Rough As Fuck Pubs

[kalowski]

The last time I was passing through Feltham and High Wycombe in 2019 they still had all day stripper pubs. Grim.

About 15 years ago I went to Liverpool for a leaving do. We went into a pub where they gave you a pretend pound note. You could use these to get an afternoon strip and lap dance. It was so weird, this ordinary looking pub, with those typical embroidered bar stools and flock wallpaper and young women dancing naked in front of you. Most of us just handed our "pound notes" to the drunk twat who took us there and left him to it.

[jamiefairlie]

And another; used to walk past this to get to college in the morning where there would usually be a man in van outside selling knocked off meat.



Rough as fuck round there.

"Meat" is such a disturbing word.

[Blue Jam]

I thought that might get a mention. I'm going to add the Tam O'Shanter, near me in Leith, for smelling of piss, BO and fags whenever I pass it. It just seems extremely grim.

Hibs pub? Leith has some really nice pubs and bars but any pub with a green sign looks like one to avoid.

The Alhambra Bar also looked a bit hairy. Always open when I used to werk nearby too, a 9am licence is another sign of a Rough As Fuck Pub:



Ever ventured into The Harp And Castle?



Wasn't the nicest view when you were having a bit of tapas at Serrano & Manchego over the road (really nice place, sadly didn't survive lockdown). Was never tempted to nip over for a  digestif.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

The Grapes, Edinburgh:

ohh noooo that's horribly unfortunate

i always wanted to go and check out this out but was afraid. demolished now to make way for that woodberry down development ravaging manor house. will never know if they were happy men or not

[Blue Jam]

I have always been intrigued by this place:



Interesting name. Used to cycle past it on the way to werk. Never closed no matter how early it was. Never fewer than three mobility scooters outside. Wipe-clean sterile youth club-like interior.

[Blue Jam]

Something I've always wondered.

The Port Sunshine in Irvine Welsh's novels... clearly based on a rough as bollocks real pub or pub in Leith.  Does anyone know which one(s) or been to them.  I'd love to go there one day but imagine it may have gone now.

Could be The Meridian Bar (now the actually really nice Leith Depot):

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/regions/edinburghs-worst-bar-be-restaurant-and-arts-venue-881415

[canadagoose]

I have always been intrigued by this place:



Interesting name. Used to cycle past it on the way to werk. Never closed no matter how early it was. Never fewer than three mobility scooters outside. Wipe-clean sterile youth club-like interior.

That must be the last pub left in Craigmillar. I can't imagine it's wonderful, but I've never been in, so who knows.

I don't think the Tam O'Shanter is a Hibs pub, but I could be mistaken. Just a slightly scary old dockers' pub, I think.

Edit: but on the topic of nice Leith pubs, the Three Marys has opened recently on Dogshit Way Henderson Street, and has quite a nice atmosphere. Bit pricey though. I think The Shore pub (further down) is my favourite bit to hang out alone, and maybe the Carriers' Quarters or the Port o' Leith if I'm with a pal or two.

[Rizla]

Hibs pub? Leith has some really nice pubs and bars but any pub with a green sign looks like one to avoid.

Yeah, maybe best to stick to "embra" boozers then - they'll usually stick on the rugger if you ask politely.

The Alhambra Bar also looked a bit hairy. Always open when I used to werk nearby too, a 9am licence is another sign of a Rough As Fuck Pub:

Not somewhere I've used much, seems mostly pensioners drink in there, nice for them to have somewhere to meet up and play dominoes, cheap halves, they like to pub it early, you don't tend to find the oldies out late. Will most probably be shut down and turned into a tapas bar some point in the next 5 years.

Ever ventured into The Harp And Castle?



Wasn't the nicest view when you were having a bit of tapas at Serrano & Manchego over the road (really nice place, sadly didn't survive lockdown). Was never tempted to nip over for a  digestif.

Brilliant pub, my second local - staff who remember your name and what you drink, pool table, juke box, absolute riot on game days. Sorry if it spoiled your view - that tapas place didn't last long at all, can't imagine why (actually I can, having gone in when it first opened and been charged 7 quid for a couple of soggy croquettes which took 40 minutes to arrive).

Something I've always wondered.

The Port Sunshine in Irvine Welsh's novels... clearly based on a rough as bollocks real pub or pub in Leith.  Does anyone know which one(s) or been to them.  I'd love to go there one day but imagine it may have gone now.

Obviously meant to be the once-great Port, the sort of place you used to get actual sailors and sex workers drinking in -  has long since been tarted up and gentrifucked, like much of Leith...

