Talking of dodgy bars...

[FredPuli43]

Jayne's post on dodgy bars made me wonder what happened to pubs where a punch up was part of the evening's entertainment? When I was young there was a pub in the middle of Cambridge where the customers only went there for the fighting; it was so notorious (or famous) for it, that as soon as I was old enough to drink, my mother told me to avoid it (Irish mothers, eh? Things you learn at your mother's knee!). I didn't. In more recent times, there was another on the edge of Cambridge which got closed after one riot too many. I knew one in South London where the staff kept a bowl of hot water and TCP under the bar, for the wounded to clean up.Another London one had all bar stools chained to the bar with heavy chains, to stop customers using them as weapons (not sporting, you see) These establishments were quite common.

Are there any in your town still, or has tougher law enforcement had them brought into order?

[DTCwordfan]

I misread that title, something about dodgy lingerie......

[ummmm]

Yes, quite a few. One recently got shut down after a massive fight where someone ending up losing his eye and a fractured skull.

When I was younger there were fights every weekend. I lived in a pub, that had it's fair share of fights, but you were guaranteed to see a fight outside at the weekend.

It was the first part of town that had CCTV installed.

[RATTER15]

These days they would have to employ door staff or would get shut down. Thankfully those days are in the past and largely down to myths and legends.

[ummmm]

See my answer RATTER....there are still plenty of them.

[RATTER15]

I know ummmm but they will get closed down hopefully or get the problem sorted, no need to put with this behaviour in pubs these days.

[ummmm]

But they aren't closed down. The pub I mentioned was re-opened two weeks later.

The police don't get called to most of the scraps that happen.

[paddywak]

I lived near an old army training area and a local pub was notorious through out the country as a place were the squaddies could have a good time. When I was on nights I always I used to go for my lift early get some chips and sit on the wall across the street from the pub and watch the fights. It got so bad when the army boys were in town they ended up with a Jeep full of redcaps stationed in the pub car park.

[emmie]

no they are all namby pamby now, when i worked in a pub too many years ago now, there wasn't any fracas because the landlord wouldn't stand for it, or more likely kept a loaded weapon near by just in case.

[emmie]

in the old days there was always a ruck some place, fuelled by too many pints of whatever wallop was on offer. So it's no good bemoaning the kids of today, when it was a frequent occurrence long ago.

[ummmm]

The landlords have no choice in the matter. If a group kick off there isn't much you can do about it.

[joggerjayne]

We only have pub issues when visiting fans come from one or two nasty football clubs.

West Street on a Saturday night can get priddy lairy ... but it's all quite good natured.

[FredPuli43]

One senior policeman told me that as a raw constable he was called to a massive ruck at a pub in Camberwell.A country boy, he'd never seen anything like it. He said, shaking with nerves, to the old sergeant with him "I suppose we have to go in, Sarge" and got the reply "No, stay here safe behind this wall. In a while they'll be only one left standing. Then go and nick him. He'll be no trouble because he's the winner and being nicked will prove it to everyone!" Dixon of Camberwell Green!

The police used to leave these pubs alone because a) fighting was part of life and b) they knew where all the tough blokes would be, all in one place; better that than have them starting trouble in all the pubs in the area, at random c) everyone knew the pubs and what to expect, and wouldn't go there in shocked innocence, and complain later.

[tonyav]

There is a pub in my area that gets closed down on a regular basis because of the fights ( inside and outside ). It will the reopen under new management but the new management let the same old punters back in and so the cycle carries on.