Hootananny pub (formerly Hobgoblin)

[tarannau]

They're not that bad, they're now just more family-friendly eating venues than pubs. Was in the Regent only last night in fact - all very nice, but a little anodyne and with everyone sealed off on their own little tables and social groups.

The HobaHootinninny was actually pretty full last night, albeit for the Arsenal game, after which time people cleared out rapidly at the sound of music from next door

Depressingly for the management, only about 10 people made the trip down to watch the Celtic game the night before. And the Rangers game last night proved so unpopular that they flicked over to the Man U game half way through. If this is a home away from home from the Scots, then some must be looking elsewhere for a better abode.

I'm been a fair few times now. The bouncers are the same, the toilets are just as bad, the pub's quieter and duller than it was before in the main, and this is in the opening weeks. The staff and management are nice enough, but it's just flat and less popular late on.

I can't really understand their logic in swapping over the bars either. The barn-like back room lacks atmosphere; a big rectangle of a room where everyone lines up in rows and watches the screen. It's dark in the corners, uninviting and breezy. Maybe it's fine for the music, but the smaller bar's more sociable and conducive to conversation.... and it's got the fire too. Not sure why they want to lock the Water Lane entance either - that's where a lot of the passing trade would enter from - having a chained door there with no signs seems a mistake

 

[poster342002]

I'm been a fair few times now.

For someone who moans and moans about the place, you just can't stay away can you?

 

[tarannau]

I know that.



Truth be told, there aren't many decent alternatives nearby - like others I'm making the last of the sunny beer garden at the moment before the cold and music make it unbearable. Found out where others are drinking and popping in less to be fair.

It's an unedifying choice really. There's a kind of dominant view amongst many there that's it's more of the same, only with shitter music. And the presumption that it'll fail within months, with many outlasting the umpteenth new management team. Change it from within I keep hearing, and I suppose the Jazz and other developments indicate there's some truth in that view.

I'm not sure if I'm honest - I get the feeling the pub's approaching last chance saloon. And it'd be a shame to see a once fine pub end up luxury apartments because someone tried to foist a tacky business plan onto an unimpressed neighbourhood.

 

[Giles]

If it looks like closing down, maybe this is a chance for a group of concerned locals to get together and buy the lease, then employ someone good and tell that person exactly what kind of pub you want.....

Giles..

 

[mwareing1]

The pubs on Dulwich Road are shit.

Hello!!!!!! Shit are you having a laugh........They are well kept, good beer (even a Brewery in one) Food is top class!!! Where the hell do you drink. Please dont say Weatherspoons. I would really like to know your definition of 'shit'

 

[christonabike]

Regent - full of kids at the weekend, and you can no longer get a reefer together and sit outside and smoke it, and the bar staff are worse than shit

Florence - they had you your change on a silver plate, I hate that, and it's full of kids at the weekend

Commercial - no atmosphere, full of broadsheet readers at the weekend

No football in anywhere they all had it on at one point

All over-priced, (beer and food) and a lack of regulars

Just my gripes and I realise that they won't be the same for everybody

 

[mccliche]

^^^
the lack of pubs that play football on tv in Brixton & Herne Hill is astonishing

why can't they just realise it is what pubs are suppsoed to show????

 

[christonabike]

Luckily, the pub down my road is proper

 

[tarannau]

They aren't pubs now though, they're gastropubs

Worse still is the decline of the pool tables in the area, traditionally a place you'd meet and bond with others. It's all about sitting on your individual, carefully numbered tables now, alongside your salt and pepper condiments.

 

[Blagsta]

Hello!!!!!! Shit are you having a laugh........They are well kept, good beer (even a Brewery in one) Food is top class!!! Where the hell do you drink. Please dont say Weatherspoons. I would really like to know your definition of 'shit'

Poncey overpriced gastropubs full of wankers mostly.

 

[LDR]

Poncey overpriced gastropubs full of wankers mostly.

Yep! I hate it when I get chicken in my beer.

 

[twistedAM]

Yep! I hate it when I get chicken in my beer.

do you mean choked chicken??

 

[Blagsta]

Yep! I hate it when I get chicken in my beer.

All together now...

"There's chicken in my beer, in my beer!"

 

[Winot]

It seems that people want different things from pubs. If only they could invent a system in which the popularity of a business was somehow converted into commercial success so that pubs had an economic incentive to give the punters what they wanted.

 

[mwareing1]

Poncey overpriced gastropubs full of wankers mostly.

So are you saying the people in Brixton are poncey wankers.....If it was Clapham and Balham maybe. I think its great we have a choice now. It is good for the area. If the Gastros are in the area is on the up!!!!!! More Chicken in beer i say!

 

[tarannau]

Where's the choice in having all the boozers turn into gastropubs though? All the pubs in the Herne Hill area - Regent to Florence to Commercial to Half Moon - have all being made gastro in some way, leaving little variety. I'd never thought I'd see the day when The Half Moon would remove the pool table, stop showing football (wrong sort apparently) and start waffling about stonebaked pizza options.

It's a sad reality that pubs can make higher profits by serving pseudo-restaurant food to a smaller section of the community than a traditional booze-led local can. I certainly don't see the foodification of an area's pubs as signs of a community 'on the up' in any sense, unless you mean in gentified property price terms.

 

[tommers]

There isn't a choice though is there? They are all the same.

Anyway - back to Hootananny. I also don't know why they don't open up the smaller bar. As soon as the band started up, as good as they were, we all went outside cos we wanted to chat - hadn't seen each other for ages etc etc. If the small bar had been open then we would have gone in there.

