mercuryg

Thought we were at crossed wires there Monsta; you reckon that earlier one is a Samba? Could be, I was thinking Horizon or Sunbeam as discussed. Neither is a Veyron anyway!

Yes! On the bigger car, I still think it's a Japanese barge of some sort.

A brothel???

I never thought this would be a place for 'identify the awful 70's/80's car' discussions but hey, what's a little variety in life? I'm quite sure the blue/silver car is a Datsun, one of the myriad of clunking big models they made in the 70's and early 80's, and if that's not a Horizon, is it the other little hatch they made, wa sit called Sumbeam? Same sort of shape. ps - an expert on Leyland paint colours - now that is something!!

I'm not a great one on local history having only lived here 20 years, but that doorway says to me it may be a now long lost public house.....

Are we looking at the same red car, Monsta, the one in the top picture of the two on the right heading towards the camera? Blow it up - it has a VW badge. The second picture is taken around the same time from a different angle and shows the car partly obscured by the red one - the white one parked on the road - to be a Mini Metro. Malcolm - in the original picture the silver car on the left is, I think, a Datsun, one of the bigger Bluebird line from the late 70's, and the red car on the right could be a Chrysler Horizon.

the red car on the road is, I think, a VW Jetta (or base model golf) but the Metro in the picture definitely dates it to post 1980.

It's a deal!

It's early 80's - the cars give it away.

I vote Monsta to turn on the lights! let's start a campaign!

You're absolutely right, the Lion was very much like that in the past, and it is not - under Wetherspoons - going to go that way again, that much we can be sure of. What's wrong with the Tavern, I wonder? I didn't get to the Lion last night but passed and saw it was very busy, as to be expected, and good for them. I'm still struggling to get my head around the economics of it - how many staff were on last night?

Claire, I was there, too, yesterday afternoon and it was great. A lovely place, good food, decent beer, and of course it was busy - it was free! The staff (many of whom I know from other places) were, as you say, friendly and nice, just as they are in any other pub you can walk into in Bedlington, and this is half my point: I'm not singling you out, and nor am I disagreeing with you as I will - as I've always said - be having a pint in the Lion, but do you drink in pubs, in Bedlington, on a regular basis? If you honestly think that it's all 'binge drinkers' I doubt you do. No offence intended, but with a bar open all day, with cheap beer on offer, who do you think it is going to attract? It will be those same people who currently drink during the day, who will be there because they want the benefit of paying less for their beer. These people, as I've tried to point out, will not last long in there, as they are not what the establishment wants. Who, after they've sorted the wheaat from the chaff in the firct couple of weeks, replaces them when they all trundle back to the Grapes/Bell/Wharton as they find that Wetherspoons is not what they want? This is what i'm getting at - where is the trade? I enjoyed my meal yesterday - very good it was and the place is beautifully done out - but how is it going to get enough trade to stay alive when others are struggling?

Absolutely, malcolm, it's not a boozer, it's not out to attract the drinkers, but that's what it's going to get in the first instance. I have no doubt a good few punters will go there for food, but can't see that being enough trade to sustain it. neil wrote: "I'd just like to say well done to all the doom mongers on this site. It's the best thing to happen to bedlington in ages and already it's been written off. Most other places would make a concerted effort to get behind it and make it a success like my wife and I and our friends have already said. For those said doom mongers, if u aren't part of the solution, you're part of the problem, please keep your opinions to yourself and in doing so, do the image of this up and coming town a massive favour." First, those whose opinion doesn't tally with yours have every right to express it; I haven't been in any way offensive in putting my views across, and neither have I written off the Red Lion. I simply do not see where all this much mooted business is going to come from. A few months back the Market Tavern, after its make over, began providing a much publicised Sunday Dinner; it was round a fiver, choice of roasts, great food, I tried it and loved it. It lasted a few weeks before the manageress knocked it on the head because it wasn't worth it. Not enough people were coming in. Why is Wetherspoons going to be any different? I can't see a reason. Yes, it's somewhere new, and yes, people are always intrigued by that, but for how long? The other part of the above I don't understand is why the Red Lion opening again is 'the best thing to happen to Bedlington in ages'? It's just another pub that sells food. It's hardly the second coming. I don't know, as it happens, if you and your wife and friends currently frequent any of the pubs in Bedlington; I do, which makes me very much 'part of the solution'; if Wetherspoons wants trade it needs to be looking to those who do spend money in teh town, who do drink in the local pubs, and who do eat in local establishments rather than presenting a regimented ideal that doesn't allow standing at the bar, wants everyone secreted away in cubicles where they can gather in groups of four, and even discourages the bar staff from conversing with the punters unless they are serving them! I can't see many of those who do spend good money in bars doing so in the Red Lion, but all credit to Wetherspoons for rescuing the place.

This is something I've heard repeated in many quarters, and it does intrigue me. You have to ask who these locals are that don't go drinking in Bedlington now, and where they go, or if they go out at all. You also have to ask why that is, and why a Wetherspoons will suddenly offer them an opportunity they don't already have. I can see that some of the establishments are not attractive to certain clientele, yet the Tavern recently had a major league make-over and is very pleasant indeed. The Sun is a perfectly reasonable and tidy place to go for a pint, and the Northumberland is also a pleasant bar. What is it about Wetherspoons that will have all these people coming out ot of the woodwork to drink there? Is it the cheap beer? That's great, but the clubs offer cheap beer, so that's hardly the incentive that's going to change people's drinking habits. Is it the food? Great, too, decent, basic grub at a good price, I like that; but I'm only going to eat once in an evening. My point may seem pessimistic - and in many ways it is - but I can't see where the trade is going to come from; Wetherspoons will attract the regular afternoon drinkers who frequent the Grapes, for instance, but only as long as they are allowed to remain there as they won't be able to behave as they do in the Grapes! It will attract th usual Friday and Saturday evening drinkers, like me, who will pop in for a pint, just like I do in most places, and it will certainly garner a Sunday lunch crowd. But draw people back, or out, who don't drink in Bedlington now? Why? Beer is still cheaper in Tesco's.

yep, and the store manager is the dim kid who started where the graduate is now.

