Your Local Pub

1. The Shaftesbury which I have never been to. Pete might've been. It looks rough and I have no plans to go there in the near future if ever.

2. The Hogshead which despite being a chain pub is quite nice and good for spotting CE minor slebz. Also it is directly next to the Railway where they do a good quiz & are very friendly though they do not check signatures properly thereby aiding & abetting the north London crime wave & the fraudulent removal of my money from my bank account.

in the past i guess it has always been college bars. pretty unexciting.

Fortunately the great Village pub is only 5 minutes away.

A minute more along the river is the fancy family pub The City Barge where rumour has it Ant and/or Dec are semi-regulars. However it's popularity is a major drag, so what could be a nice place for a sunday lunch really drags out. plus they were v rude to a friend of mine (big row, money was thrown in faces, ect)

My proper local is the best in the world. It's small, quiet has kitsch decor and is run by two jolly gay blokes. Also has quiz machine. It was pub of the year in 1981 (according to the plaque outside!)

Also just as close are 1) the Griffin on Clerkenwell Road which a number of Picnic In The Sky revellers borrowed for its toilet facilities unaware until entering that it was a STRIPPER PUB and 2) the Duke of York which is Ground Zero for couriers, has lovely landlords, good Guinness and a Thai couple stashed in the basement making good food for £5 a plate. I go there often enough and ILE has drunk there before.

On Farringdon Road, we have the Eagle, which I can't praise enough.

Every other pub in the area, especially the ones on Mount Pleasant, Leather Lane and Exmouth Market are ALL branches of that well-known chain the Halfwit and Banjo (translation: drinking holes for the inbred and infirm).

Like Gareth, two equidistant pubs: the Marlborough House in my road and the Folly Bridge Inn around the corner. Although I've lived in my present house for six and a half years I haven't been in the Marlborough House more than five times, all of them to partcipate in quizzes and most of them when my team was playing the Marlborough Mutineers (as they're called) in the local quiz league. People say that they really know how to keep the beer at the Marlborough House (true). People also say that it has been altered structurally very little since it was built in 1883 (this is also true). However, that doesn't stop the place from giving me the creeps. It has such a dedicated clientele that I see the same old faces (almost always occupying the same seats) every time I walk past. It just seems more like a private club than a pub. It's a pity, coz the married couple who run it are really nice people who usually say hello when we pass in the street. I often see them in their boat on the Thames (a couple of hundred metres down the road). The bloke also has a bicycle repair business and if you know anything about Oxford you'll know that this is really appreciated!

The Folly Bridge Inn used to be called the White House. This was a more sensible name as it's quite a way from Folly Bridge. It used to be a lovely pub attracting stoodies and locals alike...it had a quiz on Tuesdays and a music quiz on Sundays. It is a Wadworth pub which used to mean there was FARMER'S GLORY on tap (num num!)....a much better ale than Wadworth 6X and very hard to find these days. Unfortunately, the popular landlord disappeared off to Winchester and since then they've had a serious of poor bar managers who really don't seem interested. Even when I turned up with a huge crowd of co- workers they didn't seem to want to serve us. Luckily I live within easy walking distance of the city centre and fairly easy walking distance of "alt. Oxford", ie Cowley Road, so the low quality of the local boozers is not a particularly big loss to me.

It is a nice space though and it's a shame it's in such a shitty area.

[*In the sexual sense]

Have you ever been to ICE Anna?

closest bar to me is Bar Med which, being in St Ebbe's, is thankfully not that close.

Ever been to the pub in Risinghurst, Tom? Can't remember what it's called. Or any of the ones in Quarry (Six Bells, Masons Arms or Chequers?)

You can tell I don't go out in CE can't you?

re. The Old Ale Emporium (Green Lanes): I've been in there a few times and quite liked it, but it's always jam-packed and I like a seat.

re. The Nobody Inn (Newington Green version): I used to go in there a lot because it stayed open late. Irritatingly Oasis were always on the juke box (it was around 96-97 though).

