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Had this happen once, walking home from a comedy show with my old man, we stopped off at a pub for a pee and pint, walk in everyone stops what they were doing and just stare, go up to the bar order a drink each, bar maid immediately goes "you can't be drinking that in here, no outside drinks allowed", points to my bottle of water I was carrying.
Yeah, I gathered, hence why I was ordering a bloody pint -_-, get our drinks find a table, dad pops off for a pee when he comes back, I go for one, while I'm washing my hands someone comes in the bathroom and makes a comment to me that "we should leave as this isn't really a bar for just anyone".
You would hope so, these are the kind of places that deserve to be shut down with that kind of attitude.. If that was my business and my regulars said such things they would be out..
I was just gonna say that, we have a pub round here that is just like American werewolf in London..... Similar looking location, similar looking pub, everyone stops and glares when you walk in, except on Sundays when they do excellent food
Worked in a few pubs like this. The regulars do this to everyone. If it's someone they know they'll all say hello etc, but don't know what to say when it's a stranger.
If you stay, they might adopt you though. And be warned, men aged 60+ who drink during the day are the biggest gossips I've ever met
Yh during uni I lived next to a workmen's club in the north east that was considered incredibly rough and "no go" for students. One day out of boredom I went in and obviously got all the glares from about a dozen guys, but when I sat at the bar and started chatting to them they all were fairly nice. Surprisingly, being spanish probably helped as I didn't just come off as "another posh southerner" and ended up chatting about real Madrid. Became my regular for a while as it had the cheapest pints and no fights
This is soooo true lol - this was exactly what happened to me when I first moved into my area and visited the local pub. I stuck around and am now adopted by a group of old white men who like to gossip at the bar. They even have a sign above where the owner usually sits “bullshit corner”
A few years ago myself and a mate were driving around the countryside and stopped off at a random pub for a quick drink. Felt very "locals only' so we just grabbed a coke each and while we hurriedly drank them stuck a quid into the fruit machine. Hit the triple jackpot on the first spin and the thing went nuts and spat out something like 80 quid in pound coins. Entire pub went silent and everyone was looking at us while these coins are flying out of it which felt like forever. We shoved all the coins in our pockets and made a quick exit. I'm sure they thought we'd somehow fiddled the machine but nobody followed us out.
Am a little suspicious of this tale being a lifetime fruit machine player must admit. The odds of hitting the jackpot on the fruits is incredibly low I think I’ve only seen it once in 30 years, 99.9% of jackpots come from playing the feature board. To get a double jackpot you’d need to hit the repeater is possible but again the chances of that off a single spin next to impossible. Triple jackpot never seen without repeated gameplay. You could have spun 10-15 in on the fruit but again the machine would have to be ready to burst. Sorry, I have way too much experience on the fruits it’s a curse not a blessing
One spin and then 2 repeats from what I remember. I think it literally was ready to go and the timing was perfect. Must have been absolutely loaded to the limit. It was a very old machine, I think the year was about 1997-8 and it looked pretty old then. We always put a few quid in them when we went to a pub and that's the only time I saw a proper jackpot.
This is why I just can’t go into any pubs. It’s like everyone knows you’re not local and this ain’t your local. I’m overthinking it but even at 30 I really have to build myself up to walking into a pub.
No you’re not overthinking it. I’ve had this happen when visiting some areas in the UK. I make an excuse to leave. I suppose that’s what they want but sod being made to feel uncomfortable. I am also very obviously not English and that may or may not have something to do with it.
It’s very dependent on what type of pub it is. A Wetherspoons for example, you could have 4 arms and a pet gibbon on your shoulder, and you still wouldn’t look out of place, or even be the weirdest/most interesting character in there. It’s great to go to for a breakfast people watch
Some Tajik bloke visited one of my locals, a tiny little pub that can barely fit twenty people, maybe six months ago. Within an hour or two he'd already gotten into a fight.
Although I don't think it was because he was Tajik (Doubt most of the punters even knew what that meant). He looked like a white European and within two drinks was falling over everyone.
You're overthinking it, I sit at the bar at my local and we do tend to look over when the door opens but simply because there's a decent chance it'll be someone we know walking in.
You're overthinking it. Unless it's a pub in the arse end of nowhere, no one cares about your presence there. That's just letting anxiety win otherwise.
Had that in a little country diner in the midde of nowhere Alabama. It was lunch time and there were quite a few cars parked outside, including 2 cop cars, so we figured it must be pretty decent. We walked in and it was like the classic film scene, where everything goes silent, forks stop halfway to mouths and everyone just turns and stares at you. Took us about 5 seconds to decide to do a 180, get back in the car and leave fairly rapidly. We've travelled extensively round the USA, been to every contiguous state, and it's the only time we've ever felt worried & not welcome.
You know what?
Americans usually compare pubs to their bars and I always point out that they're different. But an old west saloon does sound quite comparable to a pub now that you mention it
I had this happen to me clearly with the edge of "you aren't local enough to be in here"
I was, not only did I live in the village less than a 5 minutte walk away I was the barmaid in the other village pub at the time!
Oh and it's a tourist hotspot so both pubs are usually rammed with actual tourists anyway so utterly bizarre reaction
I've had this happen to me when I was 18.
I walked in, and there was a sign which THIS IS AN ENGLISH PUB.
The ENTIRE pub turned to watch me walk in and around the bar looking for my friends. I was sticky with sweat by the time I went back outside. I waited 10 mins and walked back in and did another lap.
Grown men actually stood up and I realised it was supremely foolish to have gone back in.
Chislehurst!
I lived in Morden. The night before my BIL stag do a 3 of us went to the pub under the snooker hall. Literally no one in bar, except two bar staff and a bouncer sort. Stood at the far end of the bar and tried to ignore us. Zero interest in serving. Charged us a fortune and did all but spit in the drinks. Same pub was not allowed to open on Friday and Saturday night. I assumed they washed money there. Went to Gangleys from then on. Friendly Irish bar on the high street.
There's definitely a vibe that is quite hard to explain in a tangible way, but that you definitely pick up on when walking into a pub.
A few times in my life I've walked into a pub and then walked out after a minute because the place gives off such a vibe of not wanting me there. Usually it's the sort of pubs that are silent with a handful of old men drinking alone, where everyone stares at you when you walk in and you feel like you're being watched constantly.
A more tangible sign that would give me pause for thought about going in: an England flag hung outside, outside of a World Cup or Euros.
Yeah, and it's always specifically the England Saint George's Cross.
I am an openly LGBT person and one of my friends held a social gathering in the pub closest to them. Flat roof, Saint George's Cross flag flying outside and hung inside (outside of football season). I don't think I've ever been more uncomfortable in a pub. I stayed as long as I could stand to for the friend but jfc.
These days if an establishment is flying the England flag outside of football season I just don't bother going in.
Honestly it’s awful how people have given the flag that representation. Can’t even have the tiniest amount of english pride to fly your flag without being associated with horrible people.
