“You went all the way to Whitby and all you brought me back was an empty chip box !”

Oh, and some pictures of micropubs. One of them is in the railway station; it took me AGES to find it.

Whitby was heaving on Sunday. “The busiest place I’ve seen since St Ives at Easter or York’s Shambles” I wrote in 2016, and it still holds. Perhaps Andover will acquire such heights of popularity now BRAPA has visited.

I was only there last Summer, as I traditionally save the Yorkshire coast till late in the GBG year. Here’s the view from the steps that day;

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This was the view this time, as I joined the queue for the Arch & Abbey.

Those two were very patient; I wasn’t. I HATE waiting and I never book. Not that you could, which I applaud.

Middle-class micros, eh ? Folk, having tasters, or flights, or gins. No-one going anywhere fast.

But two couples DID move on, and I bagged the corner table with my lovely half of honeyed Wensleydale (NBSS 3).

Isn’t perspex shiny ?

Lovely staff, they really were, giving us a running commentary on the ETA of our tables while we stood outside. They deserve their success.

As does the Waiting Room, which I’d been following on Facebook as it contemplated the wisdom of a post-Covid return before taking the plunge last month.

It’s tiny. Put aside the Cleethorpes and Claygate pretenders and it must be one of the three smallest pubs in the Guide.

Tipping up on the dot of 5, admission was a delicate exercise involving ropes, hand gel, pens and face masks, which sounds like a sequel to 50 Shades of Grey you’re glad isn’t getting made due to Covid.

You had to make an effort to join in the conversation, but it was worth it. Tales of Chinese ex-girlfriends (a Number 18) and my failed attempt to describe Oulton as the posh bit of Castleford were lowlights from an earthy micro of the type normally found in Wigan and the Bradford hinterland.

That Half Moon Porter was marvellous, as the last beer in a county often is.

Oh, and the graffiti nearby will, as they, say, divide opinion.

A great end to North Yorks.

Where next ?

NB Chris Dyson beat me to Whitby by a whisker, and his rather fuller write-up is here. Great minds think alike !

Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

20 thoughts on ““You went all the way to Whitby and all you brought me back was an empty chip box !””

  1. Hats off to you, that map is looking very very pink these days.

    I reckon that “sounds like a sequel to 50 Shades of Grey” bit is one for the RetiredMartin Hall of Fame– I really was laughing out loud!

    You’ve got me curious about that Chinese ex-girlfriend conversation. Did he speak fondly of her, or did things not go so well?

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  2. “One of them is in the train station; it took me AGES to find it.”

    Was it one of the carriages?

    “Perhaps Andover will acquire such heights of popularity now BRAPA has visited.”

    As if! They’ll be putting up road blocks up on all the entrances into town after Si’s visit!

    “Middle-class micros, eh ?”

    Pfft. Getting a bit tired of all this I must say. With respect to the photo above I’d be tempted to pay with the Ace of Spades. (it doesn’t specify which type of card to use!).

    In the same vein, I’m sorely tempted to get a fishnet type of mask. After all, it just says ‘face covering must be worn’. No word on the actual thread count is there? (ya know, like fancy Egyptian cotton bed sheets and the like). 🙂

    “Isn’t perspex shiny ?”

    I was thinking of a four letter word that starts with ‘shi’… 😉

    “which sounds like a sequel to 50 Shades of Grey you’re glad isn’t getting made due to Covid.”

    Hah! That could just as easily be a sequel to “Eyes Wide Shut”. 🙂

    “Tales of Chinese ex-girlfriends (a Number 18)”

    Sigh. That explains Chinese takeaway, dunnit?

    “That Half Moon Porter was marvellous, ”

    It certainly looks marvelous.

    “Oh, and the graffiti nearby will, as they, say, divide opinion.”

    Indeed. I had to run around town today looking for ‘stuff’ as someone set a fire inside our local Walmart last Thursday (in the toilet paper section no less!). Thus, it is now closed for the foreseeable future. Wound up at a dollar store (80p to you lot) in hunt of cheap chocolate bars and Red Bull. Had a mask on but only below my nose. Fellow behind me in line decided to comment. I pointed out the three people I could see in the store shopping WITHOUT any masks and told him to have a chat with them before bitching at me.

    Oh, and I have a medical condition allowing me to not wear a mask ‘properly’. *

    Cheers

    * – if I put the mask on as intended I tend to develop ‘moronitis’. 🙂

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  3. I was in Whitby and the Waiting room last year on my way to the delightful Duke of Wellington in Danby. Judging by the photos of dos and don’t, and sinister masks, it’ll be a while until I’m back.

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  4. “One of them is in the train station; it took me AGES to find it”.
    I’ve always thought that the easiest way to find the railway station is to arrive by train.

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    1. My father used to get really annoyed when people referred to the “railway station” as the “train station,” and I have to agree, if only to stop the creeping Americanisation of the English language.

      I’m glad you raised this first Paul, as I didn’t want to upset dear old Martin over another issue of semantics; especially so hot on the heels of the comment I made on his “Mask failures in York” post!

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      3. T’other Paul,
        Yes, “train station” is annoying and WRONG.
        “Train” is defined by Section 83 of the Railways Act 1993 as “(a) two or more items of rolling stock coupled together, at least one of which is a locomotive; or (b) a locomotive not coupled to any other rolling stock” so “train” excludes the diesel multiple units that we use to and from Whitby.
        A DMU is a “railway vehicle” and so goes to and from Railway Vehicle Stations – which in common parlance is abbreviated to Railway Stations just as Omnibus Station is to Bus Station.

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      5. ‘Railway station’, because it is a station on the railway, nothing to do with railway vehicles. Locomotives and rolling stock are not generally stationed in stations, but at depots. Trains stop at halts as well, the term indicating that they are unstaffed, i.e. no staff are ‘stationed’ there.

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  7. I don’t think I’ve been to Whitby since the first full day of my honeymoon in 1992. We went in the Duke of York but I can’t remember if the John Smiths was drinking as well as it was in Preston’s Market Vaults last year.

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