You may not have heard of Brock Street before, but the odds are that every one of you has been there, either on the bus or on your feet. Brock Street is effectively Common Garden Street, but the non-bus-stop part of it. And this is where we are for the Brock Street Binge. Despite nobody knowing where the hell we were going.
Brown Cow
‘How now brown cow.’ The pub that inspired the famous elocution phrase to demonstrate rounded vowels, obviously. Strictly speaking, the Brown Cow is actually on Penny Street, but only a few feet separates this from Brock Street.
This bar crawl marked the second time I visited this establishment, the first time being on Champions League final night this year, where we all huddled round a small TV as Lancaster’s finest pop wannabes serenaded us on karaoke. So I thought it was best I reappraise the pub.
Honestly? It probably wasn’t worth our time. We were the only people in there, both beers we ordered ran dry immediately, and it was quite expensive, especially in comparison to our next haunts in the evening. The barkeep was very nice, but ultimately on a Wednesday night with a big football tie on, you’d have expected more of an atmosphere. i.e, an atmosphere. And with pints from £2.15 a stone’s throw away, you can’t blame us for leaving quickly.
Penny Bank
The cheapest pub in Lancaster. Even if that’s not true, I’m happy to go on record saying that. Sue me at your will. Whilst it’s arguably the pub for the locals, it’s still very friendly. And cheap. I don’t think that I can state enough how cheap the Penny Bank is.
On this fair Wednesday night, we were subjected to the best jukebox tunes that punters had to offer rather than the commentary of Manchester City vs Borussia Monchengladbach. Whether you perceive that to be a good thing depends on how much you like Five’s cover of Queen’s We Will Rock You.
You might think that because of its cheap cheap prices, that the beer selection would be slim, but you’d be wrong. Usually hosting around five ales, the Penny Bank surprised me with how good it was. It doesn’t look tacky, and there always seems to be a nice atmosphere there. Don’t ignore the Penny Bank, it’s definitely a place to go on a weekday night.
Horse & Farrier
I didn’t know what a farrier was before I came to this pub. I do now, not that that had anything to do with actually going to the pub. We probably should’ve expected the worst when a smoker outside laughed at our trio entering, proclaiming “huh huh when you go in that’ll make four of us.”
It’s small inside and quite nice to be fair, but it was equally as populous as the Brown Cow. However there are two reasons why the Horse & Farrier is significantly better than the aforementioned boozer. The beers are cheap, with a few ales too in addition to the generic lagers.
And there’s a rather quirky pool room at the back. Quirky in the sense that there are seats around the perimeter of the room, and a pool table right in the middle. The quirkiness lies in the fact that the room is not big enough to properly utilise the table, so expect plenty of cue-to-wall bashing. But the table is free, and if you want some solitude and a cheap pint, the Horse & Farrier cannot fail.
