Hello all and hope your weekend is good
Out tonight at a room in a local pub for someone's 60th party.
Will be fairly casual, definitely no tweed. Nice to be out once again.
I know a few here have it sorted, so for a chat - what's your Ivy pub wear?
For me it’s the same as any normal daytime. Most probably jeans. Bd and crew in winter. Polo in summer.
Done a few pub sessions over the last year where the majority have felt more comfortable outside. So that’s required layering up.
Our local isn’t really either a dress up or down place so not much thought needed.
If I find myself drinking around the nearby towns Aldershot or Farnborough ‘under the radar’ Ivy is a definite.
Yes we will definitely be outside a fair bit I think. Layers essential right now.
I found an old cashmere crew as an extra layer under a wool roll neck pretty invaluable. And moleskin trousers. Can’t really enjoy a beer if you’re wrapped up for an arctic expedition
If local and out with friends I might wear a jacket, tweed in the winter and linen etc in the summer, but I would definitely dress it down a bit with jeans, playboys or canvas sneakers, open neck button down or polo according to the season. In London I would smarten it up with dressier trousers and shoes, maybe even extending to a knitted tie depending on the venue and the intended destination later in the evening.
No cares what you wear in London and as we live in the commuter belt it’s not that unusual to see smartly dressed people who have been working ‘up town’. But there are pubs where you wouldn’t want to be too smart in case you attracted the wrong sort of attention.
I think you can get away with more when you reach a certain age…. on the pittti uomo type websites a lot of the blokes wandering round in chalk stripe suits with flower buttonholes or elaborate handkerchiefs are grey haired old gentlemen. It can either be taken as a sign that you are completely senile or that you still have something about you and care what you look like.
I often go ‘early doors’ to my local on fridays and meet a pal there, b/d, cords or heavy drill chinos, Shetland,Astorflex boots, Barbour-like jacket, but a couple of weeks ago my pal suggested we went to a local wine bar instead, so I felt comfortable wearing a tweed jacket, would sometimes wear my keydge cord jacket to the pub in a slouchy way, sadly can’t go anywhere at the moment as self isolating....
‘No cares what you wear in London and as we live in the commuter belt it’s not that unusual to see smartly dressed people who have been working ‘up town’. ’. Agreed.
In the City a tie and suit is not unusual. So I might wear English tailoring.
Coming back from football tonight I stopped in Clapham Junction Spoons. Two old queens who had been in my local Spoons turned up and sat on a nearby table. Drinking alcohol instead of coffee tonight. The straight couple who were with them were not present. The two could bore for England. So I was not speaking to them. Also bouncers. I asked if they were expecting trouble and they said only from me ! I pointed out that trouble was unlikely from someone of my advanced years.
Kingstonian - I ventured into Stainespoons at 6pm on Thursday, the usual eclectic crowd were in attendance. I was wearing a London Fog mac over cords and a tweed jacket which excited no comment. I quaffed Ruddles Best at a very acceptable 99p a pint. ’This way lies ruin’ I thought, so I restricted myself to two and walked home along the river.
I was in the Last Post, a Southend Spoons on Thursday lunchtime drinking with my cousin. He was dressed more Ivy than me but no one really cared about any dress code. Except perhaps my older cousin who frowns when I turn up in jeans.The service has gone downhill and every week they seem to have new trainees behind the bar. Staff turnover seems high.
The main turnover in Stainespoons is amongst the elderly alcoholics who populate it during the daytime, as they die off and get replaced by new ones.
If I'm out on a session with old school mates it's, BD, Shetland (season dependent) cords or denim, Paraboot or Loafers.
Since late last year I meet up with my mate for a couple early evening beers at the Cricketers Pirbright and it's Sweat shirt, jeans & desert boots.
I have yet to try Ruddles in Spoons, though others speak well of it and tell me it’s not just because of the price.
Interesting wine v pub comment. I used to hate wine bars but folk went to them because we worked later than others and the women wanted seats which were plentiful in wine bars but not pubs. Beer from a tankard was what they offered - Courage Directors rebadged.
Pub v WB - I'm really a pub person and my local,(8-10 min walk on my own, 12-15 min walk with my 2 shaggy dogs), is fortunately for me a fullers house with a big turnover in draught beer so it's very unusual to get a bad pint and it's a good boozer although a tad expensive, but these days 2 pints is my limit volume-wise, so when my pal and I meet up it's red wine thereafter, he's been off beer for a while now and straight onto the vino so it was an easy change for us, we have the same volume of booze in our 2 1/2 - 3 hour session and tbh it isn't anymore expensive, it's worth the fiver tip to be served at the table by the lovely friendly Nepalese lady who 'fist-bumps' us when we arrive and leave , and it gives me an opportunity to dress a tad smarter, on the subject of Spoons we have a pretty big one in the town where I live, never use it myself as it's the other end of town, but I do go past it 2-3 times p/wk as it's next to my gym and these days it's only open at the weekend, not sure where the local deadbeats gather now,( obviously not all spooners are deadbeats but you get my drift I hope),
I normally drink Guinness as a safe bet but following others I've started to drink Doombar in Spoons pubs.