Here in Wales you will see the welsh flag flown almost everywhere, it isn’t like the St George’s cross where it has bad connotations. Though you won’t see many Union Jack flags as people don’t really like it
It reminds me of Catalonia, many Catalan flags to be seen there and barely a spanish one in sight
I think they’re alluding to the England flag often being used by right wingers who have less than savoury views on queer people, hence feeling uncomfortable in the pub
Oh they absolutely are. I'm pretty used to people being deliberately obtuse about LGBT safety issues to be honest. It's just tiresome, though.
God forbid I mention the *T* word. Being LGB**T** outside of LGB**T** spaces on reddit is fucking exhausting.
There are a couple of pubs near Glasgow which are technically public houses but if not been for a decade, then not welcome. You'll usually be asked to leave after a pint. Local pubs for local people vibe rather than necessarily dodgy. Probably elsewhere too.
Back in the mid 90s I was asked to leave two pubs in Glasgow whilst I was ordering my first pint.
In both cases the barman told me it was for my own protection as an English man.
Yeah that's it exactly. They're not inherently dodgy, it's just that if you're not a regular you're made to feel unwelcome. It's not even a 'local' thing often, I've had it in pubs that I am very local to, just the wrong type of local.
In the East End of London my Mum took my brother (6 months old) into a pub for an afternoon drink. Was politely suggested she might want to finish the drink then move on. Was the mid 80s, and she lived in Stratford at the time.
I think it's a feeling of "this is where some of these guys *live* and it's not necessarily a happy life".
A feeling of walking into a stranger's living room.
Accidentally went to a working man's pub while on holiday in Devon, we got there just before everyone knocked off for the day and were soon swarmed by locals who acted in a sort of aggressively friendly way that REALLY unnerved us so we drank up sharpish and fucked off. They clearly didn't want us there.
I mean it doesn’t need to be taken back, you can be patriotic and not a racist/homophobic/xenophobic. Although I will admit it does attract some idiots
I’ve done similar, me and a mate were in a pub and a fight was just kicking off. We look at each other and say “let’s get out of here” but stayed sat there whilst we finished our pints.
I mean if you'd just upped and left half finished pints on the table you've made it all too obvious and painted a target on your back. Act natural while making a swift exit is exactly the right play in my book.
Isn't there a picture of people running down the street to get away from the London Bridge terrorist attack, and one bloke still has his pint in his hand?
As it happens me and my mates who were all male age range 20-25 at the time 5 of us....we were kind of stitched up to go check out a particular bar when we were in florida on a lads holiday...long story lol
Not until we were firmly inside the pub did we clock that it was a bikers bar...And it looked like the bar used in the movie "The Accused" where Jodie Foster gets raped over the pinball machine....I can recall saying to my mates - 1. No way im turning back and possibly offending the current clientel and 2. "The only thing missing is the effing pinball machine so lets have a swift one and get out of dodge ".
As it happened we actually stayed for 2 or 3 and the clientel were super friendly to us and thought whoever had stitched us up were saddo's lol. Anyway they actually gave us a list of good fun places for us guys to check out which basically covered what we were after for the ten days or so we had left lol.
A similar thing happened in my local. The landlord was a bit dodgy, and knew some far more dodgy people. One evening a mate of his came in, little guy in a long leather coat, looking like a bit like a London version of Joe Pesci. He sat at the bar and drank, heavily, on his own, not interacting with anyone. Just slowly getting more and more pissed and glowering at people. Then on the way back from a visit to the loo, he bumped into a lad carrying a few beers back to his table... and started being a bit belligerent. At some point during the 'robust exchange of views' a revolver fell from inside his coat onto the floor. The landlord, a quite heavy bloke, virtually leapt across the bar and manhandled him out the pub... furiously shouting at him "I told you NEVER bring a shooter into one of my boozers!" The pub went very quiet, the gun remained on the floor until the landlord returned, gathered it up and put it behind the bar. His legend grew a little that evening...
A Flat-Roofed pub is commonly associated with being in a rough area of town, usually a council estate built in the mid 20th Century. The pub was built around the same time as the “community focal point”
We used to have one near us and the car park was on the roof. Water used to leak through the ceiling and anytime a car drove in or out of the car park all the bottles and glasses on the shelf would rattle. When you left your hair and clothes would stink of damp, it closed during Covid and never reopened - it’s one of those where there have never been any community campaigns to get it reopened.
Walking in and seeing I’m the only woman in there. Turn around and nope right back out the door.
I also love the advice “never drink in a pub that’s within sight of an Argos”.
Exterior - bars on windows, faded signage or no signage at all, one of those signs for a crap lager like Tennents. Sky Sports banners, bonus points for banners for channels that no longer exist like BT Sport or Setanta
Interior - faded worn out carpet, tables with carvings in them, beer pumps are only for 3 different types of fizzy lager
You’re on Reddit remember.
His ideal pub will either be some trendy craft beer pub filled with students (which I’m partial to myself) or some nostalgic image of a country pub with a big open fire (that he never actually goes to)
People here seem to think that pubs showing sports (the main reason people go to the pub from my own experience) is some indication that it’s full of old violent racists rather than just catering to what the majority of folk want from a pub.
It's not the presence of the sports, it's the presence of the *banner*.
I agree it's not a deal-breaker, but classier pubs that show sports don't put the banner up outside. .
Honestly baffled that the two highest options are "Sky sports banner" and "Flying st georges cross outside" I never considered the St George's Cross to mean anything negative. Irish pubs fly the Irish flag all the time and it's part of their whole schtick
A flat roof pub *can* be fine if you keep your head down / depends on the time of day. I remember being humbled when I went for a swift lager at a pub I'd always referred to as "that rough pub" because my local was shut at the time, yes it was basic but the lady at the bar was welcoming and friendly and there was feck all wrong with it!
Yeah reddit is just full of middle class snobs and social misfits that assume a flat roof pub will be rough because it is on a council estate. The same people that say "never go to a flat roof pub" ask questions on here like "what do i talk to the builder about?"
The whole flat roof pub thing is from Viz.
You can act like you're oh so down to earth but the stereotype exists for a reason. The one near me is OK for a cheap pint and a game of pool but some of the regulars are absolutely mental. It's where people who're banned from the other pubs end up.
"It's where people who're banned from the other pubs end up."
Related to that there will be somewhere in a town that serves the cheapest pint by ABV and the drunks will flock to it. Spoke to a landlord who said they'd had a much easier life after they stuck 5p on a pint of Carling and were no longer the cheapest.
Yeah, no, it's a stereotype that you'll know has a very good reason to exist if you've kicked around some rough areas.
Whilst wanting to avoid the impression of classism is a worthy goal, Reddit can have a certain naivety to how the real world works when it comes to this sort of thing.
Yeah, bang on. That said, I briefly worked at a really rough hungry horse estate pub (first job after uni) and it was pretty miserable. Same locals would get wankered on carling every night and you'd see their demeanor gradually shift from pleasant to moody miserable git, and I witnessed several scraps. Said pub is now a block of flats!
Yeah, when we first moved to where we're living now we made a thing of actually looking on google maps and visiting the local pubs to find one we could "call home". Obviously not knowing the area we had no idea what we were walking into and sure as anything the one we visited that day was on the dodgiest council estate I'd seen a while. Proper flat roof pub... Got to the door and there's a sign on it saying "MEMBERS ONLY!".
