Oh dear, the highs and lows of a pub crawl

[General Staal]

I went on my pub crawl around Shrewsbury with my father-in-law yesterday. We managed 7 pubs in total. But they were not necessarily the 7 I wanted to hit.

The Admiral Benbow, Loggerheads and Three Fishes were all shut. The Benbow just doesn't open in the afternoon, the Three Fishes shut at 3 o'clock, just as we arrived, so no beer and the Loggerheads is re-opening today under new management.

So, we did the Nag's Head (good pub), Coach and Horses (good pub), the Wheatsheaf (good beer selection - but a foody place rather than a pub), the Old Post Office (naff), the big Wetherspoons by the river (naff and freezing cold!) the Salopian Bar (excellent!) and the Armoury, where we ate (excellent! Foody, but that was what we wanted at that moment).

Because I was getting into more of a befuddled fog as the day went on, I will not write reviews, but will after another visit in the future.

My question is, has anyone had a planned pub crawl go so wrong?

[RogerB]

Bummer about the 3 that were shut but it will give you an excuse to return. I wrote up the Fishes the other day and I'm literally just writing up Loggerheads, only 10 months after I went there!

[Al 10000]

Hi General Staal in answer to your question i planned a pub crawl around Kennington in south London this was a nightmare from the start i got offf at the wrong station and had to walk to Kennington tube which was my starting point of the 4 pubs there 3 were derelict and the other did'nt open at 11.30 so i did a walk to the next pubs on my list the first pub had hoardings around it and the second pub had dissapeared,i gave up here and caught the tube to Stockwell this was also a nightmare i only found 1 pub open (The canton) so i went up to Elephant and Castle and found a crap Wetherspoons to go in,by this time it was 1.00 and i had only been in 2 pubs things did improve when i got to Pimlico but thats another story.

[RogerB]

A pub crawl of Kennington wouldn't even enter my thoughts to start with unless I am missing something!

[Al 10000]

I was looking through an old South East London pub guide and it looked like there were lots of pubs there plus a couple of Shep Neame pubs but this guide was printed in 1994 so things have changed a lot since then,or was it never any good in the first place.

[Farway]

Only posted one crawl, Havant, which did not go to plan, some shut, some so full that I could not get in, obviously the better ones. Finished up reviewing about 3 semi mediocre establishments

[aleandhearty]

The Admiral Benbow, Loggerheads and Three Fishes were all shut. The Benbow just doesn't open in the afternoon, the Three Fishes shut at 3 o'clock, just as we arrived, so no beer and the Loggerheads is re-opening today under new management.

Your experience probably says a lot about today's economic climate, whereby many licensees don't see it as worthwhile to be open continuously throughout the day. Certainly, on my manor, the better pubs don't tend to open until 4-5 p.m. during the week. Although part of me still thinks if you're good enough people will come.

[Strongers]

I've had several crawls that have been an utter let down including a crawl of North West London that happened to take in the Wembley area on FA Cup semi-final day, what was I thinking!
Also, when I first started this pub crawl lark I did an ill timed crawl of the city of London starting from Holborn and I thought that htere had been a power cut as all the pubs were closed bar a handful. It wasn't until weeks later that I learnt the area shuts down at the weekend.

[Quinno]

Also, when I first started this pub crawl lark I did an ill timed crawl of the city of London starting from Holborn and I thought that htere had been a power cut as all the pubs were closed bar a handful. It wasn't until weeks later that I learnt the area shuts down at the weekend.

LOL i did exactly the same thing!

[General Staal]

Your experience probably says a lot about today's economic climate, whereby many licensees don't see it as worthwhile to be open continuously throughout the day. Certainly, on my manor, the better pubs don't tend to open until 4-5 p.m. during the week. Although part of me still thinks if you're good enough people will come.

I was chatting to a local who seemed to think that the landlord of the Admiral Benbow was 'independently wealthy' and so did not need to open the pub during the day. It was nice to go into the Coach and Horses though.