Blackpool By Numbers

 

How not to do a pub crawl...
In which I picked the places in Blackpool with numbers-for-names and tried to trek around 'em all.

I didn't even manage to complete the numerical pub name mission - I walked past the No.3 Sports Bar a couple of times on my travels but never crossed the threshold... 

Walk a little further eastbound on Newton Road from No.3 and you'll reach No.4.

No 4 (Layton Road, Blackpool, FY4 8ER - web)
This was previously called the Freemasons Arms, being as the local Masons conducted their first meeting at a pub that stood on this site.

Inside it consists of an L-shaped room with one slightly raised area, the bar also having a back counter to serve a games room to the rear.

'A brilliant range of Cask Marque ales', says their website.
Hmmm, depending on whether you consider Thwaites 'Wainwright' and Ringwood 'Thumper' to be brilliant.
Oh well...the Wainwright was okay, the entertainment - 90's Biggest Video Hits on a mega-size screen, not so much so.
Was Shabba Ranks 'Mr Loverman' really one of the biggest hits of the 90's?
Was it really what I wanted to be listening to on an afternoon pub visit?

Nope.  I finished my beer and crisps and set out to the next pub on the list.

A fairly long walk, thanks to the bus times not quite working out, took me to No.10...

No 10 Alehouse (258 Whitegate Drive, FY3 9JW - web)

This was Blackpool's first micro pub (they're multiplying at a rate of knots now).

Despite it only being 15-minutes after opening time when I arrived, most of the outdoor tables were taken, mainly by what appeared to be a youth football team associated with the pub. 
Someone had the mop and bucket out, cleaning up the first glass fatality of the day.
And the music was pumping - dubious modern pop hits that weren't any better than Shabba.

Not much cask being sold to the young folk, who were missing out on a great range.
Titanic 'Chocolate and Vanilla Stout', Reedy Hallows 'New Zealand Pale', Banks's 'Sunbeam' for the traditionalists.
And my pick, Lancaster Brewery 'Zeus' 4.1%, a light, easy-going, single-hopped ale, served in fine condition.

Local football allegiance

Returning to the centre of town, I headed one street back from the seafront, behind Madame Tussauds and Happy Dayz amusements, onto Bonny Street where you'll find Number 13...

No 13 Bonny Street (13 Bonny Street (funnily enough!), Blackpool, FY1 5AR)
In 2015, when I was here for the football, this pub was called the Pump and Truncheon and was the only entry that wasn't Wetherspoon's on my very short Blackpool real ale pub list.

That previous name came from it's proximity to the police station and law courts, making it a regular haunt of the local constabulary.
After a change of ownership, a refurb, and a name change, it reopened in 2019.

I liked it here - it had a bit of old ale house character, with wooden pillars and floors, pool table and a crowd mainly made up of aging rockers.
Pity none of us could be trusted with glassware though, with all beers being served up in plastic pint pots...

A nice simple choice of Black Sheep, Dark Star or the local one.
I stuck local with my second beer of this trip from Morecambe's Cross Bay Brewery.

Number 13 was almost unlucky for me, as I came close to being clobbered by the door whilst trying to take a photo in the loos.  Which frankly serves me right.

But you don't get pictures of the gent's beer barrel urinals on Blackpool Jane's blog... 

...on second thoughts, maybe you do - she's very thorough.

Just one more numerically named place for me to visit.

Bar 19 serves as an example as to why it pays to use an up-to-date copy of the beer guide.  This was an entry back in the 2019 Guide at the time it was being crowned the Blackpool, Fylde & Wyre CAMRA Pub of the Year.

Bar 19 (19 Queen Street, FY1 1NL)
Crikey, this was really the best in the region three years back?

My picture was taken when the karaoke compere and gang on the nearest table had all stepped outside to smoke.  Bar staff too by the looks of it...

At the back was a raucous family group enjoying some kind of celebration.  Balloons got occasionally burst with a loud bang, scaring the living daylights of the old-boy drinkers.
Tone-deafness was no obstacle as folks took their turns on the karaoke, whilst the chap in charge of it came out with adult-rated between song banter.

Sat with my JW Lees bitter, as someone belted out Rod Stewart's 'Sailing', I felt utterly out of place, thinking to myself that my pub explorations had really hit rock bottom. 

At least I only had to part with £2.30 for a pint of bitter...

Try asking what you can get for £2.30 at the Head of the River back in Oxford.  A packet of crisps, if you're lucky.

I suspect I missed a couple of other Blackpool pubs with numbers for names.
But y'now what? I'd done enough.
Silly idea for a pub crawl anyway.