Saturday night entertainment
I went out in Dorking last Saturday night and it was pretty good.
The Star was busy outside as there was live music inside. I do like some live music if it is good but it seems that all the pubs in Dorking are competing on this level lately. There is often live music in the Cricketers, Spotted Dog and Star on a Saturday night and as most of the pubs are quite small it means that people are just sitting around looking at each other as it is just too loud to bother talking. Some of the acts which have been turning up lately leave a lot to be desired.
The last great one I saw was in the Star with two blokes on a guitars, a drummer and two girls playing violins. It really was awesome!
I also went into the Old House in which they had seemingly cashed up too early and had no change. I saw a guy accepting the only option of more beer instead of money!
posted by The Cockerel @ 12:05 AM
6 Comments:
Noticed that the Spotted Dog has closed. Yesterday, there was a delivery van taking a lot of the stock. Apparently, the landlord left a shed load of unpaid utility bills and had not paid his rent for months! So, it appears that the Spotted Dog will be closed until an interested party takes over. So, we will have wait and see who takes over the helm at the Spotted. There are rumours that one of Simon's (landlord of the Old House and he also has the lease of the Bulls Head) cronies will take control of the pub - I hope that is not the case!
Noticed that there is a great deal of hostility to the Old House and Bulls Head pubs this week in the Advertiser. Both of these establishments have been blamed for the surge in anti-social behaviour down in West and South Streets. The Bulls Head late licence is also under review. I think that this is very harsh to blame these two pubs entirely for the anti-social behaviour that continues to plague the town centre late at night. There are other pubs which continue to serve youngsters that are blatantly underage, what about the off licences and there always loads of kids hanging around the park, Cotmandene, the lower level of the St. Martin's Walk car park etc. drinking vast quantity of cider, alcopops every weekend.
As for the Spotted Dog, it appears that a refurb is on the cards. The door was open this morning and the workmen were taking a look around the place. There are seemed to be work taking place in the former Surrey Gormet and Oxfam Books units in the High Street. Also, work continues to go on behind the scenes at the former Gallery 238 and Cornish Pasty units. Finally, I was walking by Martin Brown and it appears that the ex Origin unit is now under offer. That is very good news. On a sadder note, it appears that the Gossip Lounge down on South Street will not re-open as a wine bar / tapas restaurant again.
DORKING Dan
Quite a bit in this week's local rag about business owners down in West Street saying that drunken yobs are responsible for crime spree. They blame the Old House at Home but the landlord, has hit back to say "there was no evidence to suggest customers from his pub were involved in recent acts of vandalism."
Other newsworthy items are the police have revealed a list of crimes carried out in Dorking over the last month.
John Tadnam, Mole Valley's neighbouring inspector, said there were four violent assaults. Three of these were domestic violence incidents in the home or alcohol-fuelled. Another involved a drunk male who assualted a doorman as he was being ejected from a licenced premises.
Meanwhile, a group of 20 troublemaking youths have been captured on CCTV. Parents of each of the youths have been sent letters informing them of their son's behaviour.
A 16-year-old from Hooley was arrested in the Meadowbank Park for possession of cannabis. There was 12 thefts in the town, most of which were shoplifting offences. In total, there were 13 criminal damage offences carried out between February 9-10. Eight of these involved cars which were left parked in the Chart Lane and Cotmandene areas of the town.
Another newsworthy item was staff were left shaken after robbers targeted a pharmacy tried to raid the cash till. The men, thought to be aged 20, walked into Michael Frith's pharmacy in South Street, shortly before closing time on Wednesday last week. Finally, the Kabin newsagent in North Holmwood has been targeted for the second time in seven days.
Wow!! The police's feeble response is "Officers from Mole Valley's Safer Neighbourhood Team are carrying out regular patrols in the area and together we are determined to maintain low levels of crime and disorder so that you are less likely to be a victim of crime." I am certainly not convinced, are you???
Year on year, we pay more Council Tax and a higher precept goes to the police. All we are paying for is their fat cat pensions and community support officers not extra 'real' police officers to patrol the town. Word has got out that Dorking is an easy place to target from the criminal fraternity. Also the East Surrey Area (Mole Valley, Reigate & Banstead and Tandridge) has recently been expanded to include Epsom & Ewell. So, the even more scarce resources are being spread even more thinly. So, it is only a matter of time, before Reigate and Epsom get pushed to the forefront whilst, Dorking and Leatherhead get relegated to the 'non league of priorities.' Pathetic...
