My mates local

Loughton_Monkey

Eellogofusciouhipoppokunu wrote: »

Why not go to a coffee shop?

... because when I ask for a large gin & tonic in Starbucks, or Costa, I get rather a blank look!

chewmylegoff

Pobby wrote: »

I find that the trouble in fairly busy pubs is that noise. Was out with Lady Pobby on Saturday. Pub was quite busy and the sound of raised voices in conversation was not comfortable. Then someone put some music on the juke box and asked for the volume to be increased .

We left early . At least it wasn`t Christmas and was having to put up with " Mistletoe and Wine ".

Another local pub, big Sky screen and a juke box . Hardly a place to have a nice drink and a chat .

This is why the garden is the best part of a pub. Personally, as long as the temperature is above about 10 degrees, I only go inside to buy drinks or eat dinner.

Loughton_Monkey

chewmylegoff wrote: »

This is why the garden is the best part of a pub. Personally, as long as the temperature is above about 10 degrees, I only go inside to buy drinks or eat dinner.

I quite agree.

They get a bit "uppity" when I light my cigars in pubs these days. Best to smoke them outside.

Loughton_Monkey

noodle_doodle wrote: »

I was in a pub on sunday and some kid was having a tantrum, throwing food in the air and then ran up and screamed in my ear. Fair enough, it was my kid, but it put me right off my pint.

I'm sure it did.

Of course, I blame the parents.....

cotleigh

I'm sure that if people bought a little pub freehold, no dodgy lease or beer tie, for a cheapish price, they could make a go of it.

Pobby

cotleigh wrote: »

I'm sure that if people bought a little pub freehold, no dodgy lease or beer tie, for a cheapish price, they could make a go of it.

Yes I utterly agree but as in many cases , properties are over valued .

A pub near me , on the market for £250,000 . In the end went to auction .Never reached the reserve price . In the end it fetched about £90k . It had a £20k refurb and appears to be doing OK .

Certainly not my choice to spend my cash in but others like it .

Kennyboy66

Pobby wrote: »

Yes I utterly agree but as in many cases , properties are over valued .

A pub near me , on the market for £250,000 . In the end went to auction .Never reached the reserve price . In the end it fetched about £90k . It had a £20k refurb and appears to be doing OK .

Certainly not my choice to spend my cash in but others like it .

I know you have posted before on pub closures but here is a snippet from the select committee report a few years ago.

"one in three tied publicans have been running their pub for less than 3 years"

The 'Beer Orders' legislation under the tories in the 1990's whilst well meaning has been an unmitigated disaster - and a glaring example of market failure. Neither the customers, or the people running the pubs have won - and neither because of the vast amounts of debt taken on have the likes of punch taverns.

The Pub Co model relies on churning gullible people out of their savings with the dream of running a pub.
Its closest equivalent is timeshares sales.

coastline

The pub a mile away from my home closed in January after run of managers lost a fortune...its such a shame as its a really nice building in its own grounds..
Its now up for sale for around £400,000...including the surrounding land...theres interest in it now as an independant place..
It makes me wonder what might have happened if the industry hadn't been split up decades ago...it hasn't worked thats for sure at the rate they are failing..
Maybe the big guns...Bass Charrington...S&N...etc...would have done the same today...who knows...maybe they would have sold big blocks off to the private market as the supermarkets have taken hold of peoples pocket money..

StevieJ

I wonder about the effects on customers health as pub after pub seems to go out of their way to offer the strongest beers with the weaker standard beers being quietly ditched you really have to go out of your way to find anything under 4% proof these days It doesn't really make sense to me, I blame it on Camra.

cotleigh

Look on here:

http://www.paramountinvestments.co.uk

Loads of freehold pubs for sale. Often they seem a lot cheaper than a house of similar size in the same area!

Better to buy a pub freehold: I'd rather be paying monthly mortgage payments than paying a similar amount on some rip-off lease, which forces me to pay over the odds for my beer, and which is going to be "reviewed" upwards every 5 years.

Incidentally, where you see a former pub for sale, way cheaper than a similar-sized house, what would happen if someone bought it, lived in the living accommodation upstairs, and just never actually re-opened for business? And just had a very large and cool living room downstairs?

Its not a clear-cut breach of planning rules, like, for example, converting a barn into a house without permission, because a pub is also residential accommodation already.

Be brilliant for having parties!