December 2024. Bradford.
3pm and I’d ticked Bradford’s Guide debutant and was too early/late for culture, which in Bratfud means curry and the cinema centre.
I really ought to have caught the first train back to Leeds and then a bus north to tick Meanwood’s brewery tap. But that’s so 2022. In 2024 I’d want a full afternoon exploring Headingley, and besides, I was in Bradford, not Leeds.
Let’s do cock.
It’s surely only 5 minutes away,
well, it seemed rather longer than that, even at Retired Martin / fit Paul Mudge pace, but at least it gave me chance to see industrial Bradford at dusk,
and find it almost as beguiling as Little Germany to the east in places.
Almost, but not quite.
In 2019 I wrote of the city’s most famous boozer in an industrial estate;
“The story of Bradford pubbing in a nutshell. Really enjoyable pubs, OK beer. I reckon choice has increased by 25% just as custom has decreased by the same in the last decade“.
And the main reason for a drop-off in quality (the old NBSS 3.5 v 3 problem) is of course turnover.
It’s Saturday afternoon and there’s more beers than customers.
The perfect scenario to take the Landlord test, then.
Oooh, love those handpumps.
It’s cool, it’s silky, it NBSS 3+. Did you expect more ? I might have feared less.
Those lacings (top) tell a tale.
But the Fighting Cock remains essential, particularly on music nights. A bit blokey, but as with the Lord Clyde a cauldron of good cheer.
Oddly, all the recent Untappd check-ins here are for the micro brews like a potent Vocation “Catch Me If U Can“, but it’s nice to maintain the pretence of moderation, isn’t it ?
retiredmartin 
We used to drink in the Castle a lot on a weekend afternoon. Is it still going?
Looks like fewer beers at the FC than there used to be, which is probably good thing. Looking forward to a return visit in the new year!
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Yes, still going strong !
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Oh good! (Worked out how to log in now…)
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I’ve enjoyed the International and Bharat in Bradford for curries, but it’s never quite beaten my memories of Rusholme in Manchester during the 1980s. I see that the Sanam Sweethouse is still going too.
(I will say this only once.)
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Heretic.
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Leicester beats it too, if you ask me, Dave (dives behind sofa).
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Best curry I’ve had was in Swansea a few times in the early 90s during the Balti craze. Not sure those places exist now. Haven’t really curried in Leicester or Rusholme, so you and Dave could be right.
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Yes Martin, I remember balti being invented in Birmingham to try to compete with the Black Country’s cheese cobs and grey peas.
The best curries are in the Morris Man which probably has Stafford’s best kept Doom Bar.
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But was it on autovac?
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Quite.
I’m mainly Carling in W. Yorks these days.
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