Does anyone like the Compton Arms in Islington?

There is a Nobody Inn in Newington Green which is actually quite nice (though the back half is a bit like a scout hut if that takes your fancy).

What lido? God, I feel like such a newbie.

It's on Park Road on the way to Ally Pally / Muswell Hill. I have never been as lidos are full of horrible children at the best of times and the proximity to Sprog Central can only exacerbate this problem.

Hooray for the Princess Alexandria.

Sprog Central = Crouch End, where North Londoners go to breed

Pshaw Anna. You'll be telling us you've never been on the Crouch End rollercoaster next.

(I can however be trusted on public houses, it is a subject I never lie about).

I am innocent and delightful (hem) that's why I keep falling for Pete's lies/

;-)

Kathleen's Cafe sounds quite nice Maura.

SEX DOMESTIC!

Anna, I may not be talking to you anymore.

When I lived in Royal Leamington S!P!A! I lived just next to the roughest two pubs in the world, or at least I imagine they were, I never went in them. One was called the Jet and Whittle, which was nice. I had to call the police once when I saw shaven headed young gentlemen loitering outside the Jet with an iron bar, drawing a swastika onto the corner shop.

Oh alright then.

D of Y - strange sepia tinted television.

What's that mushy pile of goo on the floor? Why if it isn't Cabbage. His days of sex tourism seem long gone. Instead it appears tidal motion has set in.

That has a terrible Tess of The D'Urbavilles ring to it.

The next nearest after that is Ships, which is our favorite bar. Ships is little with one pool table and a great fucking jukebox (bob wills and lightin' hopkins). And it's next door to our fave restaurant, El Monterrey, so you can imagine we get a lot of use out of that particular block.

Mark (still not recovered from the experience, age 9)

I have two more or less equidistant pubs too:

The Brownswood, on the corner of Brownswood Road and Green Lanes. Mainly used a landmark when giving people directions. I haven't drunk in there for at least two years. It's just a typical residential area pub. Middle agedish, localish, largeish, serving cheap pub food specialsish. Blackboards with coloured writing. You know the kind of place. Nondescript.

The Stoke Tup on Church St. Yeach. Once the Magpie & Stump, then taken over by the Tup chain and given the 'Stoke' bit about a year ago. Very new Stoke Newington. Boring atmosphere. About the only pub in the area to chuck you out on time. Doesn't even have a pool table upstairs anymore. A bit rubb.

closer pubs to me than peggspub and coldplayspub is the bar at the back of our kebab shop, sans atmosphere but open till 1pm, free chips, enormous measures and decorated like your grans.

in the other direction, The Settle Inn which has the finest selection of board games in the land. well... only about seven, but the alco-buckaroo challenge is a fine, fine thing indeed.

This is God's Own Pub. Cheap as chips, proper beer, as old as the hills, full of marginal types but cool because Cath the landlady rules with a rod of iron. On days when there's trouble int' air she locks the front door and vets everybody when they knock on. A somewhat Cavalier attitude to license restrictions as they apply to opening times. To say the least. Darts, Bar Billiard, Pool and Pinball. I love this pub.

Settle Inn is probably even more All Bar One-ish that the Duke O'York because they do proper food - not Thai Muck.

I have started going to one on the Mount quite regularly and it's very good indeed, a standard working pub that sells damn good beer, and good food.

I think N. is being unduly harsh about this pub. I was in there for just over an hour on Saturday night and I quite liked it....Bombadier on tap, friendly staff and nicely subdued lighting. The Stoke Tup name is a terrible pun, but the chain doesn't seem nearly as awful a brand as many I could mention....the Latin enscription on the lit up fag machine sign could even be described as cerebral. It began Oves optima (Best sheep? Top sheep?) Can't remember the other two or three words as I don't even possess schoolboy Latin.

