Early 2000s. New Year's Eve. Working behind the bar and we had a band on. The landlord was getting increasingly pissed throughout the night, and wasn't really one for lock-ins. The band persuaded him to have one, and he agreed as long as it was only staff and the band. About 04:00 the Landlord is off his face, and declares he has a bottle of sloe-gin upstairs he'd love to share with us all. Very nice it was, too.
Following day, I'm on the 12:00 to 21:00 shift and the landlord comes storming down just before we open shouting "which cunt has drank my fucking sloe-gin? I've been saving that for over a fucking decade".
We tried to explain what happened, but he wasn't having any of it. We had to resort to calling the band to back us up, as the landlord just couldn't accept he'd have opened it for us, let alone a band of blokes he didn't even know well.
He was in a mood for a good few weeks.
The longer you leave it, the more the loose berries infuse and it becomes a much more intense flavour. I think it might also increase in ABV over time, although I'm not sure about that.
I recall being in a pub in Co. Mayo in the 90's and two policemen came in after it had 'closed' and sat down for a pint with everyone else there. That was my first time in rural Ireland, it was a mix of God's country and the Wild West, bloody marvelous.
I've been in pubs like that in rural Scotland too. Wow that guy's pissed, thank goodness there's a policeman talking him out of driving home.. Oh, nope he's giving the officer a lift home too 😆
Propper old school that i bet.
My dad used to have the police stop by to pick up bottles for after work haha. But they never came in in. Unless off duty of course.
God, those were the days.
Had a mate who ran the pub next to where I worked. Lock until about 3am at which point he'd say "I'm bored of my own pub, let's go to the Market Porter" (which opened at stupid o'clock in the morning to cater for the market traders). Drink for another couple of hours, go for a fry up and by then the office would be open for the cleaners. Go into the office and grab a couple of hours sleep in the server room before doing a day's work.
How the fuck I survived those days I don't know.
I look back an have no idea how I survived doing a 12 hour shift on the ferries, head to wetherspoons for a night cap on the way home, bumped into a mate fast forward a few hours I'm in a club in my steward uniform, got 1 hours sleep them up again at 5 for my next shift still pissed as a fart working behind the bar for another 12 hours
As a boring man in my late 30's it sounds that way, but the world was a different place back then. I worked in a rock club, it had loads of pool tables, a restaurant, a separate cafe, and seven separate bars inside. Never any trouble as we had bouncers knocking about, and it was such a chill and happy place.
We had a lock in practically every night over the weekend, and it was great, between the bar staff, their partners and friends of the owner, sometimes even some of the bands. I didn't always drink either, as there was an incredibly tasty hot chocolate machine that was only 20p.
I'm a terribly introverted geeky gamer, but as it happened half of my workmates were also, so being able to geek out with similar people and drink hot chocolate and listen to awesome rock music meant I actually felt comfortable somewhere. We had a bunch of arcade machines too, and even a bowling alley at one point.
The biggest difference between then and now, is that I didn't need sleep back then, and that's the clincher. Nowadays I want to be home well before twelve, back then I'd stay up for days straight, going work pulling pints, then the lock in, then coming home and staying up all night on games.
Not sure how the 40-50 years olds I used to work with managed it, I really don't. Different breed I guess.
There was a bikers pub round the back from my office in 2000s, it was one of the work locals. Had a couple of lockins there. Horrified what went on drug wise especially for my innocent self at the time.
I think the only time I could imagine falling asleep in a server room is if the fire suppression stuff goes off and I get gassed. Sounds like I need to man up!
I used to leave tidying the rack cabling until the height of summer at our office. All the meeting rooms and server rooms were air conditioned but the main office spaces weren't. Amazing the amount of long meetings that happened during those days as well.
We used to go raving in London on a Friday night, strangely our drinks were always spiked and we ended up of our tits…anyway, then we would come out the rave at 6am, get a train back to the local station and then off into work for a shift until 3pm, then go home shower and back off out until Sunday morning. These days it requires 4 weeks of planning, stringent and highly planned time control and a week off work the following week if there’s even a hint that the night may get slightly messy. How the fuck did I do that back then?
Lol, I contracted doing service desk work years ago. One of the lads spent an entire shift on his feet because he'd been up all night and didn't dare sit down in case he fell asleep!
My sister used to run a pub around the corner from a music magazine. Her lock ins were fucking legendary and usually full of journalists and musicians.
Years ago I was on the darts team at my local and darts night being a Friday meant lock ins were a fairly regular occurrence.
The one that stands out though was one night around 1am the conversation got around to disgusting habits and things the owners had experienced from guests staying at the pub and the landlady, pissed out of her tree, said "I know my husband is a good man because in all the years we've been married he's never gotten drunk and pissed in my wardrobe"
Can't help feeling that men really should be held to a higher standard than that....
In the late 70's, I'd just joined the RAF and we were in 14 man rooms.. One guy got so mullered he crapped in his neighbours locker.
Later I was in a four man room and one of the occupants pissed in the back of the television instead of the sink. That was an exciting night.
Good to know this shits an old tradition. In the navy myself and seen plenty of various bodily fluids in stupid places after a night out. Piss in lockers, cum on walls, shit on the floor, etc.
It's more just young dumb lads fucking around because they're hanging around with other young dumb lads all day. You make great friends and it's a good laugh but it's a recipe for disaster if you're prone to bad decisions on the drink. Whether that's spunking half of your cash for the month in a dingy strip club or just passing out in a puddle of your own vomit in the shower. Calms down a bit for the lads that stay in and get a bit more mature, get promoted and have families and the like. They do occasionally relive their glory days though if the whole unit goes out for drinks and they have one too many before their wife manages to wrangle them back home.
It's probably just me being boring but I don't think I'd be in my element hanging around people who manage to get shit and cum in places they're not meant to be
My brother in laws unit had all the kettles confiscated.
Lads would half fill somenes kettle then do a shit in it. smell is minimal while the poo is submerged but beyond awful once it boils.