Also noticed in the tabloid local rag, that Marks & Spencer are going to open up on Sundays, on a permanent basis. The town centre manager is pleased with this development and mentioned that Robert Dyas, Woolworths, Edinburgh Woolen Mill, Sainsburys, Waitrose and Clarks have also come on board. It is fine for the big boys to open up on Sundays but, it is much harder for the smaller independent shops to follow suit. They need to pay their staff and it hard enough for the shops in Dorking to get the staff these days. Hopefully, this won't be another excuse for the smaller retailers to pull out of Dorking. Even, Ralph Rice manager of St Martin's Walk (yes, really!) got in on the act to say "that M&S, The Body Shop and Julian Graves will be open on Sunday." I would be more convinced with Ralph Rice, if he concentrated on getting some of the units let down in St Martin's Walk, rather than jumping on the 'Sundays are the new Saturdays' bandwagon!!
Leatherhead Lip
Stop complaining - kids have always been drinking underage for years and years. To blame the current problems at the Old House at Home and the Bulls Head entirely on the youngsters is an insult. I have seen numerous things kicking off, insults being traded and pint glasses flying and the vast majority of these involved people in their thirties, forties and fifties. I have even seen a couple of OAP's fighting over a table!
Everyone knows that Dorking is not a place for families or the faint hearted at the weekends. It turns from a sleepy market town into people who are hellbent on causing as much mayhem as possible. Dorking's social life just revolves on the pub scene and nothing much else. So, at the weekends people come far and wide to do the numerous pub crawls, get pissed as much as possible and have a few scraps at the end of the evening. There are also a lot of inbred families who live in the vicinity of Dorking as well and with scores to settle from the past and present, this generally leads to brawls, smashed windows and the insults flying all over the place. The police are next to useless. Generally they go into hiding after 6pm on Friday and Saturday nights and would much rather go after the speeding motorist on the A24/A25 that deal with yet another serious disturbance. If you are likely to see an officer at night, they are generally found to be speeding through the town to go to a much quieter neck of the woods.
Phat Pete
Really, really predictable -- once a pub in Dorking gets a late licence, residents' complain about anti-social behaviour and complain to the council's licencing authority who in turn, revise the hours for the pub. Same old story. In the article which highlighted the Bulls Head as a breeding crowd for unsavoury characters and anti-social behaviour - I would like to challenge the resident, who said the pub should go back to being a 'normal pub' with no entertainment or a late licence. The Bulls Head is a tiny pub which has been severely affected by the smoking ban. It does good food at lunchtimes and needs the karoake, student and open mike nights to pull in the punters at night. If the late licence and entertainment licence is done away with, the pub will forced to be shut on a permanent basis. Every pub has a minority of individuals who do not behave themselves. To tar the Bulls Head & The Old House at Home, with the tag of pubs that are poorly managed and are magnets for young, anti-social chavs is a disgrace. These pubs attract a good mix of people whose sole purpose is to enjoy themselves in the company of a relaxed and well-run public house.
I think it is funny that people out there expect pubs to exist solely to provide for the occasional drinker who make up 10% on the income.
These people that are slated for their behaviour so to speak are the people that keep these establishments going so the occasional drinkers can enjoy them.
Before Mo went into the Bulls head the pub was on its knees, it was losing money!
The Old house at home before Simon went in was a horrid place, it smelt of wet dog.
The issue that has caused all this attention is simple. There is no alternative for the revellers of dorking. Before there was a place that they could all go that had little or no impact on the majority of the town, just a few busy bodies who didn´t want a late license, seemingly have spoilt the rest of the town for everyone by attacking the Malthouse and their late license ambitions.
Carrying on attacking these pubs, do it, and eventually they will close and you will have nothing.
As for the vandalism, I am glad someone else spoke up about it. Vandalism implies a deliberate act. From time to time, tempers rise, and fights break out. It is rare that during these fights, people take the time to pause for thought and decide to vandalise something. Vandalism is a result of boredom and it is a traight in the young. Not in the drinkers that frequent these pubs.
Sick and piss in the streets, yes that could be argued is a result of drinkers in these pub. Having worked in pubs, I have seen all types and all classes be sick from drinking, or take a quick piss. I can assure you, it isn´t these people you speak of that do this, for why, because they are experienced drinkers and control their stomachs and bladders better than the average occasional drinker who has a bit too much!
It is a massive frustration of the landlord to be blamed for broken glass and bottles, every step is taken to ensure people do not leave with these. They´re not cheap to replace!
The bottles found around are often whatever is on special at the off license and often not even sold in the pubs in town.
The council is part to blame, they should adopt a stratedgy where by all pubs in the town can stay open late to the same hour, instead of forcing them into certain locations.
The Bulls head has a capacity of probably around 80 people, the Old House 200. The Malthouse at its peak would regularly entertain 300-500 in the winter and some 600 in the summer on a weekend night. Yet at the time the Malthouse never seemingly affected as many people or attracted as many headlines or talk.
You want to sort your problems out, have the council give them their license back. A larger more accomodating venue. I am sure the company that owns it would like to see the Malthouse return to its former trading history (currently in 80% decline).
You only have yourselves to blame!!
Both Managers of the Bulls Head and the Old House do a fantastic job, not only in providing entertainment and relief for those 18-30 but for controlling it as well they do.
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