February 2026. Hull.
Getting your GBG tick done early is a good idea, as anyone who’s been on Orkney worrying if the death of the Queen will mean your penultimate Guide pubs will close as a mark of “respect” will confirm.
But it does raise the question, “What next ?”.
There’s plenty of heritage pubs like the Black Boy to revisit in Hull Old Town, but a man should leave a respectable gap between pints, at least 10 minutes I reckon, and dusk is a great time for photos.
So much choice, but in the end the Old Blue Bell gets the nod, 20 years after my last visit.
A classic heritage interior, a rare Sam Smiths pub that’s a) open and b) selling cask OBB (NBSS 3.5, £3.60).
There’s just one problem.
That’s as close as I get with my phone.
No pics, no notes, no checking train times, no Shazamming the pumping R & B soundtrack. It’s torture.
You’ll just have to take my word that the Blue Bell remains one of our classics, as timeless as Uerige or the Dyffryn Arms to pick two at random.
Except …
Someone has been playing the game, using pro cameras rather than phones (it wasn’t me).
So here’s a legitimate taster of what greets you down that alley back into the 1970s, when men wore ties and people spoke to each other.
Some of you no doubt wish you were still there.
retiredmartin 
Oops, there is one Dave and I missed!
Dick
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And a big miss.
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What did you miss, Dick ?
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I’ve never been a fan of (neck) ties, so I don’t wish I was still there – wherever “there” is?
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1975.
You’d know what I meant if I’d been allowed to take a photo.
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Yes I can remember wearing ties and I’ve still got some of them.
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Ties…
Black for funerals
Dad’s regimental tie for remembrance events
Good silk tie for anything else requiring a tie (mercifully few and none anticipated)
Err… that’s it
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Ties…
Black for funerals – about three a year.
Pale blue for weddings – about once a decade.
Tied houses,,,
For reliable familiar beers – at least once a week.
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I stayed in the Theatre Hotel once in Hull. I was getting into bed and something/one touched my head. The next day I spoke to two maids about it. They looked at each other knowingly and said “Oh we never work alone down this corridor…”
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I’ve seen that film.
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I do not have a mobile phone. My photos are taken with a Panasonic DMC-LX3 camera, which you could learn if I did not scrupulously scrub the metadata from all of them. During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, some people who posted what they thought were anonymous photos of bars and pubs violating the space-distancing and occupation bylaws *were tracked down using the metadata and threatened with bodily harm*.
But for this instance, I am unlikely to be travelling to the U.K. any time soon anyway, much less wanting to drink in a Sam Smith pub.
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