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Hootananny pub (formerly Hobgoblin)

I was disappointed by the dancing santa. It manages to be a bit creepy and crap in a low budget way.

I got all my hopes up as well. Santa dreams shattered again.

:(
 
I got a tree there on Saturday but the Santa wasn't dancing. I managed to get a £2 discount.
 
Finally saw the mechanical Santa today. My little boy was a bit scared of it. I gave Santa a tickle and jiggled his glasses to show that he wasn't a threat, but my boy wasn't convinced.
 
It's not exactly what it was first launched as - but I think you have to take your hat off to them for what they've done with the place. To fill a fairly big place like that, consistently, and a lot of the time no entrance charge, and (varied) live music pretty much every night is quite an achievement I'd say. And the back bar has maintained a bit of the seediness that was good about the Hobgoblin. Whatever anyone says, the Hobgoblin was dying before these folk took it over and it certainly ain't dying now.
 
Whilst I'm in that pub more than most and like it Teuchter, I think you may be guilty of swallowing their marketing gumph a little too fully. There hasn't been anything like Live Music every night for the best part of 2 or 3 years now, the only regular weeknight sessions being the Reggae Thursdays (often djs only) and the occasional big band karaoke/dj session on every few Wednesdays.

It's very full on certain gigs - Thursdays have a good crowd, albeit with one of Brixton's most established reggae promoters on board that could be expected - but it's not consistently full by any means. In fact it's probably quieter a lot of the time than it was in, say M&S's spell as landlords. When it's sunny it's a hugely popular pub mind, and this has been a good summer for everyone.

Glad it's doing alright for itself though, with it returning to much of its form since the Scottish music (no reggae or electronic) only policy was dropped and football and pool given more prominence. What made a real difference is care and investment in the place - it only really struggled notably when the brewery had it on drip feed and a rotating assortment of (weak) relief managers with no scope for anything other than firefighting. That said, growing a new gig reputation was a wise move and great achievement, albeit they've thrown it open to the same group of promoters and local faces that they studiously tried to exclude at first. I keep hoping they'll make amends with the Brixton Comedy Club and bring it back home from the Dogstar - it's never been the same since they burnt bridges and it moved it up there. El Panzon made the trip back after all...
 
When I said consistently full I meant weekend nights - but I did get the impression that there was music most nights of the week so fair enough if that's not really true.
 
BUMP! Supposedly the Hoot is in a little trouble:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/hootananny/
The Petition

Licensing Restrictions are stopping entry into Hootananny after 11pm.

We will be shut down if we allow anyone in after this time.

We are campaigning to change this, but in the meantime please get here before 11pm!!!

Please sign this online petition to reverse this decision and get our 2am final entrance time back.
 
BUMP! Supposedly the Hoot is in a little trouble:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/hootananny/
The Petition

Licensing Restrictions are stopping entry into Hootananny after 11pm.

We will be shut down if we allow anyone in after this time.

We are campaigning to change this, but in the meantime please get here before 11pm!!!

Please sign this online petition to reverse this decision and get our 2am final entrance time back.

Sounds rough. What was the reason?
 
Sounds rough. What was the reason?
Bar staff were extremely tight lipped on the issue when I was in last night. I asked every single person working and none of them would tell me. (I think they know.) Most of the locals were talking about noise issues....the pub has been having an ongoing battle with residents on Brixton Water Lane about noise late at night. Some of you might remember one of them came on here a while back and caused a shitstorm complaining about noise. But if that was the case, the licence conditions would tell them to close the garden completely after a certain time (like the Duke of Ed) or install a new limiter on the soundsystem inside.

As mentioned on another thread, the police have done a sweep of Lambeth licensed premises recently, resulting in various arrests and new licence conditions. They will almost certainly have been in the Hob.

So what could be other reasons be? The pub has had a problem with people bringing in their own drink. The garden often seems overcrowded. Underage drinkers perhaps? Late night hassle/trouble? New signs were up yesterday on the toilet doors saying "drugs will not be tolerated" etc.

