Railway Station Pub?

[roundhouse]

Not actually part of the stations but close enough to be easy to access whilst waiting for a train, but of the more traditional type of pub here are a few:

 

Kings Arms in the forecourt opposite Stowmarket station and superb ales.

 

The Swan Inn at Lympstone Village, taken from the platform on the Exmouth line. Another very pleasant place.

 

The Star Inn across the side street form the current station entrance. Again superb ales. This was our last trip away before the first lockdown.

Edited January 13, 2021 by roundhouse

[Andy Kirkham]

Here's what it says on Disused Stations about Afon Wen http://disused-stations.org.uk/a/afon_wen/index.shtm

 

By the 1950s the refreshment room did little business other than with railwaymen.It was run by a local woman and had become notorious for selling poor quality beer. The railway author Bill Rear, when working for the railway as a fireman, ventured into the refreshment room on his first visit to Afon Wen. A pint of beer was slammed down in front of him and, being young and inexperienced, he drank it as he did not want to offend the woman. He spent the journey back to Bangor being violently sick and never went into the refreshment room again. When the woman retired, nobody could be found to run the refreshment room and it had fallen out of use by 1960.

 

I think a number of the remote junction station stations on the Cambrian had refreshment rooms - the signage is prominent in photographs of Three Cocks. I fnd it hard to imagine they could have survived simply on the patronage of passengers; did they functon as unoffical pubs for the local population?

Edited January 13, 2021 by Andy Kirkham

[roundhouse]

A few photos of the one at Stalybridge. best avoided at weekends as it gets wedged with large groups of drinkers who are well on their way to being under the influence by mid day. We tend to get there at opening and then make a quick exit. Such a shame that it gets so overrun as its a great place with great ales.

[Mol_PMB]

All this talk of railway pubs is making me long for a time when:

(a) pubs are open

(b) we're allowed to use a train for such a frivolous purpose as going to or from a pub

(c) we are actually allowed to be indoors with another human being.

I'm even missing hangovers now!

 

The number of railway stations named after pubs is much fewer than the number of pubs on railway stations.

Have we done that one yet? (forgive me, I'm new here)

Cheers,

Mol

[Andy W]

While station pubs/bars are quite widespread nowadays, traditionally at all but the very largest stations they didn't exist as such within the station buildings - instead they were refreshment rooms, which would sell you anything from a cup of tea and a bun to a double brandy and a meat pie. In other words, all things to all travellers. Many were run by the railway itself, others were leased either to individuals or to companies. Even now, they won't pass up the chance of selling you a coffee even if the focus is on real ale.

 

 

[phil_sutters]

5 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

All this talk of railway pubs is making me long for a time when:

(a) pubs are open

(b) we're allowed to use a train for such a frivolous purpose as going to or from a pub

(c) we are actually allowed to be indoors with another human being.

I'm even missing hangovers now!

 

The number of railway stations named after pubs is much fewer than the number of pubs on railway stations.

Have we done that one yet? (forgive me, I'm new here)

Cheers,

Mol

The only one that comes to mind instantly is 'Angel' on the Bank branch of the Northern tube line, but there must be others - a new thread needed?

[steve1]

Bridlington has a fine real ale pub / station buffet within the station concourse. Lots of railway memorabilia in it too.

 

steve

 

[roundhouse]

5 minutes ago, phil_sutters said:

The only one that comes to mind instantly is 'Angel' on the Bank branch of the Northern tube line, but there must be others - a new thread needed?

Berney Arms. Unfortunately the pub is now closed. We visited it by parking as close as we could then walk across the fields past the station to the pub otherwise it was only accessible by boat or the very few trains that called at the station.

[steve1]

I can also personally recommend The Rat Race on Hartlepool station for good beer and novel surroundings.

 

http://www.ratracealehouse.co.uk/

 

steve

 

[TheQ]

Trains as such don't call at the Berney  Arms station.. It's a request stop, you have to inform the guard you wish to get off there, or if you are there wave to stop the train..

 

 I think it was Marlborough Low Level that had a pub in it,, when the line closed the bar didn't for some years..

[Tim V]

Of course, there was the ticket office in the pub, At Farrington Gurney!

