Some time ago I posted a "Shall we? Shan't we?" note about a northern social in Leeds. I'm pleased to say that after several weeks tramping the streets and dragging ourselves in to various bars and clubs in our respective quarters of the metropolis, Daddypig and I have found
somewhere to go.
The Northern Social will be held in the upstairs function room at THE PACKHORSE PUBLIC HOUSE, BRIGGATE, LEEDS, on Saturday 24 October. A modest sandwich buffet will be available and we can use the pub's CD player. Due to financial constraints we will not be having a separate bar, but we will have access to the downstairs bar which sells a good range of alcoholic beverages etc. and sports a picture of the late Jimi Hendrix. I have booked the buffet for 8.00pm but I'm thinking of turning up a bit earlier. Just ask for me or say you've come for the
"private party" upstairs, and give your name.
If you would like to come, please let me know via t'Spill, or by e-mail if you know my e-mail address (I don't fancy posting it here). It would be helpful if you could confirm before 19 October in case we need to cater for more, or fewer people than planned. We have been working on the
basis that 10-15 people are likely to come. If ten people come, then the cost will be £10 each to cover the room booking and buffet, payable to me on the night. If more than ten people decide to come the cost will go down, unless we need a lot more food.
The pub is approximately ten minutes walk from Leeds Station, off Briggate, which is a pedestrianised shopping area. It is up an alley way (Packhorse Yard), just past the junction with Commercial Street, with the jewellers "H.Samuel" on one side and "Principles" on the
other. I can't find a picture on Google, but if you look up "Briggate Leeds map" on Google you should be able to find Briggate and its junction with Commercial Street without too much
difficulty.
If anyone is planning to make a night of it, there are lots of hotels within easy reach of the station, e.g. The Queens Hotel, The Hilton, Travelodge and the Discovery Inn (aka the Comfort Inn), with a range of prices.
Any questions? Handy hints? Let me know.
Hope you can make it!
21 comments:
Thanks Ali for doing most of the work and sharing the credit. In case anyone's wondering, it was the cheapest of the available options, and seems like good value to me.
There just aren't enough of us to make it worth anyone's while on the bar takings alone, given that it's three weeks into term in a two-university town; and all the bars where I enquired (hic !) wouldn't set the space aside for 25 people on a Saturday.
I'll be there !
At the moment I'm fairly sure I will be too.
There's even the possibility of the kids being packed off to Granny's (it's the beginning of half-term), and Julie coming too.
She's feigning indifference, but she's secretly DYING to know what it is about RR/'Spill that gets so much of my free time.
Anyone who wants to email Ali can always do it via me if you don't know her address yet. Or, Ali? Add your email address to your 'Spill profile. You don't even need to announce it; I'm sure we're all capable of looking. My email address is linked through my profile, and in over two years this account (touch wood) has absolutely NO spam at all.
Hey, looks great to me! Count me in.
That's a good start - Mrs DsD more than welcome, as are any other partners, friends, etc. The Packhorse is a fairly traditional pub, it doesn't seem to have any airs and graces so don't wear your tuxedos! No idea what it's like on a Saturday but as long as we can fight our way to the bar we should be OK ...
webcore and I are going to drive down from Birkenhead, so anyone along the way is welcome as well. We're heading back the same night. May1366?
Ali, tin - I'd love to make it, and would be up for car-pooling should that be the case. Thing is, I'm often on dad duty of a Saturday night, and since I've got a work thing on the Friday night, there's a possibility the 24th could be one of those nights. Nothing definite either way, but as soon as I get things sorted this end, I'll let you know.
You have my email May so just let me know. Can be a relatively last minute thing as we are probably going very near your door anyway.
Tin - I assume you'll be going along the M62/M60 - in which case I'm a spit away from junction 17 so a chance of car pooling would be handy. Will chip in for petrol of course!
@ exodus
Sounds great. Road trip!
Count me in!
But I'll be taking the No. 254 bus so, thanks tinny but no thanks.
I could give parking tips for those arriving from afar by car if required.
I certainly know where that pub is although I can't picture the actual entrance to it. I think I've been there but it was many many years ago.
Thanks for the hard work in arranging it, Ali @ Daddypig.
Is there an earliest time we can be there? At previous socials we've tended to kick off about 6.00PM and we've never seemed to have too much time.
