What was the dodgiest pub you have been to?

ShatterProof

corks finest wrote: »

Known as the fob and kill

... the rob and kill

Beasty

Tommy Ducks in Manchester was "dodgy" for one specific reason

It was knocked down getting on for 30 years ago, and I only entered the place one. Basically though the walls were plastered with items of ladies lingerie, and any "new" woman entering was expected to contribute to the collection (there and then!)

MarkHenderson

The Goat Pub in Goatstown. Full of FF'ers

bob mcbob

How about this one, a pub in Leith (Edinburgh) that kept a puma as a pet behind the bar. One night it escaped....

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/the-night-a-puma-went-on-rampage-in-a-leith-bar-1-3616322

The whole of Leith used to be rough as f***.
That was where Trainspotting was from.

bnt

bob mcbob wrote: »

The whole of Leith used to be rough as f***.
That was where Trainspotting was from.

It's gotten all gentrified in recent years, though. A friend of mine bought a new build flat there a decade ago, buy-to-let, so he's naturally hoping the trend continues.

fleet_admiral

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Agree with all of the above. Morton’s was a grand spot the last time I was in there. The Penny Black in Tymon North was another place with a reputation that wasn’t deserved.

The Welcome Inn was a great pub, and the owner was a friendly man once you understood his eccentricities.

I never said Snortons was rough, I said it was a kip. I work in the Penny Black it's a grand shop

Joe Don Dante

The Latern in Galway

Feisar

I may have said it before here, there was a pub in Mullingar ran by travellers. It was called The porter House one time but when the travellers had it there was no name above the door. The locals aptly nicknamed it The Slaughter House!

I went in one time for a bit of social tourism. One of the few times in my life where the ould alarm bells went off and I thought "uh oh". People say I've the head of a Garda on me and I'd say that's all that saved me, they thought I was in for a snoop.

Sgt Hartman

I went on a pub crawl along Meath Street in Dublin 8 on a Tuesday eve four years ago and ended up in a few dodgy kips. The Guinness in all of them was fantastic though. I finished the night in The Lamplighter in The Coombe. The place was utterly hopping for a Tuesday night, there was even a DJ in there. I was thinking it must have been dole payment day :D

I remember passing Stepper Flanagan's (Formerly Norbert's) in Limerick on an eary Monday afternoon and the place was buzzing. I popped in for a pint with the brother and nephew before lockdown and the decor looked like it hadn't changed since the 70's :D Across from Norbert's is Gerry Power's bar which is a bit dodgy but has cracking karaoke nights with John and Monica as well as amusing antics from the resident drunk Teddy :D

cj maxx

A pub in Manchester. Near where Maine Rd used to be. Went to see a mate ,who 1/ bolloxed me out of it for walking there on my own 2/ made me change all my notes into change.

People openly smoked joints at the bar and scallywags would come in to buy drugs . Had one half pint then my mate 'suggested ' we leave.

.

Happydays2020

McSorleys in Ranelagh. Rough crowd there.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/how-johnny-s-jaunt-came-back-to-haunt-him-1.637391

The Swiss Cottage. Gone now to make way for apartments.

Gloomtastic!

I reckon Conor McArsehole’s pub is a magnet for Class A Nutters these days………

Sally Longs in Galway was the best “rough” bar. Not been there in years but it was just rough enough that the place wasn’t full of dickheads, but no so rough that you could spend the night drinking there with a reasonable expectation of not finding bother, if you kept your wits about you and didn’t act the dickhead.

bodhrandude

The Dalriada Hotel and Bar in Cranhill, East End of Glasgow, it was a right dump. I remember folk going to score hash there and folk at the bar sending them over to the local Drug Squad trying to fit in at the bar.

happyoutscan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118021244#Comment_118021244

Nonsense.

Pretty much lived in the place from 1995-2010 and while there was the odd skirmish, that was about it. Galway's roughest pubs were the Lantern out in Ballybane and Branski's in Westside.

Across the road from it was Mixers (Laffy's before that) which was a definite rough house. Not sure what's there now.

bodhrandude

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118021411#Comment_118021411

Don't forget The Harbour Bar and The Hibernian too.