 

There was a Pathe newsreel of it - can I find it now?

 

Found it!

https://www.britishpathe.com/video/booking-office-in-pub-aka-booking-office-in-inn-or/query/office+pub

Edited January 13, 2021 by Tim V
Added link!

[Rivercider]

Mrs Rivercider's late father worked on the construction of Portishead B Power Station in the 1950s, which occupied the site of the original Portishead Station. I remember him telling me that after the old station had closed to trains the station bar remained open though by now in the middle of the power station construction site, he was a foreman and sometimes had to visit the pub to round up his workmen.

 

cheers 

[Mol_PMB]

1 hour ago, roundhouse said:

Berney Arms. Unfortunately the pub is now closed. We visited it by parking as close as we could then walk across the fields past the station to the pub otherwise it was only accessible by boat or the very few trains that called at the station.

Craven Arms in the Welsh Borders is another 'Arms'. 

On the tube, as well as Angel there is Elephant and Castle.

 

Several former railway buildings are now host to breweries, including the goods shed at Ludlow and several railway arches in Manchester.

[Welchester]

1 hour ago, Rivercider said:

Mrs Rivercider's late father worked on the construction of Portishead B Power Station in the 1950s, which occupied the site of the original Portishead Station. I remember him telling me that after the old station had closed to trains the station bar remained open though by now in the middle of the power station construction site, he was a foreman and sometimes had to visit the pub to round up his workmen.

 

cheers 

 

It would have been at the other Portishead Station that they could use the WC&P.

[roundhouse]

6 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

 

 

Several former railway buildings are now host to breweries, including the goods shed at Ludlow and several railway arches in Manchester.

Ludlow Brewery and bar

 

Grainstore Brewery and bar adjoining Oakham station

[The Johnster]

16 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

It was being drunk on duty that was the problem. Not that you had consumed alcohol. It's only in recent years that alcohol was not allowed. Royal Mail had it's own bar in the Liverpool Sorting Office until around 2000. But was closed due to modern work practices which were opposed by the union.

 

Also railway pubs and refreshment rooms weren't bound by licencing laws. That's why they were allowed to sell alcohol in the buffet cars at any hour. You were always allowed to buy drinks at six o'clock in the morning if you wanted. The Nightcap Bars on the sleepers were just that. Bars open all night.

 

BR was twenty four hour drinking. That's why football fans used the trains to get to the match as you weren't allowed to drink on coaches.

 

Not quite.  It is true that alcohol can be served at any time on a moving train, but bars on station platforms are subject to the same licensinng laws and opening times as those outside, as were clubs including BRSA clubs, which were usually on railway property.  There were never any restrictions that I was aware on your consuming your own alcohol that you'd brought with you on trains or on railway property, providing you were out of direct sight of the retail outlet that you'd bought it from, a law which still applies to drinking alcohol in public. 

 

Now, I would be a liar if I were to say that, by and large, railwaymen knew places that they could get a drink at any time of day or night including Welsh counties dry on Sundays, but these were not serving legally; they were lock ins.  I knew, and used, several myself, notably the 'taxi club' in Cardiff's St Mary Street which I'm sure BR2975, a certain Mr Rolley, remembers well.  There was, as you correctly state, no rule preventing railwaaymen from drinking, or for that matter using drugs, on duty, only against being 'under the effects' of same.  One would hardly refuse a fireman who'd just shovelled 5 and a half tons of coal over the course of 3 and a 1/4 hours into a Britannia's firebox on the Red Dragon on a hot day!  In fact, it was officially sanctioned in the case of the non-stop ECML KX-Edinburgh double home jobs with corridor tenders.  The relief crew would make their way from their resevered fisrt class compartment in the leading coach through the tender somewhere between Thirsk and Northallerton, half way in journey time, and the relieved crew would take their place in the compartment, where a restaurant car steward would be waitng with cold bottles of ale for them, on the company's tab.  Not uncommon for passengers to stand drinks for crew either, completely tolerated.