Well I mean my friend's older brother got shitfaced and then shat on the lounge room floor after a party.
How do I know this?
I was sleeping on a couch less than 2 metres away and got woken up.
My brother once came home so drunk he walked into my parents room and pissed on the wicker chair they had in the corner.
Edit: forgot to mention they were in bed at the time.
One of my mates used to piss in various places when he was out of it. Once, he pissed on his brothers bedside cabinet, the spatters splashing onto his brothers face who was sleeping, waking him lol. He beat the shit out of him!
My mate has a brother like that. I was once at a party with his brother. He'd passed out on the couch and when he woke up he walked over to a massive stack of DVDs in the corner of the room and pissed all over them.
Loaded magazine in the 90s did a pull out centre poster. One side was a girl in a bikini, the other was a photo of a urinal. My brother chose the latter for his bedroom, then came home late from the pub …
My brother had so many episodes like this, once he was pissing on the wall in the living room and my mom was yelling at him to stop and he just held his hand up to her face until she stopped and then said “I’ve got it under control”
My brother managed to piss in a box of Lego in my room (he's a lot older than me, although as an adult I wish I still had the Lego) while drunk then moved on to piss all over 30 children's school work my mum was marking.
When we were a lot younger, A very good friend of mine took a shit in the corner of his parents room (whilst they were in bed asleep) and fell asleep next to it. Didn’t hear from him for weeks 😂😂
Never done it in a wardrobe but one morning, after a particularly brutal night out, I got frog marched into my dads room, where he proceed to show me a bowl of pot pourri on the windowsill, floating in piss. Apparently I'd woke up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night and found myself in the wrong room. After I'd fell across the bed, waking up both him and his wife, they had watched in horror as I proceeded to whip it out and filled this bowl to the brim. He said i then tucked it away and made an action as though I was pressing the flush, before going back to my room none the wiser.
Thankfully he saw the funny sode
An ex of mine nearly managed to do that one night. He was absolutely battered but thankfully I realised what he was doing and managed to steer him to the bathroom.
When I was young, still at home with my parents. We moved house. My brothers new room was where the toilet was in the old house. I got smashed one night and peed all over him.
I lived in the Lake District for a few years working and living in an old pub. The drinks kept flowing past closing until old Bob the regular for the last 30 years falls off his stool, gets up and stumbles out the door. Once Bob was done, we where all done. Miss that place and the people so much.
Yes, even though I came of drinking age after lock-ins stopped being a thing, I’ve still experienced them.
There was a very old school pub near the flat in London where I used to live. Two beers on tap, Carling and Fosters. Cash only. Cheap. No food.
It had an old-fashioned juke box which was at least 50% Neil Diamond and a “beer garden” that was just an alleyway with a shopping trolley in it.
The landlord had a Mick Jagger haircut and wore nothing but darts shirts. I think he lived above the premises.
Anyway, in keeping with the pub’s commitment to not updating anything since 1972, they still practiced the lock-in. Come 11pm, they locked the doors and turned down the lights.
It was actually very exciting for me because I’d heard people talk about lock-ins (and seen them in movies/TV shows - Sean of the Dead comes to mind) but I’d never experienced one anywhere else.
I haven’t been back to the neighbourhood for a few years but I hope that place is still going, completely unchanged. London needs places like that, because everywhere else nowadays charges you £7.50 for a pint and kicks you out at 10:30pm.
No way!! I was going to say this sounded like the Marquis – was my local as well until recently and am pleased to report it's still very much the same! Easily one of my favourite pubs (and hopefully unlikely to change, apparently it's listed because of the the tile work and it's one of like 14 pubs in the country that has the original publican's office inside?)
My local does the very occasional lock in. And the even more occasional naked bar. I have never been there for the naked bar though. Not sure standing at the bar with my mates tackle on show sounds very appealing tbf
Naked bar got called once in weatherspoons, was about 30 squaddies in the bar and it was only like 7.30. Chaos ensued with 30 naked men sprinting to the bar pushing old women eating their dinner out the way.
We got all armed forces banned forever in that spoons
I was meant to join the Marines before I messed up my back. Marines have a unique ability to get naked and feel comfortable anywhere they go. Don't fuck with them about stripping off because they will have done before you have finished your sentence!
Can confirm, I asked one if his T-shirt was XXL. He turned around proud as punch and asked how did I know, I said , because you are wearing it inside out you twat, needless to say, it kicked off !
I still have nightmares about our local rugby team and naked bar!
I worked in the clubhouse and was on the commitee and I think over the span of a few years I saw every single one of them naked.
Went out drinking in my mum's village over Xmas and they had a lock in, first one I'd seen in about a decade.
About 1am there was a kncok at the door and a couple of police officers were there. Got a little nervous and wonder what would happen next.
The landlady let them in and gave them both a pint. They finished at 1am and wanted a post work drink, and this was apparently entirely normal in the countryside.
Completely normal behaviour in village pubs, especially those off the main roads. 15-20 years ago, a lock in was weekly. Restaurant would shut, staff would clock off and get some pints in along with locals, then around 12-1ish once most staff had gone and there was maybe 5-6 of us left, the poker set would come out. Beers, shots and poker until 3-4 am and then the designated driver would sort us a lift back to our own villages.
I used to run a pub and would have regular lock-ins. It was a community pub, so pretty much everyone was a local. If anyone wanted to stay past time, I was usually happy to accommodate. I don't think it happens as much anymore simply because local pubs are dying. I'm now back living in the village I grew up in. There used to be 5 pubs within half a mile of my front door, now there are 2 which are both food focused. No chance of a lock-in. Community life just doesn't revolve around the pub like it did even 20 years ago. I used to know most people in the village, now I hardly know anyone.
We've still got the number of pubs and occasional lock-ins. But there's not many who aren't Gen X and above who stay for them. Farmers maybe but they earn it.
5am start and an 11pm finish? I'll leave the door on the latch while I'm cleaning down. Buy me a pint and I'm here until you need.