They were passing a petition around the pub saying "SAVE THE HOOTANANNY"....but it's a bit hard to sign something when you don't know what the reason is. She makes most of her money after 11pm I think so it's a major fucker for the pub.
 
Seems a bit harsh. I'm all for freeing up licensing so long as councils feel they can curtail things when it's problem. Perhaps this is an occasion when Lambeth are being accountable to their electorate.
 
I heard a bit, but only second hand. It seems that the locals are thoroughly pissed off with the growing noise - both from the music and shouty pissed punters - and all the other associated activity that's been going on around the pub - including ad hoc food sellers. Not sure how much of that is true, but that's what I heard from a fairly informed source.
 
Looks like the Hoot has been a bit of a victim of its own success and management being unable to cope.
 
I heard a bit, but only second hand. It seems that the locals are thoroughly pissed off with the growing noise - both from the music and shouty pissed punters - and all the other associated activity that's been going on around the pub - including ad hoc food sellers. Not sure how much of that is true, but that's what I heard from a fairly informed source.
I can believe that... It looks fun whenever you past, but we are glad we live further down. (Or, um, up...). There were people sat on walls (or pissing on them/puking over them) quite a way down the lane and on Tulse hill the other night- and pretty loud music.
 
I love the Hoot in summertime, the garden's excellent.. probably wouldn't want to live next to it though.
 
Oddly when we lived right by it (just by Khans) it never bothered us at all, even with single glazing.
it seems to be much busier now that it used to be though- and loads of food stalls both in the garden and starting to spill down the street- a few weeks ago there was a jerk chicken place halfway down the road in someone's front garden, too. :rolleyes:
 
Looks like the Hoot has been a bit of a victim of its own success and management being unable to cope.
I don't think it's the management being unable to cope - it's the management not actually giving a fuck about the pub. From what I can see, all she cares about is getting loads of punters through the doors late at night. She's rarely shown any gratitude towards the regulars and daily drinkers who've been drinking there for years and years - and even banned some of the ones she didn't like for a while. The toilets are often a complete state - the mens was a couple of inches deep in water for a time over the summer, but it took them over two weeks to bother to fix it. Prices have gone up and up. Drinks are often poorly kept with the gas malfunctioning on occasion. Bizarrely, despite all the things that need to be done inside the pub, she's invested in loads of new planters for the garden (?) and a big new sign over the function room door proclaiming their 'best live music pub' award. The bar staff are mainly very young but do their best in difficult circumstances.

it seems to be much busier now that it used to be though- and loads of food stalls both in the garden and starting to spill down the street- a few weeks ago there was a jerk chicken place halfway down the road in someone's front garden, too. :rolleyes:
The additional jerk chicken guy has been there nearly every week since the summer - usually in the front garden of the Conservative Club, where that new Antic pub is going to be. I think a bit of competition for the Hob will be good.
 
The additional jerk chicken guy has been there nearly every week since the summer - usually in the front garden of the Conservative Club, where that new Antic pub is going to be. I think a bit of competition for the Hob will be good.
The Northerner says it is v good chicken...!
 
The additional jerk chicken guy has been there nearly every week since the summer - usually in the front garden of the Conservative Club, where that new Antic pub is going to be. I think a bit of competition for the Hob will be good.

Is he nothing to do with the hob then?! :hmm:

I've heard a few things, and I'd hate to live near there. Always seems a bit shady late at night, though summer days are nice. :)
 
Here's the petition set up by Hootannany. Sadly this is they don;t go into any detail about the reasons for the restriction, which makes it rather hard to sign, much as I want the place to stay open:
The Petition
Licensing Restrictions are stopping entry into Hootananny after 11pm.

We will be shut down if we allow anyone in after this time.

We are campaigning to change this, but in the meantime please get here before 11pm!!!

Please sign this online petition to reverse this decision and get our 2am final entrance time back.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/hootananny/
 
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