BRITISH INNS: 1 THE LIGHTHOUSE INN

THE BRITISH PUB

 

For centuries the great British Pub has been the traditional centre of social life in most communities. It has been a place to relax, take your ease and enjoy good conversation with friends. These pubs welcomed anybody - old or young, male or female, smoker or non-smoker - to sit and enjoy the simple activities and facilities. In recent years these traditional values have been eroded or changed beyond recognition - many have become little more than glorified eateries, hideous themed bars or [worse] deafeningly loud ‘vertical drinking’ corrals void of anybody over thirty years old. The nationwide smoking ban has just about finished off the normal pub camaraderie. These pieces were written as a tribute to a disappearing tradition, and supported some fictitious Inn Sign designs I made which can be seen on my flickr site.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/7911705@N07

This is one of those Inns

 

THE LIGHTHOUSE INN   If you stand up on one of the marble-topped tables with cast iron legs in the south-west corner of the Public Bar you can just see the lime-washed lighthouse for which this inn is named. You don’t need to bother at night since the sweeping beams from the lighthouse are reflected from the row of mirrors above the optics.   The Lighthouse is a very traditional pub, mercifully free of teens and twenties swigging beer straight from the bottle and taking up every square inch of standing space. None of them sit. None of them talk. They just demand ultra loud piped music. And you can’t get to the bar. Not so in the Lighthouse: there are three bars – the Public, which used to be an all-male preserve by tradition; the Lounge Bar for mixed and usually more ‘refined’ company; and The Snug for couples and intimate groups. Sit in there with your back to the bar and you can get away with quite a bit of the old ‘slidey-hand’ stuff. Organised entertainment is very much DIY. There’s a dartboard, dominoes, cards and a set of bar skittles. The trick with this last item is to get the trajectory of the suspended ball just right and clear as many skittles as you can. Be warned – don’t clear them all in one, because the prize is free ale – a full yard of it! I can guarantee you’ll be totally wrecked. There’s a sing-song every Friday and a weekly Quiz played by teams of the regulars. The winners get to plot the route of the annual ‘Mystery Coach Tour’ and have free beer on the night. Competition is intense and there is occasional skulduggery. Nobody’s sure to this day how all the members of the leading team managed to contract food-poisoning just before the final round. There was a lot of sympathy … and a few sly smirks.  

The Lighthouse is a Free House which means it is not tied to any particular brewery. It serves real ales from small independent brewers and the selection is augmented by guest ales with intriguing names like ‘Monkey Magic’, ‘Top Totty’, ‘Mermaid’s Milk’ and so on. The whisky selection is amazing and fully comprehensive – Scotch, Irish, Canadian and American – but if you want anything effete like vodka, gin or liqueurs you’ll have to go into the lounge bar. If you decide you want a room at the Lighthouse be sure to book early. Even then you would have to be very lucky to get one, because there are only six bedrooms available and most are booked up for the next year by visitors before they leave.

The attraction? Well, certainly it’s a warm friendly pub and admirably situated at the harbour side, but most visitors return for the food which is simply delicious plain cottage fare, and plenty of it. If you’ve not tasted Welsh home cooking you’ve never lived! You could easily live for a week on one full breakfast which includes eggs, bacon, lamb cutlet, sausages, black pudding, tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans and fried bread slices all served with a mountain of toast and a large pot of tea or coffee. Definitely not a Mecca for vegetarians!