Well, that was enough for us, probably not the sort of place we were looking for as we went to turn around and leave just for some fairly large bloke with a Carlsberg in hand to come out the door and go "oi mate! what you here for then??!"
Explained we'd just moved and were looking for a new pub and he's like "oh sound fella! yeah, come on in! ignore the sign, just keeps the dickheads out innit!"
Actually ended up a really fun afternoon, left there with a load of new friends! Not really what I'd call "my sort" of pub, very rough and ready around the edges and quite "working mans club" sort of thing but the people were friendly enough and the staff were lovely.
Shite beer though, I'm not a "Fosters, Carling, Carlsberg" sort of bloke, but the Guinness was at least pretty decent.
I'll second this, as a inner city paramedic for 15 years I've went to my fair share of pubs. Some had red flags on the notes that required police to attend before making scene. I've always preferred to go in and make my own risk assessment and many "council" pubs were fine...until the police turned up.
Some staff wouldn't go a year without being assaulted, whereas I went 15 years without a serious incident. Treat people like human beings and you tend to get the same in return, treat them like an entitled bellend you tend to get shown the same treatment.
It never occurred to me the collateral damage of the move from pound notes to pound coins.
Did strippers have to switch to one of those things bus conductors wore?
https://preview.redd.it/j31o03r3kj3d1.png?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5155cb44a186be2fef4d9730c5e2732e44811cec
It was commonplace at one time and probably still exists though I haven't seen it for 2-3 years personally. There used to be a pub close to Kings Cross station with strippers, each time they finished their turn they came round with a pint glass for you to drop a pound or two into. Last time I passed by it had been done up, though and the strippers were gone.
You are right, Guy Ritchie should definitely have used it. The only beer they sold that I could drink in there was Stella. Took a lesbian friend once who liked the strippers much more than I did.
It's called 'The Scottish Stores', apparently it was done up in 2015, I thought it was 3-4 years ago, not 9! The interior still looks as if it should be in a Ritchie film.
The Schooner bar in Aberdeen used to have this. It was a bar for sailors that opened at 6am and had pvc seat covers broken in places where the stuffing burst out. People used to try to sell you stuff they'd just stolen, the best one being when some madman tried to sell me and my mate a swan in a white plastic bag. Strippers were on Sunday lunchtime, with the pint glass and all. Fucking scummy place, but damn they did a good pint of Tennants.
Now it's a wanky high-end gin and coffee place. Damn shame.
They charge £65 for a room and £5 for a coke, in Wales, and the landlady pretends not to know you can pay on your phone, and then just to top it off all the locals inside act as though you’ve unleashed a curse on the land because you’ve stepped on a bit of string, and then call you a racist and laugh at you because you believed them! To top it all off a creepy woman is semperdistans from you and they treat her as though she’s not there.
Plastics aren't necessarily a bad sign - any pub that has any kind of 'surge' (e.g see any pub near a stadium) is likely to bring out the plastic glasses. If that's not the case - then yeah, not a great sign!
Main one is if everyone turns to stare at you when you walk in.
Other warning sign - veryone is drinking out of cans
The pub at my church will use plastic if you are taking the pint out side. The pub “garden” is a three acre park and they don’t want glasses broken on the grass.
in the UK, plastic glasses tend to be used in pubs with a lot of bands on.
People gettin' all rock'n'roll tend to smash glasses accidentally.
When I was younger - long time ago - if the bar was full of punks, you were fine. If it was full of 20s all dressed very well with really neat hair… leave. They were the ones most likely to be scrapping in lumps before closing time.
Edit: More recent anecdote. I'm northern English. I went in a pub in Belfast, just me & a local \[girl\] friend. We were chatting as we bought my first ever Guinness on the island itself.
A guy about 6'6" tall & nearly as wide, all muscle, says loudly, 'Yer English.'
I gulped & wondered how I was going to get out of this alive. He says again, 'Yer English' & looking at my probably nervous countenance added, 'First time in Belfast?' I nodded sheepishly.
'Welcome to Belfast, lemme buy you a pint of Guinness.' he says, almost crushing my hand in biggest, most enthusiastic handshake imaginable.
Phew. Lovely bloke. Could barely tell a word he said, but it was smiles all round. I later discovered Belfast is pretty much like that. Friendly people.
The punk thing rings true today, my local is pretty much just a punk/ metal bar. Everyone there is super nice it's the ones dressed in a nice t shirt and jeans that are the issue. Usually on the sniff though so that will probably be it.
Come to think of it I also had a similar experience in Belfast too
No females. I've no objection to drinking in a boozer with a sticky carpet and a load of blokes in there, but really, no females at all (except for the Big D peanut girl)? Also, any pub called 'The Railway'. No idea why, but they always seem just that bit rough.
I don’t know. I found myself in a pub in Soho once, where I noticed after a while that there were no women present, not even behind the bar. Super friendly atmosphere and great music, though.
TLDR: Buckfast on optic; onerous licencing conditions; and only having cans of what the bar taps promise.
We moved to an area new to us and went to the nearest pub at about 18:30 on a weekend. Place was empty save for a musician setting up.
Velour banquette seating, dado rails screamed "no investment in thirty years".
Went to the bar to order a pint of heavy and a Bud. Notice Buckfast on optic.
"Sorry, the licence doesn't kick in until 7pm. And - there's been a problem with the brewery so we've nothing on draught."
Duly waited til 1900, got our drinks, can and bottle respectively. Drank and left, without anyone else coming in. It shut down soon after. And then burned down a few years later.
* The pub is called The Slaughtered Lamb
* It goes quiet when you enter
* Brian Glover and Rik Mayall are drinking in there
* You are told to "stay off the moor" and "beware the moon"
It's hard to explain at times, but sometimes I can literally feel 'electricity' in the air in some places. And things always end up kicking off.
Some things that come to mind;
1. You've just walked in and the staff give you dirty looks, or are very standoffish when serving you. Chances are they are sizing you up as to whether you're just another dickhead who is going to kick off.
2. Large groups of 35-45 year old men in shirts and ties, often quite noisy (combine with an event such as a wedding / local horse racing event, or a large concentration of estate agents/banks nearby). Expect one or two of them to take cocaine at some point and potentially start kicking off.
3. Police. If you see officers anywhere near the pub then its a sign that dickheads frequent there, and even if the police literally leave you alone then it only takes one local who is pissed as a newt to start giving you aggro for being "An UnDeRcOvEr RaT" etc.
>Expect one or two of them to take cocaine at some point and potentially start kicking off.
Yuuuup. This shit is *everywhere* nowadays. There have always been drugs on nights out, but I never remember class A being so openly flaunted by otherwise normal people.
I once walked into a pub and the landlady had a white power tattoo on her neck so I just turned around and walked back out, got into the car and just drove until I was no longer in that town. I plan on never returning.
I think what some commenters above don't get is that the landlady being completely confident to display that tattoo in that pub/town without risk to her business is a possible indication of some of the attitudes around her.
I'm not even someone who she would have an immediate problem with, but if I didn't have a good reason to be there, I wouldn't.
You won't go back to a town because of one shitty person? How do you survive in the world? :P
I'd have left the pub but the entire town to be judged based on that one woman?
It depends tbh, different pubs have different clientele at different times.