However, as soon as I actually move to Highgate, it becomes a flipping 'juke joint' with hipsters lining the walls and checking out each other's boxing boots and asymmetric haircuts. Bah. Although Shane Macgowan hangs out there for days sometimes.

Also - they have bloody live bloody country bloody music on Sunday nights, when I'm trying to get to sleep to remove the badness of the weekend's drinking in order to make a half-presentable appearance at work on Monday morning. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THOSE METROSEXUAL BASTARDS?

The Marlborough is also Enrique's local but he doesn't go out of the house ever.

Also, they have a picture of Art Garfunkel behind the bar.

Just up the road is the Crown, which has two big screens showing football. It's a bit shabby, but basically pretty ILE-friendly, and indeed has been the venue of two accidental SE London FAPs in my time. The fancyapint link is talking nonsense, as there are three pubs and three bars on that road alone andd a further two round the corner. Also, the picture was clearly taken in 1985, as it looks nothing like that any more.

I still go to the Dacre Arms at least twice a week though. It is marvellous and warm and friendly and has a proper pub landlord like off the telly and two dogs and the same six old men sitting in the same place all the time.

Also within mere yards are The Freemasons (slogan: 'it's not what you think it's where you drink' arrgh fuck off), The Farm, the Biscuit Factory, The Coopers Cask ,and the cavernously awful Providence (prev. Litten Tree, prev. Bar Med). Astonishingly, I have never been to ANY of these. I prefer to return to my old locale where I can get Harveys and pool in the inexplicably Aussie-themed Cobblers Thumb (plus lethal Old Rosie cider arrr) or the teeny tiny Rose Hill.

whatever happened to the craic we hear so much about???

Also I suspect with very few clubs open I've gotten used to going out where I can walk home as opposed to taking a 40 minute bus journey, so lazy.

It may have chanbed since, but I doubt I'll go back anyway.

there are countless pubs near my house (i live between upper street and essex road), but i hardly go to any of them at all. probably most recently i went into the jorene celeste.

i am, clearly, not using the resources of my locale to the fullest advantage.

"Do you like hospital food?"

That one cracks the pub up usually as the moron wonders what to say and then BAM you smack him in the face with an ashtray eh? You know what I'm saying? It's a proper working class pub right?

the Hobgoblin is the building on the left of both pix altho i think in the old pic it was called "George Canning's Pub"

i also have a swish bar near me w/no name on the front but which the proprietor assures me is called "Mango Landin'" - it's on Brixton Water Lane about the same distance away as the Hobgoblin but in the other direction

The nearest real pub is the Three Wheatsheafs, but there's always boys racers with their tracky bottoms legs rolled up hanging around outside, so I'm scared to go near it.

My local at the moment is The Anchor, and it's handily only about 3 minutes away. I like it, just because it's always empty, even at the weekends, so there's somewhere to sit. And they have a good pub quiz as well, with questions that we can actually attempt to answer.

I bet the HTML for "red" isn't [red] (where square brackets = pointy brackets, obv)

Full of hoorays. Unlike all the other pubs in Oxford. You're right Mark -- I can't actually remember the last time i went to a pub in Oxford. Had a swift one in the Grapes one Saturday afternoon in January. Other than that...

Last time in there, I believe I was with Vicky, Ptee and Tim Hoppo.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lastrounds/732301320/

ive never been in

That looks alright!

http://www.myspace.com/newcrossinn

NU RAVE IS DEAD!

The Chatterton Arms in Pencoed. The biggest shithole pub I've ever been in in my life. The hand dryer in the bogs (I would never normally use the word "bog" instead of toilet, but there's really no better word for it) hasn't worked for literally 15-odd years.

I've been drinking there my entire adult life - 17 or so years - and I still get ignored at the bar in favour of the landlord's friends.

court enforced boozing, 23/7

http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/5065

This is my current local. It's been steadily improving for about a decade and now does a decent job of disproving the theory that all pubs called the Railway are crap. I avoid it on a Saturday night but its a decent midweek drinking place.

