Pop a Greene King on your bonfire this Solstice

Given that GK seem to be exchanging all their nice old traditional 'painted image' pub signs for new ones showing only the GK logo, then I am sure you'll plenty plenty of pub signs available.

Quite why they are changing the signs though is beyond me. Corporate arrogance I guess?

Steve Banfield

They must have decided that people are more likely to visit the pubs if they have strong corporate branding. Everyone I know around these parts avoids GK pubs if there is a convenient alternative.

The legendary Turf Tavern in Oxford is now quite strongly branded - painted in GK corporate colours, all lettering in GK fonts etc - and has lost a lot of character as a result.

Paul

In message , Paul Sherwin wrote

I welcome the idea of branding - I will not have to enter the pub to find out that they don't sell anything I want to drink.

In message , Alan writes

A difficult situation. Passing through Worcester last night, Herself and I were in search of food accompanied by decent beer. The Cardinal's Hat doesn't do food, at least not at 1830 on a Friday. A whole variety of other places didn't either; the only ones we located in the city centre were a GK and a Spoons. Distressed, we moved on and eventually located an unbranded pub selling food. I feared it was Greenalls (whatever that is now), but we went in anyway as it was a long way to Bridgnorth - and to my horror it turned out to be a W&D establishment. But. It was selling Jennings Red whatever it is (Redbreast maybe? Christmas?) which we'd sampled earlier in the week and found excellent, Cumberland Ale which I personally find is pretty drinkable, all the Banks's slops, and Marston's Kedgeree. Also, much to our surprise, Thwaites Lancaster Bomber, which I had and found thoroughly acceptable.

The point of all this? Well, I was nodding sagely in agreement with your point, and then realised that had I stuck to your (my) guns, we'd have gone hungry last night and missed a perfectly good pint. Sadly, the only solution is to go in and find out, and walk away if not satisfied. Provided you tell them why (which we did, three times) you've probably done a public service :-)

Dave

Probably they're sticking vinyls over the existing signs - they just appeared one day with no "temporary sign" interlude as there'd be for repainting a proper sign.

They've even hung a swinging sign on a local place that's never had one before in its history. It was a Tea Garden before the first world war, and was known as the Merry Maidens from a row of neoclassical caryatids along its frontage. Those were removed when it became a Pickled Newt or something, and replaced by a big blue neon MAIDENS logo which gives an accurate idea what the joint's like. GK haven't removed that, and their new sign isn't in keeping with it. I expect they told the manager "Sorry mate, it's Company Policy".

Yes, that used to be the only good thing about Watneys in the 1970s. All their pubs had garish red and white signs, so you could spot them a mile off, and didn't have to waste time going in. Although occasionally my mates and I would deliberately do a Watneys Wind-up, where a largish crowd of us would go in and ask what ale they had (knowing full well there was nowt worth drinking). They would say "We've got Watney's Special, Watneys Red, (etc.)..." and we would then say "Ah, nothing worth drinking then, good day to you, come on lads" or words to that effect, and walk out, leaving the landlord looking a bit p****d off at losing our custom

Hmmm, think I might revive the custom as part of my one-man GK boycott... :-)

Greenalls is just a pub chain these days - they haven't brewed for years.

W&D / Jennings is a tricky case, because it seems Jennings is going to be kept open - has W&D committed to this, and have they just decided it doesn't make economic sense to send tankers up the M6, or haven't they got round to closing it yet? Does anyone know the current status?

SD

Last I heard, they were to expand the brewing plant substantially, in order to produce enough Cumberland Bitter for national distribution.

That's a few months ago, though. I don't know whether they've actually done it.