Worst pub in Scotland

[Shandon Par]

In my mind there's a distinction between rough pubs and shite pubs. Rough pubs can be alright and provide some eye opening moments. The ones I can't stand are ones that look like someone's front room or caravan, with some fat old golfers hanging around the bar and soaps or talk shows on the tv. 

[Hedgecutter]

Broadsword in Aberdeen is genuinely frightening

It's getting good reviews though:

[MEADOWXI]

13 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

 

It's getting good reviews though:

 

https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/news/local/man-42-convicted-of-trying-to-murder-family2/

This the article about the stabbings the refer to.

 

[Ross.]

2 hours ago, KnightswoodBear said:

I vaguely remember being in there for a couple of birthday parties in my yoot.  

My cousin is, amongst other things, a karaoke host. He used to gig in there occasionally and I popped in on the odd occasion for a catch up. The first time I went in was an odd experience. I'd drunk in a lot of rough pubs but none had required the use of a buzzer, security camera and cage to prevent people getting in and out. The pub itself was actually really tame. I think it's reputation preceded it and they simply hadn't got round to ripping it out. Either that or I was just lucky on the nights I was in there.

[scrooge1928]

Worst 2 I've been in were both before gigs.
Went to Pixies at Meadowbank (2004) and ended up in The Station Bar just along from Meadowbank (towards the city centre). Locals seemed to have more teeth than brain cells, although it was a close run thing. Not so much a spit and sawdust place, but only because they couldn't afford sawdust. Utter shitehole.
I was also at a gig at Barrowlands a couple of years ago. Meeting a couple of folk from work before the gig. The Old Tollbooth. Fucking hell. Handful of oddities in there on a Friday early evening. One guy sat and pissed himself rather than leaving his pint and going to the toilet. He then sat in his pissed trackies like it was the most normal thing to do, finished his pint and bought another one.

The Station Bar was done up a few years back and is now called the Safari Lounge. The clientele has changed although a few of the older guys are still there, despite the hike in prices. Good food and excellent ale.
It's 20 years since I lived in Easter Road and there have been a load of changes in the boozers in the Easter Road/London Road/Meadowbank area. The Terrace Inn, Albion Bar, Four In Hand, Marionville Bar and Golden Gates have all gone. The Crown & Cushion and Jock's Lodge were formerly good bars which turned into dives but have apparently come up in the world once more. The Regent used to be a grim bikers' bar but is now gay-friendly - and if you're not homophobic, it has a pleasant atmosphere and very good real ales. The pub variously known as ETs and the Thistle is now gentrified as the Mash Tun and is another real ale place.
Pubs like Middletons, the Artisan and the Hoppy don't seem to have changed at all.

[Hedgecutter]

https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/news/local/man-42-convicted-of-trying-to-murder-family2/
This the article about the stabbings the refer to.
 

As a local wifey that was recently interviewed by STV said about the incident where three folk died in that flat around the corner: "you just don't expect this sort of thing to happen in a place like Tillydrone".

No love, this is exactly where you expect this sort of thing to happen.

[Adam]

How could I forget Joanna Dee's, just next to the Parkhead Forge.
Been closed for over a decade due to a fire rumoured to be gangster connected, our bus used to park accross from it many years ago before games at CP, it had a TV behind the bar in a fucking cage as the barmaid explained the previous two had pint tumblers lobbed at them, on my first (and last) pre match pint in there I saw a guy smoking heroin off a bit of tinfoil in the toilet. 

Joanna Dee's has been shut for the best part of 20 years. I wasn't aware that it ever opened during the day.

Had to laugh at someone saying the Chrystal Bell being rough, pretty sheltered pub visits if you think that's rough. There's a few absolute shiteholes in the east end, the Cottage Bar and Sheddens being two.

[Boostin' Kev]

34 minutes ago, scrooge1928 said:

The Station Bar was done up a few years back and is now called the Safari Lounge. The clientele has changed although a few of the older guys are still there, despite the hike in prices. Good food and excellent ale.
It's 20 years since I lived in Easter Road and there have been a load of changes in the boozers in the Easter Road/London Road/Meadowbank area. The Terrace Inn, Albion Bar, Four In Hand, Marionville Bar and Golden Gates have all gone. The Crown & Cushion and Jock's Lodge were formerly good bars which turned into dives but have apparently come up in the world once more. The Regent used to be a grim bikers' bar but is now gay-friendly - and if you're not homophobic, it has a pleasant atmosphere and very good real ales. The pub variously known as ETs and the Thistle is now gentrified as the Mash Tun and is another real ale place.
Pubs like Middletons, the Artisan and the Hoppy don't seem to have changed at all.

Four in Hand is still going strong.

