the Public House Hall of Shame

[Efrogwr]

Horrible pubs. Use your judgement of what you really dislike about your nominations. Please take into consideration; dirty premises, rubbish beer, psychotic regulars, fascist landlords, Countryside Alliance affiliation (I've seen this on a roadside sign) and resemblance to Star Wars or An Ammerican Werewolf In London.

I'll start with the Sprat (from the Didcot thread) and the Prince of Wales in Llanberis.

[perpetual dan]

Not been that way for years, but there was a pub on (I think) Claremont Road in Manchester that had plastic windows. That rather sums it up.

[spindrift]

The Cat And Mutton, Hackney. It's now a trendy gastro pub but back in the mid nineties it was a complete toilet. We used to go in and watch the footie Sunday lunchtime. They didn't actually have a Sky license so someone had painted a pint glass with Tippex on the TV screen. The regulars included an elderly crew cut gentleman with a dressing on his head through which yellow matter oozed. All the furniture was bust and what they called Stella on draught was nothing of the kind. One day, a chap wearing a Red Scum scarf came in with a Jack Russell. He left his scarf on the bench and went to the bar. Another regular, with loud cheers, wiped the dog's arse with the scarf. Happy days.

[Basil]

and the Prince of Wales in Llanberis.

No idea of the name, but I bet this is the pub I went into with my two sons earlier this year.
After struggling through the crowd with pushchairs 'aving an fag outside we entred to a sudden deafening silence.  The only person not staring at us was the barman. 
We left quickly.

[Tim Hall]

That one jane went into, obv.

Years ago The Hatch in Reigate was run by a fearsome woman not dissimilar to Ursula The Seawitch from Disney's "The Little Mermaid".  I one saw her chuck a bloke out for having the temerity of asking for a sandwich on a Monday lunchtime. "My baker doesn't deliver Mondays." "The Red Lion does sandwiches" "I suggest you go there then" (noises off) "Give this man his money back, he's leaving".  All with astonishing bad grace and hostility on her part.

My mate Frank and I used to drink there of a Friday lunchtime. Once we had a dodgy pint each and struggled manfully for the first half. We couldn't take any more and asked her husband if he thought it was off. He took a mouthful and spat it out. "Why are you drinking that? Why didn't you complain earlier?"  We didn't tell him it was because we were afraid what the Seawitch would say.

It's a perfectly  acceptable place now, as she's retired to foreign parts.

[Efrogwr]

and the Prince of Wales in Llanberis.

No idea of the name, but I bet this is the pub I went into with my two sons earlier this year.
After struggling through the crowd with pushchairs 'aving an fag outside we entred to a sudden deafening silence.  The only person not staring at us was the barman. 
We left quickly.

It's opposite Pete's Eats.

[deliquium]

the Prince of Wales in Llanberis.

Might one suggest the look of the place from outside would normally deter a crossing of the threshold   

[rogerzilla]

Most pubs in Swindon, because they're owned by Arkell's.  Now Arkell's may be a beneficent family company which treats its landlords with respect and cherishes its customers, but they make the worst bitter outside an M&B pub.  To make matters worse, the lager option is usually Carling.

Although it's not a pub, I must nominate Bentley's Cabin in Swallow Street (off Regent Street) for charging us £24.95 for a round of five drinks.  In 2002.

[Psychler]

The Golden Boar in Freckenham, near Newmarket.  Great looking pub, really nice food, comfortable accommodation and a guvna who, despite the fact that we'd spent nearly £800- in his nearly empty pub on a Friday night, refused to serve breakfast to one of our party because he came down at 9.10 am.  "Sorry, I turn the ovens off at 9.00"  Git!

 

[CAMRAMan]

On Blackpool's Pleasure Beach in the late 70s there was a cellar bar called Old Lil's Saloon Bar. Now, given the location I didn't expect much and I was not to be disappointed. The beer was dire and it was full of Manure fans celebrating a victory in high spirits, nothing worse.

What qualifies the place as extra shite was the bouncers who stupidly confiscated a balloon from the fans. It was 10.30 on a Saturday night, so the lads were up for reclaiming their balloon. This involved the throwing of various pub paraphenalia, including the wheel of fortune. Respect to whoever chucked that! I quickly retreated under a table and, once the fracas had subsided out into the Blackpool night.

The Yew Tree in Yardley in Brum was the most evil "normal" pub I visited - once, and that ended with fisticuffs and many thrown glasses. Normally I don't like modern shopping developments, but the one that replaced the Yew Tree has my blessing.

[clarion]

and the Prince of Wales in Llanberis.

No idea of the name, but I bet this is the pub I went into with my two sons earlier this year.
After struggling through the crowd with pushchairs 'aving an fag outside we entred to a sudden deafening silence.  The only person not staring at us was the barman. 
We left quickly.

I had a similar b-movie western style experience in Tenbury Wells

[Polar Bear]

Try Llanrwst.   I defy you to find a good pub there.   

[spesh]

The pub I used to frequent before my current regular haunt developed a beer shortage problem due, it is rumoured, to the suppliers not being paid because the proceeds had a nasty habit of disappearing up the landlady's nose.

