Roughest pub you have been in

Hertsseasider

Hertsseasider

Well-known member
Nicked from the Charlton forum

Swansea, someone recommended it and we all poured it, took one look and exit stage right a complete dive
Oh and the pub opposite Gillingham station
 
During my time working for the National Union of Licensed Victuallers, I was called to a pub in Middlesboro on a large Council Estate. It took some finding and I was actually pulled over by an unmarked Police Car on suspicion of Kerb Crawling. They guided me to the pub. All the windows were boarded up, there was no furniture in the place apart from tables which were bolted to the floor. The tenants were being faced with a rent increase of 25%. You couldn't make it up and I couldn't get away quick enough.
 
I have 3 all in Manchester. The Penny Black... The gluepot.. And the worse of all the amber club.. Was working as a bouncer one night in the amber club. A dark dimly lit dump. Windows went in and the place sprayed with bullets how nobody was killed God only knows. Terrifying to say the least.
 
Curryman said:
During my time working for the National Union of Licensed Victuallers, I was called to a pub in Middlesboro on a large Council Estate. It took some finding and I was actually pulled over by an unmarked Police Car on suspicion of Kerb Crawling. They guided me to the pub. All the windows were boarded up, there was no furniture in the place apart from tables which were bolted to the floor. The tenants were being faced with a rent increase of 25%. You couldn't make it up and I couldn't get away quick enough.
Click to expand...
Was it the Thorntee?
 
One very close to Tottenhams ground Feb 78 (2 2 !). With a mate and girlfriends - hadn’t realised it was West Indian pub. We were only whites. Already committed to going to bar - ordered 4 half’s drunk in record time then offski 😳 Very intimidating
 
Threepeaksphil said:
Most pubs round Wembley and one pub near to Port Vale ground
Click to expand...
Vale, eh? My first visit there was around 1990ish.
Middle aged woman stormed in (1.30ish) with a full dinner plate, slammed it down in front of her husband (I assumed), plate broke, “it’s gone cold” he says, with gravy over shirt. “Good. You **.”
Half an hour later, someone had set fire to the toilets. How the f… do you do that?
 
Went to the 2nd leg of a league cup game at Newcastle in the 80's (lost 1-4). I was working in IT with loads of friendly geordies so thought that the norm. 4 of us having a drink near St James's (best pint of Stones I'd ever tasted) when a tap on my shoulder asking me if I had a light. Pub had suddenly become rammed with barcodes, all smoking & staring at us. Didn't think it was the right time to discuss computers or mainframes so very quick exit.
 
Cutty Sark in Fleetwood was not for the faint hearted.

Also whilst a Uni I worked in the Parkside near Main Road in Miss Side. It was just daily gang land issues which the bouncers were all in on. Tips were good though 😁
 
The Royal in Dalry, North Ayrshire. I used to work near Dalry and went into this pub one tea-time. Three local blokes started weighing me up. I used to wear a Saint Christopher in those days. This got them asking what school I went to - an oft used question round there to find out if someone's Catholic. The atmosphere was getting heavy so I left my pint and walked out. I related this story to work colleagues the following day. They asked if I'd checked out the women with prices written on the soles of their shoes...and not because they'd forgotten to take the labels off.
 
The Ratpit in Aldershot..... Nuff said!!
I was visiting a mate in the town, as I was serving on a warship in Portsmouth.
How was I to know the Ratpit was a Para pub....
Mate thought it was hilarious seeing the colour drain from my face as we entered....
😵‍💫 !!
 
Another one for Luton but again can’t remember its name. There was a pool table and one player, who clearly didn’t like losing, broke his pool cue over the table when he did.

It was winner stay on and my mate had put money down. I spent the whole game thinking “FFS!!! Don’t win”.
 
Curryman said:
During my time working for the National Union of Licensed Victuallers, I was called to a pub in Middlesboro on a large Council Estate. It took some finding and I was actually pulled over by an unmarked Police Car on suspicion of Kerb Crawling. They guided me to the pub. All the windows were boarded up, there was no furniture in the place apart from tables which were bolted to the floor. The tenants were being faced with a rent increase of 25%. You couldn't make it up and I couldn't get away quick enough.
Click to expand...
I had a similar experience visiting a pub called “The Graving Dock” in Birkenhead, widows barred, fruit machines encased in iron , everything bolted down. When I left the tenant walked out with me for my safety and found eggs smashed on my bonnet and windscreen. You’re lucky, he said, it’s usually bricks.
 
A few weeks after the riots in Burnley in 2001 I was playing in an away game out that way at the start of the season.

