Now Dick and Dave have had their craft fix I can bring you the Proper Pubs in Carlisle.
Ten minutes walk up Warwick Road to the Beehive, and a reminder of Carlisle’s leafy charms on the way to Brunton Park.
Pubs look great early evening, don’t they ? Shame I rarely go out after dusk these days.
it’s a cheery pub, packed with middle-aged diners and folk pontificating on the Prem.
A bit like the Pontefract or Leeds GK place, going strong on the guest ales to cement its GBG place.
The Tiffin Gold was fine, and cheap, but my photo makes it look a little sad, sadly. Come on matchdays and wear a Workington scarf.
As Curtis Mayfield sang as I left, “Move on up“. Well, west.
Back in town I ordered my crispy beef and Singapore rice from Yummy’s, a Top 20 takeaway, and wondered what to do while I waited.
Evensong at the Cathedral ? A walk up Scafell ? A tour of a nuclear plant ?
OK, the Howard Arms it is then.
Traditionally the go-to pub pre-match for folk who favour Theakston in trad pubs over “choice“, it’s just survived refurbishment, if not Halloween.
While the barman fulfilled a Prosecco order I inspected the refurbishment.
Well, it’s immaculate, leaving the wood to shine but making the pub a welcoming place for women, who outnumbered me early evening.
Rather different from the Howard’s heyday as a State managed house, or 1996 for that matter.
I can’t remember what the beers were, but it was always going to be Theakston Best, wasn’t it ?
Less predictably, it was £3.80. Cheap in Manchester, steep for Carlisle.
But I’d rather pay £3.80 for a gorgeous cool, smooth pint (NBSS 3.5) in a beautiful pub like this than, oh, you write the rest.
E.L.O. and R.E.M. (what’s wrong with E.L.P. ?) your musical accompaniment.
Spookily, the lacings clearly resemble Jeff Lynne if you stare at the glass for 3 minutes.
A great night, rounded off in true retiredmartin style with proper English food.
Jealous, heh ?
retiredmartin 
Those cartoons are probably more modern than Kegbuster.
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You never hear ELP in pubs nowadays, do you?
I take it you didn’t go in the best State Management survivors such as the Cumberland, Redfern and Magpie (2/3 of which are keg)?
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4 pints on a Monday was plenty, but have been in Cumberland and Magpie. Not heard of Redfern, mind.
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You don’t hear the Kinks that much either.
Which is a pity.
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Etu,
Yes, and the line “We are the Draught Beer Preservation Society” was perhaps a prediction of CAMRA being founded three years later.
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Since what typifies the English is their fondness for various preservation societies, such as CAMRA, we should start a movement for the protection of preservation societies, only logically.
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This is the best Carlisle had looked to me. I’ve had it as a stop on several trip options but it never seems like a decent beer town. These pubs look quite nice.
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Mudgie is right about those other old State Managed pubs.
More a pub town than a beer town, perhaps.
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Despite all the reading I’ve done on pubs I don’t think I’ve learned much about these state-managed pubs. They couldn’t have been too bad if some of them survived until 1973.
Funny to think that the idea of introducing food was something that had to be forced upon presumably reluctant landlords. How times have changed!
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I guess serving food meant employing staff, being inspected, being more welcoming to women and children etc. The fall in beer sales made it inevitable I guess. Boak and Bailey cover it really well.
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“Serving food meant employing staff, being inspected, being more welcoming to women and children etc”.
I can think of some establishments where only “being inspected” applies.
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Ha 😉
Yes, there are traditional restaurants where the Landlady makes you a sandwich or heats a pie, but I had the 99% that present you with a proper menu in mind.
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But so many establishments have menus on every table, rather than a customer being presented with one, and it’s not a proper menu if the dozens of items on it are microwaved ready meals.
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There is plenty on the web about the state managed pubs. You can start at https://thestatemanagementstory.org
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Thanks for that. Very impressive website there.
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Mr Blue Sky in this post … beermats in your next….you’re drawing me in!!!
Howard Arms looks a cracker…could it be classed as a bona fide football pub?
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It certainly was back then, loads of Carlisle fans used it pre-match.
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Excellent 👍 love a good fitba boozer
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It WAS “Mr Blue Sky”!
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What a tune!
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Crispy beer and Singapore rice? How’d they do that? 🤔
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They can do anything. Sweet and Sour air a favourite.
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“Evensong at the Cathedral ? A walk up Scafell ? A tour of a nuclear plant ?
OK, the Howard Arms it is then.”
Now that is a great decision! Also the Theakston Best.
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