PuG Crawl Harrogate 7th July 2023.

[trainman]

The Swan is still for sale I believe. There is a new broom at B&Y/MTT who has ordered prices are removed from the beer menu boards, expect more nonsense.

Is that right? 'We'll get more sales if folk cannot see how expensive things might be'? Oh dear. And surely the law still states that prices must be easily visible somewhere?
Perhaps this person is someone who is unfamiliar with pubs, like those visionaries who have architecturally vandalised so many establishments over the years. Perhaps they do sit at home imagining how to interfere with the drinking classes, after all 'new broom', I notice, is an anagram of 'web moron'...

[ROBCamra]

Yes ,by a short head Harrogate topped the poll.Could some kind person with admin.authorisation please ammend the title of this thread to include Harrogate on Friday July 7th and then we can start planning the crawl.

Which are the must visit pubs ? (I've never been )

Title amended. I've been loads of times, so we may not bother with this one as I certainly won't visit any new pubs and the hotel prices are scary for that weekend.

Halifax would have been about £15 by train, but it hasn't got a crappy Betty's, so lost.

[an_ecumenical_matter]

I fly into Manchester on the Friday morning but now I've got a rescheduled railtour now on the Saturday with a hotel prebooked in Crewe. Believe it or not Harrogate to Crewe is 3 hours by train !!! I'll see how the previous full week's drinking in potatoland goes before I firm up this jolly so expect me if you see me, as me oul mam used to say !!!

[Bucking Fastard]

I'm booked up for this crawl but just coming for the day,arriving at 11.33 and departing on the 20.05 all being well.The Harrogate Tap seems an obvious start/finish point.

There does seem a huge choice of venues in the town centre,all not far from the station ,so I would prefer to focus there rather than hike out too far ,unless there is something unmissable.

Many thanks to oldboots for his list,route and guidance and also to Pangolin for the long list. Not sure I'm up for a Winfield,but there doesn't seem much walking involved to explore the town centre options.

[Pangolin]

Here's a suggested running order of the better ones, with some wild cards in brackets.
Starting and finishing at the Harrogate Tap and could be done either way round, except that the Little Ale House doesn't open until 14.00 so it depends on timings.
It minimises backtracking uphill; omitting the Tap on Tower St would give a shorter route but I think it is worth doing.
I have left Husk as a wild card as it is a bit small, but it is easily knocked off from the station/Harrogate Tap before or after.

Harrogate Tap
(Husk)
Tap on Tower Street
(Coach & Horses)
Alexandra
Blues Bar
Fat Badger
Old Bell
Hales
Winter Gardens
Major Tom’s Social (note 1400 opening)
Starling
Little Ale House (note 1400 opening)
Cold Bath Brewing
(Christies)
Inn on Cheltenham Parade
(North Bar)
Disappearing Chin
Harrogate Tap

[Spinko]

Given it is in the same county, I should be along to this. Possibly there for an early starter at the Winter Gardens JDW.

[sheffield hatter]

I was in York last week, meeting Paul Mudge for a few heritage pubs. He had been meeting some old university friends for a reunion in Harrogate, as it happens, and said that the beer was not very good in the Nicholsons pub (by which I assume he meant the Alexandra). You can read his account of the four pubs he went into there - in the comments below Retired Martin's blog. He gave a good account of the pub on the station, but says the Spoons and the Blues Bar were not much better than the Alex.

[ROBCamra]

I was in York last week, meeting Paul Mudge for a few heritage pubs. He had been meeting some old university friends for a reunion in Harrogate, as it happens, and said that the beer was not very good in the Nicholsons pub (by which I assume he meant the Alexandra). You can read his account of the four pubs he went into there - in the comments below Retired Martin's blog. He gave a good account of the pub on the station, but says the Spoons and the Blues Bar were not much better than the Alex.

I've never had a crap pint in Winter Gardens (JD Wetherspoon) or a poorly cooked breakfast for that matter and I've had quite a lot including a couple of pints on a Sunday night recently and a breakfast on the Monday.

He may have been unlucky, but that's never been my experience.

We never go in the The Alexandra beacause it's crap.

Only had a problem with Blues Bar once and that was back in 2013 when it was going through a bad patch, so you'll have to make your own minds up.

[sheffield hatter]

He may have been unlucky, but that's never been my experience.

Yes, I've been unlucky a couple of times myself in the recent hot weather. Some "adequate" cellars and cooling systems have turned out to be not as good as they were thought to be.

We never go in the The Alexandra beacause it's crap.

A nod's as good as a wink.

[sheffield hatter]

Here's a suggested running order of the better ones, with some wild cards in brackets.

Harrogate Tap
(Husk)
Tap on Tower Street
(Coach & Horses)
Alexandra
Blues Bar
Fat Badger
Old Bell
Hales
Winter Gardens
Major Tom’s Social (note 1400 opening)
Starling
Little Ale House (note 1400 opening)
Cold Bath Brewing
(Christies)
Inn on Cheltenham Parade
(North Bar)
Disappearing Chin
Harrogate Tap

Thanks for that.

I must be getting old, as that looks like a pretty daunting list!

Even leaving out the "wild cards" and the second visit to the Harrogate Tap on the station, this would be 14 pubs. I'm going to pick out seven or eight that I reckon I can manage in four or five hours. I'm going to include the Last Post, a sort of wild card of my own. This doesn't open until 3pm, so will require a bit of backtracking, and I could be persuaded to try something else instead; total walking distance is just short of two miles:

Harrogate Tap
Tap on Tower Street
Fat Badger
Old Bell
Hales
Last Post (note 15:00 opening)
Little Ale House (note 14:00 opening)
Inn on Cheltenham Parade

I last did Harrogate five years ago, and these eight are split evenly between four I did before and four that I haven't done. This is just my own idea, and if I catch anyone following me I shall be very cross! No, seriously, it'll be good to catch up with whoever's coming to Harrogate, but my days of doing a dozen or more pubs are now behind me.

I've bought my train tickets and will be arriving at 11:33 and leaving on the 17:36.