Background to  Alnwick pubs

In July 1999 Vaux, who owned most of them, changed their name to Swallow, closed their brewery and sold the pubs to Pubmaster.  It is possible that Pubmaster will breathe new life into them.  But I'm not expecting a lot; they wouldn't be the first national company which didn't really manage to get its national brand across properly in Alnwick. Let's hope they do, anyway.  The loss of Vaux beer from the taps isn't a disaster; the pubs which served an OK pint of Samson now serve an OK pint of John Smiths and the (greater) number of pubs which served a useless pint of Samson now serve a useless pint of John Smiths.

Saturday night in Alnwick is an experience which no one should miss. You can find out the reason why they've had to introduce a ban on drinking in the street, why Alnwick came fourth in Bantamweight Quarterly magazine's survey of the easiest places to get into a fight, and what people in Newcastle were wearing six months ago.

It's so popular that people come up from Leeds for the Saturday Night Alnwick experience. No one knows why, not even them.
 
 

Alnwick Moor

The Shepherds' Rest - Way out of town, and not worth climbing the hill just to check if they have got the apostrophe right. And I'm not changing that no matter how many people send me hatemail because of it.  So there.

 

Bondgate Within

 

Bondgate Without

The Fleece Another Vaux renovation job.

The Plough - Good food lunchtimes and early evenings provided you agree that crisps make a good garnish. Especially recommended is the chicken and spinach sandwich (which for some reason they only serve on Mondays now). Had a horse in the bar New Year's Day 1999 (probably a huntsman trying to get round the ban on drinking in the street, not realising that horses haven't been able to commit offences in England since medieval times).  Probably the best food pub in Alnwick.

Hotspur Hotel - Used to be a funeral parlour until the 1970s. Now it's just dead.  Closed for the time being pending refurbishment by someone with enough money to refurbish it (which may include the current owner, who knows?).

 

Clayport Street

JW's

Falcons Rest - Used to be a pub called the Blue Bell whose idea of marketing was to put up a sign saying "Shoot Pool, Hoy Arras, Drink Beer"; "Pool, Darts, Sandwiches". As classy as that.  Was closed for a while following a reasonably serious fire.

As the Falcon's rest it is a sports bar and to emphasise this they have hung up a rugby shirt in the window. Who knows, perhaps it will attract some custom now.

Bird & Bush

 

Fenkle Street

Market Tavern - Recently refurbished, and looking quite good at the moment except they decided to install a TV and, in keeping with the refurbished 30s look they have banged up a hardboard shelf and some garage shelf brackets.

 

Hotspur Street

The Tanners - see above

 

Howick Street

John Bull - drinking pub, many whiskies. They are thinking of brewing their own beer it seems. Now has its own site.

 

Market Street

Queen's Head Hotel. A good place to go if you're clumsy because if you spill anyone's pint they probably won't mind as it will have saved them having to drink it - the beer's awful. The flaw in this is that they might be looking for a fight anyway - a lot of people in Alnwick are.

 

Narrowgate

Oddfellows Arms - Frequently changes hands and always seems to be taken over by people who fail to appreciate that if a failing pub is to be pulled round then you have to run it differently. 

Oscars - curious disco pub. Upper floor bar has odd history of inappropriate lighting:

* UV lights which light up inappropriate parts of people's clothing

* Formerly had spotlights shining at extractor fans - to make a feature of them, no doubt.

* Now has 1970s plasterwork highlighted by orange lights sometimes.

Eclectic discos Saturday nights. Eclectic because the DJ is well into his 40s. Floor is quite spongy because they have laid floorboards on top of a dodgy carpet.

Hairy Lemon (previously the Black Swan) 

Taken over and renamed by a pub chain [Wessex Taverns] .   The renaming (after a pub in Dublin, they say) caused an enormous stir.   Quite popular although absolutely no one likes the name.  Wessex Taverns were sensitive and tactful about the renaming, and the fitting of a carpet with the name "Hairy Lemon" was just to remind punters.  Wessex Taverns obviously did their homework and read the comment on this page about how the tree in the Tanners was effective at getting the birds in.  In an obvious cheap attempt to attract custom from the Tanners they have put in a birdbath at the back end.

Olde Cross (aka dirty bottles) strange story about bottles: a Victorian Landlord put them in window (why?) and dropped dead and it is said that if anyone ever touches them then they'll die too. So no one has touched them since. It's perfectly true, of course. But since you don't have to go inside to see the bottles; it's a bit of a loser as profit boosting gimmicks go. But then that's not why the legend grew up, of course.

 

 

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