[tamthebam]

9 hours ago, MeadowArab said:

I live around the corner from the grapes. Sadly, it's over 25s only so I'm too young to be allowed in. However, I have been shouted at by a punter as I was walking past. How scummy is it?

judging by peaking in from the top deck of the bus as it goes past and the clientele, pretty scummy. It was scummy years ago, taken over for a short while and renamed The Cauldron as a sort of bikers/goth/metal pub which was OK and has gone back to being scummy.

it seems to be open in the morning and the guys drinking in there don't exactly look like nightshift workers finishing their shift....

[Squirrelhumper]

17 hours ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

If you think that's a bad pub, you've lead a sheltered life.

Agreed, Star Bar is okay.

[Squirrelhumper]

5 hours ago, WeAreElgin said:

The Ionic on Elgin high street is quite good too, I used to work in the council office across the road and Friday evenings at around 6 was prime time for looking out the window and watching some ned family kick f**k out of another ned family. They seem to have an awful fascination with snooker in that place, too.

 

We were in Elgin about 10 years ago for a pre season trip.

Ionic let us in at 8am on the Sunday. Cracking boozer!

[Ya Bezzer!]

46 minutes ago, Adam said:

 

Joanna Dee's has been shut for the best part of 20 years. I wasn't aware that it ever opened during the day.

Had to laugh at someone saying the Chrystal Bell being rough, pretty sheltered pub visits if you think that's rough. There's a few absolute shiteholes in the east end, the Cottage Bar and Sheddens being two.

My bus used to stop at the lights at Parkhead Cross right next to The Anchor Bar.  An absolute shitehole by the looks of it.  Is it still there? 

Never ventured in as I didn't fancy getting leprosy from an unwashed pint tumbler.

[Adam]

My bus used to stop at the lights at Parkhead Cross right next to The Anchor Bar.  An absolute shitehole by the looks of it.  Is it still there? 
Never ventured in as I didn't fancy getting leprosy from an unwashed pint tumbler.

Yep the Anchor is still there, it's not that bad inside in all honesty, I'd probably rate that as a better pub than the Fiveways next door to it.

[Ya Bezzer!]

13 hours ago, supermik said:

There was a shop just off Gorgie road that was like that for a while. Been turned into a house now.

The shop in Forgewood in Motherwell used to have coils of razor wire round it like it was a machine gun bunker. 

[WeAreElgin]

When Nicky's nightclub used to exist (up the Newmarket Close), it used to open during the afternoon.  As a nightclub.
Fucking sights in there. 
Around about that time the Ionic was the number one shithole as well, literally sawdust on the floor.

I haven't been in to the Ionic for a while but it seemed to have developed its own language on the odd occasion I found myself in there. Any conversation seemed to only involve a series of grunts, especially involving the fucking snooker.

The Golden Pheasant on Bishopmill Brae was quite good for that, too. Speaking too loudly while the racing is on is akin to loudly declaring your affiliating to a Middle Eastern terrorist group.

[Ross.]

1 hour ago, Adam said:

Joanna Dee's has been shut for the best part of 20 years. I wasn't aware that it ever opened during the day.

Had to laugh at someone saying the Chrystal Bell being rough, pretty sheltered pub visits if you think that's rough. There's a few absolute shiteholes in the east end, the Cottage Bar and Sheddens being two.

The Budgie is another.

[Adam]

The Budgie is another.

Never had the pleasure of a drink in the Budgie, but it does have a fairly formidable reputation.

[Ya Bezzer!]

30 minutes ago, Adam said:

 

Yep the Anchor is still there, it's not that bad inside in all honesty, I'd probably rate that as a better pub than the Fiveways next door to it.

Looks exactly the same as it did 20 years ago.  Might even be the same garbage piled up against the frosted glass windows.

[scrooge1928]

Four in Hand is still going strong.

My mistake. I was in Easter Road last week and I didn't notice it.
Edinburgh has so many pubs that if I walk into one and it looks like a shitehole then it's easy just to about turn and there will be something better a few yards away.

[Ross.]

Just now, Adam said:

Never had the pleasure of a drink in the Budgie, but it does have a fairly formidable reputation.

Been in once and had a tremendous day to be fair. About 10 years back the Saturday morning team were in a bus and heading to an away game. We get a text saying the game has been called off, and having already booked the bus we were already a few quid down so figured we might as well use it. One of the older boys says he knows a place just down from the old Fruit Market that has one of those licenses that mean it can serve bevvy at 8am, as long as you buy food. Ended up with 15 or 16 of us absolutely gubbed by mid day and a huge pile of uneaten rolls and bacon/sausage on one table in the corner. Felt sorry for the boy who was driving, he had to jump out every 10 minutes to make sure the mini bus hadn't been nicked.