And btw, where is that picture at the top of this post taken from? It looks to be around Boar Lane/Albion Street so is it taken from the station somewhere?
Is it yours or did you just pull it off the web....?
this one?
Pack Horse
Pack Horse Yd, Leeds. LS1 6AT
Gordonimmel - I'm sure we could make it an earlier start, I can ask them to do the food earlier (but not so early that it has gone curly round the edges if some people come a bit later) - how about food for 7.00pm, depending when the bar staff are available? Can we have a vote?
The photo is one of mine, and you're spot on - it was taken from City House which is the office block directly above the station (now empty, I believe).
@Ali
No, no, no, I wasn't suggesting that we get the food earlier. Infact, if some people are turning up later that would totally bugger it up for them. It's just that from your 'private party upstairs' comment I was wondering if there's an 'earliest' time that the room is available i.e. if drunks like me turn up in the middle of the afternoon do we have to mingle with the hoi polloi downstairs until 'x' o'clock.
And re City House, above the station. That must be where I had one of my most scariest moments ever....
As part of a structural survey throughout Leeds Station in 1995 I had to inspect the cladding system on the outside of that building. This was done by means of me and a workman going up the outside in one of those window cleaners cradle thingies, about six feet long by two feet wide, both of us cranking it manually having to do it in equal time so that it didn't go out of level or jam.
I wish they'd had a toilet up in it 'cos I nearly needed to use it.
Anyway, I gave the cladding a once over, declared that it looks mostly alright but needs a bit of work here and there and skiddadled back to terra firma.
Not the apogee of my professional career.
I'll check with the landlord and see when we can have the room from. He seems an amiable sort of chap.
I worked on the 11th floor of City House for more years than I care to think about. When the wind blew you could feel the sway of the building - on bad days it made me feel quite queasy. And you couldn't hear yourself on the phone because the windows rattled too much. So I can't imagine how much worse it must have been in a small crate on the outside! (Splendid views, though).
I'll be there - in spirit only, I'm afraid.
Leeds University '69 - 73.
So part of me might still be drifting about the old unreformed market, and the junk shops of Silver Street (bulldozed before my eyes to make room for the M1), and where I bought an harmonium for a tenner so I could drone on like Nico and the Velvets.
But the Eldon was our place, with separate snugs and a waiter, and cockles & winkles in vinegar on ambulatory sale.
The Packie was for special occasions - as I'm sure this will be - and hell to get served in, being only as wide as a horse, and only as long as three, nose-to-tail.
Oh dear oh dear - all the mad things we bought at the saturday auction just outside the Covered Market, fuelled with lab-produced speed, courtesy of our Chem. Eng. friends.
Ahem - I do hope there are no Young People reading this . . .
My round!
So that's six Tetley's? A what? OK a Babysham. Two whiskey-macs? And a Blue Nun. A Triple-A? A Guinness? In Leeds? And more speed? Arghh - give over . . .
I'll be driving up the M6 on my way to Edinburgh - if it wasn't for the fact that I will have the youngest MissToffee and her friend in the car with me, I would be sorely tempted to make a detour.
Enjoy - and have a ginger beer on me. (That's one to share - NOT one each.)
Whiskey Mac? Well, we could use Toffee Boy's ginger beer ...
Ginger Mac, is that a drink or our guru?
Bad news, chaps - I'm definitely going to be otherwise detained in the 'Pool on the 24th so I'll have to be there in your spirits, like a wedge of lime.
May - sorry you can't come - you would have added some zest (geddit?) Maybe another time?
I'm really looking forward to this, I know I've not been on RR for a couple of weeks but it'll be great to see whoever can come.
Tin, the postcode is right I think, but when you put it on to Google maps the arrow doesn't necessarily point to the right place, and one entry has completely the wrong address - so I'd go with Ali's directions as far as possible. The easiest and nearest place to park a car is probably the railway station, though that's probably not the cheapest option ! Happy to correspond on parking if need be.
As regards early arrivals (unlikely to include me, I may have to earn my credits for a night out), The nearby Adelphi pub has an acoustic session on a Saturday afternoon (http://www.theadelphi.co.uk/leeds-events.asp). I might be tempted to staying out late-ish. There's a really good night at the Hi-Fi club nearby, with soul, ska, boogaloo etc; or The Wardrobe for more civilised sitting & drinking.
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