Motivator

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/108885454#Comment_108885454

Jesus I remember that place. I stopped off in a pub in Roxbury one evening. Huge commotion outside, “fuckîn shotsbury” some fella shouted and the barmaid rang a bell. Fella got shot about 30 yards from the front door. Police came and cordoned off the street and didn’t leave anybody out. Then a brawl broke out and they cleared the bar but had to siphon drunk headbangers down a side alley so they wouldn’t interrupt the crime scene. It was absolute mayhem.

wotzgoingon

The worst pub I was ever in was in the Tallaght hills. It was done up with all stone so an old pub vibe in the place. It wasn't a very big bar just one room and I was getting strange feelings in the place. So I was drinking my pint and it was a bad point. Horrible it was. But said I wouldn't bother complaining as it was a shady place. Next thing this guy comes in and the smell off his breath was something foul. Anyway he walks up beside me and I was getting severe mixed feelings off him, bad vibes. So I took a swig of my pint and was placing it down on the counter and looked at the counter as I was doing it and the corner of my eye looked towards the ground and the guy had two hooves as feet. I'm not sure what happened next as I blacked out and woke up to a empty old ruin of a hell fire club. I still think of that encounter to this day.

Joe Don Dante

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118021411#Comment_118021411

The Buddah Bar. Thai place. the opposite of rough!

beachhead

A bar in the arse end of Georgia,USA.The native went in the door first,I was literally on his heels.He turned around so quickly saying get out I was nearly trampled.The smell of guns and incest was strong.Must ask about the name,it's a few yrs ago.Had been stopped by a patrol car a few mins earlier for faulty tail light(true).Had a good look at all of us in the car and bye bye - whiteys.Maybe watching the place/area

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118021411#Comment_118021411

I think you will find that’s what I wrote. A pub with a reputation sufficiently “rough” to keep a lot of the quay street crowd away, but not actually rough.

The lantern was about the worst. Branski’s was ok

Danzy

Bar in the Hague. Fellow with a syringe in his arm out cold in the bathroom, people stepping over, no notice.

Lads snorting coke off the counter and some mad drunk trying to beat the barman with a cooking pot. Really trying to break his head in.

greenspurs

A pub on the corner of the Nth Circular rd and the Ballybough rd. Called The Rising Sun ??? or something similar?

We walked in , and everyone turned around staring! They never see 4 out of towners wearing KK jerseys ?

Kip.

The Swordfish in Newlyn, Cornwall. Was fine, there was even a postcard of my hometown there.

I arrived home and was watching 'Top 10 Most Dodgiest Pubs in Britain' on Sky 1 one day and there it was.

Apparently it would have been a different experience if I had been French.

yabadabado

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118022249#Comment_118022249

The Sunset House?

I drank in it a few times before very much a locals pub but I'd no hassle in it.

A fella was shot in it a few years ago.I think it's no longer a pub ,been a while since I was in the area.

castletownman

A few years ago I was in some spot on a side street leading from the city centre towards Connolly (although it could have been Tara St. dart). Tiny pub with barely any floor space and essentially a hole in the floor to piss in that constituted the jacks. Stopped for one in it one afternoon during a mini-pub crawl as my mate was making his way back to the train.

I would love if someone could identify the establishment as I remember the clientelé being of the "howiya" variety and being wary of going near it at night-time.

CaboRoig

Don't know it's name but many, many years ago I was in a place on the Andersonstown Road roughly opposite Casement Park in Belfast. Whether it was a pub or a shebeen I can't say but it was in a basement and had only opened that day after a number of years being closed down by the RUC. Plenty of evidence of Republican leanings! Have to say that although it was dodgy as hell, I felt pretty safe there but that was probably the drink talking!

Geuze

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118021411#Comment_118021411

I have never been in Sally Long's, Branski's or the Red Lantern, although I am aware of where they are.

I'd well believe that Sally Long's is the least rough of them.

I think Branski's is closed?

Geuze

I'd say the Lark Inn on Meath street, D8 was the dodgiest??

I sat at bar.

Empty seat beside me.

Then another customer.

Time passes, my friend arrives, goes to sit in the empty seat.

Yer man gets up and frisks my friend, to check is he a Garda.

Turns out he is related to both the Hutchs and the Kinahans (is that possible?).

He had been in prison.

lawrencesummers

only one bar in the country where all the heads of the organisations gather and plot their criminality

The bar in the Dail.

FullyComp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118023612#Comment_118023612

Look at this guy, so original.

greenspurs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118023348#Comment_118023348

Thats it ! 👍️

lawrencesummers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118023657#Comment_118023657

Have you ever been in there?

The Crossroads Tavern - Shannon, Co. Clare. The building looks like someone said "ah sure, that'll do" mid-construction, packed their tools into the van & never came back to finish the job. Once inside you are met by all sorts of characters. No problem sorting a sniff of coke either. That said, most of the clientele were grand on the odd few nights I was there (the fact that I was with a local probably helped) though I did get the feeling that something could kick off any minute. I wouldn't have gone there on my own. Even from the outside I could get the vibe that it's *that* sort of pub which doesn't take kindly to outsiders, blow-ins or passing traffic.

