Back on the Crawl

After a long hiatus, it was time to get this crawl back on the road...

We realised that, if we are to complete our task within the allocated year, we needed a plan, because we still had 20 pubs to get through and only 4 weeks.

I created a google document to help plan the last few weeks of the crawl, therefore ensuring its ultimate success...

Pub Number 9: The Hansom Cab
Perhaps not the best strategy - to visit a pub we've already been to many times with so little time to complete the crawl, but one which we chose for the cheap drinks and quiet Saturday night drinking.

Pub Number 58: Guy Fawkes
Sat on a throne in the corner of this old fashioned and dimly lit pub, we speculated on rumours that the pub was so old that it had no electricity, hence the romantic candlelight. Then they called last orders and put the lights on which put an end to that argument...

Pub Number 59: (The New) Oscars
Oscars used to be around the corner from where it is now. The new place is still pretty swish, with heavy wooden tables and a decadent feel about the place. The men complained that there was only one toliet for them, but Paul managed to find a secret passage through to Narnia the Biltmore where he could gain relief without a long queue to wait in.

Finally, pub crawl progress was being made...

We Are Scientists...(Well, Lynne is)

Pub Number 9: The Hansom Cab
We've been here before and it hasn't changed since that last visit - the drinks are still cheap and they still sell organic cherry beer. The toilets are pokey and not particularly pleasant, but they serve a purpose.

Lynne and I discovered that you can make your boyfriends go to the bar for you if you talk about periods.

I think that deep down, we probably always knew that.

Pub Number 31: The Duchess
Less of a pub this one, and more of a music venue - or that's what the rumous say and since We Are Scientists were playing that night, and Lynne IS a scientist, it seemed like the perfect night to check it out.

As soon as we got there, Lynne bumped into some of her scientist friends and we worried for a moment that it was a science convention of some sort rather than a cool and trendy music gig. It turned out that our worries were unfounded and the band did indeed make their way onto the stage to entertain us... it was a shame that we couldn't see them.


The Duchess used to be a low ceilinged snooker hall. It is now a low ceilinged music venue which means that you can't really see anything unless you're practically on stage with the band.

As we walked in Neil and I immediately identified it as a potentially good late licence pub or club (and it does turn into a club at the weekend after the gigs finish at about 10:30pm), but if you want to actually see any band there, you probably need to be on the front row, next to the speakers, as visibility from any further back is practically zero.

One word of warning though... your ears will hurt if you stand near the front - unless of course you pop into Ebor Hearing for a specially made set of ear plugs. And if you don't fancy shelling out for those, I'm sure you could get something from there to help fix your deafness in a few years time, but I digress...

Its a nice place - just not a particularly good music venue. It's new, so it doesn't smell funny and the toilets are respectable. Drinks are on the pricey side (and served in plastic cups) but not especially so, and even if it's not brilliant, a bigger capacity music venue does mean that York gets bands who you've actually heard of playing in it.

Celebrations

Tuesday night is traditionally a night for staying in, but in this case, we made an exception to celebrate the fact that, after several years of being a lazy student, and before she even got as far as becoming 'The Doctor', Lynne has found herself a job.

Pub Number 9: The Con Man
If you looked on a map, or in the Yellow Pages for a pub called the Con Man in York, you wouldn't find one, because the Con Man in James' 'special' name for the pub that everybody else knows as the Hansom Cab. So it was in the Hansom cab that we met to drink organic cherry beer, and normal lager at less than £2 a pint in celebration of Lynne's achievement.


Pub number 9 accomplished.