 

Drunkeness on duty, especially when working trains or dealing with the public, was not tolerated by management or men (because we all knew it would bring in stricter regulataion, and gave drunken colleages short shrift), and I recall one of my fellow Canton guards hauled over the coals for a drunken attempt to start a fight with the stationmaster at Bristol T.M., which was really asking for it.  Yours truly had to work his train (23.05 Bristol T.M- Cardiff Central, 120 dmu) for him while he slept it off on the cushions.  There was a perceptible sea change in attitudes following the Eltham Well Hall derailment in 1974, in which the crew had been drinking during the layover at Margate and in the cab and blood alcohol levels tested from their 'remains' were well over car driving limits.  The crash was caused by excessive speed on a speed restricted curve, and IIRC the secondman was driving while the driver was probably sleeping it off, again asking for trouble.  This was IMHO the beginning of the end of the drinking culture on BR, and the first stage to the current rules on the matter.

 

Buffet bars on platforms run by Traveller's Fare were, I contend, not the same as pubs on stations,  At Barry 'town' (where the good grils got off), there was an independently run licensed bar that could be accessed from the street or platform, effectively a pub, and the 'Refresh', which survives the last train by half a century, is still AFAIK in business at Cwmmer Afan, another independent.  At Cardiff Central we had the Red Dragon Bar on the street frontage, now a Marks and Spencer, which developed a reputation a one of the city's gay bars in it's later years.  This was originally railway owned but I believe was sold off to an independent licensee later.

 

 

 

[Oldddudders]

In Betjeman's famous Metroland film, he is seen supping ale in what I believe to be Horsted Keynes island platform buffet. Of course he was then able to step outside into pukka Metropolitan Railway stock. 

 

As for stations named after pubs, Norwood Junction was originally Jolly Sailor, and Belmont (LBSCR, not LNWR) had been California, the name of the pub up the road. 

 

 

[Dagworth]

Bat and Ball (Sevenoaks) takes its name from a pub. 
 

Andi

[Ray Von]

Ok, I'm pretty sure I'm going to include a bar in/on my station - would they prototypically be named or would there just be a sign saying "Bar"? (Era is early 80's.)

Edited January 13, 2021 by Ray Von

[Oldddudders]

Mostly still Traveller's Fare in those days. "The Lemon Tree" was one of their names for bar/buffets. 

[dagrizz]

There was a bar in New St station in the 70's/80's, on the wide concourse that connected all the platforms; it was only accessible for travellers, not the general public. I used it a few times before getting the train home. No idea who ran it but it did sell pints of beer, which was good enough for me. I don't think it sold coffee or the like, it was an alcohol bar.

 

Graham

[roundhouse]

Bognor Regis has the Station Inn to one side of the station forecourt. About hte only pub in the area that I havent been in as its beer range isnt my taste and no real ale. You cna just see the station on the left.

 

There was a bar in the station building but only accessible from the forecourt. It closed since my visit and is currently still empty. photo taken in 2013 not long before it closed.

 

 

Edited January 13, 2021 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

The old main station building at Clifton Down is now fully occupied by a bar.

 

We visited back in July 2020 so it clearly shows the Covid safety signs. I was quite amazed when two twenty year olds came in and only had cash. The barman would take the cash but had no change.

 

[roundhouse]

Two form East Croydon

 

The Porter and Sorter opposite platform 6 and the old red Star builing on the left in the photo. This pub was due to be redeveloped a few years ago but I gather that it had a reprieve for 8 years or so. The old Post office sorting centre towers above it off to the right and is sitll derelict.

 

The other side of East Croydon station back in Christmas 2014 there was a temporary pop up bar just off the new footbridg run by the local Cronx brewery who now have a more permanent bar nearby in the Box park complex built on the site of the old railway staff bar, chip shop and old theatre.

[Rivercider]

1 hour ago, Ray Von said:

Ok, I'm pretty sure I'm going to include a bar in/on my station - would they prototypically be named or would there just be a sign saying "Bar"? (Era is early 80's.)

It is not very clear, but there is a 'Buffet Bar' sign on the platform on the right of this view, I can't read the red and yellow sign beside it. The buffet later closed, and was empty for some years, but then re-opened as a buffet bar, or bar in the evening called 'The Old Straight Track', now called 'Off the Rails'.

45073 arrives at Weston-super-Mare 31/12/79,

 

cheers