had just started dating my now wife. I was late back from work one evening to meet her at mine, and she decided to wait in the "normal" pub. I got there, it was rammed, no sign of her. So I phoned her mobile, at which point she told me that she was sat at a table in The White Hart, doing some work.
The thought of my glamorous American girlfriend in her smart office gear, laptop and iPhone out, in that place, gave me the shivers, so in I barged to save her. Whereupon I found her chatting easily with a couple of local thugs, and generally having a lovely time. She even introduced me to some of the drooling psychopaths frequenting the place, who were clearly taken with the Yank. The bar stuff were even delivering her drinnks to her at her own table, for God's sake?!
To this day I maintain she was about to be killed, raped and eaten (in that order), and that I saved her. She disagrees.
It has now been shut down after someone was shot inside.
Bar staff were nice enough for people that had clearly spent life on the wrong side of the tracks, but clientele were utterly awful. I had a couple of beers, and after being stared at a bit too much decided that my life was worth more than my pride, and scarpered.
Went in there once again about a year later for curiosity, was shouted at for being dark-skinned, and a nutter pulled a knife on me and demanded my phone. My friend and I left (with our wallets and phones - mainly because we were still by the door so just turned and ran).
Fast forward a few years (I decided to live in the area, despite this hellhole), and I had just started dating my now wife. I was late back from work one evening to meet her at mine, and she decided to wait in the "normal" pub. I got there, it was rammed, no sign of her. So I phoned her mobile, at which point she told me that she was sat at a table in The White Hart, doing some work.
The thought of my glamorous American girlfriend in her smart office gear, laptop and iPhone out, in that place, gave me the shivers, so in I barged to save her. Whereupon I found her chatting easily with a couple of local thugs, and generally having a lovely time. She even introduced me to some of the drooling psychopaths frequenting the place, who were clearly taken with the Yank. The bar stuff were even delivering her drinnks to her at her own table, for God's sake?!
To this day I maintain she was about to be killed, raped and eaten (in that order), and that I saved her. She disagrees.
It has now been shut down after someone was shot inside.
MC Bodge said:
red_slr said:
My now wife then GF went to Salford uni in the late 90s and their halls were right next to the Brass Handles pub and we went in a few times and had no idea it was quite so "serious" in there. Her dad found out we had been going in and told us never to go in again LOL. Luckily after her 1st year at uni she decided halls were not for her and moved back home.
Does anybody remember The Cook Report about Salford pubs? https://youtu.be/t4ohrmjXshk
bigpriest said:
red_slr said:
My now wife then GF went to Salford uni in the late 90s and their halls were right next to the Brass Handles pub and we went in a few times and had no idea it was quite so "serious" in there. Her dad found out we had been going in and told us never to go in again LOL. Luckily after her 1st year at uni she decided halls were not for her and moved back home.
Not quite as 'shooty' as Brass Handles but opposite Salford College of Technology (now part of Salford Uni) there were three of Salford's finest establishments - The Woolpack, The Flemish Weaver and another one. I went in the other one once and the next week it had closed, been set alight and turned into a squat. These pictures of The Woolpack are pretty much how it looked when open. Not as bad as it looks but who'd be stupid enough to go in and find out? https://manchesterestatepubs.wordpress.com/2017/04...
Dr Doofenshmirtz said:
The Iron Horse in Amersham opposite the station is the only ‘bad’ pub I remember from my youth. You certainly didn’t go in there without a bodyguard!
Sadly it was pulled down and turned into flats (surprise surprise).
I remember going there for a rock night about 30 years back, seemed ok to me. Sadly it was pulled down and turned into flats (surprise surprise).
There was a pub in (S)Hatfield town centre next door to Woolco's that didn't have a spirits licence iirc
Yes, psi, Llanelli. I remember something about the Met catching up with her. Mind you, trading standards should have done something about some barmaids described as “topless”. Their dangly bits were nowhere near the top way but down low! Interfered with the beer going into the glass!
I was working in Reading in 86 and wandered out one evening with a colleague and the only pub we could find had a flat roof. It was on the apex of two roads and looking in we chose the most least unwelcoming bar. There was a lot of formica and vinyl. A older women was sat at a table on her own, drunk, and she had clearly pissed herself. No one took any notice.
There used to be a pub near me where you sat on bus seats. Run by an old guy, I went there for the stamp of a friend's 'beer trail' (remember them?). As I entered a guy came out of the toilets and handed the soap back to the landlord.
There used to be a pub near me where you sat on bus seats. Run by an old guy, I went there for the stamp of a friend's 'beer trail' (remember them?). As I entered a guy came out of the toilets and handed the soap back to the landlord.
EdwardC1989 said:
GCH said:
Dead Rabbit, McSorley's (perhaps the closest thing to a proper pub here) and a couple of others still do that here in NYC...
Do things get a bit tasty in the Dead Rabbit? Always thought it to be quite ‘upmarket’ in a rough round the edges kind of way. I remember dragging the Mrs on a nice stroll there all the way from Bryant Park because I swore it was ‘just round the corner’ 
bigpriest said:
Not quite as 'shooty' as Brass Handles but opposite Salford College of Technology (now part of Salford Uni) there were three of Salford's finest establishments - The Woolpack, The Flemish Weaver and another one. I went in the other one once and the next week it had closed, been set alight and turned into a squat. These pictures of The Woolpack are pretty much how it looked when open. Not as bad as it looks but who'd be stupid enough to go in and find out?
https://manchesterestatepubs.wordpress.com/2017/04...
Some of my school mates went to some sort of 6th formers event at Salford Uni and headed over to McDonald's for lunch. The following day one told me that they had then "nipped into a pub called the Flemish Weaver for a pint. It was fookin rough!". https://manchesterestatepubs.wordpress.com/2017/04...
Many a Salford Uni student from the local flats made the mistake of going in there too....only ever the once, though, I believe.
Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff