London pubs questions

Don
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Location
Notts
Once a year we go down to Twickenham but base ourselves in London for a couple of days

having done this for a few years and tried several areas a couple of things still confuse me

Why do the majority of pubs close so early ? A lot seem to close at 11pm on a Saturday night and very few normal pubs are open after midnight

The other thing is why do a large proportion of folks, both men and women, not get dressed up to go out at a weekend, seems totally different to every other city, folks going clubbing etc may dress up but folks just going around pubs seem to make no effort

not wanting to offend out southern, shandy drinking friends but it always seems odd to me
 
It is down to the Council. Pubs have to be granted an extended hours licence. In some areas the residents pressure the council to restrict the number of pubs open late. A friend of mine used to live in Twickenham and when the rugby was on it was a nightmare, the pubs were overloaded with drunks well into the night so they clamped down I believe

As for the second question, no idea, it is generally jeans and a casual shirt. When the rugby is on well this maybe jeans and an England shirt ???
 
talking more central London than Twickenham, you can expect Twickenham to be full of drunken scruffs on a match day :p
 
Well going to the pub in the south isnt really a big occasion... So Sunday best for church isnt really needed (unless your church is the pub...)

London you just have to know where the late pubs are too, the only one I can think of is the Lexington which was open till 4am last time I was there (missed the last train out so it seemed like a good idea)

Oh and boo northern whippet lover...
 
The other thing is why do a large proportion of folks, both men and women, not get dressed up to go out at a weekend

Because dressing up only on the weekend is chavvy. People in London go out every night of the week.

Well going to the pub in the south isnt really a big occasion... So Sunday best for church isnt really needed (unless your church is the pub...)

London you just have to know where the late pubs are too, the only one I can think of is the Lexington which was open till 4am last time I was there (missed the last train out so it seemed like a good idea)

Oh and boo northern whippet lover...

This too. Going to the pub is something people do all the time. There's no point in 'dressing up' for it.
 
Because dressing up only on the weekend is chavvy. People in London go out every night of the week.



This too. Going to the pub is something people do all the time. There's no point in 'dressing up' for it.

but even in the smarter places folks didn't seem to have made much effort, hadn't thought of Saturday night being no different from other nights
 
but even in the smarter places folks didn't seem to have made much effort, hadn't thought of Saturday night being no different from other nights

Must be something to do with Twickenham then. There are plenty of places in London where you'll see people dressing well all the time.
 
Must be something to do with Twickenham then. There are plenty of places in London where you'll see people dressing well all the time.

as I said above I am not talking about Twickenham, Saturday night we were in Kingly Court ( Carnaby St ) and surrounding area, seemed sort of average bar scene
 
Guess it just depends on the average local population, if my mates asked if I wanted to go to a pub I doubt I'd bother 'getting dressed up' for it (regardless of which day of the week it was). :p
 
The other thing is why do a large proportion of folks, both men and women, not get dressed up to go out at a weekend, seems totally different to every other city, folks going clubbing etc may dress up but folks just going around pubs seem to make no effort

not wanting to offend out southern, shandy drinking friends but it always seems odd to me

It's weird, I always laugh when going back up north now and see people really dressed up for a big night out on Saturdays. After living in London for 8 years it seems odd that people would do that!

Loads of people in London are out in the week after work in their suits and I guess on Saturdays they just want to dress down a bit.

And, as for Twickenham - there are still places that aren't overloaded with drunks after match day, like with everything you just have to know where to go.
 
:p

it's just that in most cities the majority of places are open until 1 or 2 am with some later so it seems odd that in the capital so many places close so early
I'm 99% sure it will just be where you were looking rather than london on the whole, we get people moaning all the time when we close our pub (in manchester city centre) at 11, saying they thought Manchester was open all night and they could've stayed out later in their village.
The reality is it's only the 4 pubs around our square that close early, pretty much the rest of the pubs/bars in the city are open late/very late.

You just chose the wrong bars, I'd imagine London could suffer even worse because of obviously being more spread out, from my own experience of london, if you want to go somewhere late in an area there aren't many places open you need to know where you're going.
 
I'm 99% sure it will just be where you were looking rather than london on the whole, we get people moaning all the time when we close our pub (in manchester city centre) at 11, saying they thought Manchester was open all night and they could've stayed out later in their village.
.

tried several areas over the years and both things seem to apply all over
 
And, as for Twickenham - there are still places that aren't overloaded with drunks after match day, like with everything you just have to know where to go.

have been out in Twickenham a few times during match days. we were on a corporate holspitality do this year so didn't see that much of the pubs during the day
 
was mostly Kingly court rather than Carnaby, if that's student area your students have too much money as it's was bloody expensive :p

Anywhere around there is going to be very touristy. Plus you have Soho nearby which isn't exactly where you go dressed up to the nines.

Try Mayfair or Kensington if you want to ponce around. :p ;) Although they'll be more bars than pubs to be honest.
 
Do you put on your waistcoat, pocket watch, top hat and hit the 'undesirables' with your cane when you go out to the pub on a Saturday then Rotty? Weirdo! :p
 
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