Publog

A bit of a delay between visits, I'm afraid.

Scores for Monday's visits (22nd September):

Wilkies Tavern, 25 Church Street, Warrington, WA1 2SS (Map)

B 8/10, A 6/10, T 1/10

Bright, colourful bar - real Irish atmosphere (i.e. not a 'theme' pub). Feels like it would be lively at the weekend.

Old Town House, 95 Buttermarket Street, Warrington, WA1 2NL (Map)

B 4/10, A 4/10, T 0/10

Wasted potential here. A nice building, nice location (big front garden etc.), but is taken over by some strange restaurant idea called 'Stonegrill' (the food looks like it could be good though). No real atmosphere, and poor choice of beer. At least they don't have the garden furniture in the bar that they used to.

The Friar Penketh (Wetherspoons), 4 Barbauld St, Warrington, WA1 1EX (Map)

B 9/10, A 8/10, T 6/10

Everyone in Warrington knows this one as Wetherspoons. Even on a Monday it has lots of people. Good, cheap beer, great atmosphere and lots of people. You should visit this pub if you are on a night out - most people have it as their first one of the night. Highly recommended.

An alternative set of reviews of Warrington pubs - more for the nightclubber types.

Well, a successful night last night. We've agreed on a scoring system, so I'll retrospectively score the ones we've already done. Scores are out of 10 for 3 areas: Beer (Cost and Quality), Atmosphere (Music/Non-Music - doesn't matter), Friendliness, Decor etc.), and - of course - Totty (boys or girls, i.e. the likelihood of meeting up with someone).

On to the scores for yesterday:

Ring of Bells, 131 Church Street, Warrington, WA1 2TL (Map)

B 7/10, A 7/10, T 1/10

Nice pub - decent pint of Speckled Hen; reasonably cheap. Quiet atmosphere, no music but had telly in corner. Not a place to meet the opposite sex, therefore good for same sex conversation!

Marquis of Granby, Church St, Warrington, WA1 2SZ (Map)

B 7/10, A 5/10, T 0/10

Proper old-fashioned pub, very regular local crowd, beer pretty good; atmosphere pretty neutral.

Bulls Head Inn, 33 Church St, Warrington, WA1 2SX (Map)

B 8/10, A 7/10, T 1/10

Noisy, local atmosphere, good and cheap beer. Friendly bar staff.

PS CityVisitor.com reckon there are 223 pubs and bars in Warrington. Some way to go yet.

I've been passed a guide to pubs in Warrington. This list is of those that serve food:
Pub Food Guide - Warrington & Lymm

Lower Angel Hotel, 27 Buttermarket Street, WARRINGTON, WA1 2LY (Map).
Pretty good pub this - we visited it last Thursday (4th September 2003). Beer is cheap (about £1.80 per pint as I recall) and pretty good. Mixed feelings from the others, some of thought it was a bit of an Old Man's pub. Needs a coat of paint and some new furniture, but does look 'authentic' (whatever that means) - definitely not a fake old pub like some I've seen. CAMRA thinks it's the best pub in Warrington this year. They could be right - I haven't seen them all yet!

Ok - down to the nitty gritty. Which have I been to so far? My aim is to give an address for each pub (including Postcodes for the Streetmap crowd). The list on Regular's Reunited should also prove useful.

Perhaps the best use for a Weblog - a log of Pubs in Warrington I've been to.

The kernel of this idea started a couple of months ago, when a group of friends and I realised that we were becoming very dull (yes, I see the irony of typing this into a weblog!). There we were, going to the same pub week after week, and every week someone suggested going somewhere different. Then, one night, in a flash of brilliance similar to that experienced by luminaries like Archimedes, Newton or Einstein, we had an idea: go to a different pub every week.

But which to choose from? A few minutes' consideration led us to the conclusion that we could not encompass every pub in the UK, let alone Britain. But - Warrington - that might be possible in a sensible length of time. The gauntlet was thrown down: visit every pub in Warrington.

Of course, like all proper challenges, it would not be cricket to count pubs already visited. A clean slate (sic) was necessary. And it has begun - however, the large number of pubs necessitates a record of which have already been visited; not a Dantean prospect in itself, but still required to be sure of completion when it's done. And, moving with the times, a Weblog seems the obvious way to track progress.

And, gentle reader, this is where you come in. Please send in names of Warrington pubs that I haven't been to yet, or better still, start your own Publog and try to beat me! This, after all, is a game for true sportsmen.