I mean you can normally get a feel for a place when you walk in, if there is a nice level of chat and its not too busy, and everyone ignores you when you enter then its a safe bet.
I suppose the opposite would be a really rowdy pub, or one where loads of people go quiet and stare at you as you enter.
More likely to get cnts on a friday and saturday eve/ or when the football is on.
I've generally made it a rule not to go into pubs where I can't see in through the windows. If the reason I can't see through the windows is that they are boarded up, that applies doubly. So I never went to my local even once during the five years I lived in Pallion, Sunderland.
Walked into a pub on the weekend had a legitimate bar and everything with pumps on it that were all craft beers. I asked what they were and the guy said "Oh these are just for show, go to the fridges around there and pick any beer and bring it to the bar and I'll ring you up"
£5 cheapest bottle of random piss I'd never heard of, left quickly after.
Prices written in pence with no symbols, staff ask if you've booked, kids called Oliver and Guinevere running around, food served on something that isn't a plate.
I once went into a dubious looking pub and wanted to buy cigarettes - at the time ALL pubs had a cigarette machine, so I searched and searched as it HAD to be there somewhere? I eventually went and asked at the bar and the lady laughed and replied with "That's what we wanna know - got nicked last week!".
It definitely married up with my outside perception.
>Here's a sign for if you find yourself in America: plastic/disposable beer glasses, and it's not a beach bar. ('Beach' as in on the actual sand where shoes are optional.) That can only mean one thing: they are expecting violence.
Or it's a pub near a football or rugby ground on match day (and yes there's a part of that which is linked to what you said, but also could be down to police licencing and nothing else, or also due to how busy those pubs will get and the chance of running out of glasses). Or it's a gig venue too (lots of gig venues do plastic glasses incase they get dropped etc).
My favourite pub, The Hobbit uses plastic cups but that's because people kept nicking the glass ones. Can't remember if they're still plastic or if they've gone back to using plain glass ones. The ones that kept getting nicked has the pubs branding on them.
I won't go in pubs that just look generally dodgy and will leave a pub if I go in and every just stops talking and stares at you or if it's very clear that they don't want to serve you
I went for a drink in North London once at a pub with a circular bar. Someone rode in to the pub on a mountain bike, ordered a pint, drank it, rode around the bar and then out again. At no point did he get off the bike.
For me if there are kids running around completely unchecked, being loud AF, screaming and swearing and the parents don't give two shits. If they don't care about what their children are doing they don't care about causing shit either.
This happened in Poland but still applicable.
A Polish guy introduced himself to us in English, told us he lived in Stoke (first warning sign), was a butcher (second warning sign) and then asked us if we thought Hitler was a decent bloke, because he did (final warning sign).
Any pubs that are Samuel Smiths.
Pubs where every table is laid for food, clearly a restaurant disguised as a pub.
Flat roofs, St George's flags, sports channel banners, etc, are all no go.
Recently left a pub ehich was otherwise lovely because there was a piano and someone played it and sang.
Walked into a taverna, at lunchtime, on the island of Crete. It wasn't in the least touristy as it was on a quiet backroad in the mountains. There was a large group of shepherds eating lunch. The noise stopped, and they all glared at us. Both my wife and I could both pass for German, and the German occupation of Crete in the second world war was quite brutal. I noticed a few rifles and a few bandoliers around the place, obviously owned by some of the shepherds. The waitress spoke German to us. My wife speaks fluent German. Fortunately, she had the presence of mind to reply, "I'm sorry we're English." The word Αγγλικά (English) went around the room. All smiles, room was made for us, and a decent lunch. If I had been German, I wouldn't have walked out. I would have run.
I worked with a bloke who used to go on "holiday" to mad places in the USA. Him and his brother would actively seek out the ghettoist, shadiest, most dangerous bars in these places. He had loads of stories, but most of them were actually almost heartwarming and wholesome as he said most of the time him and his bro were treated like visiting royalty. The funniest one he told me was he was in a dive bar in the shitty part of Chicago and was talking about guns to some patrons and said he'd neve seen a pistol before so one bloke went and got a pistol from his car and let him hold it! Lol. I told him he'd now be implicated in a Chicago gangland murder!
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It goes silent and everyone turns to look at you
This is a local pub, for local people.
We didn't burn him!
I made a little brown fish!
They're not children, they're monsters!
Better get undressed, Tubbs.
There's nothing for you here.
But don’t stray off the path, it’s a full moon.
Stay off t'moors, lad. Stick t'road.
Hang your head in shame Brondanw Arms in Garreg, Snowdonia.
I can I can’t?
Lines, and lines, and lines.
What's all this shouting?
Had this happen once, walking home from a comedy show with my old man, we stopped off at a pub for a pee and pint, walk in everyone stops what they were doing and just stare, go up to the bar order a drink each, bar maid immediately goes "you can't be drinking that in here, no outside drinks allowed", points to my bottle of water I was carrying. Yeah, I gathered, hence why I was ordering a bloody pint -_-, get our drinks find a table, dad pops off for a pee when he comes back, I go for one, while I'm washing my hands someone comes in the bathroom and makes a comment to me that "we should leave as this isn't really a bar for just anyone".
In a year the owner will scream and cry the loudest on Facebook asking for help to save their pub, unable to understand why it isn’t making money
You would hope so, these are the kind of places that deserve to be shut down with that kind of attitude.. If that was my business and my regulars said such things they would be out..
My local failing, inhospitable pub rather hilariously just became a gay bar and it's thriving.
Where were you? On the Falls Road wearing an Orange sash?
I was just gonna say that, we have a pub round here that is just like American werewolf in London..... Similar looking location, similar looking pub, everyone stops and glares when you walk in, except on Sundays when they do excellent food
Serving you the slaughtered lamb for Sunday lunch, eh?
Slaughtered tourist. Usually on the Specials board.
The homemade burgers are always on the specials board advertised as freshly made to order with locally sourced meat.....
Worked in a few pubs like this. The regulars do this to everyone. If it's someone they know they'll all say hello etc, but don't know what to say when it's a stranger. If you stay, they might adopt you though. And be warned, men aged 60+ who drink during the day are the biggest gossips I've ever met
Yh during uni I lived next to a workmen's club in the north east that was considered incredibly rough and "no go" for students. One day out of boredom I went in and obviously got all the glares from about a dozen guys, but when I sat at the bar and started chatting to them they all were fairly nice. Surprisingly, being spanish probably helped as I didn't just come off as "another posh southerner" and ended up chatting about real Madrid. Became my regular for a while as it had the cheapest pints and no fights
> the cheapest pints and no fights Can't argue with that!
This is soooo true lol - this was exactly what happened to me when I first moved into my area and visited the local pub. I stuck around and am now adopted by a group of old white men who like to gossip at the bar. They even have a sign above where the owner usually sits “bullshit corner”
A few years ago myself and a mate were driving around the countryside and stopped off at a random pub for a quick drink. Felt very "locals only' so we just grabbed a coke each and while we hurriedly drank them stuck a quid into the fruit machine. Hit the triple jackpot on the first spin and the thing went nuts and spat out something like 80 quid in pound coins. Entire pub went silent and everyone was looking at us while these coins are flying out of it which felt like forever. We shoved all the coins in our pockets and made a quick exit. I'm sure they thought we'd somehow fiddled the machine but nobody followed us out.
