CityLife

Rough Pub Guide's a homage to British culture

By Richard Hector-Jones

CITY INSTITUTION: The Temple

WHAT makes a good pub? Writers Robin Turner and Paul Moody think they know the answer and have written a book to prove it celebrating a fine British institution that it would seem is on the decline.

But their book – The Rough Pub Guide: A Celebration of the Great British Boozer – is not about the generic, alcopop shifters of this world.

Far from it, the pocket-sized guide is a celebration of the idiosyncratic charms of pubs throughout the UK that wear their individuality as a badge of honour.

In fact it’s as much a celebration of Britishness as boozers as the nation’s landlords fight to stem the tide of chain pubs and folk who’d rather drink at home.

A snapshot of the UK’s second oldest pastime, it’s funny, intriguing, not to mention a rather good tome to have on you if you’re stuck in a new town with a couple of hours to kill.

“I used to be a press officer with bands back in the good old days of when kids still bought records,” explains co-author Robin Turner to CityLife.

“Manchester was always the place that I took journalists to in order to review bands usually at the Hacienda or one of the Uni venues.

Subsequently the pubs I feel drawn towards in Manchester are the ones seeped in music history.

"The Briton’s Protection is legendary as the overspill Factory office and The Temple is fantastic - an actual, proper toilet venue as opposed to the over ground sh*thole ones you end up in.

Exhale history

"They exhale history – every single brick in the buildings could probably tell you more stories than a year’s worth of Coronation Street.”

Robin’s initial guide through the pubs of Manchester – the two mentioned make the final book - was Guy Garvey from Elbow, a fellow that no doubt knows his way round the unvarnished pubs of the city.

“We’d heard Guy had worked up the shortest pub-crawl in the country, between the three classic boozers on Great Bridgewater Street,” says Robin.

“When we got to the Temple, he was that most genial of hosts - an ambassador for the city spreading good cheer to us thirsty pilgrims who’d just alighted at the Piccadilly Hotel. Well, needs must…

“Within four hours Guy had made his exit and we were down the front of The Roadhouse with Scott (owner of The Temple) and his dog, lining up shots off the bar, watching an AC/DC tribute act.

"Well, they sounded like one at that point. Guy reappeared later to laugh at the state we were in when we got to Big Hands.

"The next day, we had to go on a pub-crawl around Blackpool starting at 11am. The rail replacement service was not what we needed.”

It’s clear that Robin has been stoic enough to do his research but what does he think makes a good pub?

Enjoy yourself

“Pubs should be somewhere to go and enjoy yourself,” is the reply.

“Too often, you go to pubs and find you’re meant to treat them like you’re in a Michelin starred restaurant even though the bricks and mortar are the same ones that your granddad stumbled outside and Mark E Smith p*ssed against.

"The guy in the kitchen might be six months out of catering college and convinced of his own genius, but, sad to say, he’s not Gordon Ramsey yet. And, when he is, why’s he cooking in a bloody pub?”

With the great British pub on the decline one gets the sense that, though meant to be fun, the Rough Pub Guide is also a little poem to a part of Britain that’s receding into history.

Beer is too expensive and chain bars have a lot of power to purchase at a cheaper price.

Furthermore a generation of boozers are turning to wine (not just ladies either) meaning drink with friends at home over dinner has an appeal. And you can’t smoke. What then does Robin think the future holds for the British pub?

“It’s reckoned the 1409 pubs closed for good last year,” he warns.

Decimated

“The smoking ban has decimated pub world and there really doesn’t seem to be any way back from that.

"Pubs are being attacked from all sides, whether its government legislation or supermarket cheap deals on take home alcohol.

"It’s disgraceful and it’s also hard to see how pubs can claw their way back.

"Pubs have traditionally been places where great thought is instigated, where bands have formed, DJs have played and writers, artists, politicians have all plotted ways to change the world.

"Obviously a hell of a lot of cobblers gets rattled off at the same time, usually after the sixth pint, but that’s half the beauty really.”

The Rough Pub Guide: A Celebration of the Great British Boozer by Paul Moody and Robin Turner is out now on Orion Books.

Published: Fri, 31 October, 2008

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