Malcolm Two days ago there was an 'outage' in Scotland that affected the North East; anyone using BT lines (which is just about everyone no matter who your ISP is) could have experienced a slow down. I rang my ISP to find out what the problem was and was given that information. It is now fixed.

I should have tholught of that! I somehow can't see a hairdresser in a 289 Cobra, though!

I'm far from sad, but I am someone who likes a pub to be a pub. I respect Wetherspoons for making a go at it with the Lion as, as I've made quite clear, it should be a pub, and it was being left to rot. I have no problem with the concept of the 'family oriented pub' but don't see why I should come on here and declare it will b a massive success when that's not what I believe; as I've made quite clear, I simply don't see where the business is coming from. I've also said that I will be going in, because my views are based on market forces, the way pubs are in the town at the moment and my experience of other Wetherspoons establishments. I cannot understand the attitude of people saying 'They've got my custom' or vice versa without actually having tried it, that makes no sense. I doubt 'other folk' will be aggrieved at the comment about 'old gadgies' because, as I clearly pointed out, it was a quote from a younger 'gadgie' among a group who I happened to be talking to last night; personally, I don't think the place will be full of 'old gadgies', but that's clearly the opinion of many of a generation younger than me. These lads, by the way, used to drink in the Lion years ago, when I did, and we had many a good night in there. Clearly, they are accepting that it's not really going to be to their taste. so what hope is there for the Lion? I may be wrong; many people on here believe that a Wetherspoons is 'what the town needs'. I may find that it is packed every day. I doubt it. People won't start coming out in the evenings again just because there's a Wetherspoons in town. Nobody other than those who already do will begin drinking in teh day, and most of those frequent the clubs and will not go to Wetherspoons. There is no passing trade, and no waiting trade - this isn't Ashington, with it's bus terminus, or Newcastle. So where is all the business coming from? I'm sorry that me not being all positive is not to your liking, but there is also one other aspect of all this that I find difficult to accept. I drink in a selection of pubs on the front street that are run by landlords and landladies who have, for many years, provided me with great service and are trying to keep their head above water. They pay high rents, high prices, and now along comes a company that can afford a failure looking to play the lead in the market. What happened to supporting local businesses? Are all the people on here who are gagging to go to Wetherspoons regular pub-goers, like me (really, if you drink in Bedlington, you will know me)? Or are they just being enticed by the prospect of a new kid in town? I suspect the latter, and that most will go in for a lookie, and then head down to Tesco's for 15 cans of lager at a bargain price.

There is clearly great hope in these battling, determined and bright students who stand there, defiantly, with a placard bearing the legend "WE ARE YOUR FUTRUE" (sic)

I agree, they have made a considerable investment and I am not knocking that at all; The Red Lion is a local icon that should be open, and should be a pub, but I just don't see where the Wetherspoons 'type' of customer is going to come from. I also have to say that doesn't point to much of their 'research' being 'clever' at all, but to the opportunity to buy a valuable building at a good price. Wetherspoons, like many other pub chains, treats pubs not as places where people go to spend money but, more to the point, as concrete assets; what they now have is a building that, with new fixtures and fittings and a complete make over, holds a much higher market value than it did six months ago. Furthermore, an open pub is worth more than a closed one. If the trade doesn't come they won't continue to waste money on paying staff, and nor will they sit back and say 'well we put x hundred thousand into this so we can't stop now' they will, like any good business, cut their losses and sell up. They do it all the time, at many of the 1000 other run down pubs they have pumped their money into. At one local establishment last night I talked to a group of younger lads, all good drinkers, who were on about the impending opening of the bar; they all, to a man, said they would be going in for a look, but were unlikely to stay or make it a regular place because they come out, in the week, to play pool, and at the weekend they want something that is not, and I quote, geared towards 'old gadgies'. I give the place a year, at best.

It is an inviting place for the family, without a doubt, and for that it should be commended. The problem there lies in the fact it is not families that keep pubs alive, it's people who go out to drink. As for 'discerning' customers, those that I know are planning to make it their new watering hole are all people who I'll be quite happy not to have to meet, and not the type for a family oriented bar. I mean, would YOU want to drink with mr Darn??????!!!!!!

A classic, but why the uglified overblown version? 289's are prettier. The major problem with one of those is that you spend quarter of a million quid on your genuine Shelby and everybody thinks it's a ten grand replica.

I think that, with that little space between the bar and the tables, it is automatically enforced, Mr Darn. This from someone who even moves bar stools away from the bar because they get in the bloody way!

Absolutely - I'll have three! I can't think why anyone would actually be stupid enough to spend that much on a car - any car - when it's performance potential is entirely superficial.

if it did that would be two more reasons to buy it; it doesn't. Wait 'til you see one in the flesh, it's utterly gorgeous. Costs a fifth of the Veyron, which is hideous to look at and not all that great to drive (if contemporary reports are anythign to go by) and is limited to 225mph, which is more than enough for anyone. And it's British.