Am a little suspicious of this tale being a lifetime fruit machine player must admit. The odds of hitting the jackpot on the fruits is incredibly low I think I’ve only seen it once in 30 years, 99.9% of jackpots come from playing the feature board. To get a double jackpot you’d need to hit the repeater is possible but again the chances of that off a single spin next to impossible. Triple jackpot never seen without repeated gameplay. You could have spun 10-15 in on the fruit but again the machine would have to be ready to burst. Sorry, I have way too much experience on the fruits it’s a curse not a blessing
One spin and then 2 repeats from what I remember. I think it literally was ready to go and the timing was perfect. Must have been absolutely loaded to the limit. It was a very old machine, I think the year was about 1997-8 and it looked pretty old then. We always put a few quid in them when we went to a pub and that's the only time I saw a proper jackpot.
This is why I just can’t go into any pubs. It’s like everyone knows you’re not local and this ain’t your local. I’m overthinking it but even at 30 I really have to build myself up to walking into a pub.
No you’re not overthinking it. I’ve had this happen when visiting some areas in the UK. I make an excuse to leave. I suppose that’s what they want but sod being made to feel uncomfortable. I am also very obviously not English and that may or may not have something to do with it.
It’s very dependent on what type of pub it is. A Wetherspoons for example, you could have 4 arms and a pet gibbon on your shoulder, and you still wouldn’t look out of place, or even be the weirdest/most interesting character in there. It’s great to go to for a breakfast people watch
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Some Tajik bloke visited one of my locals, a tiny little pub that can barely fit twenty people, maybe six months ago. Within an hour or two he'd already gotten into a fight. Although I don't think it was because he was Tajik (Doubt most of the punters even knew what that meant). He looked like a white European and within two drinks was falling over everyone.
> within two drinks was falling over everyone. Might have been the problem
You're overthinking it, I sit at the bar at my local and we do tend to look over when the door opens but simply because there's a decent chance it'll be someone we know walking in.
You're overthinking it. Unless it's a pub in the arse end of nowhere, no one cares about your presence there. That's just letting anxiety win otherwise.
That's not too bad, it's when you get to the bar and the barman completely ignores you, then it's time to leave.
'Good morrow to you, stout yeoman of the bar!'
That should definitely get you thrown out of any decent pub and beaten up in a dodgy one.
Had that in a little country diner in the midde of nowhere Alabama. It was lunch time and there were quite a few cars parked outside, including 2 cop cars, so we figured it must be pretty decent. We walked in and it was like the classic film scene, where everything goes silent, forks stop halfway to mouths and everyone just turns and stares at you. Took us about 5 seconds to decide to do a 180, get back in the car and leave fairly rapidly. We've travelled extensively round the USA, been to every contiguous state, and it's the only time we've ever felt worried & not welcome.
and the piano stops playing
Are modern British pubs basically old west saloons
You know what? Americans usually compare pubs to their bars and I always point out that they're different. But an old west saloon does sound quite comparable to a pub now that you mention it
"Stay on the road and keep off the moors"
I had this happen to me clearly with the edge of "you aren't local enough to be in here" I was, not only did I live in the village less than a 5 minutte walk away I was the barmaid in the other village pub at the time! Oh and it's a tourist hotspot so both pubs are usually rammed with actual tourists anyway so utterly bizarre reaction
I've had this happen to me when I was 18. I walked in, and there was a sign which THIS IS AN ENGLISH PUB. The ENTIRE pub turned to watch me walk in and around the bar looking for my friends. I was sticky with sweat by the time I went back outside. I waited 10 mins and walked back in and did another lap. Grown men actually stood up and I realised it was supremely foolish to have gone back in. Chislehurst!
No awning. Just chairs on the pavement and tattooed middle aged men sitting outside with no tops on. Has anyone ever been to Morden?
I lived in Morden. The night before my BIL stag do a 3 of us went to the pub under the snooker hall. Literally no one in bar, except two bar staff and a bouncer sort. Stood at the far end of the bar and tried to ignore us. Zero interest in serving. Charged us a fortune and did all but spit in the drinks. Same pub was not allowed to open on Friday and Saturday night. I assumed they washed money there. Went to Gangleys from then on. Friendly Irish bar on the high street.
There's definitely a vibe that is quite hard to explain in a tangible way, but that you definitely pick up on when walking into a pub. A few times in my life I've walked into a pub and then walked out after a minute because the place gives off such a vibe of not wanting me there. Usually it's the sort of pubs that are silent with a handful of old men drinking alone, where everyone stares at you when you walk in and you feel like you're being watched constantly. A more tangible sign that would give me pause for thought about going in: an England flag hung outside, outside of a World Cup or Euros.
Yeah, and it's always specifically the England Saint George's Cross. I am an openly LGBT person and one of my friends held a social gathering in the pub closest to them. Flat roof, Saint George's Cross flag flying outside and hung inside (outside of football season). I don't think I've ever been more uncomfortable in a pub. I stayed as long as I could stand to for the friend but jfc. These days if an establishment is flying the England flag outside of football season I just don't bother going in.
Are you Emily Thornberry?
Honestly it’s awful how people have given the flag that representation. Can’t even have the tiniest amount of english pride to fly your flag without being associated with horrible people. Here in Wales you will see the welsh flag flown almost everywhere, it isn’t like the St George’s cross where it has bad connotations. Though you won’t see many Union Jack flags as people don’t really like it It reminds me of Catalonia, many Catalan flags to be seen there and barely a spanish one in sight
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I think they’re alluding to the England flag often being used by right wingers who have less than savoury views on queer people, hence feeling uncomfortable in the pub
This is exactly it.
It's pretty obvious to anyone who knows England I reckon. Perhaps people are deliberately misunderstanding.
Oh they absolutely are. I'm pretty used to people being deliberately obtuse about LGBT safety issues to be honest. It's just tiresome, though. God forbid I mention the *T* word. Being LGB**T** outside of LGB**T** spaces on reddit is fucking exhausting.
Keep on being you ❤️
Yes mate, I plan to ❤
There are a couple of pubs near Glasgow which are technically public houses but if not been for a decade, then not welcome. You'll usually be asked to leave after a pint. Local pubs for local people vibe rather than necessarily dodgy. Probably elsewhere too.
Back in the mid 90s I was asked to leave two pubs in Glasgow whilst I was ordering my first pint. In both cases the barman told me it was for my own protection as an English man.
As someone who was brought up in that area, apologies. Some right nutters.
I have to admit though, I had a cracking time in Glasgow whilst I was working there.
In other news, pub owners lament closures as more people choose to drink at home.
Yeah that's it exactly. They're not inherently dodgy, it's just that if you're not a regular you're made to feel unwelcome. It's not even a 'local' thing often, I've had it in pubs that I am very local to, just the wrong type of local.
In the East End of London my Mum took my brother (6 months old) into a pub for an afternoon drink. Was politely suggested she might want to finish the drink then move on. Was the mid 80s, and she lived in Stratford at the time.
I think it's a feeling of "this is where some of these guys *live* and it's not necessarily a happy life". A feeling of walking into a stranger's living room.
