What is the roughest pub you have ever been to?

Captain Cook. Never went in it myself but in the early 60's my boss who lived in Redcar or Saltburn would go in there for a pint on a Friday night before catching the train home.

It was always on the house and it took a while before he realised that they thought he was a plain clothed copper.

Flying Scotsman in King's Cross.

My father-in-law tells a tale of going in the Navi one lunchtime in the 70's.He ordered a pint and before taking a sip this bloke came up took the pint and knecked it in one go.My father-in-law said hey that's my pint to which the bloke replied I know what yer gonna do about it.Looking round at the clientele in that day he decided discretion was the better part of valour and left sharpish.

The vomiting vicar said:

Was it the Hoops Hail Hail I went in before a Celtic champions league game on my own as my mate who was the Celtic fan couldn’t go a lovely barmaid served me from three deep at the bar had one sip of my beer and the anti English/freedom songs started didn’t order a second

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I’m not sure - very scary as we went on a non game day as I was up there for work - it was actually the day that the helicopter came down on the Clutha pub as we passed that on the way back to the hotel. On game day I should imagine it’s scary due to number of drunk people- when there is only half a dozen lads in there and you are the only Englishman then that’s scary. Luckily the girl I was with who was local and a huge Celtic fan jumped straight in and said “he’s with me” which probably saved me that day!!

Nero said:

From memory I probably witnessed more trouble in the Stoney Oak than the Fessie Bar in the 2000's.

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You are totally correct there was more trouble in the Stoney, by the 2000's the Fessie had died, the reputation it had came from the 70's and 80's. I spent half my life in the there and have such fond memories of it, after reading this thread last night i couldn't get to sleep for all the memories going round in my head.

red_harrington said:

Epic scene. No words necessary.

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I've been in that bar

The film was shot in Tabernas in Almeria province in Spain, now known as Mini Hollywood. It's a tourist attraction and the bar is now, er, a bar.


The other famous film bar wot I've been in is the Bar Vitelli in Savoca, Sicily, the one where Michael Corleone's on the run in Sicily in Godfather I, he takes a fancy to Apollonia Vitelli and they go to the bar ....

I've been in far too many- it was a bit of a hobby when I was in my early 20's if I'm honest The best, or worst, depending on your take, was a pub in Hyde- south Manchester- near where I worked late 80's. The manager/owner was usually on his 3rd can of Special brew when he opened at 11.30am (Breakfast, he called it) It was a hovel. You emptied the ashtrays on to the floor I'll sort it later' The barmaids doubled up as 'ladies of the night' if you fancied it. Perhaps the finest moment ever in there was one early evening when a couple of lorry drivers came in wearing dungarees. One of them went to the loo and came out going mental about the state of them. He decided to go outside and use some waste ground opposite the pub. When he came back in and sat down, one of my mates noticed that he'd done his dungarees back up and had squashed a huge turd between his shirt and one of the denim straps.............

Tommy_Dickfingers said:

What was the name of that pub near Kings Cross with the strippers on during the day, always full of football lads during a match day ?

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haha the flying scotsman - where strippers go to die.

Trendy craft beer bar now that.

A bar in the Turkish quarter in Brussels. Only place that was open late on. Formica tables, big lights on and prostitutes asking if you had any condoms and money. Went to the bogs, rubbed my eye, and a contact lens flew out. The floor was like a million flies had died on it as I scrabbled around trying to retrieve it.

One of my abiding memories is going to meetings at 8:00 in the morning, and the bars would all have customers in, clearly already on their second or third of the day staring blankly out of the window at you.

slavens_holgate_fence said:

wasnt kellys cellar was it?

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No, much further out, Castlereagh way from memory. Though Kelly’s does look familiar, we might have had a look in there on a different day too!

roughest pub I've been in is the west green social in seven sisters. Had just moved there and thought coming from boro I'm not afraid of a rough looking London pub, so went in there with a mate.