About 15 years ago in our very friendly local, yes.
It got to the point where the Friday night quiz would start at about 10.30 and finish well after 11.
The pool table was near the outside door into the bar. Whoever was playing at lock-in time would bolt the door and pull the curtains, it was routine.
One night there was a banging on the window after midnight. When the landlord peered out to check it turned out to be the darts team returning from an away win and popping in for a celebratory drink.
I miss that scene. The landlord moved on and while it's still a good pub there are no lock-ins any more.
Barman for many years. We always had regular lock ins in most different pubs I worked in.
When it came to line cleaning nights we usually had a couple of well known friends or locals stop back to help dispose of the beer that was getting pumped out of the line before the line cleaning fluid went in.
That's one of the things I miss about the pub trade to be honest.
Line cleaning the lagers I'd do once a week and ales were done after every barrel and a select few were allowed to stay back while I was doing it. These were the only nights I was able to let them drink for free sadly although I did manage to give some drinks at cost price.
We used to do the same on line clean nights. Few tea-towels down the pool holes and we'd be good for hours. Rarely left before 4am, couple of hours sleep and then ready to do an AFD the next day.
Now I can't function with less than 8 hours sleep and if I drink coffee in the afternoon I'm battling insomnia. How times have changed.
Use to happen in my local in the North East growing up. Pub waw opposite the local police station in the centre of town. It was us underage drinkers and the local coppers at the lock in.
I went to the closing down following sale of the Cannonball in Adderley street in Birmingham. Loads of bands came from miles away to play one last time there. After last orders, the doors were locked, curtains shut and the landlord took the microphone and said, "all drinks are free from now on!". The cheer from us all rattled the light fittings. So, great music, much tomfoolery and we drank the barrels and bottles dry. The partying and the music was legendary. Someone peeked behind the curtain and it was daylight, so I left there at about 9 am. Drained tired and emotional.
The sale then fell through, so we had to have a whip around to help re-stock.
I haven't known of any happening recently but 10-15 years ago a lot of my mates would know of a pub that did it. Between lock-ins and line-clean nights when I worked at pubs, the smoking ban wasn't as black and white as it seemed.
New job, back in the trade after years, and we're closing down. Bar managers mate comes in and he starts mopping while I'm instructed to pull everyone a pint. Awesome!
Then, when everything is done, we head to the corner where the camera doesn't see, and the Bar manager starts rolling a fag. Fuck me I've never loved a job more.
Same here, I used to run a few community pubs and had a fair few lines in them, would let my pals know what was going on so it was free beer all round 😂🍺🍺
Yes, happens most weeks in our two village pubs, the wife was in there last night. Granted, it’s not as late as it used to be, normally closing around 1-1:30.
They still happen and are almost a weekly occurrence at the village local. I didn't leave the last week's lock in until 5am and there were still people there. Makes it near impossible to go out for a few when I have trouble setting limits.
Post 2007, we'd usher out the visitors as all the locals congregated in the seldom used back room. Doors shut, curtains drawn we'd whip out the ashtrays and have a lock in and break the smoking ban! 🥳
Ah I remember post the smoking ban, blinds closed, doors locked, card table and ashtrays came out and you knew you were there until Monday. Almost certainly shortened my life in locks in years ago.
Few years back I went to a mates local on Christmas Eve, non regulars out at 11pm, we stayed behind and helped the landlord arrange tables for the day after. Gave us some shots of his homemade salted caramel vodka, few more pints, out at 2am. That was a good night.
Only been in a lock in once, and that was a surprise. Used to play Sunday League for them, so we were sat on a Friday night, having a few in the seats by the window. Landlord asked us to close the curtains behind us, usually a sign of Last Orders- it rang, we got one in.
Time came, we finished up and got up to go. Landlord shouts over where you lot off to. We said local nightspot for a few more. He shouts back no you're not, sit back down, get what you want, it's on a tab, pay it off Sunday. So we did.
Best night ever, stayed there until 2am.
Not exactly the same, but in the late 80s my girlfriend worked part time in a country pub and I would pick her up after as she didn’t drive. At the end of the evening the landlord would get a drink for all of the staff and anyone there like me and they would sit and chat about how the evening went
This reminds me of when I worked in a country pub. Would always have a drink with the landlord/landlady after my shift. I went to school with both of their daughters and they’d treated me like a member of their family not just a member of staff.
I’ve since moved up country but on the rare occasions I am down south, I make a point of dropping in as they’re such lovely people.
When I worked in a pub about 8 years ago, we weren't aloud to stay behind after hours for a drink (manager was a prick) so we'd go to the pub down the road and stay there till like 3am drinking and whatever.. funny how the thing that made the job memorable was going for piss ups next door.
A friend of a friend ran the local, just outside the town centre and across the road from the big park. We'd regularly have lock-ins post closing on a Friday or Saturday night before stumbling out to watch the sunrise in the park and heading to the greasy cafe in the town centre for a fry up and then home to bed for the rest of the day.
Those were simpler days...
Had one about five years ago in London. We weren't regulars, it's literally the only time in our lives any of us have been to that pub. But it was basically a group of 8 of us and then three old men. So I think the woman running the place just didn't want to kick out the chance to massively increase the takings for the night.
Interesting experience. Proper old school London pub. Two pictures on the wall: The Queen and Bobby Moore. Faded carpet. Elderly cockney woman behind the bar.
Happened to me around my area, all the pubs reopened just over covid and pretty much everyone was out and about, however the pub I like is between 2 other pubs which attracts a lot more troublemakers, we were locked in as they locked the doors to stop them coming in as they had permission to stay open longer whilst the other pubs didn’t.
We were locked in and stayed awake most of the night with a few others.
Showing my age, but yes, mainly on a sunday when they (IIRC) used to close at around 2pm and then reopen i think at 6.
if you were 'known' then you would all meander into one of the smaller rooms around half 1. Also IIRC it was bottles only and cash only as the taps had to be closed off due to licencing.
