Saturday 4 April 2009

A waste of a good pub


Reading my son's blog (Stonch), I notice that he mentions certain sites and premises which would be ideal for a pub.
Actually, it often strikes me that there are some pubs which are a complete waste of a good building.

Take The Britannia in my home town of South Shields, for instance. What a beautiful building it is, but what a lousy pub! They serve no real ales and the notice board which invites you to "watch live sport here" is a con. I went in there last summer to watch the cricket and was told that they had discontinued Sky Sports, as it was too expensive.
It's a crying shame as the site is ideal too, directly opposite the magnificent Edwardian Town Hall in the centre of the town.
To celebrate the days when South Shields was a great sea port, a Great Lantern from the stern of a sailing ship adorns the entranceway.
Pubs like The Britannia will soon be as extinct as sailing ships.
And they deserve to be.

3 comments:

Tandleman said...

What an imposing building though. Shame it isn't doing better as a pub.

papastonch said...

Exactly, that's my point. What a waste, and all down to bad management.
There is a beautiful function room upstairs occupying the width of the building's second storey which was once a rather posh saloon bar. When I was young, it was one of the places you took your girlfriend if you wanted to impress her. Now it is closed and only very rarely used.

Anonymous said...

It used to be a T&J Bernard's and served ale and Belgian bottled beer, but alas it did not last. It wasnt ideally situated for its target market being next to the 'circuit drinkers' starting point. The 'then' manager had brought out the best in The Scotia which also inevitably went rapidly downhill when he moved to the Brit. And dont get me started on The West Park.....

ps nice to see you back man