Keep it local

IT was enough to make Coronation Street fans choke on their cornflakes. Weatherfield's favourite pub, The Rovers Return, was to be renamed The Boozy Newt, newspapers reported earlier this week.

That alcohol-fuelled community centre - haunt to dipsomaniacs like Ena, Vera, Minnie, Mavis, Ivy, Rita, Bet, Hilda, Stan, Albert, Eddie, Fred, Curly, Jack, Alec and, of course, Ken - would never be the same again.

Cue much weeping into beer. "They can't lose the Rovers," blasted Julie Goodyear, who played its barmaid and landlady Bet for a quarter of a century.

"It has survived for 40 years and it's got another 40 years in it."

The Rovers is the very epitome of a traditional British boozer. All it has to offer customers is pints, darts and hotpots. These were destined to be swapped for bottles, TV and pot plants.

We have all been to Boozy Newts. They are ghastly chrome and stripped pine affairs with all the atmosphere of a self-assembly wardrobe. Too loud, too smug, two pounds a pint.

Fortunately after a national outcry - and much brilliantly-contrived publicity - Coronation Street bosses backed down. We are told the pub will now end up being saved by Street regulars Mike Baldwin, Fred Elliott and Duggie Ferguson.

Plans to turn the Rovers into a theme bar touched a chord with the public because so many real pubs have been sabotaged in this way.

Every town now seems to boast a fake 'Oirish' bar, of the O'Neill's and Scruffy Murphy variety. Other chains with footholds in the York licensed trade include: Edwards, Firkins, It's A Scream, Mr Q's, Pitcher & Piano and Slug & Lettuce.

Iain Loe, research manager for the Campaign For Real Ale, says that as recently as ten years ago there were hardly any pubs in Britain owned by chains - today they have claimed around a third of the country's 61,000 drinking holes.

"A lot of the uniqueness of the British local is being lost by just forcing a brand of pubs throughout the country, be it O'Neills, Slug & Lettuce, All Bar One or whatever," he says.

"Decisions are often made from on high and the person running the pub has very little say in how they can run the operation."

He adds: "Although brands work in some cases, they work as a one-off. When you try and reproduce it and say, 'We must have 50 of these by the end of the year and 200 two years down the line,' it loses its individuality."

Such city centre upstarts make it all the more important that backstreet boozers are protected.

Here we find the real 'locals' in the Rovers Return mould - like The Jubilee in Leeman Road, York.

Run by Ian and Jeanette Whittaker for the past 13 years, it has twice won the Evening Press Community Pub of the Year title, and was a runner-up last year.

It is not trendy, the jukebox only plays golden oldies and the regulars, from 18 to 80, wouldn't have it any other way.

"We all look after one another here," says Jeanette. "I think that's to do with the area.

"Leeman Road is very much like Coronation Street, with the terraced houses. I think the people that come in make the place what it is."

Just like the Rovers, most people know one another. "It's where people meet. You tend to find out if somebody does need anything here, and we try to help them." The floods are a typical example. As the waters rose, it looked like Leeman Road would be completely engulfed.

"Somebody came in at about 11 o'clock at night looking for volunteers to fill sandbags.

"Both rooms had been full, but they soon emptied as the regulars went to help. And they were sandbagging until four in the morning, most of them."

On December 2, the pub is holding a family disco to raise money for the firefighters and volunteers from Elvington who did so much for the neighbourhood during the floods.

The Rovers Return, being a soap opera pub, has seen its fair share of fisticuffs and flouncing out. Not so the Jubilee.

When cross words are occasionally exchanged between regulars, Ian or Jeanette step in to calm things down. They usually get an apology the next day.

Another traditional suburban pub still thriving is The Swan. This two-room and a corridor pub in Clementhorpe, York, has a mixed clientele and a friendly atmosphere.

Landlady Rachel Haworth describes the mixture of regulars as "eclectic". She believes there will always be a place for an old-fashioned boozer.

"There are still enough people who want to go into an ordinary pub that doesn't do food and feels like a pub." She says it has a home-from-home feel. "People do have a night in, in The Swan. It's like sitting in your living room with friends and a couple of decent pints."

So forget Boozy Newts, and give us boozy nights down at our unspoilt local.