Okay, I’m not in some stupid meathead university club that requires all members to do some form of initiation involving humiliating acts or forced drinking – you know, the normal idiots who try to cram in a month’s worth of drinking into one day. I am, however, friends with a chap called Sturdy. He’s getting married soon, and, to celebrate, his stag do involved a trawl through the Otley Run.
Folks living in Leeds will know all about the Otley Run. It’s a pub crawl from Headingley (the most studenty bit of Leeds) to Leeds city centre, and it’s infamous for annoying students in fancy dress stumbling in to the road and generally making a nuisance of themselves.
I’ve lived in Leeds for eight years now, and I’ve never done the Otley Run, because I’m sane. Neither have Sturdy, or Rob, his best man, or, indeed, any of the stag-doers. It seemed we were in good company.
Don’t fret. I’m not going to take you on a blow-by-blow, pub-by-pub account of where we went and what we drank. That would be boring, and anyway, by pub nine my memory is, well, hazy.
What is remarkable, though, is how many of these, quite frankly, shit pubs served up quality booze. Yep, I drank far more pints of Tetley and John Smith smooth flow that I would have liked, but I reckon a good 6 or 7 of the pubs I visited had a decent drop of hand-pulled ale. As I said, I don’t remember the whole evening, but I definitely got in pints of Black Sheep, Leeds Pale, Tetley’s and something Morris themed in one of the early drinking holes. Which is nice.
A real beer lover would probably remark on the fact that some of these ales weren’t well kept, but, pft, I’d had three pints by 1pm, what did I care?
One final admission, I didn’t make it through all 17 pubs, I got to the Eldon (pub 12) and 11pm (that’s 12 hours in, we started at 11am), having had 12 pints, loads of water, a really bloody bad burger from Hyde Park Corner pub (don’t go there if you can avoid it, it’s really shit), and a Gregg’s pastie. Which was nice.
The highlight was Arcadia, which really is an awfully nice drinking den. Full of quality ales and a relaxed atmosphere, it’s not officially part of the Otley run, as they ban large groups of students and fancy dress. We, though, were well behaved and our matching T-shirts were mainly kept below jumpers. Also quite impressive are The Three Horseshoes in Far Headingley, and Woodies (again in Far Headingley). I don’t actually remember being in The Packhorse, but I’m sure it was great. It always is.
Lowlights were the aforementioned burger at the Hyde Park, and indeed, the entirity of that enormous pub. Plus, all the trendy, student-centric drinkeries in the centre of Headingley. The Box (all big sports screens, shit music and idiots), Headingley Taps (lovely building, unpleasant clientele), The Skyrack (just generally horrible and too full of students). We missed out The Arc (we visited the similarly-named Arcadia instead) and that was a good move, because that place is nasty too.
So, what did I learn? Firstly, 12 pints is my absolute limit, secondly, Sturdy has some very pleasant friends, thirdly, most pubs in Headingley are worth avoiding, which makes Arcadia even more of a gem. Fourth, real ale is more generally available than you’d think.
Filed under: Beer, Bitter, Leeds, Pubs, Real Ale | Tagged: Beer, Drinking, Leeds, Otley Run, Pub Crawl, Pubs |
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It most certainly CAN be done… you just need to carry on after 11pm!
Thanks for this great article, I’ve never done the run and I’ve lived in Leeds three years.
Think I’ll avoid it now 🙂
I’ll always remember that time we were outside the Three Horseshoes at 2pm on a sunny afternoon with families going about their daily business and that man got his knob out and stood pissing down the drain. The image is emblazoned on my retinas.
All hail Arcadia.
Good effort! I have been a student in Leeds and I have done this run a few times and failed every time. The best effort was my 21st birthday. It was carnage.
I hate Headingly pubs now.
Sturdy pointed me in the direction of this blog, not seen it before. So sorry I’m 8 months late! I did make it through all 17 pubs on that trip. Never before, and most probably never again. I was also pleasantly surprised by the number of places that you can get good beer. The only place I can remember (although the usual Otley Run caveat applies here) where no decent option was available was The Box which only did awful JS Smooth. It was a dreadful place too. Even the Hyde Park (which in every other respect represented Dante’s Eighth Circle of Damnation) did something quite nice in handpull, though sadly the quality and choice displayed here didn’t extend to the kitchen. I’m impressed we ever made it out of Arcadia though, definitely the high water mark. Although I think pub 10 or 11; or possibly 12, 13 or 14 with the slightly sinister white tiled walls which made it look like a Victorian Asylum (had you gone by then?) was surprisingly good.