Pop-Up Pubs

Hi all,

I'd be interested to hear PG-ers thoughts on the relatively new phenomenon of Pop-Up pubs. The reason I'm asking is that I'm currently working for a company which is delivering the largest development site in Central London - King's Cross. (more info here). It is a long-term project, which won't be fully complete for some time, but we are exploring the possibility of incorporating a pop-up pub on the site.

My initial thought is that from my own research pop-up pubs tend to take place in existing structures - e.g. someone buys an empty or disused pub, and can't afford to fit it out fully so opens temporarily for example over the summer, raising some capital to fix it up and open properly. Here we'd be looking for a brand new temporary structure.

What have people's experiences been of pop-up pubs, good or bad? Obviously with any such establishment I would be pushing the ale side of things very strongly :cool: but has anyone on here been to one which they thought worked well, and if so, why?

Cheers

Not sure about pop up pubs but been to various beer festivals etc which are transient pubs at least.
Real Ale is the simplest drink to set up. Beer can be served direct from barrels using gravity. What you do need is some form of cold control, you can get cooling jackets which go around the barrels through which a flash cooler pumps cool liquid. This is the set up of most CAMRA festivals including GBBF.
The other things needed are good hygiene and customers to drink it in 3-5 days, shouldn't be problem at Kings Cross.
It would be good to see local real ales near train stations - look at the success of various pubs on the Transpennine route, the West Riding refreshment rooms at Dewsbury for instance.

There is actually a recent instance of a temporary pub around Kings Cross. In the upper level of St Pancras station a small bar was set up on the concourse with around 6-10 tables, large umbrellas for cover and some heaters. Full range of drinks was available including a couple of real ales that I believe they served on gravity. It was located near the Meeting Place statue and was called The Baby Betjeman and was a temporary bar to be used while the main Sir John Betjeman pub was being built. When the main pub opened the outside bar was removed and the whole area used as an outside seating area.

Christmas markets seemed to do great business in the few weeks they were up! People like to drink in a decent atmosphere these days rather than a dismal pub with no entertainment.

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Originally Posted by Spinko

Christmas markets seemed to do great business in the few weeks they were up! People like to drink in a decent atmosphere these days rather than a dismal pub with no entertainment.

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Could it be said that 'atmosphere' is a form of entertainment? What the Irish might call 'the craic' (excuse spelling if wrong)