As the title suggests…. One of my favourite pubs might be closing!
Alright, that might be a little overly dramatic and a tad presumptuous, but it is up for sale. I think that is called clickbait right??? Anyway!! You can understand my concern, pubs that go up for sale don’t always remain as pubs when they are sold, they either become local supermarkets, HMO’s or Coffee shops. The once beating heart of a community is replaced with a hot drink pedalling conglomerate that avoids paying its taxes. You all know you can meet your friends at a pub and buy a drink that gives you a buzz right? This day and age it might even be cheaper… you can also get a coffee too!!
Calm down TM! This isn’t what this blog is about! Ah yes, the pub… Thankfully there is a higher chance of this one remaining a pub, it has a card up it’s sleeve. It’s in the Lake District. Normally I wouldn’t be overly worried, I’d keep my eye open out of interest, like I have the Kirkstone Pass Inn, which is pretty much ready to open… Check it out… but this place is different, I’ve been going there for as long as I can remember.
Growing up we were blessed that my parents had a place in The Lakes, a cabin near Ambleside at Skelwith Bridge. Which is where you will find this cracking pub. The Talbot Bar at the Skelwith Bridge Hotel. I guess it’s nothing out of the ordinary, but it is to me. For well over 30 years we’ve been going to this pub, for drinks and food and it hasn’t changed a bit. I’m not exaggerating here, NOTHING has changed, every bit of furniture remains where it’s always been, the bric-a-brac and ornaments are in the same place.
I’m not talking useless crap here, I’m on about proper pub bric-a-brac. There’s an empty Nebuchadnezzar in the corner that I’m pretty sure everyone googles what type of bottle it is, it might even be one of the first things I googled on my phone… There’s a gun hanging above the door to the toilets, not sure what type it is but it looks like it once did some damage, there are also old fashioned hot water bottles that still sit above one of the benches next to the old Toby jugs.
I say nothing has changed, it’s not strictly true, they’ve swapped the open fire for a stove, took the condom machine out and put a mirror there and they changed the menu last year. Another thing they haven’t changed though is the bathroom taps! They operate the wrong way, no lefty loosey here!
Speaking with my wife whilst on our way back from enjoying a lovely meal, maybe even the last, I came to the realisation that this pub was probably our “local” when I was a kid, we probably visited this pub more times than we did the ones back home. My brother and I grew up here in some way, in the beginning ordering from the children’s menu to eventually the grown up’s menu! Let me tell you, that steak and ale pie is something else, I’ve pretty much ordered it every time since, that and the sticky toffee pudding, which in this fella’s opinion might be the best in The Lakes!
I have a lifetime of memories of this fine establishment, I can still see my Grandad sat in the window seat smoking his cigar, the meals with my parents are also core memories, the disappointment of England Losing to Australia during the 2015 RWC comes back to me every time I sit in the raised area, I still laugh at the memories of my brother having a large main meal and then having to go “make room” before his pudding came. Often he would still be in the toilets and I would be sent by my folks to fetch him, as this was a regular occurrence we had developed our own “code” to save face, because who wants to go into a men’s toilet and knock on all the cubicle doors or announce to the whole room: “Oi, you finished pooing? Your pudding is here!” so I would whistle the first part of the song, ‘Hitler has only got one ball’ and my brother would whistle the albert hall half as an acknowledgement. I’d return to the table and he would follow shortly after ready for round two.
M’mon’s and I go there on our annual lad’s trip, we play liars dice and drink lots of their fine ale, we have been taken by uncontrollable laughter, unimaginable wind and dumbstruck by an incredible desert. One year we were served by a fella who looked like Floyd Wetherton from Family Guy, this dude couldn’t get anything right, ask me about it, or wait for my book!
This place has been a port in a storm for me, I’ve longed for it when life has been stressful and tough, I realised that my first marriage was over in this pub, having that headspace on my own with a pint after a long walk helped with this. I’ve enjoyed family meals, drinks with colleagues, hearty dinners with friends and now I sit with my wife and daughter and we eat, drink and be happy.
Who knows what the future holds, maybe someone will buy it and keep it the same, maybe The Inn Collection will buy it and turn it into a clone of the rest of the places they own, I hope not, but I find it highly unlikely that anyone will keep it the same. It doesn’t make any sense to… can you imagine?
Designer: “What do you want to do with the bar? It’s been like this for 40 odd years”
Owner “40 odd years!?!?! Gut it!”
It makes sense doesn’t it? And that’s the uncomfortable truth of it, I want it to stay exactly the same for entirely selfish reasons. Not because progress is bad, or because change shouldn’t happen, but because some places hold the shape of our lives. They become landmarks in our memories.
This pub isn’t special because it’s perfect or polished, it’s special because it has been there for me and those close to me, steady and familiar, while everything else moved on. It has watched me grow up, fall apart, rebuild, and return with a new and better chapter.
Maybe that’s what we’re really mourning when places like this come up for sale. Not a building, or a bar, or a menu, but the fear of losing somewhere that remembers us when the world so often forgets.
I hope it survives. I hope it stays imperfect, full of its bric-a-brac and backwards taps. Because places like this don’t just serve food and drink, they remind us of who we were, who we are, and how far we’ve come. So I urge you to go out and support these establishments, some aren’t so lucky to have the cheat code of being in the lakes, some are the beating heart of a community, a place for people to go so they don’t feel lonely, somewhere to meet their friends, they are important and they need our support, so go buy a pint and support your local.
Cheers
TM
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