Gareth should've frequented the Bank of Friendship eight years ago, my favourite pub on Blackstock Road easy.

The Kenton -

http://www.kentonpub.co.uk

takes approx 45 seconds for me to walk to. It is awesome. Proper DJ cubbyhole, back garden, good beers, Thursday jumble sale, friendly staff. PIES.

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/49/4968/Lord_Palmerston/Dartmouth_Park

It's boring.

http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/london/venue/holloway-40/the-hideaway-2586/

About two minutes further, much more agreeable.

I'm also minutes away from renowned bastion of the spit and sawdust boozer The Boston Arms. Not a place you can drink in too often and retain a positive outlook on life, but the day it becomes a trendy gastropub is the day I leave the country.

There's also Artifex Wine Bar near me, which seems like it has really awesome music but the number of arrests I see happening right in front of it on an almost daily basis kind of puts me off :/

xp ha. i used to live 2 mins from the boston until recently, but was slightly afraid of it: i'm sure you see more people go in than ever leave. i miss how good tufnell park/kentish town is for pubs now i'm in finsbury park.

I've been permitted to leave the Boston many times, it is possible. There are definitely certain times when it's the only pub that'll hit the spot.

Five years ago I would've called the Pineapple my favourite pub in the area, but it's turned oddly soulless since it changed hands.

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/22/2213/Shakespeare/Stoke_Newington

I play (badly) for the cricket team.

I like the Shakespeare.

if you go to uncle lou's
you'll get black gunk on your shoes
everyone smokes
you'll probably choke
but they got that rhythm and blues

actual nearest pub is this:

http://img01.beerintheevening.com/95/9555b2dad5aa8f53ebb66dca454f58b0.jpg

it's okay, would be great in any other area but the quality of pubs is strong around me. too many families for my liking and poor music frequently. plus feels a bit funereal imo. not great ales for what seems like a good ale pub either, bland weak english stuff.

http://img01.beerintheevening.com/8c/8cdb1b72f23c5629033768306f1a35d1.jpg

this is better, good music and always lively, nice inside too. been here absolutely loads since moving over to london and how much time me and my friends spend there has that nice running joke feel you get from a good local. downsides are it has a gang of crony cocaine selling dudes who have really inane loud conversations and can take over the place on occasion, plus it can get v crowded.

http://img01.beerintheevening.com/13/13ea38457d76229f41f72e66ce3c28b1.jpg

sometimes feel this is my favourite, though i live like 3 mins from the two above and this is a little further away. beautiful building, nice atmosphere, friendly landlord and they'll serve you till all hours. good bunch of old codgers playing live jazz on fridays and saturdays too. nice in summer being beside the canal. never had a bad night there and being served till 1am on a friday is about perfect, one of the few things i miss about ireland is the later pub opening hours.

http://img01.beerintheevening.com/7f/7f95c83c88602c252bb6e2e4cd62a433.jpg

like this place for a late drink, it's not amazing but prob has the most interesting ales of any of the pubs listed. friendliest staff too. it's a bit pokey but nice lighting, a decent option.

I've been going to the Camel a fair bit after life drawing classes on thursday. The ales are ok! And some decent European lagers if that's yer bag. Very small and usually full though. The Approach is our alternative haunt.

downsides are it has a gang of crony cocaine selling dudes who have really inane loud conversations

last time i was there three of us were at the small table in their little area by the gents and it became pretty difficult to hear each other. good PIZZA tho.

Ronan is that third one the palm tree? That is my favourite pub in London I think, dismal & stunted palm crucial to appeal imo.

Looks like the Palm Tree to me. I've only been there once but it made quite an impression on me. It seems like it occupies its own little world.