Different league, atmosphere was so hostile it was like nobody got on with anybody else in there. Got a beer without much bother and then my mate clocked one punter handing a gun over to his mate in the corner - at that point we decided to neck our beers and get on our way.

Used to walk past it coming home everyday and there was always some sort of bother cracking off, the front window got smashed that often they gave up fixing it and just had a perspex sheet over the broken window.

Another rough sh1thole of a pub was near anfield, went in there after a boro game with my mate and as we walked in the whole place went quiet - didn't even have colours on. I was a bit more fearless in those days so got some beers in, the place settled down a bit and we ended up staying for a few more. The bar maid was absolutely belting and was cracking on to her a bit, I wrote my number on a beer mat and then asked for hers - probably a bit too loudly as a glass absolutely winged it from the other side of the pub missing me but cracking my mate right in his back. We then had a group of lads round us within seconds, threatening all sorts. Fortunately the bar maid calmed it all down a bit and we belted it out of the pub straight onto a bus - that we had absolutely no idea where it was going. Spoke to the bus driver to find out how we could get back into the city centre and told him what had just cracked off and he was like yeh you've just cracked on to the daughter of one of the biggest drug dealers in liverpool.

Just thought of a few more.
The New Gog - Canning Town. it's a 10 min walk from the Excel centre. Made the Roseberry look like Stringfellows.

Texas Bar - Lisbon
Copenhagen Bar - Lisbon
Any bar on Texas Street or Green Street, Busan, SK.
Not the place to go if you just want a quiet brandy and a cheroot

We used to to a pub crawl around Barrow-In-Furness in the roughest pubs only. Jesus christ what a laugh we had. Then finish off in one of the famous Gaza Strip nightclubs.

The Pear Tree, Wythenshawe, Manchester. Druggy place with people openly dealing, using bongs etc together with plenty of petty criminality. Became the focus of a police raid called 'Operation Partidge' and was closed down and reopened with the name The Wendover which the clientele didn't adapt to and it was demolished shortly after.

A place called the slang pun in Budapest, a local went full blown radgie and chucked the tip jar at the barmen, he promptly got dealt with before having a pop at my pal on the way out. Next minute, there’s loads of big older blokes with long jackets outside and a load of cops, at this point we didn’t know if the local was with the mafia types or they were the owners, we didn’t hang about to find out and snook out. Also, every time you went to the bar, you got charged a different price for the same round. Tremendous.

Been in plenty of rough pubs but staying close to home there's one that hasn't been mentioned yet. The Erimus, in the Cleveland Centre.

can't believe I forgot the vine in Leeds - used to have some cracking bands on in there upstairs but downstairs was rough as boots. Saw a woman bite another womans ear off in there one afternoon (yes afternoon)

Heam44 said:

Not sure if it’s still there, pub in port Clarence, possibly called the top house, used to have a stripper on bout midday on a Friday, everyone used to chip 50p in a pint glass.

Her knickers were a bit smelly

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That was the top house in Haverton Hill - in the late 80s we used to take new starters at work in there on a Friday lunchtime - strippers were very ropey.



Alexandra Hotel in Jarrow - owned (or was owned) by Mensi of Angelic Upstarts fame
Built new houses alongside it in 2014 - he kept asking the site manager to compulsory purchase it so we could build more houses, desperate to get shot of the place.
Entire day-time clientele were alcoholics - stood outside from half ten supping cider waiting for him to open
Bogs were straight out of Trainspotting - made the site ones look almost appealing.

Carrying on from a previous post

BigJack said:

You are totally correct there was more trouble in the Stoney, by the 2000's the Fessie had died, the reputation it had came from the 70's and 80's. I spent half my life in the there and have such fond memories of it, after reading this thread last night i couldn't get to sleep for all the memories going round in my head.

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I don't classify any of the pubs in Billingham being in the same category as a lot of the others mentioned on here.
Those quoted were generally frequented by the younger element and could get a touch volatile later in the night
but certainly not the sort of bars that are basically ran by the local criminal fraternity.