December 2023. Macclesfield.
Part of the Old Codgers Proper Day Out in Macclesfield (I’m their youthful chaperone) and a return to the trad family boozers that codgers treasure.
The Queens Hotel has that stately look that Holt pubs often impart; it’s the first building you come across leaving the station though frankly I can only remember one snatched pint here 20 years ago.
We were 3 days early for Fizz Friday. As I must have told you before Mrs RM worked in Macc in that glorious Glenn Hoddle summer of 1998 and may have dropped by for Fizz Friday, though I know for sure she never stayed in the Queens when it was residential (a posh pub in Eaton for her).
It’s always good to get a family brewer like Holt on your crawl, there was Robbies and Hydes as well, and I guess that the people who make Bass have families too.
The Queens is distinctively “Holt with evening entertainment”.
Will and I had racked up 3 pubs, lunch, and a walk to the edge of town by the time the two Mudg(i)es and Kentish Paul were even starting to return from their more leisurely lunch, and I really should have had a pint of Bitter but common sense has never been a strong point.
A decent cool Holt (3+), though the lack of afternoon trade was surprising.
The Queens is a cheery place, and with the decorations it reminded me of the Sun & Castle in That Stockport, but a quick nosey shows the scale of the previous residential building.
We spent 40 minutes here, presumably an emotional full group reunion, but my notes seem entirely focused on the music.
Men At Work – Who Can It Be Now ? . Oooh, NOT “Down Under“, good start.
B-52s – Love Shack , One for the alternative crowd.
Hall & Oates – Rich Girl . Back to classic American A.O.R.
Heart – Alone . Pub Curmudgeon’s ears pricked up at this point.
Toto – Africa (obvs) . OK, enough, make it stop.
and to round off the nostalgia,
OK, time for Bass I think.
retiredmartin 
I think this is the pub that I was mixing up with the Nags Head (again, I’ve never been in, just seen it from or when leaving the station).
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I can understand that; the pubs just outside the station do tend to merge into one another.
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“Will and I had racked up 3 pubs, lunch, and a walk to the edge of town by the time the two Mudg(i)es and Kentish Paul were even starting to return from their more leisurely lunch” – but I recall the Queens being my fifth pint of the day, the halfway point, like a High Noon really, and a couple of hours before dusk in the Silk Trader.
.
“The pubs just outside the station do tend to merge into one another” is something I’ve yet to experience.
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Oh yes, you’d been up with the lark (?) getting a head start on us, Paul. I wish I’d managed the George & Dragon.
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Yes, the Unicorn was drinking particularly well, the log fire was nearly as good as in the Jolly Sailor and I was able to tell the licensee how nice it was being in a Proper Pub at that time of day rather than a Wetherspoons.
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Given its size, the Queens had a notable lack of comfortable seating. Obviously not really targeting the codger market.
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Maybe because our numbers must be declining year on year.
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Yes, definitely aimed at the karaoke/sports crowd rather than old codgers. Think we got the best seats in the house.
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Now that’s what I call music…
…for…
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…people who want this clown as PM
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