Wednesday 6 October 2021

DG0492 The Gladstone Inn

On my way out to the harbour, I'd taken a picture of this pub which Google (at that time - I submitted a correction which seems to have taken affect) still believed to be shut due to COVID.

The smell of fresh paint made me think that it might actually be open after all, so on my return to the town centre, I decided to actually try the door - pubs with closed front doors are not that common after all - and found that it was actually open.

And busy.

This seems to be the racing pub for the town, with not many free tables at ~3pm on a Monday. The customer base was entirely male (well, the dog might not have been!) and I suspect I brought the average age down slightly.

Excepting for the size of the TV, the smoking area out back, and the relative modernity of the Liverpool FC memorabilia on display, this pub could have landed directly from the 1980s - and with pint prices more like those of ten years ago too. Well, the COVID signage and sign in sheet are also a sign of the times, but likely not to be there within a few weeks I would imagine.

This was my 600th pub - on the rolling register basis which I use to work this out. My 550th pub was S3416 Camden Court Hotel in early December 2019 - by comparison my 450th had been March 2019 and while I forgot to mention my 500th I think it was in July 2019. 

In normal times I would have expected to get to 600 by Easter 2020 and would by now probably be well over 700 and approaching the dregs of suburban hotels, county council theatres and strip clubs to finish off the list!

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