Should I Come Back To LONDON This Year?

luka

Well-known member
more fruit machines. new zealand/australia takeover of the food and drink industry. better coffee as a result and eggs benedict on every breakfast menu. more lithuanians in leytonstone. many many more west indian takeaways in leytonstone.
 

luka

Well-known member
wanstead flats is still beautiful in the sun. the price of weed has risen so high i might as well aquire a cocaine habit.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
i noticed less pubs more tescos

Christ that's depressing, but probably very accurate.

Why socialise in a hostelry when you can buy a four-pack and sit at home watching shite, wondering if the vague, gnawing emptiness inside you will ever go away. And EARN POINTS in doing so!
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Maybe this makes me a killjoy but I'm all for televisionless pubs.

Or at least, pubs without a HyperVisiMax 5000 that takes up one entire wall and is permanently tuned to Sky Sports and turned up really loud. A smallish one in the corner is OK.
 
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Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Maybe this makes me a killjoy but I'm all for televisionless pubs.

Or at least, pubs without a HyperVisiMax 5000 that takes up one entire wall and is permanently tuned to Sky Sports and turned up really loud. A smallish one in the corner is OK.

A TV with the sound off is weirder IMO. I mean, why? Do people think "which pub shall we go to? I know, let's go to the Dog and Gun, they've got a TV showing Sky News with the sound off." I'd be genuinely interested to know why they bother...
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I read something by Will Self the other day, bemoaning the ubiquity of piped music. Which might sound like a really obvious old-mannish thing to whinge about, but I think he has a point. It's good when you can just hear a hubbub of conversation or even just peace and quiet if you're by yourself and want to have a pint while you read or do a crossword.

It depends on the kind of place of course, I mean the pub we were in on Monday is definitely a music sort of pub. It's good to have a choice. I don't see why we couldn't have smoking and non-smoking pubs, would it really have been impossible to legislate for that?
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
A TV with the sound off is weirder IMO. I mean, why? Do people think "which pub shall we go to? I know, let's go to the Dog and Gun, they've got a TV showing Sky News with the sound off." I'd be genuinely interested to know why they bother...

Fuck knows, but I hate it. I hate it because if there is a TV in view, I *have* to watch it. I don't want to, but I have to. It's mesmeric.

And who the hell wants to watch the news while they're enjoying a pint with a couple of mates? It's all depressing as fuck anyway. I was in a restaurant in Switzerland once and one wall was pretty much entirely taken up by this vast screen, showing (I think) Sky News coverage of some awful fucking famine or some other disaster happening somewhere. I feel like a cunt saying this but it wasn't really conducive to eating. Like the whole thing was set up to trigger as much first-world guilt as possible.
 
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luka

Well-known member
i like to have the option of watching sport in the pub. pubs should have tvs to show sport on. they dont have to have them on the whole time.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
I like having actual events on (football matches or whatever) with people watching and cheering and giving a shit about them, that's a good atmosphere. It's just the things that noone cares about that are on as moving wallpaper that do my head in.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
I once went to a pub during an ashes series that didn't have the match on but had the over-by-over updates on teletext on a TV in the corner. That was nice.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I like having actual events on (football matches or whatever) with people watching and cheering and giving a shit about them, that's a good atmosphere. It's just the things that noone cares about that are on as moving wallpaper that do my head in.

I guess it depends on whether you like watching sport at all. I really fucking hate pubs where you can't hear yourself think because there's a bunch of blokes bellowing at a screen but then there's usually another pub nearby that's not like that, so as long as everyone's happy then it's all cool.

It's really weird when there's just one bloke bellowing at a screen - it generally seems to be a sort of performance for the benefit of the other punters.
 
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Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
There should be more traditional pub entertainments. You know, bare-knuckle boxing, bear-baiting, cock fights, prostitutes, that sort of thing.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
I guess it depends on whether you like watching sport at all. I really fucking hate pubs where you can't hear yourself think because there's a bunch of blokes bellowing at a screen but then there's usually another pub nearby that's not like that, so as long as everyone's happy then it's all cool.
And at least then there's a point - someone wants to see it even if I don't.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Spose that's true, but I think some people just like having a TV on even when they're not paying the slightest bit of attention to it.
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Thanks luka it's nice to have a sane overview; it's often hard to tell when you're here.

I'm with you on the pub thing. I like sports (option) in pubs and I also like carpets in pubs. I hate the mid-range you get now they've taken all the dampening out.

I think the middle classes are parthenogenesising through pop up shops.
 

you

Well-known member
I went to a quality pub off edgeware road - it has a half built set of unisex toilets with just 2 urinals and one cubical with no lock. There was no basin, soap or hand-dryer... they sold scampi crisps and scratchings... the lock in started at 10. It was great. It had carpet. No music, and no TV.
 
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