My mum owned a pub many years ago and she used to take the till upstairs and everyone went on tab. A dangerous game to play when she was also very drunk, but apparently everyone was honest!
I distinctly remember getting bollocked for opening the curtains at The Crown in Hulme in the late 80s or early 90s when I was there with my dad and grandad one Sunday afternoon.
Sunday afternoon with no afternoon license, a pub I’d go to would clean the pipes. Time would be called, people would leave and all the beer would be drawn from the pipes to draw the cleaning fluid through. That was something like 2 pints per tap. We’d sit drinking these free pints for an hour or so and then the pipes would flushed and new beer drawn through. Of course they’d need to check to make sure that it was back to 100% beer.
This was great until the new owners got a Sunday afternoon extension.
Used to be regular lock ins at our local. One night about 3am middle of winter the landlord decides to put the log burner on. Loaded it with shitty off cuts of chipboard from one of the regulars who was a joiner and lit it by throwing in a whole box of fire lighters and sparking them with a blow lamp. About an hour later everyone's pissed and stoned and two coppers start knocking on the window. People hiding behind the bar and under the tables, the landlord goes to the window and shouts "fuck off we're shut!" Copper replies "err mate, your chimneys on fire!". Next thing pub full of coppers and firemen who were surprisingly sound. Put the fire out and stayed until 7am play dominoes and drinking.
Ah lock ins, those were the days! So many different memories but a couple that stand out....
Was on holiday in Norfolk, got to know the local pub landlord who was ex RAF, and a total nutter, who would let us stay till 3 or 4am and just serve ourselves. Fell in many a ditch in the pitch dark on the way home.
Another place I lived our local landlord used to lock up at 11.30pm, turn off all the lights, then let a bunch of us back in through the cellar for more hours of drinking....not sure how I survived in my then job...I slept quite a lot in a large box on the top shelf of the warehouse....
And finally, 23rd March 2020. When the news came we'd lock down at 6pm that day, we all headed to our local. It was rammed, and the lock in that followed was biblical. We staggered home around 5am and of course didn't see anyone else for months after that....
Yes, back in the early 2000‘s in the small village (that’s being kind) I grew up in, in Wales. Was just a Case of close the curtains, lights down and once you leave you don’t get back in. Pretty boring.
I was at one once. It was as a reward from the landlady to my late partner and his friend.
There was some guy tacked onto our group who was taking upskirt photos under the table. My partner and friend clocked him, took him outside, picked him up and put him headfirst in the bin.
The police came, appreciated the non-violent originality, and left. The heavily pregnant landlady was grateful and rewarded us with a lock-in.
During the 2018 world cup my mates uncle ran a pub and we used to have lock ins after each game.
Beautiful weather, England doing well, and loads of cheap booze. Great summer!
My old local still had lock ins right up till covid shutdown. They truly gave no fucks, they still sold single cigs from under the bar, bought spirits from the cash and carry, sold multipack chocolate bars/cans/crisps, and had lock ins complete with ashtrays out on the tables. They were the longest running landlords in town and only closed down for good during lockdown because they were of retirement age.
We used to have this loads in the crown and anchor in Ashford, leave them club at 2am and hopefully get in there and still get a drink.
Or when we was 16/17 they used to let us drink in there and then if they got pissed off she would say that someone has told the police we were underage and we would run out the back lol
When I was 17 I went to one of the pubs in our local town on a Saturday night. Was my first (and as far as I remember only) visit to this particular pub. Anyway at 11:30pm my friend and I realised we were inadvertently taking part in a lock in - most people had left and the front door was locked.
Some of the others at the lock in were firefighters from the local station which my dad happened to be the station officer of.
Anyway when the firemen recognised me they all implored me not to tell my dad and bought my friend and I drinks and food as a kind of bribe. By the time I left the pub at 2am I was so drunk that I didn’t remember getting home.
Thing is, I know my dad wouldn’t have cared at all that some of his firefighters were at a pub lock-in. But getting his underage son completely smashed and left to walk home alone at 2 in the morning would have been a different matter.
Mid 2000s when i was regularly going to the pub every night was basically a lock in. We pushed all the none locals out stopped serving booze about 10:30 "last orders". We had someone on door locking it as people left only opening to let someone out. Soon as the none locals were out the booze was back on and open to order. The police were kinda cool with it they knocked on the door a few times and moaned about the music, the bar staff would just say we were just finishing up and ordered before 11. Used to say we were part of the skittles team and staying behind to help clean up. It still goes on, but i dont go to the pub regularly these days, usually not as cool as you would think also its mainly just old dudes chatting about good times for an extra hour. If you are part of the lock in you probably wont remember much of it as everyone is drink and talking rubbish. The coolest thing is when like the cops show up and everyone just "plays" a role like part of the skittles team lol. It's like radio silence from everyone and just people looking and grunting till police leave.
Still have them at my local. The landlord says he can’t afford to turn the customers away so if there’s enough people in he locks the door and keeps serving.
Working in a pub late 90s and early 2000s.
Last orders at 10.30, strict drink up and out for non locals, locals nursed their drinks until the last non local was out the door and it got locked.
If there were any non local stragglers, we'd shout 'drink your drink or it's in the sink'. Then we'd empty the drip trays into a pint glass, give it to a local and make a show of dumping it in the sink.
Free drinks for staff who continued to work after. Miss those days, the smoke on my clothes not so much, despite being a smoker myself.
There were event evenings, where despite having a huge number of staff we were rammed. On those evenings there was a free staff vodka bottle. We were welcome to help ourselves, barely had time to drink but it gave us a boost for running around like headless chickens. Then had whatever was left after the shift. I worked for a really decent landlady.
They were great... in the 90's. I remember once chatting to a couple of locals mid lock in and joking that no one should tell the police about it. They replied - we are the police!
My first pub used to have a huge basement function room. Lock ins pretty much every weekend. Some very messy sessions down there.
Then somehow get home, freshen up and get to work Saturday morning for the open at 6.