I miss the wine bars of the early eighties when I used to go with the missus and mates but they were of their time and in truth I'm probably missing those times. Frank Lampard senior had a wine bar in Romford and we put quite a bit of money his way.Whenever I think of wine bars I think of the famous 'Only fools and horses' sketch. They were of course good places to meet the ladies.
Talking of Ales, when not supping overpriced bottled beers in trendy theme pubs late 70's early 80's, I used to suss out old country pubs in and around Surrey. Courage pubs it was either Courage Best or Directors, Watney pubs Ruddles or Stag, The Jolly Farmer in Puttenham, before being taken over by the Harvester was a Youngs Pub so you could get a decent pint of Youngs. The Rackstraw Farmhouse used to have Wadsworths 6x & Bishops Tipple.
In the old Whitbreads pubs it was Wethereds all on hand pump, and not top pressure headache beer as my old man used to call it.
In the '70's when wine bars became fashionable local legend has it a bunch of the 'erberts I went to school with decided to try one out in Richmond,( I think, could have been Ealing), they being of the proud hard drinking working class they each stood their round, there were 6-7 of them, each round consisted of a bottle of wine each ,most of them are still alive I believe,doubt their drinking habits have changed a great deal, haha
This must qualify for 'Most Depressing Post Ever' - basically 'What can I wear to the pub without standing out too much so I don't get my head kicked in?' If ever there was an indictment of British drinking culture here it is.
Yeah, I’m kind of the opposite, I’m down my local in Huttons, and shirt with a lovely collar roll under a bright orange bell sleeve alpaca cardigan and 47 501s, or in a cord sack with a nice roll neck - god forbid I don’t stand out from the rest of em.
In for a penny in for a pound.
2RS - you have a very lurid picture of what constitutes the norm in a British pub. It has to borne in mind that most of us on here are of an age where we don’t really like to be out beyond the time when Countdown comes on.
The last time I wandered into a pub alone, late last summer, it was one of those that attracts gasps of 'Ooh, you must be brave to go in there, me duck... taking your life in your hands...' etc. It was once the watering hole of a notorious murderer, but we'll let that pass. I was simply waiting for my wife to finish her post-cancer treatment swimming lesson and was wearing a button-down shirt (Brooks without a doubt), an Alan Paine slipover, muddy coloured cords and the kind of shoes that someone on 'Ivy Style' has apparently said are not necessarily Ivy, i.e. a cordovan longwing/wingtip.
I escaped without serious harm but was not minded to repeat the experience. The place was as dull as one I visited in Islington back in 1984. I was assured it had been a favourite of Ronnie Kray. If he'd been there I'd have stood him a bag of crisps. But he wasn't.
The fear that entering a pub might involve getting your head kicked in is unfounded.
Many pub goers do welcome the existence of the terrible pub as it keeps the lowlifes out of the decent ones. They also know which pubs to avoid or leave if they mistakenly cross the threshold.
Here is a chap on Permanent Style with all the right labels who just happens to like pint of Guinness and prefers it in a wet led pub instead of a gastropub although he has a roundabout way of saying this :-
“Iron Heart 634 jeans, Alden cordovan Indy boots, PS chambray shirt, Sunspel button-neck jumper, brown-suede Valstarino and Drake’s scarf.
It’s what I’d wear for enjoying one of life’s great pleasures: a perfectly poured pint of Guinness, in a pub that is distinct from a restaurant environment.??
I think he could achieve a similar look for less money but then I am a cheapskate.
Orwell wrote entertainingly about pubs. So did Richard Boston, friend of Sir Osbert Lancaster, who once wrote a column in 'The Guardian' before it became a womens' magazine dominated by Ms. Toynbee. His little book 'Beer And Skittles' might be looked at with pleasure even by the coffee-loving TRS.
I was taken by a well-meaning friend to a leading CAMRA pub in, oh, probably 1984, where twits stood in the bar arguing about whether the hops in 'Old Testicle' had come from Farmer Giles' field near Gillingham or further in the direction of Chipping Snodgrass. The 'pint' itself reminded me of the contents of a washing-up bowl filled several times over with our dreadful Derbyshire water. Then the 'Beer Festivals' kicked off. I stayed away. People I knew went, clad in their U2 or Dire Straits t-shirts and stone-washed denim. Not for me.
As that detective chap played on TV by Jack Shepherd used to say, 'I'll settle for a coffee'.
AUS might also enjoy Boston's book as it has something of a Soho feel to it.
Boston used to drink in 'Becky's Dive' - almost certainly long closed down under H&S measures.
The book contains, amongst other things, a discussion of big city pub architecture and interiors and a handful of beer-using recipes, most of which I've tried over the years.
I believe Mr. Boston himself did not make old bones.
The Real Ale Twats visit The Murderers Arms is probably more what TRS has in mind :-
http://bp3.blogger.com/_l3hE1L9RPR4/RttXh9jTn2I/AAAAAAAABRY/jlNeDm_H7Vc/s1600-h/Realaletwats1.JPG