A couple of minutes away from where game was played we went passed a pub with boarded up windows, racial graffiti sprayed on the walls and barbed wire across the door. What a dump I thought. That was were the home team told us the after match sandwiches would be served……
 
Nottingham on the Meadows Estate. Can’t remember the name of the concrete hellhole.
About 8 of us went with a well-known Forest lad who WHUSC knew from England games: a Nottm publican who gave us air cover!
When we left we walked passed the usual shrines to another recent shooting.
Our Football Intelligence Officer was heading towards the ground when we strolled out of the Estate. He was with Nottm Intelligence officers who came over non-plussed. “Where have you lot been? Even we can’t drive through there and you idiots have just marched through?”
Fortunately WHUSC only goes out with trannies these days.
 
There was a pub in Leytonstone away from the main high street on some waste type area. We went in and the whole place stopped talking and stared at us. I stood at the bar and said something like we'd better have this one drink and leave. Barmaid agreed.

It was only when we sat down and an old dear started talking to us that everyone stopped staring and carried on talking. We left after about 15 minutes and checked we weren't being followed.
 
did a weekend away in Gillingham for a game and did a pub crawl first night[ friday]. Every ** pub was as rough as fuck, it was a right shithole bar the last one where we had a lock in and the landlord gave six of us a lift back to our hotel in Chatham in his people carrier. He recommended the next night we go to Rochester which was far nicer.
 
Chunkylad said:
Cutty Sark in Fleetwood was not for the faint hearted.

Also whilst a Uni I worked in the Parkside near Main Road in Miss Side. It was just daily gang land issues which the bouncers were all in on. Tips were good though 😁
Click to expand...
Parkside was a belting boozer. Proper lads in that place. Lol.. Big city pub.
 
I remember playing snooker in a match in the fleetwood arms on dock street, this was around 60 years ago, but the place was shocking, there were a few stairs up to the toilets where the cubicle had no door, with a guy sat there shitting. The urinals were worse than the ones at Bloomfield Road at the time and they took some beating
 
Early ‘80’s - Middlesbrough Rock Garden, watching Tom Robinson’s ‘Sector 27’.

Truly frightening skinheads invaded the gig - & not kids in DM’s et al, but fully grown blokes, built like the proverbial brick ‘out-house’.

I’ll never forget the lights going up as a result & seeing the bloody aftermath on the dance floor.
 
The old Yates in Talbot Square when it had sawdust on the floor and you could get a few glasses of cheap, sweet South African red wine was a bit of an eye opener at times.
 
I have been to loads of rough pubs in Scotland with work, especially around Glasgow, Paisley, and some of the small towns in
Aberdeenshire. They usually have a spitton in the corner for the ladies, and the pub quiz usually starts with the
question " what you looking at".

The real telltale sign is that they don't serve any food, apart from crisps, nuts, and maybe microwave pies, usually because their customers
do not eat because it interfaces with getting totally wasted on the drink.

In Paisley, the weapon of choice tends to be the axe, and there are plenty of incidents of them being used at pubs the most recent
in the Patters Bar when a woman got her arm half-axed off.

In Glasgow it's even worse and there is the obvious problem of sectarianism. One of worst was The Caravel which had a grenade attack
on the customers. But knife and bottle attacks are quite common.

In reality, the Cutty Shark was bad in comparison with the pubs Poulton, in Glasgow there are 7 or 8 really bad estates Easterhouse, Govan,
Parkshead etc all much larger populations.
 
Danny Ocean said:
I have been to loads of rough pubs in Scotland with work, especially around Glasgow, Paisley, and some of the small towns in
Aberdeenshire. They usually have a spitton in the corner for the ladies, and the pub quiz usually starts with the
question " what you looking at".

The real telltale sign is that they don't serve any food, apart from crisps, nuts, and maybe microwave pies, usually because their customers
do not eat because it interfaces with getting totally wasted on the drink.

In Paisley, the weapon of choice tends to be the axe, and there are plenty of incidents of them being used at pubs the most recent
in the Patters Bar when a woman got her arm half-axed off.

In Glasgow it's even worse and there is the obvious problem of sectarianism. One of worst was The Caravel which had a grenade attack
on the customers. But knife and bottle attacks are quite common.

In reality, the Cutty Shark was bad in comparison with the pubs Poulton, in Glasgow there are 7 or 8 really bad estates Easterhouse, Govan,
Parkshead etc all much larger populations.
Click to expand...
Clansman 😩
Although never been in.
I’ve seen enough episodes of still game.
 
Last edited:
Chunkylad said:
Cutty Sark in Fleetwood was not for the faint hearted.

Also whilst a Uni I worked in the Parkside near Main Road in Miss Side. It was just daily gang land issues which the bouncers were all in on. Tips were good though 😁
Click to expand...
I used to DJ there it was fine once you were accepted sort of. A 15 year old me was sent to DJ at the Submarine on the assumption they wouldn't beat up a young boy. It worked all the women protected me as they were much harder than the men.
 
