Cheers to the pub with no chrome. (A lament)

The Sydney Morning Herald ^ | 2/6/04 | John Morgan

[mylife]

Cheers to the pub with no chrome

February 6, 2004

I was a fresh-faced erk in the Royal Air Force when I began my love affair with the pub. I learned how to drink and talk in the rough and ready bars down at the Belfast docks. In those days, a fellow didn't hang about when the Royal Ulster Constabulary came through the door at closing time. You put down your drink and left; there was always tomorrow.

After my service in the RAF, I returned to my hometown of Liverpool to drink in The Cracke, where legend has it that John Lennon met Cynthia Powell, who became his first wife. There was also The Swan on Wood Street, and other locales whose names now elude me.

On my first afternoon in Australia, I pushed open a bar door in South Brisbane. The scene that greeted me was like Bedlam's day out. The sight of grown men in short pants and long socks, barking and quacking at each other like distempered schoolboys, would have deterred anyone less dedicated than me.

Within weeks of moving to Sydney, I discovered the Newcastle on George Street. A riotous place on Friday night, loud with laughter and argument. There was the back bar of the Dumbarton, too, a block away from where I worked, and upstairs at the Grand on Hunter. Beyond the CBD, I found Billy the Pigs and the Cock and Bull in Bondi Junction; The Rose and Crown in Paddo, the Lord Dudley, the Darlo Bar and the Green Park, down the road from St Vinnies. There was also the Toxteth and the Imperial in Glebe, and the Australian Youth Hotel in Ultimo, with its echoes of a Parisian bistro. Each had its own special ambience. It was never just about the grog.

For me, the best bars are like a woman; they impart a similar frisson of excitement, of anticipation. And like women, the best bars are seldom dangerous; mostly, they are friendly, warm and welcoming.

Alas, I seldom now drink in pubs. I read about them in Good Living instead. It's not that I'm getting old, but pubs seem, somehow, less welcoming. With their sterile stainless steel fittings, cheap-varnished timber and vulgar gimcracks, they display a disregard, if not contempt, for their patrons.

Today, almost all pubs have banks of TV screens, tuned to non-stop sport. Now that sport is the opiate of the masses, perhaps we should regard the new pub as a sort of church (if only for the tax incentive). There's the music too, forever loud, with its constant thud of amplified bass. What chance is there to sit quietly and talk in such places, much less to foment rebellion? (Stay well clear of those dispirited bars that only older men frequent.)

Why can we not have retro-themed bars? Quiet, welcoming places, where friends might meet for a drink and few laughs, without the banks of TV screens, without poker machines and the TAB, without the relentless boom of music, without the tack. Without the need or threat of a bouncer on the door.

I'll have Amber Ale, thanks.

[mylife]

I like the old style myself

[RosieCotton]

Old Rose and Crown by Ian Robb

What have they done to the old Rose and Crown?
The Ship, the King's Arms, and the World Upside Down.
For oak, brass, and leather, and a pint of the best
Fade away like the sun as it sinks in the west.

Good friends, gather round and I'll tell you a tale.
It's a story well known to all lovers of ale.
The old English pub, once a man's second home
Has been decked out by brewers in plastic and chrome.

And the old oaken bar where the pumps filled your glass
Gives way to Formica and tanks full of gas.
And the landlord behind, once a man of good cheer
Just mumbles the price as he hands you your beer.

And where are the friends who would meet for a jar,
Or a good game of darts in the old public bar?
The dartboard is gone, in its place is a thing
Where you pull on the handle and lose all your tin.)

But the worst of it all's what they've done to the beer.
For their shandies and lagers that will make you feel queer.
For an arm and a leg, they will fill up your glass
With a half and half mixture of ullage and gas.

So come all you good people who like to sip ale
Here's hope to a happier end to my tale
For there's nothing can fill a man's heart with more cheer
Than to sit in a pub with a pint of good beer.

[elbucko]

Than to sit in a pub with a pint of good beer.

I'll drink to that and all the above. There's a pub in Earls Court, across from the tube station, that I truly love. The Bangers and Mash are worthy of being enjoyed with at least two pints of Guinness. Sometimes, even more than two pints. Cheers.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

My hat's off to you if you can drink that black stuff.

[mylife]

They dont even know what a tavern or pub is where I am in Texas :^(

I wish we could have civil places to relax instead of country western meat markets.

Cheers

[opbuzz]

I lament the closing of the original Hog's Breath Saloon in Ft. Walton Beach, FL.

[jettester]

The Old Bull and the Bear in Hong Kong was a great hangout between anchorages...

[mylife]

I really dislike the places with the wall to wall TVs and the jukebox you cant talk over!

Give me FRiends a dartboard a fireplace, some pub grub and a pint!!

[mylife]

this came up on google of bull and bear

[jettester]

Thanks for the link. Another place was Waltzing Matlida's - boy, those names bring back some great memories.

[mylife]

Waltzing Matlida's - boy, those names bring back some great memories.


Im partial to Tom Waits version of Waltzing Matilda.

Cheers shipmate

[jpsb]

[Why can we not have retro-themed bars? Quiet, welcoming places, where friends might meet for a drink and few laughs, without the banks of TV screens, without poker machines and the TAB, without the relentless boom of music, without the tack. Without the need or threat of a bouncer on the door.}

Visit Radio City, San Leon, Texas on the web here No bouncer, one TV, friendly service and very not PC environment and clientele.

[bc2]

One of my favorite bars here in Rochester NY is called the Rose & Crown and it's owned by a gnarled old Limey who keeps it really old-school.

I like it :-)

[bc2]

"My hat's off to you if you can drink that black stuff."

Slainte!

[Dan from Michigan]

For there's nothing can fill a man's heart with more cheer Than to sit in a pub with a pint of good beer.

Guinness!!!

[mylife]

(raise your pint) "Hats off too ladies,...Give names to dogs,....March into battle,...Right, left, Right!!!"

Cheers

[SuziQ]

Now here's a bidness opportunity for Bilbo Bagpipes! A nice quiet pub, with a bit of live acoustic Celtic music now and then! The Green Dragon sounds like a nice name, huh?

[mylife]

Makes Guinness look like baby formula! ONLY FOR THE BRAVE!
I think its a scottish recipe

[bc2]

The Red Dragon would be better, and would attract a nice Welsh clientele.

[bc2]

LOL! Old Peculiar, indeed! hahaha