I thought that might get a mention. I'm going to add the Tam O'Shanter, near me in Leith, for smelling of piss, BO and fags whenever I pass it. It just seems extremely grim.

Again, mostly for pensioners who often do, as you say, stink of piss, BO and fags. It seems pretty well run though, it's been under the same management for as long as I've lived here, getting on 25 years.

[gmoney]

The Never Say Die in Jaywick looks a bit rum.



They're hanging the body of someone in the window there, no doubt a holidaymaker who stole a glass.

[Flouncer]

The London Road pubs in Sheffield: Barrys, The Barrel, The Crown & The Cremorne can be really edgy at times. There are some unhinged characters around.

I wanted to jump in and defend the Crem as I've had some nice nights in there (it used to be, and possibly still is, a decent music venue which I've played at a few times) but ultimately you're right - you do get some proper dodgy fuckers in any of the pubs on London Road at any given time. I know a bloke who ran The Albion there at one point; he renamed it The Bell Jar. Again it was good for live music but it was a really disorganised affair as he'd spend all the takings on charlie and neglect the actual running of the pub. I went in there once and he'd run out of beer, which is a pretty shocking oversight for a boozer. It didn't last too long. Played some nice gigs in there though.

That also reminds me of The Ball Inn, in Ecclesfield. It was the place my parents met, when my mum was working behind the bar. It's a vets now, but towards the end of its time, the brewery totally disowned it. The bar staff would periodically go across the road to the Co-Op to buy some crates of Carling: they brought them behind the bar and would pour the cans into pint glasses when someone ordered a beer. It was really something to behold. They limped along in this fashion for about six months until it finally closed its doors.

Anyone beer in THE BIG GUN? Looks really hostile from the outside but heard mixed things overall.

I was once walking past there with one of my trade union pals on the way to our branch meeting, and I was told that it's a bit of a meeting place for fashy types. I've never been in there but you can well believe it from the look of the place.

The only place I really associate with real life fash is the Bankers Draft which you also mentioned. There was an EDL march protesting the development of a "megamosque" at Sheffield Lane Top [there was no plan to build a mosque, let alone a megamosque, and the fash knew this but they wanted to stomp around an area with lots of immigrants and intimidate them] and my trade union rep had mentioned they were meeting in the Bankers before the march. I unexpectedly got the day off so I thought I'd go in there, have a breakfast and keep my ear to the ground. There were indeed lots of stinking, unwashed men with scuffed knuckles assembling there, knocking back a few pints to really get them in the mood. Even at the best of times, that place is the natural environment of the gammon; you just walk in there and the stench of Brexit hits you full in the face. Fucking horrific place.

Also some mates of mine got in a rumble with some fascists at The Howard; proper chairs getting broken over people's backs and shit. I don't think it's frequented by fash though, they were probably just meeting there because of its proximity to the train station.

Edit: The Cannon just off Waingate used to be a fucking horrific pub as well. I went in there with my dad once, and there was a bloke openly smoking a joint right in front of the bar, totally unchallenged. I went for a piss and the doors had been ripped off all but one of the cubicles, and the one remaining door had a massive hole punched in it that you could fit your head through. The council took away its license not long after that as it was just a haven for miscreants of all types.

[badaids]

The Port O'Leith sounds (and looks) about right.

In the books it's described as painted bright blue (your picture is bright red), full of Formica tables dockers, sailors and sex workers. Im sure it also gets gentrified in one of the later books. Soon I guess pubs of this sort will disappear entirely from the present and the culture. I don't want to go and drink in them but it's a shame that they will be lost.

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

When it comes to rough pubs England vs Scotland is like bringing a knife to a gun fight. There's something almost artful to the bunker-like bleakness of them.

[canadagoose]

Obviously meant to be the once-great Port, the sort of place you used to get actual sailors and sex workers drinking in -  has long since been tarted up and gentrifucked, like much of Leith...

Have you been in lately? It's not that gentrified - although the outside would suggest it's a bit hipstery, it still gets all sorts in and people dancing on the tables etc. Decent rum selection too.

[badaids]

Have you been in lately? It's not that gentrified - although the outside would suggest it's a bit hipstery, it still gets all sorts in and people dancing on the tables etc. Decent rum selection too.

I've never been to Leith I'd like to but am scared I would get duffed up for being a southern softy. I'm also tee-total so no reason to go really. I only have the comments on here and Welsh's books to go on about gentrification - very happy to take your word for it.

[canadagoose]

I've never been to Leith I'd like to but am scared I would get duffed up for being a southern softy. I'm also tee-total so no reason to go really. I only have the comments on here and Welsh's books to go on about gentrification - very happy to take your word for it.

