Got something to say or just want fewer pesky ads? Join us... 😊

Register Log in

[Drinking] Samuel Smiths Brewery (Humphrey Smith) - Fascinating Read







clapham_gull

clapham_gull

Legacy Fan
Aug 20, 2003
25,981
Always the oddest pubs, I haven't been in the Chandos (near Trafalgar Square) or the John Snow in Soho for years.

I imagine they are the same as I left them.
 


jcdenton08

jcdenton08

Offended Liver Sausage
NSC Patron
Oct 17, 2008
15,051


Lethargic

Lethargic

Well-known member
Oct 11, 2006
3,525
Horsham
Friends living near Tadcaster say he has killed what was once a great village.
 


jcdenton08

jcdenton08

Offended Liver Sausage
NSC Patron
Oct 17, 2008
15,051
When I lived in Yorkshire I visited his pubs often, because as the article states, they serve a cheap and consistently good pint. I remember being in the heart of York, not a cheap city, and paying £1.80 a pint circa 2010. Had no idea who ran the place, but as I say above, he sounds like a prize knob.
 






Herr Tubthumper

Herr Tubthumper

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
63,063
The Fatherland
clapham_gull said:
Always the oddest pubs, I haven't been in the Chandos (near Trafalgar Square) or the John Snow in Soho for years.

I imagine they are the same as I left them.
Click to expand...
The Chandos, that was a haunt of mine in the early to mid-90s. I also remember one on The Stand.
 










Sid and the Sharknados

Sid and the Sharknados

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Sep 4, 2022
5,868
Darlington
jcdenton08 said:
When I lived in Yorkshire I visited his pubs often, because as the article states, they serve a cheap and consistently good pint. I remember being in the heart of York, not a cheap city, and paying £1.80 a pint circa 2010. Had no idea who ran the place, but as I say above, he sounds like a prize knob.
Click to expand...
I had precisely the opposite view when I lived/worked in Yorkshire (I still go down for work but that's by the by). There are far too many decent pubs selling beer I actually like at prices that are fine to bother with the stuff Sam Smiths make.

I used to like the one by Tower Bridge in London when I was just out of uni and price was the single most important quality in a pub. Although my main memory of it now is that I think there was a weirdly specific charge for paying by card, like exactly 4.76% or something.

You're right incidentally, he does sound like a knob.
 




Arthur

Arthur

Well-known member
Jul 8, 2003
8,778
Buxted Harbour
clapham_gull said:
Always the oddest pubs, I haven't been in the Chandos (near Trafalgar Square) or the John Snow in Soho for years.

I imagine they are the same as I left them.
Click to expand...
Funnily enough was in the Chandos last night......yeah it hasn't changed apart from the prices. Sam Smiths pubs used to be well known for being able to get a cheap pint because as the article states it's all their own jollop.

A bottle of Taddy Porter (which is a great beer) used to be in big pint-ish sized bottles now 330ml bottles was £7.10! Pint of their Stout was £6.90!
 


Thunder Bolt

Thunder Bolt

Silly old bat
Aug 18, 2009
68,176
Beside the seaside, beside the sea
The Smiths were a strange family at the beginning. John Smith started the brewery, run by his brother William. When William died he had no heirs so the brewery went to nephews Frank & & Henry (sons of Sarah married name Riley) who continued to use the name John Smith in a new brewery.
Another nephew Sam Smith, took over the old brewery buildings but called his business Sam Smith.

newsfromnowhere1948.blogspot.com

The Battle Between The Brewing Smiths

Y ou can spend too long sat inside reading old newspapers and cataloguing old postcards. There comes a time in the affairs of man when he s...
newsfromnowhere1948.blogspot.com newsfromnowhere1948.blogspot.com
 


B

Brian Fantana

Well-known member
Oct 8, 2006
7,590
In the field
He seems to be to brewing and business what JRM is to politics - a curious individual on many levels, and in some areas a bit of a harmless eccentric, but with something of a troubling undertone in others.
 
Last edited:




clapham_gull

clapham_gull

Legacy Fan
Aug 20, 2003
25,981
Arthur said:
Funnily enough was in the Chandos last night......yeah it hasn't changed apart from the prices. Sam Smiths pubs used to be well known for being able to get a cheap pint because as the article states it's all their own jollop.

A bottle of Taddy Porter (which is a great beer) used to be in big pint-ish sized bottles now 330ml bottles was £7.10! Pint of their Stout was £6.90!
Click to expand...
London prices then.... :)

Back in day always good for a cheap pint but analogous to a visit to ALDI/LIDL..

Penguin Lager
St George Export

I remember the bar staff being not particularly friendly when someone asked for a pint of Guinness.
 


clapham_gull

clapham_gull

Legacy Fan
Aug 20, 2003
25,981
My go to cheap pub in the 90s was the Green Man and French Horn on St Martin's Lane.

Sadly long gone.
 


Guinness Boy

Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Jul 23, 2003
37,692
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
There was a Sam Smiths pub in Manchester I'm sure we used to go to before trips to places like Oldham because it was cheap. I remember the beer was pretty good too. I can't imagine we managed not to swear for two hours though.
 


Pevenseagull

Pevenseagull

meh
Jul 20, 2003
20,840
In the late 80s I used to use The Fitzroy Tavern in Charlotte Street a lot.

There was a big portrait of Dylan Thomas with a little plaque above his 'favourite place to sit' (probably still there). One day when I went in the bloke who played the dim pub landlord in 'Brush Strokes' was sat there.
 




Arthur

Arthur

Well-known member
Jul 8, 2003
8,778
Buxted Harbour
clapham_gull said:
London prices then.... :)

Back in day always good for a cheap pint but analogous to a visit to ALDI/LIDL..

Penguin Lager
St George Export

I remember the bar staff being not particularly friendly when someone asked for a pint of Guinness.
Click to expand...
That was the thing....ten years ago (I know......but stay with me on this) you could go to a Sam Smiths pub in London and get a pint for pretty much half what it cost for anywhere else. I worked at Holborn at the time and it was cheaper than then 3 Wetherspoons near by to drink in the Princess Louise.

Pretty sure a big bottle of Taddy Porter was less than £3 then. Now it's a 1/3 of the size and as you say London prices.
 


CheeseRolls

CheeseRolls

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jan 27, 2009
6,250
Shoreham Beach
Last time I was in Chandos, the service was so poor the staff were literally sneering at all the customers. They were fairly busy and clearly not enjoying it.
 


You must log in or register to reply here.
Albion and Premier League latest from Sky Sports

Share this page


Top
Link Here