Preston Info

[Hughie]

Pubs

Near Train Station: 
The Station: Real ale and food
The Old Vic:  Real Ale, no food I don't think

Centre:
Friargate (Pedestrianised side) The Black Horse is worth a visit if you are interested in historic pub interiors. Real ale (Robinsons tied house)

Corporation Street near station - various fast food "shacks" if you're desperate  Not a lot else on Corporation Street if you are taking the most direct route to the venue from the train station.  Should be about a 10-15 min walk to the venue - there were some road road works making things a bit awkard crossing the road ner the Premier Inn a couple of weeks ago, but they might have moved/cleared by now.

Friargate: side on way to Venue
Old Black Bull: plenty of real ales (not sure if it still does lunch time food)

Various other eateries of variable type and quality along Friargate

On the big roundabout near the uni:
Lamb and Packet - Thwaites real ale + food
Adelphi - Real Ale + food

Fylde Road
Ships and Giggles (no really!)   No real ale but I think it does food......I'm not a regular!

Fylde Road opposite venue
Mad Ferret:  Usually a real ale on, no food I don't think, Lawrence's musical aftershow venue.
Bitter Suite:  Set back from the road to the left of Mad Ferret (as you look at Mad Ferret).  Several real ales, no food.  I think it only opens at 6.

Parking:
As with most places these days, there's lots of those blue attired parking people about during the day.
There's some street parking nearby, or you can park on the car park to the side of 53 Degrees in the evening.  The P symbol to the side of the SU building on the map:

http://www.uclan.ac.uk/students/files/campus_map.pdf

 53 Degrees itself is pretty hard to miss...

The main door is on the left of the building (and shown in the picture), but NMA are advertised as being in the club room, which is accessed down the right hand side.  Sometimes bands are advertised as the small room but moved to the big room, so it could be either!

If anyone needs to know anything else specific, give me a shout here.

H

[Spudthemariner]

Cheers Hughie. Not sure if you'd be able to answer, but are you aware of any secure carparks? We're staying at the Central Travelodge, and have noticed that the parking is limited and recommended for smaller vehicles only. As we are going to have all our stuff for BT in the van, I'm a little unsure about parking on the road (no disrespect to the good people of Preston of course ).

Spud. 

[Hughie]

Yes, I wouldn't recommend leaving a vehicle containing visible stuff on or around New Hall Lane. Not that it's particularly worse than anywhere else.   I'm not sure of an exact answer to your question I'm afraid.   You might find a few ladies there who you could pay by the hour to watch your van as a variation to their usual by the hour activities!

Walker Street is 24 hours and is manned in the day, but I'm not sure if the guard is there 24 hours.

The Market and Avenham multi storeys are run by the council and close in the evenings.  I'm not sure if there's any arrangement whereby you could leave your car in there overnight (or indeed how secure they are when closed).  The Bus Station (also council) is 24 hours and covered by CCTV, but not actual patrols I don't think.  Visit Preston should have the info on these as that's a council outlet.
The St Georges Centre multi Storey also closes and again, you might be able to leave a car overnight.
I'm not sure of any height/size restrictions for these multi storeys though

http://www.visitpreston.com/

http://en.parkopedia.co.uk/

[Steve L]

Thanks Hughie,
                        most helpful, we will try and get around all of the pubs 

[Hughie]

There are plenty of other pubs, if you exhaust the small selection I've posted Steve

One I did mean to mention is The Guild which is a big pub a couple of minutes further along Flyde road in the out of town direction from the venue (just past the row of shops).  I think it's mainly Greene King type beers now but it also does food.

[sean (dumfries)]

Cheers for all that Hughie! One (unsurprising) question from me, any decent late night drinking options?  (I know these might be a bit limited on a Thursday right enough). The mad ferret closes at 12:30 and I would imagine the Bittersuite would be about the same, so any ideas after that would be welcome!!

See you Thursday

Sean :-)

[Hughie]

I'm not too well up on the late night mid-week drinking scene (at least not in recent history).  I shall ask one of the increasingly limited number of youger people that I know and see what they reckon but I do know that there's Ropey (Roper) Hall on Friargate, about 5 minutes walk from the venue/Mad Ferret

http://www.screampubs.co.uk/roperhallpreston

There's also a few curry houses and food joints down Friargate.

The other option is probably Church Street.  There are quite a few bars there and I guess a few will stay open until 2am.  Further down Church Street (near the previous "sweaty Preston" venue that NMA played last time) there's various Curry Houses and a few other bars that possibly stay open late.

The absolute last resort was always The Old Dog on Church Street that stayed open until 4am.  I'm not sure if it still does, as its licence always seems to be under review/threat (which probably tells you much of what you need to know, although I've never actually seen any bother in there).   It did serve cask ale though, the last time I was in there (late night with Maggi D, you probably won't be surprised to learn).

The students will still be about, so that probably increases the number of places that will be open late.

[Hughie]

One to avoid if considering a post gig curry tomorrow!

http://www.lep.co.uk/news/local/mouse-droppings-in-one-of-preston-s-dirtiest-restaurants-1-5663205

[clarebob]

A couple of additions to Hughie's comprehensive review:
the Weatherspoons which I know some people like to go to pre gig for food is on the corner of Friargate opposite the Black Bull.
The Black Horse, as Hughie said, is well worth a visit for the interior, it is also curently serving Iron Maiden's 'The Trooper' ale - or was last night.
Folk regularly park around maudland bank/ pedder st when there is a gig on as it is free after 6.30pm.  It's the student area, we've lived in this area for 10 years and as far as we know cars are generally safe parked here all night - although obviously that's no guarantee.
For those who want a pre or post-gig takeaway kebab / pizza / (i can recommend  the chips and curry sauce) 'Curry Pot' is the best of several options on friargate.

[Hughie]

A couple of additions to Hughie's comprehensive review:
the Weatherspoons which I know some people like to go to pre gig for food is on the corner of Friargate opposite the Black Bull.

Fair point.  I can never bring myself to recommend the Preston Wetherspoons as I've refused to go in it myself for the best part of a decade as I thought it had become one of the worst I'd been in anywhere in the country.    I should probably give it another chance at some stage as it may well have improved by now.

[Steve L]

Just one more question, is it a long walk/stagger from the Mad Ferret to Preston Central Travelodge and if it is could you give me the number for a cheap minicab firm. Thanks

[texaspete]

So where folk startin? Comprehensive info hughie... A starter booze please ?

[Hughie]

I'll be drinking your ale for you too at this rate

I'm not sure yet.  I'm aiming to knock off work early...although early is a moveable concept at this point.  I'm definitely going to Bitter Suite (opens at 6pm) at some stage.

Maybe try The Old Black Bull or the Spoons opposite early doors.  Central enough and then it's just a walk up Friargate, past food places, to pubs nearer the venue

[Hughie]

Just one more question, is it a long walk/stagger from the Mad Ferret to Preston Central Travelodge and if it is could you give me the number for a cheap minicab firm. Thanks

I'd walk it, but you may not want to.  I'd go with New City VIP as the office is pretty close to the Mad Ferret/BitterSuite/Venue.  They send you a text on despatch and on arrival describing the car.

http://www.newcityviptaxis.com/2011/     01772 824000

Or flag a black cab on its way back into town empty (stand on same side as the venue)

Or ring or walk round to Checker Taxis on Moor Lane  01772 204030  (not as good as the old days when they had the most comically cantankerous despatcher ever and you could successfully argue that you only ever paid £3 no matter where they took you...but still okay)

[Steve L]

Thanks Hughie
see you there