It's not that scary, honest. It's less threatening than Lothian Road on a Saturday night. Not that I'm trying to force you to come here or anything, but you've nothing to be scared of.

[Mr Banlon]

You left out The Woolpack, Hayes: #MondayMotivation #Strippers - 1pm: Isobella, Tiffany Janinie and Nicky. 4pm: Bia. 5pm: Claudia. 7pm: Alice, Tiffany, Lina and Tina.

The Woolpack is more of a strip joint that doubles as a pub, rather than a pub that has strippers. I don't think it's anyone's 'local'.

[badaids]

It's not that scary, honest. It's less threatening than Lothian Road on a Saturday night. Not that I'm trying to force you to come here or anything, but you've nothing to be scared of.

I've been to Scotland 4 times, West Coast, Cairngorms, Aberdeen and Glasgow and got aggro for being English every time in spite of just going about my business.  So I always feel a bit nervous about going there.  I do like the fact that in Scotland if they're calling you a cunt, then you know you're okay.  If they start calling you mate it means you're about to get punched.

[Sebastian Cobb]

My old local - this is after it was closed down but it didn't look much better when open.

Rough. as. fuck.

I thought that was The Broadhill for a minute then!

[Sebastian Cobb]

Leeds ones:

The Pack Horse on Brigate - now a Craft Union pub and absolutely frighteningly shit and packed with cunts

I've been there, about 15+ years ago a mates band was playing in the upstairs bit.

[king_tubby]

Sure that wasn't the one near the university?

[Sebastian Cobb]

I have always been intrigued by this place:



Interesting name. Used to cycle past it on the way to werk. Never closed no matter how early it was. Never fewer than three mobility scooters outside. Wipe-clean sterile youth club-like interior.

I think I've been in there. It was fine really, although they did put out a load of beige scotch eggs and pies out on foil trays that I wasn't brave enough to touch.

The Bertie Beattie, or whatever it's called, round the corner was better though.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Sure that wasn't the one near the university?

It will have been, yes. I didn't realise there was more than one.

[king_tubby]

Yeah, city centre one isn't great, one by the university puts on a lot of punk/DIY/hardcore etc gigs. Or did.

[Ferris]

Not the roughest, but the Four in Hand, a Hibs pub on Easter Rd. Here it is after it was "firebombed" a few years back -

The owner at that time was Paul "Kano" Kane, ex-midfielder from the John Blackley era of the 80s. After the arson attack, he reasoned that a fresh look was needed, so the boozer was duly renamed as the IV Bar, an unfortunate rebranding since a) "The HIVS" is a cruel nickname sometimes given to his former club by opposing fans, and b) 5-1 was the scoreline of a best-forgotten 2012 cup final tie against their city rivals Hearts.

The bar was soon taken over by former hibs goal-machine Derek "barred from every pub in Edinburgh" Riordan, who cleverly rebadged it R10rdan's and set about rehabilitating the place's good name.

I've always found it to be pleasant enough.

My wife's old apartment was just down the road from that and I was far too terrified to go in.

[TrenterPercenter]

I thought that was The Broadhill for a minute then!

It was called "The Gladiator" when it was open.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

When it comes to rough pubs England vs Scotland is like bringing a knife to a gun fight. There's something almost artful to the bunker-like bleakness of them.

The first image that popped into my head when I saw this thread was 'The New Mon-AH-co', as it was apparently pronounced in its heyday (most of the citizens of the east end of Glasgow tending to keep their yachts in other tax havens, and therefore not knowing the correct pronunciation of 'Monaco'). Long gone now, I think, so will never have the chance to sample its delights.

I think those two pubs in your post are both classic examples of the Glasgow flat-roof pub that's been cut down from a tenement building, either after the upper floors became derelict and the owners decided to cut their maintenance costs by getting rid of them, or the rest of the district was bulldozed and replaced by some concrete tower block hellhole.

Incidentally, just beyond the building on the left is the WEST Brewery/pub, housed in the slightly grander setting of the former Templeton's carpet factory, which was, unusually, modelled on the Doge's Palace in Venice.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

I have always been intrigued by this place:



Wipe-clean sterile youth club-like interior

- UH! Gotta do the Mark E. Smith thing. Was that interior picture easily googlable?

[Sebastian Cobb]

When I went to get my Covid jab I cycled past The Goodyear Social Club, I'd have thought it was another long closed pub rotting away, never to be repurposed but the doors were open.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Fukkin el

Welcome to The Phoenix Club

[shiftwork2]

The first post-Threads pub.