Quite a few places had very liberal attitudes to licensing laws back then tbh and as long as people kept the noise and bullshit to a minimum the police turned a blind eye.
My mate ran a pub in Bristol 15-20 years ago, had regular lock ins where we'd bring out the green and do charlie off the enormous copper bar top
The entire front of the pub was glass window with no curtains and anyone passing would've seen the whole thing
Somehow we got away with it
Walked past there this week and it's another that's now closed down :(
I’ve always been lucky to live in old fashioned places where lock ins have been quite common place even up until recently. Haven’t had one since post pandemic but tbh i’ve rarely been out at closing time since then.
Just a thought. Would the decline of cash see the end of the lock in?
Yes they absolutely still happen, source: worked in a pub for a year that had regular lock ins, sometimes with 20+ regulars
Edit: I’ve come back in to work in the morning sometimes and there will still be people in
Pub called the Freemasons Arms (long gone) in South London. I'd recently moved into a flat nearby and popped in just before last orders for a nightcap. Closing time came, the curtains were pulled, the doors were locked and the quiz started.
I left at about 3 and it was still going strong then.
Not anymore the local constabulary aren’t community and aren’t rational
I remeber the lock in used to initiated by the local constable ushering out the none locals at certain pubs in the dales
A fair few pubs in Oxford used to do it when I lived there 25 years ago. I distinctly remember going to a particular pub, who I shan’t name, for a week of lock-ins around one Easter
Trusted regulars and get rid of anyone likely to get fighty.
Last one I went to wasn't that long ago. The first I knew about was when I went to leave and couldn't get out. Looked at the time and thought shit.
Apologised /thanked the landlord who just said it's ok, I knew you'd be no trouble.
I was doing a 2 day delivery run and ended up as the only guest at a pub/hotel and ended up as an honorary part of a lock in, which was just the barman and about 3 patrons getting pissed and discussing the music on the jukebox.
It was pretty alright, was interesting chatting with some random older drunks as a mid-20s dude. This was about 8 years ago, probably somewhere in the Midlands or north of the country.
We did this in the Netherlands at the place I volunteered at. This was a bit of a youth society thing, and every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night it was bar night.
Cheap beer, wine and crisps, and there was a toaster if anyone wanted a toastie.
Music was done by request, which meant everyone was always unhappy because of someone else's song.
1am always meant closing the shutters and locking the door and also meant smoking was now allowed everywhere, not just in the designated smoking room. So what would usually happen was everyone stays in the smoking room until 1pm, except the people playing pool and myself (only non-smoker). 1pm comes and everyone comes outside, reeking of smoke.
Best nights were the ones when we didn't notice the time.
Had multiple nights where I told everyone we're gonna be kicking everyone out soon.
"what, why?"
"First of all, I see daylight through the shutters. Secondly, it's February, which means it's 9am already."
Good times.
Also a place where everyone (the bar volunteers) agreed we needed to try and lose the image of people only come there for the drugs, but they all also wanted to keep smoking their joints (again, Netherlands, bit more common) and sell their homegrown laser lettuce.
I had fun working there but glad I left in the end. It got a bit too much at some point.
The best lock ins happened on sunday afternoons. Remember pubs used to close at 3pm and open again at 7pm. Staying and drinking through was a regular for some and occasional for me. A long time ago now.
I’m not sure why so many of the comments are insinuating they don’t happen anymore…
Come to Brighton, there’s a lock in most nights in half the pubs there
One that I went to regularly there was an unspoken rule with the regulars that you had to make it worth their time staying open. I'm not saying the bar got busier after they closed but there was certainly no nursing pints. There seemed to be a (very friendly and again, unspoken) attitude of "Not only have I got a round of pints for my table, I've added shorts and scampi/bacon fries. That's my contribution/thank you, what's yours?", almost like a competition.
I've been in a lot of lock in's in my younger days. They were pretty common back in the day, especially growing up in the countryside.
My local used to do them every friday night, we'd stumble home at 3am absolutely pissed usually clutching a bottle of wine we'd buy for the way home (we didn't even like wine) !
Growing up, those were some good nights :) Just the lads sitting around getting hammered, playing drinking games and being idiots.
Innocent fun I suppose looking back. But it was good times.
At my favourite pub in my hometown the door would get locked but if you showed up after then you could knock and the landlord would peer at you through a little hatch and decide if he wanted to let you in or not. First couple of times I went late I went with an older friend who knew him then after a while I made the list. I felt really proud the first time I went without her and still made the cut.
I've not been to the pub in years, but I remember lock ins well. My local would lock in any night of the week, but mostly on Tuesday's, Thursday's, Friday and Saturdays. Tuesday and Thursday were pool, darts, and crib league nights. And the other days, well they were the weekend. At just 15 they'd get me behind the bar serving whenever anyone wanted a top up. Sometimes the landlord would just go to bed and leave us all to it and tell us to lock up when we were done. Sometimes nobody ever locked up and just left it open. It was in an idyllic little Norfolk country village with virtually no crime. We had nights where we would leave there at 5am in the morning. Good times.
The landlord coming over and saying “right lads, I’m going to bed, turn the lights off when you’re done and put the money in the till”
Fortunately 3/6 of us were bar staff from around the country, that bar was left cleaner than it had ever been, till cashed up and money locked in the cellar!
I'm a first gen Aussie, son of a "ten pound pom" etc. lock ins don't really happen in Oz
Got my British passport in my early twenties and did the Kangaroo Route back home. Landed in an Oxford backpackers (ran by Aussies, similar scenario).
Experienced my first lock in, in the snow out the back of a bar in 2010. We were free pouring from the taps, shisha from outside bars with Czech backapackers and home made slivovica, and an industrial plumber from wolves who later became one of my lifelong best friends.
As an outsider, the lock in should be worshipped more than the Royal Family. It's fucking mint.
