Well, obviously the Taps was still shut last night for its refurb (of course it’s not actually a full on refurb, but more of a touch up and a lick of paint) and obviously I’m very excited to see what she looks like tonight, but I was over at the Kings Head last night and while, as I’ve previously said, I have a great deal of time for the Kings Head and think it’s a lovely building with some very nice members of staff, there’s just something about the place that I find rather soulless.
Of course a good deal of that is simply that it’s a new pub and it’s still finding its sense of self, but at the moment it’s a nice enough big pub that's just lacking a real identity. And it's that sense of identify and of character which makes a local.
For instance, I know that there are some people who are regulars in the Taps who, when it comes down to it, don’t necessarily even particularly like the Taps (correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think it would be unfair to, say, put my brother and Gareth in that category), but for whom even so, it’s still their local (in something approximating the same way that you can’t choose your family). It’s still HQ. Where they, often without even thinking about it, find themselves at the beginning or the end of a night. Or watching the football during the week. Just hanging out on a day off after going to town to do some shopping. It’s the place, where, whether they like it or not (and it seems, possibly not), they have an emotional attachment to.
And I suppose that process takes time. The Kings Head has only been open for a few months and will take much longer than that to get to that point, and genuinely I would like to get to the point where I do look on the place with genuine affection, but it’s certainly not there yet.
I don't know what anyone else thinks, but that's certainly my impression at the moment.
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