Pubs. What are they these smoke-free days?

[Paulie]

I quite like going to pubs whereever I find myself. When I say pub I actually mean a pub and not a modern style bar.

The pub I used to got to near Woking was in the same ownership for decades. They knew your name and your drink. Friday evening they put bar snacks out for customers to enjoy for free. The build a huge heater smoking area at the side when the ban came in. This was a pub and had no desire to be a bar at all. It was great. In fact Ronnie Wood was seen in there recently during one of his "moments".

I tend to avoid the gastro pubs as IMO they have no character or feeling.

I understand the reasons behind the smoking ban and have no real opinion either way as I can see both sides of it.

[Robusto]

Robusto, its not bizzare, but it is par for the course for wetherspoons pubs in my experience. Some are worse than others (the one by piccadilly gardens in manchester is particularly awful), and some aren't too bad actually (Kendal springs to mind, being housed in an old mthodist church as I recall), but I can only repeat my view that wetherspoons are not pubs and should not be regarded as such. They are impersonal holes where you can get cheap (and normally ok) beer and cheap (and normally crap) food. They are a bolt hole of absolutely last resort, particularly if you have kids in tow. But they are not pubs...

I can't believe how they are all over the place now. They have taken over substantial buildings and, I suppose, "preserved" them from the bulldozer.

Is it the case that Starbucks is losing big time over here to Wetherspoons and Costa Coffee? I read that somewhere.

Wetherspoons are depressing because of the old men supping pints really early in the morning.

(I just added this to your post and not mine. Hence the edit above).

[captain duff]

Well look, there are a few good points about the 'spoons. First, you know exactly what you are getting because they (and the linked Lloyds bars) are the same everywhere even though their external appearance will vary (although I see that as a bad thing - I like individuality in pubs, not a mass produced branded look). And the beer is normally good (but the cask is often kept too cold for my tastes), and it is cheap.

So if I find myself in London without much money but want some cheap food and real ale I will use one because unless you know the local pubs the chances are you will be paying silly London prices if you don't. But essentially they are like any big chain, they lack any sort of character and are utterly souless. Ever heard of one with its own darts team? Or running a coach to the races? Or putting on a free buffet for one of its regulars for a birthday or when they have died? No, me neither. They are a beer shop disguised as a pub, but a beer shop they essentially remain.

Having said that, on a couple of rare occasions I have actually welcomed the ability to get a pint at 9.30am alongside a breakfast - thats a nice touch, but not one that I abuse. Wouldn't want to be classed as a sad old man too often after all...

[Burner]

Wetherspoons seem to be the haunt of Chav moms doing their giro and spilling vodka over the pushchair while ashen faced alcoholics hunch over their pints gibbering away to themselves. Well the Croydon one was.

[Robusto]

Surbiton is similar.

[satch]

Surbiton is similar.

As is Wakefield.
I was in the Rotherham one a few months back,
amazingly it was quite pleasant!

[celsis]

I won't even go into a pub that doesn't have an outside, comfortable space for me to spark up a cigar.....

[rollzst]

I won't even go into a pub that doesn't have an outside, comfortable space for me to spark up a cigar.....

I'm the same, the smoking ban has really put me off both pubs and restaurants unless they have a good outside area but I've got that at home lol

[akreissl]

This ban is a real shame, no-where has really made the effort to accomodate the smoker since the ban came in. And all of these non smokers who swore blind they would now go into pubs since then ban seem to have not bothered. Scrap it I say. It's killing our pubs and, the traditional feel of a pub was smoke and spilt beer. That's what we need back!

[captain duff]

I actually don't have any problem with the smoking ban. Sure, I miss being able to smoke inside, but at the same time while pubs are leisure facilities for customers, they are workplaces for others and those people - often on minimum wage - deserve the same health & safety protection as anyone else. I was a civil servant when it was banned in offices around 15 years ago and you had to use the smoking room (that themselves have now disapeared), and that was absolutely correct - but then why should pub workers be treated with any less respect than office workers?

And I have to say it doesn't stop me enjoying pubs at all. Because I can still go in one of the many great ones (not called wetherspoons), drink great beer and choose to either sit quietly contemplating life or spark up conversations with complete strangers and talk about complete bollox for half the night, and satisfyingly put the world to rights. I don't know anywhere else that you can do that. Certainly not in your garden! Or in a poncy whine-bar for that matter. And while things are tougher down south given that you're all miserable bastards, I refuse to believe that there don't exist some great pubs down there where life can truely be given meaning over a pint of best...

[akreissl]

Yes, these pubs exist but trekking outside for a fag or a cigar is not enjoyable!

[Simon-JG-hr]

For me, a pub is somewhere that I can go for a nice pint of beer. I'll simply walk past 'pubs' which don't serve real ale, or which serve it badly. One of my two locals in Gloucester serves beer woefully (on the whole), but the other serves it wonderfully. Guess which we frequent.

My go-to pub in Plymouth is about the fifteenth closest pub (if not further) and is about a fifteen minute walk. There are plenty of good pubs which are closer, but not quite as good... It's a 'proper' pub in my opinion - and in my stereotypical view, that means that it looks like it's not changed much since the Victorian era. They serve great beer, and there is a very odd, ecclectic mix of patrons, which works surprisingly well. It helps that the landlord and his good wife (and their Thursday afternoon stand-in) are friendly and know pretty much everyone in there. Oh, and they don't serve food (the occasional finger buffet for birthdays/big sports matches, but that's it) - it's a one room pub...

I'd probably spark up a cigar occassionally were I able to, but for me, as a beer aficionado (probably more so than a cigar aficionado), a pub is about the beer. So if that's good, everything else can slide. Unless its a real shit-hole and frequented solely by complete tossers.

[Burner]

The stupidest part of the ban is that they could have included provision for small enclosed smoking areas with appropriate fume extraction facilities with no hazards for workers a competitive edge for establishments willing to invest and probably a lucrative licensing scheme for the government but that would have required a bit of thinking to achieve. I blame Roy Castle - The git.

[monkey66]

I blame Roy Castle - The git.

There has been a long running trial with a group of people suing his estate for the effects of passive trumpet playing.

dedication, dedication ......that's what you need

[tippexx]

The stupidest part of the ban is that they could have included provision for small enclosed smoking areas with appropriate fume extraction facilities with no hazards for workers a competitive edge for establishments willing to invest and probably a lucrative licensing scheme for the government but that would have required a bit of thinking to achieve. I blame Roy Castle - The git.

Yes. But no one made him work in those places. And I can't believe every venue was as smoke-filled as Ash might like to make out.