The importance of pubs

My local is the Brit in Shields. There's the Maltings as well and the Chamelon reopened and the Cask Lounge.

Cracking little run of bars now. Had a few in Brit and Chameleon last night :cool:
 


Good lad.

The decline of the pub is basically a combination of all of the reasons mentioned in the posts above. Plus this imho:
Around the time of the smoking ban though I nivver smoked and was ower the moon it came in I was pissed me off about it I was pissed off about it because as a non smoker I’d be in the company of two or three who’d all go outside for a tab and carry on the conversation out there. When they’d come back the subject matter had changed ffs. 18 months of having only half the crack on a neet out played a part in my stopping in a bit more.

True.
Used to always be gadgys you could set your clock by in locals. Eight o’clock Eddie, Nine o’clock Nick, Ten o’clock Tel etc. They’d come in mon-thurs dead on time and have the same drink and number of em......unfortunately a lot had the same conversations anarl.
These fellers kept the pub game going and made a place look busy thus making it look like a place worth frequenting to strangers or new arrivals to the area. They tended to live just round the corner cos no ones gonna travel any distance for three or four pints.
Now with a lot of small locals closing they or their modern day equivalent would have to travel further for their couple of hours out of the house......are they gonna bother?
Two good points there @riffraff

1. I don’t frequent pubs much at all but either when I’m with a group of expat Brits or when I come home I notice this business of. Half the group tramping out at 30 minute intervals ‘for a burn’ - how f***ing stupid do you have to be to still be smoking in this day and age? How f***ing weak that you can’t get through a few pint sesh without succumbing to self- inflicted poison?

2. Spot on with this. I used to work in The Barnes in the eighties and it was a joy to work in the front lounge up by the fireplace. The lass’s bogs were at that end so there was an endless stream of tottie going back and forth, and that’s where all the regulars would come. You knew exactly what they’d order so you could knock their pints down when you saw them through the packed crowd and by the time they’d made it to the front you were handing over their bevs and pocketing a nice tip. It was packed out seven nights a week. Years later my brother said he’d been home for a match, came up from the town and nipped into the Barnes for last orders on a Saturday and there were less than twenty people on the entire joint. How did that happen? I always wondered what happened to all the regulars? Did they move down to the Rosedene or the Chesters? Or did they just stop in, turn gay and become obsessed with ‘Strictly’? (@Teed)
 
Pubs are class like.

I like a pub that doesnt try to be everything, they dont all need to do food and show sport on tv for example.

Like that some NE pubs still do complimentary bar snacks.

Dog friendly helps as well.
 
It's not just about drinking man, the whole atmosphere changed, mind I should have said, that the ban put the last nail in the coffin, they were closing before the ban came in, to many young bloke under the thumb now anarl. having to sit there on the couch with their lass, watching Strictly and all the soaps, Blokes watching ballroom dancing, man..... 🤭 that's what me nanna used to do.

Also lots of locals struggle with the cost of sky which is extortionate for a commercial package and fewer places willing to show overseas streams anymore. Meaning more people watch live sport at home..
 

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