Is the second one the Florist? I quite like it there.

yep second is the florist, worth a try ledge if you've not been in that yet. esp midweek, when it's quiet there's nowhere better. i do like the approach too tho tend to think it as more of a place to eat.

third is indeed palm tree. apparently it's only called that due to the fact that it used to be part of a street called palm street. assume the tree was added later.

no love for The Approach ronan?

i do like it...nice food, but i find the ceiling too high for drinking in there, i don't know why that matters but it doesn't feel compact enough or something. but that's a quibble really, again if it was the only pub on the street i'd be there all the time, it is a great pub too.

haha that's true - there is something about high ceilinged pubs. they should be called beer halls or something.

i like high ceilinged pubs - one of the things i always want in a pub is space. preferably personal space.

the old man pub is the worst kind of pub, obviously.

I like old man pubs. Time and a place for every type of boozer.

Hip crowded basement bars in Shoreditch/Dalston are generally way worse.

old man pubs = creepy old men staring at you, occasionally trying to talk to you and being generally inhibiting presences. and NO DECENT WINE.

why you'd go to a dalston basement bar to just drink is beyond me - only go to those places to dance.

Time and a place for every type of boozer.

except walkabouts etc, all bar ones etc, dodgy estate pubs (no problem with friendly estate pubs), awful omnipresent "club with no dancefloor" type bars...

really wish we had decent 'pubs' here

Love the Florist - recently been wishing it was my local

Also like the Camel - maybe more so in summer because of the outside

Still never been the Palm Tree

shoreditch generally is so shit for pubs. it really bothers me when i'm in that area. i guess owl and the pussycat does the job and is nice still post-refurb but most of the others are so disappointing.

Has anyone been to The Victory on vyner st?

People in E2 are spoilt for choice:/

old man pubs = creepy old men staring at you, occasionally trying to talk to you and being generally inhibiting presences. and NO DECENT WINE.

― lextasy refix (lex pretend), Wednesday, January 26, 2011 5:10 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

The first point isn't true for all of them by any means. The second may be, but I don't drink wine in pubs.

I haven't been in the Owl & Pussycat post-refurb. I felt betrayed and disappointed they'd refurbished it at all. Otherwise the Reliance is the only good pub in Shoreditch proper, but that doesn't really feel like anyone could call it a local.

The best pubs are the ones that welcome old men and The Kids (as opposed to actual kids) equally.

i think we tend to default to the red lion or the strongroom or the barley mow when in sditch. both are fine. i mean, you'd never ever go to sditch for a "quiet drink" would you? all you need pubs there for is pre-club drinking.

The first point isn't true for all of them by any means. The second may be, but I don't drink wine in pubs.

i'm basically just trying to discourage anyone from trying to make me go to the wenlock again

That may not be an issue for much longer :(

The Prince Arthur on Brunswick Place is a nice cosy place, feels more trad than Hoxtonised.

the red lion never has any place to sit down. owl and pussycat always felt too loud, too crowded, i.e. a bar that looks like a pub.

florist fans really would like the kenton i feel

ou'd never ever go to sditch for a "quiet drink" would you? all you need pubs there for is pre-club drinking.

glad i don't live in shoreditch tbh

This is my nearest pub according to FancyAPint.co.uk:

The Victoria
http://www.fancyapint.com/pubs/pub2258.php

Never been in it. The only local pub I've been to is v slightly further away:

Ye Olde Rose & Crown
http://www.fancyapint.com/pubs/pub2257.php

'salright, has a theatre above it, so it gets suddenly busy at interval and then quiet again a few minutes later. Don't really go drinking in pubs around where I live though, because if I am in the pub it's usually with people who don't live near me.