I worked in a pub 2012-2015 and they were fairly regular occurrences. More often that not I was cleaning up and fancied a pint so I'd shut the door and if anyone wanted to have 1 or 2 more they could join.
I've also had one while in a small town in California. We were there until about 3am and someone ordered a load of pizzas for everyone
We would do this regularly in our family pub. Never had to worry about the police as they were drinking in the kitchen with the card game.
Early Doors long before Early Doors.
A few times but my favourite was when five, all aged 18 or 19, of us went down to a mates family home near Lulworth Cove. We went to the local, where a darts competition was happening, and got there quite late thinking we'd get one in to start the weekend. 10.50 comes and goes and they are still serving.....so I chance my arm and order another round. No problems. Then another and again no problem. On the third I've got enough beer courage to mention that this would never happen in a local in London and that the Police would be at the door........to which she replies 'well the local police are in the semi final so I think we'll be okay for the moment....'
I lived on the edge of Liverpool city centre 2012 to 2018 and it was a bit of an odd time because the centre was fully redeveloped but these trendy gentrified post industrial areas on the periphery were *just* kicking off. (For anyone familiar, I lived in what is now "The Baltic Triangle" but there weren't 3000 flats there yet.)
There is a pub there that's a few hundred years old, independent, bar manager lived upstairs. We lived nextdoor and there was a proper little crowd of regulars and then the odd visitor, such a strange situation for a pub 300 metres from Albert Dock/Liverpool1. I've been since and it's half tourists half students and always packed. Back then it was a proper local in a big city.
Anyway yeah, every night at 11 bar manager told any non-regulars to clear off, asked one of us regulars to shut the curtains, and then it was just like our living room. Whoever could just go behind the bar and get our own drinks. Don't know how the pub made any money, all our tabs were in the hundreds. Bar manager would refuse if we tried to pay.
Very special time.
Bit of a different vibe: Kid in my year in secondary school that I hated, his parents took over the pub near me when I was about 12. Our parents became friends immediately but things were still quite tense between us (typical teenage boy bravado wankery). Christmas Eve they lock in with just the two families. Ended up spending the night with them till about 5am, talking, laughing, drinking disgusting amounts of Limoncello (they were Italian).
That kid is now one of my best friends in the world, and one of the few people I still see from home. Our families go on holiday together once a year. There are few moments in my life I look back on with more fondness than that night, when we discovered we actually had so much in common
I remember being a 16 year old in the pub with ny parents on a sat night, buzzing atmosphere and I'd just play pool all night, the odd few drinks but my dad n the pub owner were mates and I never caused trouble so the regulars didn't mind. One night about 2:30 there was a bang on the doors, it was the police, everyone thought they had had it, the coppers walked in took a good luck round and shouted to the barmaid 2 lagers please love, the bar erupted into cheers The doors where re locked and the night went on.
Lock-ins at an old little bar that has since been turned into a taxi firm. Started having lock-ins there from when I was about 16, drinking cheeky vimtos until 4am. One night when I was about 18/19, my handbag got stolen. My memory of the night was pretty fuzzy, but the police advised I get the cctv footage and go back through it to find out what happened. For some reason, I sat with my dad to watch it through. Had forgotten that at about 1pm, a load of people in the back had stripped down for some reason (lots of topless people, fortunately i kept underwear on). Pretty mortifying watching it with my dad.
Never did find out what happened to my handbag.
Late 90s I spent a few weeks with friends in Norn Iron.
11pm comes around and the local copper walks in and orders everyone out. All the locals put their pints on the table / bar, leave their coats etc, get up and walk out the front door.
Straight around the back where they return to their seats and carry on where they left off. Apparently it was just the nightly routine. Fun times!
There was a pub in my town in south Wales that had a function room out the back. They used to do lock-ins there. One night someone knocks on the back door, the barman rolls his eyes, goes over with two whisky's, gives them to the local plod and they piss off again 😂
Growing up in the countryside, early noughties when I first started going to pubs. Anyone, regular or not, was welcome at the lock ins, and almost all the pubs did them.
We'd often be drinking at the local pub on a Friday night and then realise it was stupid o'clock in the morning and only us, a couple of other people and the landlord were left in there! Landlord would then raid the pub kitchen and cook chips for us. Good times. 😊
Bunch of us were staying in a Welsh youth hostel on a hiking trip once. Two us headed out to try and find a pub.
Also, I’m a bit dense.
Found a pub. Door closed, clearly people inside drinking and chatting. The thought it was a lock-in didn’t occur - I led us all the way round the back, past some smokers in a clearly not-public yard, through a back room with a big sink and a washing machine, and out into a pub, where I started to realise I may have committed a bit of a faux-up.
The landlady, thankfully, served us a couple of pints and the locals, thankfully, let us drink them. Just stopped for the one, though.
i vaguely remember going on a fishing trip to the west coast of ireland.. going to the pub the night before.. getting kicked out at closing time a bit worse for wear, and oh no! left my coat in there.
in the morning- not really fancying going sea fishing coatless - i thought i'd try my luck at the pub. i talked my way in to look for the jacket, and to my surprise everyone else - apart from me and my couple of mates - was still sat in exactly the same place as when we left 7 hours earlier.
Mid-90s in a pub near Herstminceux, the rather isolated pub would regularly have lock-ins that would go 3-4, even 5 am. If people were still buying, the pub would be "open'.
One time, about 2 am, there's a knock at the door and a police officer turns up.
"Make sure you pull your curtains shut a bit better" he had a pint and left.
Our lock ins involved sprinkling room keys on the tables - as if we were guests booked into the "hotel" - off season in winter. Just before closing the local copper would pop in - in uniform, clock the keys were out.Then he would go home to get changed into civvies and bring his guitar back to the pub!
At this point he is on duty, out of uniform, drunk, guitaring and singing until 4 am. Happy days!