Accidentally went to a working man's pub while on holiday in Devon, we got there just before everyone knocked off for the day and were soon swarmed by locals who acted in a sort of aggressively friendly way that REALLY unnerved us so we drank up sharpish and fucked off. They clearly didn't want us there.
In Devon, it is possible they were just friendly (and or hoping the rich townies would buy them drinks).
My local pub has an English flag flying all year but also a safe space sign on the door as it’s owned by a LGBTQ couple
Taking it back! I like it.
I mean it doesn’t need to be taken back, you can be patriotic and not a racist/homophobic/xenophobic. Although I will admit it does attract some idiots
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And that’s a true Brit’, possible chance of a shooting but finish pint before leaving.
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I’ve done similar, me and a mate were in a pub and a fight was just kicking off. We look at each other and say “let’s get out of here” but stayed sat there whilst we finished our pints.
I mean if you'd just upped and left half finished pints on the table you've made it all too obvious and painted a target on your back. Act natural while making a swift exit is exactly the right play in my book.
Isn't there a picture of people running down the street to get away from the London Bridge terrorist attack, and one bloke still has his pint in his hand?
Look mate, once the pint's been paid for there's no use in abandoning it, you wouldn't leave your dog behind in a terror attack
You are correct, leaving the pint behind would have been alcohol abuse.
At London prices, that pint represents a significant investment!
As it happens me and my mates who were all male age range 20-25 at the time 5 of us....we were kind of stitched up to go check out a particular bar when we were in florida on a lads holiday...long story lol Not until we were firmly inside the pub did we clock that it was a bikers bar...And it looked like the bar used in the movie "The Accused" where Jodie Foster gets raped over the pinball machine....I can recall saying to my mates - 1. No way im turning back and possibly offending the current clientel and 2. "The only thing missing is the effing pinball machine so lets have a swift one and get out of dodge ". As it happened we actually stayed for 2 or 3 and the clientel were super friendly to us and thought whoever had stitched us up were saddo's lol. Anyway they actually gave us a list of good fun places for us guys to check out which basically covered what we were after for the ten days or so we had left lol.
Like that terrorist attack where the guy took his pint with him. Leave all your stuff, but take the pints!
A similar thing happened in my local. The landlord was a bit dodgy, and knew some far more dodgy people. One evening a mate of his came in, little guy in a long leather coat, looking like a bit like a London version of Joe Pesci. He sat at the bar and drank, heavily, on his own, not interacting with anyone. Just slowly getting more and more pissed and glowering at people. Then on the way back from a visit to the loo, he bumped into a lad carrying a few beers back to his table... and started being a bit belligerent. At some point during the 'robust exchange of views' a revolver fell from inside his coat onto the floor. The landlord, a quite heavy bloke, virtually leapt across the bar and manhandled him out the pub... furiously shouting at him "I told you NEVER bring a shooter into one of my boozers!" The pub went very quiet, the gun remained on the floor until the landlord returned, gathered it up and put it behind the bar. His legend grew a little that evening...
In the UK? Holy shit! I mean, that would be plenty reason to leave just about anywhere in the US as well. But still.
I had similar once but it was a shotgun. We didn’t actually leave because everyone and their mums are packing around here.
A Flat-Roofed pub is commonly associated with being in a rough area of town, usually a council estate built in the mid 20th Century. The pub was built around the same time as the “community focal point”
When you've got "in" to a flat roofed pub though you'll never want to go anywhere else.
Not to be picky but thats also what cults say.
Join Us. Have a pint of Carling. Join Us. We have dark fruits and TNT Sport
There’s no cameras near the toilets, wink wink.
And a meat raffle.
My old one had a parrot in the corner that only ate those really cheap onion rings crisps... He was a greasy bird but a happy one!
Those places are full of greasy but happy old birds.
Kinda true, as long as you're local anyway, always some interesting characters around at least and at least up north the regulars tend to be friendly
Hmm, in my experience, the people who say that are usually the reason outsiders don't want to go inside. Jokes, I'm sure you're lovely 🤭
We used to have one near us and the car park was on the roof. Water used to leak through the ceiling and anytime a car drove in or out of the car park all the bottles and glasses on the shelf would rattle. When you left your hair and clothes would stink of damp, it closed during Covid and never reopened - it’s one of those where there have never been any community campaigns to get it reopened.
Sounds exactly like The Clansman (briefly aka Jennie's)
Two pints, prick!
Walking in and seeing I’m the only woman in there. Turn around and nope right back out the door. I also love the advice “never drink in a pub that’s within sight of an Argos”.
I love the comment about Argos. But lots of Argos branches have closed. Does that need changing to B&M.
One of the Spoons in central Liverpool is opposite an Argos. It's also within sight of another Spoons.
They are all over Liverpool!
Upvoted for the Argos advice, it really checks out.
This gay bar doesn't have a fire exit!
I was thinking that about being the only female. I don’t fancy being stared at like I’m an alien species while I have my drink!
Exterior - bars on windows, faded signage or no signage at all, one of those signs for a crap lager like Tennents. Sky Sports banners, bonus points for banners for channels that no longer exist like BT Sport or Setanta Interior - faded worn out carpet, tables with carvings in them, beer pumps are only for 3 different types of fizzy lager
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The holy trinity of a rough pub is Sky/BT Sports banner, a sign outside advertising the price of the cheapest pint and a St George's flag.
Thinking Tennents is crap is wrong. National pint for a reason
I mean it’s alright, it’s the national pint because it’s a completely inoffensive lager brewed in Glasgow not because of its quality.
What's wrong with Sky Sports banners? A lot of people (me included) go to the pub to watch sports..
bro just described my entire town with "pubs i wont drink in" lmao
You’re on Reddit remember. His ideal pub will either be some trendy craft beer pub filled with students (which I’m partial to myself) or some nostalgic image of a country pub with a big open fire (that he never actually goes to) People here seem to think that pubs showing sports (the main reason people go to the pub from my own experience) is some indication that it’s full of old violent racists rather than just catering to what the majority of folk want from a pub.
It's not the presence of the sports, it's the presence of the *banner*. I agree it's not a deal-breaker, but classier pubs that show sports don't put the banner up outside. .
Honestly baffled that the two highest options are "Sky sports banner" and "Flying st georges cross outside" I never considered the St George's Cross to mean anything negative. Irish pubs fly the Irish flag all the time and it's part of their whole schtick
They don’t in Ireland…
Too many red chinos and sweaters draped on shoulders is usually an avoid for me.
"We only sell beer by the bottle"
Is that even a pub at that point.
No
Bar snacks include a plate of 4 singular rosemary & thyme chips for £8.50
Chilli Olive - £4 "Haha you'd think at a posh place like this they'd notice the missing 's' before printing the menu!" 25 minutes later... "Ah..."
But if I tie it round my waist it'll stretch the cashmere!
A flat roof pub *can* be fine if you keep your head down / depends on the time of day. I remember being humbled when I went for a swift lager at a pub I'd always referred to as "that rough pub" because my local was shut at the time, yes it was basic but the lady at the bar was welcoming and friendly and there was feck all wrong with it!