Eventually, the pub closed, to no-ones' surprise...

It did re-open after being re-decorated, but it never recovered the amount of trade that it used to have before its decline and fall, and it closed again, this time for good.

[interzen]

I'd nominate pretty much every pub in York - they're either places where the locals would sell their grandmothers for dope money or hipster-ised hellholes, with very little in the way of middle ground.

The Stone Trough at Kirkham Abbey is also well up there, for reasons that are far too long-winded to go into, suffice to say that the landlady at the time would have made the landlord of the Thwaite Arms in Horsehouse look like an absolute saint.

[Efrogwr]

Try Llanrwst.   I defy you to find a good pub there.

I used to live there; I agree 100%. It's the only place i've seen military ambulances on the street (at closing time. There was much "rivalry" between the town and RAF Llanrwst). It was also the site of a P.O.W. camp (actually in the town).
It can boast, however, two good bakeries and a great deli.

[Efrogwr]

the Prince of Wales in Llanberis.

Might one suggest the look of the place from outside would normally deter a crossing of the threshold   

It's a stealth pub! I thought it was closed for ages, until I saw the local talent flocking outside, waiting for opening time.

Another criterion for entries is places that look so unwelcoming or hostile that you wouldn't want to go in with all your mates and a big stick.

[tiermat]

I used to work in a pub that I wouldn't be seen dead drinking in, The North Eastern in Harrogate.  Since I worked there it has been done over and is one of the few pubs I know where they have improved it immensely by a make over.

It was common not to be able to get into the gents due to the door being blocked by one of a gang of guys whilst the others in the gang did over someone who looked at their pint in the wrong way.  I had a glass thrown at me once and also nearly got beaten up because one of the semi-regulars took offence at me stopping him from helping himself from the pumps!

[Androcles]

I remember this from the Hatfield Student Union pub guide c1983:

Cat and Fiddle - Just behind the swimming pool, beer similar.

[Psychler]

The Draw Bridge in Leith.  I'm a bit ambivelant about this, walked in there to meet some mates [back in 1986] and the atmosphere was really tense.  Threat of violence was very apparent, dirty glasses, real spit and sawdust and a shotgun under the counter. 

But..... I had a really good night

[Dinamo]

Went on a stag weekend to Scotland, after a long day travelling we went into a pub in Aberfeldy (didn't catch name of pub !), once the locals realised we were English all hell broke loose, 2 of our party spent the night in the local hospital !
The next night we stayed in Edinburgh a much more pleasant experience.

[Tewdric]

the Prince of Wales in Llanberis.

Might one suggest the look of the place from outside would normally deter a crossing of the threshold   

It's a stealth pub! I thought it was closed for ages, until I saw the local talent flocking outside, waiting for opening time.

Another criterion for entries is places that look so unwelcoming or hostile that you wouldn't want to go in with all your mates and a big stick.

The Prince of Wales is fine as long as you order your beer in welsh.  With a north walian accent...

There was a firearms incident in Penrhyndeudraeth, well-known by Bryan Chapman riders, recently, when the brewery put a Geordie couple in to manage one of the local pubs.  They tried to ban people from ordering drinks in welsh. 

It didn't go well.

Back to the point, I've been almost universally disapointed by pubs in Scotland; the one exception being the Clachaig Inn in Glencoe.  Fizzy beer and formica seemed to be universal.  I've never encountered hostility though, having said that.

[Wowbagger]

There's a pub in Killeter, very remote, in the Badlands bordering Eire and N. Ireland. The Guinness was good and reasonably priced and the landlady was quite amenable to us eating our own food because she wasn't doing any.  What made this place special for me was the marquetry wall decoration depicting the barrel of a gun which appeared to point at you wherever you went. It bore the caption "When Smith and Wesson talks, people listen."

[Jaded]

The Gold Medal, that used to be opposite the Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh. Now although this was the closest pub to the Pollock Halls of residence we used to walk past it to get to nicer places to drink. Which was almost all other places.

We were in there once by mistake and for some reason we did a blind tasting of the beer on offer. There was a dark brown one,  a lighter brown one, a lighter still brown one and a yellow one. Some of the beers had "shillings" in the name.

We couldn't tell the beers apart.

[Morrisette]

The One Bull in Bury St Edmunds. Now been spruced up unbelievably, but before that it was a right hole, with prices made up on the spot depending how local you were (think they looked at your fingers, no webbing=charge double).

"I'll have a pint of Stella please"
"Three pound"
"And a Coke"
"Two pound"
"And a bag of crisps"
"That's a pound"

He would not win barman of the year.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

The Gold Medal, that used to be opposite the Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh.

They changed it to the Physician & Firkin ages ago, and now it's The Crags. Just up the road from me. Haven't been in it since about 1998.

I would nominate the Canny Man's in Morningside - the rudest, most unhelpful staff in the world. A friend of mine asked for a hot whisky in there once and was told no, we're not boiling a kettle for that. That staff member then went and made a cup of tea for someone else. Their rudeness, unhelpfulness and inhospitableness is legendary.