Shannon Nights - Shannon, Co. Clare. We used to call it the Shannon Fights. One of the lads I worked with remarked that the night club attached to it (Evolution) was proof that evolution could in fact go in reverse also, if you had been there you would have agreed. It was grand for a couple of pints after work on a Friday but it was always a good idea to get out of there before the troublemakers came out to play - that meant all the dodgy characters who couldn't get in anywhere in Limerick or Ennis & descended on the place. Throw in a few individuals with shallow gene pools & about the same number of full-time mad ba5tards from Clarecastle, Newmarket-on-Fergus & Sixmilebridge into the mix for good measure. As soon as their night out was in full-swing anything could happen. The car park in the early hours of a Sunday morning was top-notch entertainment for those who enjoyed the sight of funny-looking inbreds pucking the heads off each other (viewing from a safe distance was preferable, obviously). Closed down now.

The Furry Bog - Whitechurch, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16. Don't know what it's like now but about a decade ago it had a particularly menacing vibe about it & was indeed frequented by some shady characters. I heard the rumor at the time that the owner installed a shipping container in the car park which he modified into a garage for his car so nobody could damage it but don't know if that was true or not. Is it still going?

Castle Inn - Rathfarnham Village, Dublin 14. Now closed. Google it.

The Sarah Curran, also in Rathfarnham (long gone now) wasn't so much a dodgy pub as an absolute kip of a joint managed by some right to55ers.

AckwelFoley

Oh. This thread started in 2009. I may have replied before l answer hasn't changed.

Some bar in 1994 in Holyhead with my father. Waiting for the ferry went for a pint. Walked into a bar. Had a pint and midway through a guy walks in that had clearly taken a glass to the face up the road

Not an eye lid was batted at the bar. It was almost as if it was a regular occorance

We left. Not until we finished our pint of course

Sgt Hartman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118022249#Comment_118022249

The Sunset House pub ;) i think it's closed down now though. I passed it one Sunday afternoon and had a peek in the window to see some fella giving it loads dancing to some dance track on the juke box. I thought it was pretty amusing.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118024566#Comment_118024566

Crossroads was pretty bleak when I was in there years back all right. It was the day after a 21st of a college mate from Shannon and a few of us were looking for a place to watch a PL match and were sent in that direction. I don’t think I have felt as sinister an atmosphere in a bar in Ireland. There was one lad, about 40 the time, who was holding court like Tony Soprano, and it seemed like as long as he was there the place was calm. We all agreed it would probably be best not to see what happened when he left.

Was in the Knight’s multiple times and was grand any time I was there

faceman

OP here, I never thought this thread would last this long, 12 years later. Ive ready every post and after 12 years, I reckon we make a web series out of it where we document visiting every single bar that has been posted!

AckwelFoley

This thread is almost as old as Jerry Lee Lewis' first wife

JupiterKid

Finches in Neilstown, the Old Chinaman (with two college mates to score some hash during a long “drought” not long before it closed down), the Mount View in Blanch. All total very dodgy kips. I was going out with a gay guy who lived in the supposed “better” part of Neilstown (late 1990s) - he was a big MF so never got any hassle when he’d go up there to their offy section to get cans. No windows.

It was a case of get in, get what you were looking for, and get out ASAP.

When my drinking was utterly out of control in the mid 2010s, was in quite a few rather dodgy early houses often enough. As long as you kept your head down you were grand.

mick121

the Shanty in Mulhuddart,dodgy enough in the bar but even worse in the disco(late 1990s),went for pints,had pints,never returned.

dennyire

Talking of the sunset House....Many years ago I was working summer job and had to paint outside windows of the pub

I was up a 40 ft ladder painting top window,

I noticed a couple of young lads running around the corner laughing

Looked down and saw guinness delivery truck about to drive off

Had a rope tied from its back to the bottom rung of my ladder

i Scuppered down and had to jump the last ^ feet

dennyire

Viscount Aggro

The Old Mill, Tallaght.

I can tell you this is one rough pub.

Ive never seen so many rough looking people, loads of security staff.

PTH2009

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119781843#Comment_119781843

Did they have 'come on Eileen' on the jukebox

4Ad

The Launch in Limerick city...oh boy.

A city centre bar in Sheffield, lovely city, nice people, except this place....no one said anything bad to me but I knew to get the f##k out of there !

sioda

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119781856#Comment_119781856

I'm sorry but if you think the launch is a dodgy pub you've not been in enough pubs. Local in a working class area defo but never felt uncomfortable in there. Many worse spots in the city

The now demolished Swiss Cottage in Santry. I’ve drank in other pubs mentioned here like the Jobstown Inn, but the cottage was operating at an entirely different level.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/61557011#Comment_61557011

Jaysus, you mean you went to a rock bar by accident