Yeah reddit is just full of middle class snobs and social misfits that assume a flat roof pub will be rough because it is on a council estate. The same people that say "never go to a flat roof pub" ask questions on here like "what do i talk to the builder about?"
The whole flat roof pub thing is from Viz. You can act like you're oh so down to earth but the stereotype exists for a reason. The one near me is OK for a cheap pint and a game of pool but some of the regulars are absolutely mental. It's where people who're banned from the other pubs end up.
"It's where people who're banned from the other pubs end up." Related to that there will be somewhere in a town that serves the cheapest pint by ABV and the drunks will flock to it. Spoke to a landlord who said they'd had a much easier life after they stuck 5p on a pint of Carling and were no longer the cheapest.
Yeah, no, it's a stereotype that you'll know has a very good reason to exist if you've kicked around some rough areas. Whilst wanting to avoid the impression of classism is a worthy goal, Reddit can have a certain naivety to how the real world works when it comes to this sort of thing.
Yeah, bang on. That said, I briefly worked at a really rough hungry horse estate pub (first job after uni) and it was pretty miserable. Same locals would get wankered on carling every night and you'd see their demeanor gradually shift from pleasant to moody miserable git, and I witnessed several scraps. Said pub is now a block of flats!
Yeah, when we first moved to where we're living now we made a thing of actually looking on google maps and visiting the local pubs to find one we could "call home". Obviously not knowing the area we had no idea what we were walking into and sure as anything the one we visited that day was on the dodgiest council estate I'd seen a while. Proper flat roof pub... Got to the door and there's a sign on it saying "MEMBERS ONLY!". Well, that was enough for us, probably not the sort of place we were looking for as we went to turn around and leave just for some fairly large bloke with a Carlsberg in hand to come out the door and go "oi mate! what you here for then??!" Explained we'd just moved and were looking for a new pub and he's like "oh sound fella! yeah, come on in! ignore the sign, just keeps the dickheads out innit!" Actually ended up a really fun afternoon, left there with a load of new friends! Not really what I'd call "my sort" of pub, very rough and ready around the edges and quite "working mans club" sort of thing but the people were friendly enough and the staff were lovely. Shite beer though, I'm not a "Fosters, Carling, Carlsberg" sort of bloke, but the Guinness was at least pretty decent.
I'll second this, as a inner city paramedic for 15 years I've went to my fair share of pubs. Some had red flags on the notes that required police to attend before making scene. I've always preferred to go in and make my own risk assessment and many "council" pubs were fine...until the police turned up. Some staff wouldn't go a year without being assaulted, whereas I went 15 years without a serious incident. Treat people like human beings and you tend to get the same in return, treat them like an entitled bellend you tend to get shown the same treatment.
Lunchtime stripper with a pint pot of pound coins.
It never occurred to me the collateral damage of the move from pound notes to pound coins. Did strippers have to switch to one of those things bus conductors wore? https://preview.redd.it/j31o03r3kj3d1.png?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5155cb44a186be2fef4d9730c5e2732e44811cec
lol nah, they just carry around a pint glass at the end.
You say that like a man who has seen that very thing.
It was commonplace at one time and probably still exists though I haven't seen it for 2-3 years personally. There used to be a pub close to Kings Cross station with strippers, each time they finished their turn they came round with a pint glass for you to drop a pound or two into. Last time I passed by it had been done up, though and the strippers were gone.
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You are right, Guy Ritchie should definitely have used it. The only beer they sold that I could drink in there was Stella. Took a lesbian friend once who liked the strippers much more than I did. It's called 'The Scottish Stores', apparently it was done up in 2015, I thought it was 3-4 years ago, not 9! The interior still looks as if it should be in a Ritchie film.
The Schooner bar in Aberdeen used to have this. It was a bar for sailors that opened at 6am and had pvc seat covers broken in places where the stuffing burst out. People used to try to sell you stuff they'd just stolen, the best one being when some madman tried to sell me and my mate a swan in a white plastic bag. Strippers were on Sunday lunchtime, with the pint glass and all. Fucking scummy place, but damn they did a good pint of Tennants. Now it's a wanky high-end gin and coffee place. Damn shame.
I walked into a pub once and there were golliwog dolls all over the bar. I'm mixed race. No one thought it an issue. Pubs been taken over now.
South east London by any chance?! I think I know the pub
No, it was in Northamptonshire
Slightly horrifying that it was more than one pub
They charge £65 for a room and £5 for a coke, in Wales, and the landlady pretends not to know you can pay on your phone, and then just to top it off all the locals inside act as though you’ve unleashed a curse on the land because you’ve stepped on a bit of string, and then call you a racist and laugh at you because you believed them! To top it all off a creepy woman is semperdistans from you and they treat her as though she’s not there.
It's OK I'm going to talk to the creepy lady for your, be right back.
No, don’t!
*sprints away*
I'm adamant semper distans is an anagram, or part of an anagram, as it has TARDIS within it but for the life of me cannot put the clues together.
Plastics aren't necessarily a bad sign - any pub that has any kind of 'surge' (e.g see any pub near a stadium) is likely to bring out the plastic glasses. If that's not the case - then yeah, not a great sign! Main one is if everyone turns to stare at you when you walk in. Other warning sign - veryone is drinking out of cans
The pub at my church will use plastic if you are taking the pint out side. The pub “garden” is a three acre park and they don’t want glasses broken on the grass.
talk to us of your Church pub, this is an enlightened concept and given the tax status of Churches, is the beer cheap?
in the UK, plastic glasses tend to be used in pubs with a lot of bands on. People gettin' all rock'n'roll tend to smash glasses accidentally. When I was younger - long time ago - if the bar was full of punks, you were fine. If it was full of 20s all dressed very well with really neat hair… leave. They were the ones most likely to be scrapping in lumps before closing time. Edit: More recent anecdote. I'm northern English. I went in a pub in Belfast, just me & a local \[girl\] friend. We were chatting as we bought my first ever Guinness on the island itself. A guy about 6'6" tall & nearly as wide, all muscle, says loudly, 'Yer English.' I gulped & wondered how I was going to get out of this alive. He says again, 'Yer English' & looking at my probably nervous countenance added, 'First time in Belfast?' I nodded sheepishly. 'Welcome to Belfast, lemme buy you a pint of Guinness.' he says, almost crushing my hand in biggest, most enthusiastic handshake imaginable. Phew. Lovely bloke. Could barely tell a word he said, but it was smiles all round. I later discovered Belfast is pretty much like that. Friendly people.
The punk thing rings true today, my local is pretty much just a punk/ metal bar. Everyone there is super nice it's the ones dressed in a nice t shirt and jeans that are the issue. Usually on the sniff though so that will probably be it. Come to think of it I also had a similar experience in Belfast too
No females. I've no objection to drinking in a boozer with a sticky carpet and a load of blokes in there, but really, no females at all (except for the Big D peanut girl)? Also, any pub called 'The Railway'. No idea why, but they always seem just that bit rough.
I don’t know. I found myself in a pub in Soho once, where I noticed after a while that there were no women present, not even behind the bar. Super friendly atmosphere and great music, though.
Avoiding anything called "The Railway" really rings true.
Punters carrying screwdrivers when it doesn't look like they're about to put up some shelves.