And the other thing that occurred to me.... why not make it a place for local bands to get their start? Apart from the Academy (which is too big) are there many other places where they can play? Bands bring their own fans with them, it gets people into the place and before long a reputation for decent music starts to grow. At the moment this obsession with "Scottish bands" is really hamstringing the place.

 

[Yossarian]

So are you saying the people in Brixton are poncey wankers.....

Yes, 'coz by slagging off a couple of crappy Herne Hill pubs and their clientele, the smear clearly extends to every single person in Brixton...

Those Dulwich Road pubs are rubbish, I'm not surprised that the Hobtenanny is still the best option around, in the unlikely event it's still there next time I pass through town I'm going to have to take a look at the place...

 

[tarannau]

There isn't a choice though is there? They are all the same.

Anyway - back to Hootananny. I also don't know why they don't open up the smaller bar. As soon as the band started up, as good as they were, we all went outside cos we wanted to chat - hadn't seen each other for ages etc etc. If the small bar had been open then we would have gone in there.

And the other thing that occurred to me.... why not make it a place for local bands to get their start? Apart from the Academy (which is too big) are there many other places where they can play? Bands bring their own fans with them, it gets people into the place and before long a reputation for decent music starts to grow. At the moment this obsession with "Scottish bands" is really hamstringing the place.

The small bar thing is annoying and foolish isn't it? I miss the pool too - they just seem to have added more empty, sad looking tables into its place.

They seem to be shipping in the same bands in who play in the Inverness operation, putting them on over a couple of nights and letting them stay above the pub. Maybe they'll encourage more local talent a little later on, but they've got this idea they want 'classic' sounding music - think trad rock and soul rather than anything troubled with bleeps or seen as too progressive.

 

[Crispy]

A decent small venue for gigs in central brixton is sorely needed. Getting brady's back on its feet would be ideal, but the hob could work too.

 

[clandestino]

Apart from the Academy (which is too big) are there many other places where they can play?

The Windmill
Jamm
The Grosvenor

...to name just three. Brixton is very well served for live music venues.

 

[Blagsta]

So are you saying the people in Brixton are poncey wankers.....

No. Read my post again.

 

[snowy_again]

The Windmill
Jamm
The Grosvenor

...to name just three. Brixton is very well served for live music venues.

And the Half Moon seems to be struggling to pull any decent acts on a regular basis, judging by the posters it has up, which is a shame given its pedigree. Just too far away from East London for the scenesters.

 

[wurlycurly]

Regent - full of kids at the weekend, and you can no longer get a reefer together and sit outside and smoke it, and the bar staff are worse than shit

Florence - they had you your change on a silver plate, I hate that, and it's full of kids at the weekend

Commercial - no atmosphere, full of broadsheet readers at the weekend

No football in anywhere they all had it on at one point

All over-priced, (beer and food) and a lack of regulars

Just my gripes and I realise that they won't be the same for everybody

This pretty succinctly sums up my view of the pubs in Herne Hill now, although you've missed out mentioning the demise of Escape Bar, which is now full of aggressive psychos late on Fridays/Saturdays (not sure how to post up links but Herne Hill Forum has details of large running battles three of the last four weekends, I wtnessed one of them). It's also partly why I think a lot of the anti-Hootenanny crap is misguided on here. It's still (largely) open to all but if it was to close then it's a traipse into the centre of Brixton for a quiet pint for tons of folk in that neck of the woods. Also the food is reasonably priced and they go easy on the chillies if you ask them.

 

[tarannau]

What anti-hootenanny crap? I've been into to the pub 5-6 times, talked to the management, the regulars, some of the bands. It's exactly how I, and many others, see it. Judging from the not-so busy pub, it's not exactly drawing the crowds in,

And for the last time, it's not about being anti-Scottish. It's about being anti-stereotypes and down with forced branding.

If you don't want people to take the piss out of kilts, bagpipes and bearded men playing fiddles, then stop making them such a central part of your marketing bollocks. There's more to Scotland than that. Just as there's more to Scottish music beyond some archaic belief in something called cutting-edge celidh. The people who run it are ok - I just wish they'd stop with all the bollocks.

 

[CharlieAddict]

Also the food is reasonably priced and they go easy on the chillies if you ask them.

that thai food is one of the best we've tasted in london.
certainly better tasting than blue elephant and a third of the price too.

and it isn't that hot!

it's spicey but no way is it hot!!!
proper thai foods never is!!!!!

 

[wurlycurly]

that thai food is one of the best we've tasted in london.
certainly better tasting than blue elephant and a third of the price too.

and it isn't that hot!

it's spicey but no way is it hot!!!
proper thai foods never is!!!!!

I specifically said it WASN'T too hot! The menu says you can ask for as much or as little chilli as you fancy in each dish. I was praising the food, not damning it. Sometimes you just can't win on this site

 

[Crispy]

Sometimes you just can't win on this site

It's not a competition

 

[CharlieAddict]

I specifically said it WASN'T too hot! The menu says you can ask for as much or as little chilli as you fancy in each dish. I was praising the food, not damning it. Sometimes you just can't win on this site

okay but for some odd reason which i cannot explain,
i've somehow grown attached to that thai kitchen.

and i've only been in there once...

 

[wurlycurly]

okay but for some odd reason which i cannot explain,
i've somehow grown attached to that thai kitchen.

and i've only been in there once...

That'll be the needlessly maligned monosodium glutamate. Delicious stuff. Mmmmmmmmonosodium glutamate IMO