Closest pub to me is a recently refurbished old man pub with big tellies for the football. I never go in because it's a hun shop (rangers pub).

idk what's going on with the wenlock now, sale appara fell through but they're still looking to sell. last time i was in there before xmas a man wearing a morrissey t-shirt complimented me for looking like morrissey. obv i look nothing like morrissey. great pub.

havent visited the new owl&p either but have been told it's vile tedious gastro. (would assume they took the billiards out as well :/).

was in the florist on sunday for a bit, s'ok but i tend to think of it and the camel as bars tbh. otoh 1) they do london pale ale and 2) they do it in proper jars so fair play.

only been in the palm tree the one time years ago but it seemed fun. iirc the guvnor was doing his nut at someone for ordering water haha.

im so envious of all the real pubs. we've got nothing but college bars and shitty pub rip-offs.

this is my hangout.
http://armsbyabbey.com/

really miss proper pubs & pub sunday lunches now I'm in the US. Have a decent "Tavern" nearby that plays BBC america, has pool tables and a bit of a beer garden; has baseball stuff and photos of baseball stuff all around but it's pretty ok actually. But gooduns are kind of few and far between, particularly when you're used to having about 8 proper pubs within a 10-min walk.

absolutely would kill for a beer garden around here. never going to happen.

im so envious of all the real pubs. we've got nothing but college bars and shitty pub rip-offs.

― Cultivating a manly musk puts your opponents on notice (chrisv2010), Wednesday, January 26, 2011 1:14 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

yeah

i'm envious too. i like the names

i'm sure there are exceptions but anything called a "pub" in the US can be safely avoided

uh huh.

around here they call things pubs just because they have guiness on tap.

i guess we have dive bars, do those exist in england

i work at a dive bar, buts its a great dive bar. we actually have a bar in town called the dive bar....which used to be a complete shithole when i was 21. now its pretty darn good, owned by same folks as armsby above.

http://thedivebarworcester.com/

dive bars exist in England, yes. In London, they often seem to be Spanish-themed, for some reason.

http://www.marstonstaverns.co.uk/Hull/Queens-Hotel

i never have managed to enjoy the reliance, but have prob only been there on sat nights.

the new owl is v hipsterised and yeah a bit wanky, but they seem to have actually replaced the mini refurb the old irish owner did, where he lost the carpet in favour of v bright wooden floors and put bright lighting in. it actually looks a bit more similar to the old owl now. i've heard it's a real gastro pub but nobody was eating when i was in there.

the guvnor was doing his nut at someone for ordering water haha

he's famous for this, and other weird tics, like he'll sometimes just not let a group in for no reason. he's one of those landlords that will sit and drink with you when you're the only 3 people left in the place till 3am, but barely recognise you the next time you come in. generally a nice bloke tho.

lets go to the palm tree, garda

he's famous for this, and other weird tics, like he'll sometimes just not let a group in for no reason. he's one of those landlords that will sit and drink with you when you're the only 3 people left in the place till 3am, but barely recognise you the next time you come in. generally a nice bloke tho.

Is this The Sun we're talking about? I have a recent anecdote about a friend having to sit in the cubicle there for a good fifteen minutes while some other friends tried to negotiate some toilet paper for him from the manager, and apparently the manager wasn't making it at all easy to be obtained...

haha no that's the palm.

cb i'm game for the palm anytime...apart from tonight or tomorrow, after that tho literally any day ever

palm tree manager sounds like the worst

longshot i know but is there any pub in london where you can play CHEESES (throwing a big cheese shaped wooden block at some bowling pins) like they do in the midlands.

not helpful but i know a bar in detroit, usa where you can do that, but they call it feather bowling

freemasons arms in hampstead, though they call it "london skittles" of course: http://www.londonskittles.co.uk/

yeah soz i was about to say, i could've just googled it.

wow proper alleys! that kinda seems less fun than the drop-down midlands table tbh:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skittles_(sport)#Midlands

palm and palm tree next friday

oh no just palm tree not palm

BREAKING NEWS: the camel on globe road now sells punk ipa on draught. been there about 5 times since i found this out, which is about 5 times more than in the previous three years.

We just got a new local in a converted post office, it's pretty cool, snugs in old bank safes and stuff. Which is good because the actual closest local is fine for football watching but going in with girls feels like a complete no-no. It's basically all builders from what I can see.

Calling Chap: is the Dartmouth Arms any good?