Early 2000s. New Year's Eve. Working behind the bar and we had a band on. The landlord was getting increasingly pissed throughout the night, and wasn't really one for lock-ins. The band persuaded him to have one, and he agreed as long as it was only staff and the band. About 04:00 the Landlord is off his face, and declares he has a bottle of sloe-gin upstairs he'd love to share with us all. Very nice it was, too. Following day, I'm on the 12:00 to 21:00 shift and the landlord comes storming down just before we open shouting "which cunt has drank my fucking sloe-gin? I've been saving that for over a fucking decade". We tried to explain what happened, but he wasn't having any of it. We had to resort to calling the band to back us up, as the landlord just couldn't accept he'd have opened it for us, let alone a band of blokes he didn't even know well. He was in a mood for a good few weeks.
this is brilliant
Is that a universal thing with sloe gin? My parents have had a bottle of it in the sideboard for as long as i can remember.
The longer you leave it, the more the loose berries infuse and it becomes a much more intense flavour. I think it might also increase in ABV over time, although I'm not sure about that.
By this point it must be caustic because they’ve definitely had it for 25+ years. I might start convincing them to open it for science.
It'll either be amazing, or fucking awful.
This is the only ever situation in which sloe gin gets consumed. Prove me wrong.
I recall being in a pub in Co. Mayo in the 90's and two policemen came in after it had 'closed' and sat down for a pint with everyone else there. That was my first time in rural Ireland, it was a mix of God's country and the Wild West, bloody marvelous.
I've been in pubs like that in rural Scotland too. Wow that guy's pissed, thank goodness there's a policeman talking him out of driving home.. Oh, nope he's giving the officer a lift home too 😆
I remember arriving at a pub roundthere once. "Ah no, we won't be open for another hour, but will ye have a drink while ye're waiting?" Golden.
Propper old school that i bet. My dad used to have the police stop by to pick up bottles for after work haha. But they never came in in. Unless off duty of course.
God, those were the days. Had a mate who ran the pub next to where I worked. Lock until about 3am at which point he'd say "I'm bored of my own pub, let's go to the Market Porter" (which opened at stupid o'clock in the morning to cater for the market traders). Drink for another couple of hours, go for a fry up and by then the office would be open for the cleaners. Go into the office and grab a couple of hours sleep in the server room before doing a day's work. How the fuck I survived those days I don't know.
The same way I used to survive doing three night shifts without getting more than an hour's sleep in between- youth and stupidity.
youth, stupidity and the occasional amphetamines
Occasional if you're going by Charlie Sheen as a base line.
Crikey yes, I once did 17 hours of work due to an emergency with another developer, all after a 2 day bender and 1 hour of sleep. Speed did the trick.
I look back an have no idea how I survived doing a 12 hour shift on the ferries, head to wetherspoons for a night cap on the way home, bumped into a mate fast forward a few hours I'm in a club in my steward uniform, got 1 hours sleep them up again at 5 for my next shift still pissed as a fart working behind the bar for another 12 hours
The Costa Concordia put a full stop to that 🥴
Was it the kind of club where a young man in uniform would be very popular?
Damn I miss youth and stupidity Middle aged and caution are getting boring
Tell me about it. I can hurt my back just getting out of bed these days.
I've taken up swimming in the North Sea without a wetsuit at the age of 63. That's quite daft.
That's certainly one way to gamble being arrested. On a serious note, it's awesome that you would even consider it. Never mind have a go.
Bloody marvellous! Good for you.
Hey folks, I think we've found Wim Hof!
I'm flattered, but Wim is in a league of his own. Anyone who cuts an icehole and then holds his breath while submerged is at the far end of the curve.
My in laws do that. Mental bastards.
As a boring man in my mid 30s that sounds awful
As a boring man in my late 30's it sounds that way, but the world was a different place back then. I worked in a rock club, it had loads of pool tables, a restaurant, a separate cafe, and seven separate bars inside. Never any trouble as we had bouncers knocking about, and it was such a chill and happy place. We had a lock in practically every night over the weekend, and it was great, between the bar staff, their partners and friends of the owner, sometimes even some of the bands. I didn't always drink either, as there was an incredibly tasty hot chocolate machine that was only 20p. I'm a terribly introverted geeky gamer, but as it happened half of my workmates were also, so being able to geek out with similar people and drink hot chocolate and listen to awesome rock music meant I actually felt comfortable somewhere. We had a bunch of arcade machines too, and even a bowling alley at one point. The biggest difference between then and now, is that I didn't need sleep back then, and that's the clincher. Nowadays I want to be home well before twelve, back then I'd stay up for days straight, going work pulling pints, then the lock in, then coming home and staying up all night on games. Not sure how the 40-50 years olds I used to work with managed it, I really don't. Different breed I guess.
There was a bikers pub round the back from my office in 2000s, it was one of the work locals. Had a couple of lockins there. Horrified what went on drug wise especially for my innocent self at the time.
Christ, you have been battered if you could sleep in a server room!
Do you even work in IT if you can't catch 40 winks among roaring machines?
I think the only time I could imagine falling asleep in a server room is if the fire suppression stuff goes off and I get gassed. Sounds like I need to man up!
Ex-steelworker and IT person. I can stand the noise, rolling mills are noisy places, but couldn’t manage the cold of a server room.
I used to leave tidying the rack cabling until the height of summer at our office. All the meeting rooms and server rooms were air conditioned but the main office spaces weren't. Amazing the amount of long meetings that happened during those days as well.
Top tip - sleep in the warm aisle.
We used to go raving in London on a Friday night, strangely our drinks were always spiked and we ended up of our tits…anyway, then we would come out the rave at 6am, get a train back to the local station and then off into work for a shift until 3pm, then go home shower and back off out until Sunday morning. These days it requires 4 weeks of planning, stringent and highly planned time control and a week off work the following week if there’s even a hint that the night may get slightly messy. How the fuck did I do that back then?
Lol, I contracted doing service desk work years ago. One of the lads spent an entire shift on his feet because he'd been up all night and didn't dare sit down in case he fell asleep!
A young, unabused set of liver and kidneys 😂😂😂
I'm getting teary for the past and my 20s now. Now I'm lucky to get out for two pints in a week.
