The Three Lions, a pub review you won’t want to read if you are the owner of The Three Lions
The Three Lions is a pub located near the river, in town, and a place we used to go to when we were in the sixth form. There was one reason why we liked going there: the owners were young and carefree and didn’t mind staying open well into the early hours on a Friday night, even though they had no license. Then, one day, something terrible happened which would ruin our social lives forever: the owners sold up seemingly without warning and moved abroad. With the new owners, our favourite pub quickly became somewhere to steer well away from. Unless really quite drunk.
I didn’t think twice about the good old days until I was walking past it the other day and found myself looking in. With that I decided to look inside, and then, immediately, I wished I hadn’t.
The place was completely different to how it used to be. The new owners (or new-new-owners) had changed everything and made it very swanky indeed. But, a sign on the front promised it was re-opening “just like old times”, so of course I made a note of it and got very, very excited indeed. The vibe, promised the flyer, was going to be “awesome, especially for the young people!”
So I came back on the opening night (even though I possibly didn’t qualify as a young person) and this, horribly, was what I saw: I was devastated…
1) it felt as though I had walked on to the set of Skins. There’s nothing wrong with Skins, but much as I enjoyed the series, I don’t want to actually be in it.
2) the place was nothing like “awesome” and nothing like I remembered, with fake-wood benches, a fosters advert on the wall and the old juke box removed and replaced by a digital one.
3) They were playing Kylie…and then they were playing U2.
I doubt I’ll be going back. Not until someone takes control of that place and puts some of the magic back, the way it used to be.
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