Beeston’s Buzzing

Any long time readers of the blog will recall the halcyon days of pubs in North West Leicestershire with Coalville and Whitwick setting the standard for no nonsense boozers.

Forward wind seven years and Beermat juniors seem to be spending more of their sport time in Nottingham which, rather handily, gives me the opportunity to notch up a few pubs in a county that is underrepresented on the LifeAfterFootball repertoire.

Beeston is one such town and the ‘home of hockey’ has plenty of life with a range to suit all tastes.

I have been to this town before and it’s one of the best beer towns in the Midlands

The Jolly Anglers, The Star Inn, The Stick & Pitcher, The Malt Shovel, The Cricketers and The Boat & Horses have all been on my radar but there’s plenty more.

It’s got a Craft Union classic known as 869 – The Jesse Boot NG9 2LE that is an Art Deco flat roofed stonker right in the centre of town.

I strolled in early on a Sunday afternoon and it was almost standing room only. A big single bar with a pool table and dartboard and s great mix of punters.  Lads in stone island jackets with their families and it felt like a proper local.

It’s the sort of pub you don’t take lots of pictures in and has a crackling atmosphere.

We even had a smashed punter outside who’d clearly been thrown out and the staff and the locals were watching him sway outside, which was a source of amusement.

The football was on the TVs and I had a pint of John Smith’s Smooth for £2.45…that’s correct, less than £2.50 for a pint in a town centre pub.

Some kind of card game was ongoing and lots of the older punters were playing with the barman announcing the answers and battling against h background noise!

A ‘proper pub’ and I’ve not seen many pubs as packed as this on a Sunday afternoon so Beeston is definitely buzzing.

Packed pubs in Beeston aren’t dependent on sunny Sunday afternoons either as a miserable, wet Thursday night at around 7pm saw a good crowd in at  870 – The Last Post NG9 1AA.

It’s the town’s ‘spoons on the site of a former post office that was built in 1934 and does everything you’d expect of a pub in Timbo’s empire.

 A cracking drop of Autumn Ways (Hook Norton) that I’d not had before was excellent and came in at the bargain price of £2:55.

I reckon there was around 50 punters in, which was remarkable given the weather and a proper mix, which is always the case in Wetherspoons,

young and old couples, groups of lads and groups of girls all drinking and eating…enjoying pub life at its best.

It looks like the curse of the bar queue is finally going with punters in a good throng at the bar and this place just felt like a feelgood pub.

Two pints for a fiver, proper pub atmosphere and a town that has lots of life left in its boozers.

Published by lifeafterfootball839

A man looking to visit as many pubs as possible in the Midlands and prove that the great British boozer is alive and kicking!

26 thoughts on “Beeston’s Buzzing”

  1. ‘Some kind of card game…’ is not the detail I require Beermat! Next time, muscle in on the game and pretend you know the rules, there will be plenty of sucking of teeth and drawing of breath but tough it out, they’ll tell you what the game is eventually.

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      1. We were politely offered a buy-in to a playing card or two in the Kingfisher in Corby, something to do with the Horse Racing.

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      3. She has good taste. Pal of mine moved there last year and loves the beer scene. Reading are being systematically asset stripped by a ‘fit and proper owner’ who bankrupted 2 previous clubs and who even the premier league refused to allow him to buy Hull. It’s disgusting.

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      4. It’s possibly Nottingham’s best suburb and has some magnificent watering holes and everywhere (apart from the Jesse Boot) serves terrific beer
        It’s shocking but what seems even worse is the lack of care from authorities and other clubs
        As each day goes by the urge to watch league football diminishes and non league wins out.
        Blues were in a similar boat and even with excellent owners now the football just isn’t worth the money

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      5. Agree it’s very dispiriting. I’ve been going to some Reading away games recently to support the team in their hour of need (away support has been excellent) but the only long term solution to all this is to do what we’ve done at St Mirren and pay in over the years to buy 51% of the shareholding. Too many clubs are vulnerable to the whims of charlatans.

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      6. Fan owned model will be the best and clearly it’s a storming success in Paisley
        Reading are a well supported club so no one is safe really
        I can see a time where I walk to watch Melbourne Dynamo every week as good pub suburb with a club on the up

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      7. Absolutely right – no one is safe, happened to Rangers here though at least the reformed club were able to keep their stadium and league place (albeit bottom division). Derby fans were sympathetic the other night – it almost happened to them. Clubs should belong to their communities. What happens on the field is actually secondary. Good luck to Blurs for the rest of the season.

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  3. Like you say BB these are proper pubs, few and far between these days but they can still be found if you look hard enough. Great work.

    I’m off to my second trip to St Andrews this week later in must win game number three hundred and seventy four for our club, surely it can’t be any worse than the Boro game?!!

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  4. Last Monday the Landlord was drinking well in Craft Union’s most northerly pub, the Queens Head in Alnwick. Six months ago I used one in Brighton but don’t intend ticking all the ones in between.

    I’ve recently been in more of Tim’s former venues than his current ones – Silk Mill, Nuneaton, Butlers Bell, Stafford, Isaac Wilson, Middlesbrough, Leaping Salmon, Berwick.

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