RE: BIRMINGHAM PUBS as is and was - 14

I always knew the Lydon as a pretty decent pub, but I suppose since the introduction of the smoking ban they have had to make changes.

As beer sales sold in public houses have drastically fallen I suppose they have to employ less staff and encourage more customers by any means they can. If this means hoards of screaming kids then so be it, after all it is what the smokers wanted. Or do they expect pubs to be kept alive by the half of bitter non smoking brigade?

Anybody with an ounce of sense realises that the downfall of pubs began in earnest with the no smoking ban, even some in the government are now beginning to have second thoughts.

Why not have pubs for smokers only with non smokers not allowed, we would soon see then which houses were full and which were empty.

Phil

I can't agree there Phil. the downfall of the pubs, to my mind, was when the breweries were forced to sell off a lot of their estate , supposedly in the name of competiotion, but actually so Thatcher's crooked lttle friends could make a nice little profit. As with railways, ariports, water compan ie, electricity companies, etc. Certainly the smoking ban has contributed, but I don;t believe that it was the initial cause, as the pubs were already being run into the ground for the sake of financial conglomerates before that.

Posted by phil

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I always knew the Lydon as a pretty decent pub, but I suppose since the introduction of the smoking ban they have had to make changes.

As beer sales sold in public houses have drastically fallen I suppose they have to employ less staff and encourage more customers by any means they can. If this means hoards of screaming kids then so be it, after all it is what the smokers wanted. Or do they expect pubs to be kept alive by the half of bitter non smoking brigade?

Anybody with an ounce of sense realises that the downfall of pubs began in earnest with the no smoking ban, even some in the government are now beginning to have second thoughts.

Why not have pubs for smokers only with non smokers not allowed, we would soon see then which houses were full and which were empty.

Phil

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I will disagree with you in one respect Phil. The smoking ban did not start the decline in pub. What it didi do though was to greatly accelerate it. The decline started when A The breweries got too greedy with the profit margins.
Then B at the same time the Chancellor got too greedy with his Tax Revenue. The man in the street was priced out of the regular game. Just because the beer bill went up by £5 per week did'nt mean that The beer drinker suddenly had £20 per month extra to spend on it.
Don't forget everything else was rising in price at the same time. SB

SB

I would agree with what you say to a certain extent, but the smoking ban was the straw that broke the camels back. There were many budgets whilst I was still a smoker that tobacco was hammered and alcohol was never touched. Though when they had pushed the smoker as far as he was going to be pushed and were in danger of loosing the revenue they had come to expect altogether.

It was then that they started on the drinker in earnest. How come they didn't bother about all the drinking related problems due to almost total ban of tobacco? Now they are not bothered as long as the sales are still being made in the supermarkets they don't seem to be doing much about the sale of cheap drinks there do they?

Anyway I'm off shortly to witness first hand what most pubs have become today, cheap eateries like Volty said swarming with screaming kids. Not that I mind that, because I don't mind kids wherever they are and if they have the right to enter a place then its down to those who forced the hands of the licensing trade.

Phil

Whilst Google travelling just now I came across this building, on the Hagley Road just past Quinton,............ http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ll=5...324.59,,1,-1.67

Could anyone tell me what it was please? I suspect a pub. I know it isn't there any more because if you step into College Road and look back it vanishes.
VM

That's a new one on me Volty, thought I knew the area quite well, looks very large to be a pub and a massive car park at the rear as well,
I'm on the case unless someone beats me to it.

The Kings Highway.

Yes I concur with John The Kings Highway.

Phil

Now you mention the name , have a picture of it, though don't know where it came from

Mike

I have passed by there hundreds of times and I don't think I ever once took in that the pub was there, and I certainly didn't remember it. Mind you it would have been a little bit of a journey to make for a drink. I think I would have made it there OK but I'm not so sure about getting back.

Phil

Phil
You probably thought it was offices. Mind you , they do seem to have made a feature of the toilets stuck out the front , which is a bit unusual

Thanks Guys, I will have to check my old notebook now to see if I ever went in there.

Here you are Volty, a couple of photos of Davenports Brewery Bath Row.

Phil

What happened Phil? Did they knock the first one down and build the multi facetted thing or are these two comlpletely different views?

Whilst I well remember the latter, I can't see any windows.

Having taken a close look at the second photo I think the old building is further along the road, just before the hospital.