BillBentley said:
CuttySark Fleetwood for me too
Click to expand...
if you think the Cutty was rough have you drank outside Fleetwood?
I worked in Leeds for a while and made the mistake of going in the Market Tavern. I didn't even order a drink.
Been in a few shit holes in Glasgow too.........fortunately with a Jock mate who I let order the drinks.I'm sure they could smell me almost shifting my pants.
 
Goldfinger said:
if you think the Cutty was rough have you drank outside Fleetwood?
I worked in Leeds for a while and made the mistake of going in the Market Tavern. I didn't even order a drink.
Been in a few shit holes in Glasgow too.........fortunately with a Jock mate who I let order the drinks.I'm sure they could smell me almost shifting my pants.
Click to expand...

The Market Tavern in Leeds (Now long gone) was known ‘affectionately’ by locals as either ‘The Mad House’ or ‘The Bucket of Blood’.

Definitely not one for the faint of heart….
 
I’m desperately not wanting to repeat a story that I’ve told on here a few times before, but Madden’s in Belfast was my most frightening experience. Having to press a buzzer before being checked out by cctv before entry says it all. That was city centre, some of the estate pubs in Belfast must be terrifying.
 
Danny Ocean said:
I have been to loads of rough pubs in Scotland with work, especially around Glasgow, Paisley, and some of the small towns in
Aberdeenshire. They usually have a spitton in the corner for the ladies, and the pub quiz usually starts with the
question " what you looking at".

The real telltale sign is that they don't serve any food, apart from crisps, nuts, and maybe microwave pies, usually because their customers
do not eat because it interfaces with getting totally wasted on the drink.

In Paisley, the weapon of choice tends to be the axe, and there are plenty of incidents of them being used at pubs the most recent
in the Patters Bar when a woman got her arm half-axed off.

In Glasgow it's even worse and there is the obvious problem of sectarianism. One of worst was The Caravel which had a grenade attack
on the customers. But knife and bottle attacks are quite common.

In reality, the Cutty Shark was bad in comparison with the pubs Poulton, in Glasgow there are 7 or 8 really bad estates Easterhouse, Govan,
Parkshead etc all much larger populations.
Click to expand...
I have to agree with much of this. if you think the Cutty was the worst of the worst you haven't travelled much.

To Danny's Scottish list I would add Garthamlock, Rutherglen, Toll Cross, Cathkin, and the Dalriada. All pretty terrifying.
 
Bluecabinboy said:
Early ‘80’s - Middlesbrough Rock Garden, watching Tom Robinson’s ‘Sector 27’.

Truly frightening skinheads invaded the gig - & not kids in DM’s et al, but fully grown blokes, built like the proverbial brick ‘out-house’.

I’ll never forget the lights going up as a result & seeing the bloody aftermath on the dance floor.
Click to expand...
Only been to Middlesbrough once, probably around 1968, I played rugby at the time, but was injured, so they had me run the line. After, we went in the clubhouse and I asked for a pint, the barmaid asked me if I wanted a touch with it. Well, clearly I didn’t understand that a pint and a touch is a lager top. Needless to say, I drank up fairly quickly. Back then I remember the whole place being a dump.
 
Curryman said:
During my time working for the National Union of Licensed Victuallers, I was called to a pub in Middlesboro on a large Council Estate. It took some finding and I was actually pulled over by an unmarked Police Car on suspicion of Kerb Crawling. They guided me to the pub. All the windows were boarded up, there was no furniture in the place apart from tables which were bolted to the floor. The tenants were being faced with a rent increase of 25%. You couldn't make it up and I couldn't get away quick enough.
Click to expand...
Viking on Easterside? - unless you know a certain nationally known character? In there on Tuesday - no furniture but had windows
 
Johnno said:
I’m desperately not wanting to repeat a story that I’ve told on here a few times before, but Madden’s in Belfast was my most frightening experience. Having to press a buzzer before being checked out by cctv before entry says it all. That was city centre, some of the estate pubs in Belfast must be terrifying.
Click to expand...


Having worked in Belfast during the troubles, the customer whom I was working for gave us a map of the areas to avoid and told us that we would not be safe if we went there. You couldn't drive a car on these catholic estates with English plates and not expect trouble, let alone get out and go for a drink at the local equivalent of the Dinsmore especially speaking with a Blackpool accent. I remember filling my car at a petrol station and having an army patrol pass, with a young soldier pointing his rifle directly at me when he passed. It is still a scary place if you go to the wrong areas, but for the most part, Northern Ireland is safe and by and large, the people are friendly.
 
Hertsseasider said:
Nicked from the Charlton forum

Swansea, someone recommended it and we all poured it, took one look and exit stage right a complete dive
Oh and the pub opposite Gillingham station
Click to expand...
The Jaggy Thistle has to be up there, you must remember that famous couple of hours in there before the PNE game when all the pubs had been shut by the Police? I will never forget it!! 😂😂😂
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top