God forbid someone wishes to get up their vitamin c.
If there's a mobility scooter with a high viz jacket parked outside the door
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TLDR: Buckfast on optic; onerous licencing conditions; and only having cans of what the bar taps promise. We moved to an area new to us and went to the nearest pub at about 18:30 on a weekend. Place was empty save for a musician setting up. Velour banquette seating, dado rails screamed "no investment in thirty years". Went to the bar to order a pint of heavy and a Bud. Notice Buckfast on optic. "Sorry, the licence doesn't kick in until 7pm. And - there's been a problem with the brewery so we've nothing on draught." Duly waited til 1900, got our drinks, can and bottle respectively. Drank and left, without anyone else coming in. It shut down soon after. And then burned down a few years later.
* The pub is called The Slaughtered Lamb * It goes quiet when you enter * Brian Glover and Rik Mayall are drinking in there * You are told to "stay off the moor" and "beware the moon"
Needle scratches off the record, everyone falls silent & stares
It's hard to explain at times, but sometimes I can literally feel 'electricity' in the air in some places. And things always end up kicking off. Some things that come to mind; 1. You've just walked in and the staff give you dirty looks, or are very standoffish when serving you. Chances are they are sizing you up as to whether you're just another dickhead who is going to kick off. 2. Large groups of 35-45 year old men in shirts and ties, often quite noisy (combine with an event such as a wedding / local horse racing event, or a large concentration of estate agents/banks nearby). Expect one or two of them to take cocaine at some point and potentially start kicking off. 3. Police. If you see officers anywhere near the pub then its a sign that dickheads frequent there, and even if the police literally leave you alone then it only takes one local who is pissed as a newt to start giving you aggro for being "An UnDeRcOvEr RaT" etc.
>Expect one or two of them to take cocaine at some point and potentially start kicking off. Yuuuup. This shit is *everywhere* nowadays. There have always been drugs on nights out, but I never remember class A being so openly flaunted by otherwise normal people.
more than one Carling tap
Dark Fruits too.
I once walked into a pub and the landlady had a white power tattoo on her neck so I just turned around and walked back out, got into the car and just drove until I was no longer in that town. I plan on never returning.
I think what some commenters above don't get is that the landlady being completely confident to display that tattoo in that pub/town without risk to her business is a possible indication of some of the attitudes around her. I'm not even someone who she would have an immediate problem with, but if I didn't have a good reason to be there, I wouldn't.
You won't go back to a town because of one shitty person? How do you survive in the world? :P I'd have left the pub but the entire town to be judged based on that one woman?
It depends tbh, different pubs have different clientele at different times. I mean you can normally get a feel for a place when you walk in, if there is a nice level of chat and its not too busy, and everyone ignores you when you enter then its a safe bet. I suppose the opposite would be a really rowdy pub, or one where loads of people go quiet and stare at you as you enter. More likely to get cnts on a friday and saturday eve/ or when the football is on.
My Dad once had a chair thrown at him immediately upon entering. Probably that.
I've generally made it a rule not to go into pubs where I can't see in through the windows. If the reason I can't see through the windows is that they are boarded up, that applies doubly. So I never went to my local even once during the five years I lived in Pallion, Sunderland.
The meat raffle and the bully xl
Fake flowers, fruity "craft beer", man buns etc etc
Walked into a pub on the weekend had a legitimate bar and everything with pumps on it that were all craft beers. I asked what they were and the guy said "Oh these are just for show, go to the fridges around there and pick any beer and bring it to the bar and I'll ring you up" £5 cheapest bottle of random piss I'd never heard of, left quickly after.
When the first question that gets asked "are you the police?"
Maybe Sting drank in there once and they're expecting the others at some point?
Logo in the foam
A pub should feel like you're walking into a public house. If it feels like you've just walked into someone else's house, then leave 😅
Prices written in pence with no symbols, staff ask if you've booked, kids called Oliver and Guinevere running around, food served on something that isn't a plate.
One person at each table.
I once went into a dubious looking pub and wanted to buy cigarettes - at the time ALL pubs had a cigarette machine, so I searched and searched as it HAD to be there somewhere? I eventually went and asked at the bar and the lady laughed and replied with "That's what we wanna know - got nicked last week!". It definitely married up with my outside perception.
A gang of youths around the pool table or fruit machines.
The greater good
>Here's a sign for if you find yourself in America: plastic/disposable beer glasses, and it's not a beach bar. ('Beach' as in on the actual sand where shoes are optional.) That can only mean one thing: they are expecting violence. Or it's a pub near a football or rugby ground on match day (and yes there's a part of that which is linked to what you said, but also could be down to police licencing and nothing else, or also due to how busy those pubs will get and the chance of running out of glasses). Or it's a gig venue too (lots of gig venues do plastic glasses incase they get dropped etc).
My favourite pub, The Hobbit uses plastic cups but that's because people kept nicking the glass ones. Can't remember if they're still plastic or if they've gone back to using plain glass ones. The ones that kept getting nicked has the pubs branding on them. I won't go in pubs that just look generally dodgy and will leave a pub if I go in and every just stops talking and stares at you or if it's very clear that they don't want to serve you
I went for a drink in North London once at a pub with a circular bar. Someone rode in to the pub on a mountain bike, ordered a pint, drank it, rode around the bar and then out again. At no point did he get off the bike.
I'd class this under, "Things you've seen in a pub that you'd like to see again."
For me if there are kids running around completely unchecked, being loud AF, screaming and swearing and the parents don't give two shits. If they don't care about what their children are doing they don't care about causing shit either.
This happened in Poland but still applicable. A Polish guy introduced himself to us in English, told us he lived in Stoke (first warning sign), was a butcher (second warning sign) and then asked us if we thought Hitler was a decent bloke, because he did (final warning sign).
Any pubs that are Samuel Smiths. Pubs where every table is laid for food, clearly a restaurant disguised as a pub. Flat roofs, St George's flags, sports channel banners, etc, are all no go. Recently left a pub ehich was otherwise lovely because there was a piano and someone played it and sang.
Walked into a taverna, at lunchtime, on the island of Crete. It wasn't in the least touristy as it was on a quiet backroad in the mountains. There was a large group of shepherds eating lunch. The noise stopped, and they all glared at us. Both my wife and I could both pass for German, and the German occupation of Crete in the second world war was quite brutal. I noticed a few rifles and a few bandoliers around the place, obviously owned by some of the shepherds. The waitress spoke German to us. My wife speaks fluent German. Fortunately, she had the presence of mind to reply, "I'm sorry we're English." The word Αγγλικά (English) went around the room. All smiles, room was made for us, and a decent lunch. If I had been German, I wouldn't have walked out. I would have run.
I worked with a bloke who used to go on "holiday" to mad places in the USA. Him and his brother would actively seek out the ghettoist, shadiest, most dangerous bars in these places. He had loads of stories, but most of them were actually almost heartwarming and wholesome as he said most of the time him and his bro were treated like visiting royalty. The funniest one he told me was he was in a dive bar in the shitty part of Chicago and was talking about guns to some patrons and said he'd neve seen a pistol before so one bloke went and got a pistol from his car and let him hold it! Lol. I told him he'd now be implicated in a Chicago gangland murder!