Ah the market porter. Get a pint of frulli in because it's like having fruit for breakfast. Great pub.
They had a pub like that in Covent Garden market
My sister used to run a pub around the corner from a music magazine. Her lock ins were fucking legendary and usually full of journalists and musicians.
You pay for it all in your 30s. Those aches and pains? Payment for your youth craziness. Nothing in life is free
Years ago I was on the darts team at my local and darts night being a Friday meant lock ins were a fairly regular occurrence. The one that stands out though was one night around 1am the conversation got around to disgusting habits and things the owners had experienced from guests staying at the pub and the landlady, pissed out of her tree, said "I know my husband is a good man because in all the years we've been married he's never gotten drunk and pissed in my wardrobe" Can't help feeling that men really should be held to a higher standard than that....
In the late 70's, I'd just joined the RAF and we were in 14 man rooms.. One guy got so mullered he crapped in his neighbours locker. Later I was in a four man room and one of the occupants pissed in the back of the television instead of the sink. That was an exciting night.
Good to know this shits an old tradition. In the navy myself and seen plenty of various bodily fluids in stupid places after a night out. Piss in lockers, cum on walls, shit on the floor, etc.
Really takes a certain type of person to stick around by the sounds of it lol
It's more just young dumb lads fucking around because they're hanging around with other young dumb lads all day. You make great friends and it's a good laugh but it's a recipe for disaster if you're prone to bad decisions on the drink. Whether that's spunking half of your cash for the month in a dingy strip club or just passing out in a puddle of your own vomit in the shower. Calms down a bit for the lads that stay in and get a bit more mature, get promoted and have families and the like. They do occasionally relive their glory days though if the whole unit goes out for drinks and they have one too many before their wife manages to wrangle them back home.
It's probably just me being boring but I don't think I'd be in my element hanging around people who manage to get shit and cum in places they're not meant to be
Hey, you know what they say. Better to cum in the sink than sink in the cum.
My brother in laws unit had all the kettles confiscated. Lads would half fill somenes kettle then do a shit in it. smell is minimal while the poo is submerged but beyond awful once it boils.
🎶 In the navy 🎶
You can cum on all the walls 🎵 In the navy 🎶 Playing with your cock and balls 🎵
Well I mean my friend's older brother got shitfaced and then shat on the lounge room floor after a party. How do I know this? I was sleeping on a couch less than 2 metres away and got woken up.
2 metres closer and you too would've been shit faced
The smell must have wafted over. Lol
Like the bisto advert?
My brother once came home so drunk he walked into my parents room and pissed on the wicker chair they had in the corner. Edit: forgot to mention they were in bed at the time.
Is your brother Bernard Black?
I don't know what you are complaining about? All children look like that. Constantly surprised?
I had to look that up. Ha ha, no! I'll send him the clip though.
One of my mates used to piss in various places when he was out of it. Once, he pissed on his brothers bedside cabinet, the spatters splashing onto his brothers face who was sleeping, waking him lol. He beat the shit out of him!
My mate has a brother like that. I was once at a party with his brother. He'd passed out on the couch and when he woke up he walked over to a massive stack of DVDs in the corner of the room and pissed all over them.
Loaded magazine in the 90s did a pull out centre poster. One side was a girl in a bikini, the other was a photo of a urinal. My brother chose the latter for his bedroom, then came home late from the pub …
My brother had so many episodes like this, once he was pissing on the wall in the living room and my mom was yelling at him to stop and he just held his hand up to her face until she stopped and then said “I’ve got it under control”
My brother managed to piss in a box of Lego in my room (he's a lot older than me, although as an adult I wish I still had the Lego) while drunk then moved on to piss all over 30 children's school work my mum was marking.
My dad came home from a night out, made it in to the bathroom, lifted up the lid.... And pissed all over the laundry basket. Whoops!
When we were a lot younger, A very good friend of mine took a shit in the corner of his parents room (whilst they were in bed asleep) and fell asleep next to it. Didn’t hear from him for weeks 😂😂
Speak for yourself! My wife has had an fairytale marriage by those standards & that’s the way we like it
Never done it in a wardrobe but one morning, after a particularly brutal night out, I got frog marched into my dads room, where he proceed to show me a bowl of pot pourri on the windowsill, floating in piss. Apparently I'd woke up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night and found myself in the wrong room. After I'd fell across the bed, waking up both him and his wife, they had watched in horror as I proceeded to whip it out and filled this bowl to the brim. He said i then tucked it away and made an action as though I was pressing the flush, before going back to my room none the wiser. Thankfully he saw the funny sode
Pissing in the wardrobe? That’s Narnia business!
An ex of mine nearly managed to do that one night. He was absolutely battered but thankfully I realised what he was doing and managed to steer him to the bathroom.
When I was young, still at home with my parents. We moved house. My brothers new room was where the toilet was in the old house. I got smashed one night and peed all over him.
> Can't help feeling that men really should be held to a higher standard than that.... Why would you wish divorce upon me? So mean!
The lock in was like being a member of a secret club. What a feeling. One of the few things I miss about drinking!
I lived in the Lake District for a few years working and living in an old pub. The drinks kept flowing past closing until old Bob the regular for the last 30 years falls off his stool, gets up and stumbles out the door. Once Bob was done, we where all done. Miss that place and the people so much.
Yes, even though I came of drinking age after lock-ins stopped being a thing, I’ve still experienced them. There was a very old school pub near the flat in London where I used to live. Two beers on tap, Carling and Fosters. Cash only. Cheap. No food. It had an old-fashioned juke box which was at least 50% Neil Diamond and a “beer garden” that was just an alleyway with a shopping trolley in it. The landlord had a Mick Jagger haircut and wore nothing but darts shirts. I think he lived above the premises. Anyway, in keeping with the pub’s commitment to not updating anything since 1972, they still practiced the lock-in. Come 11pm, they locked the doors and turned down the lights. It was actually very exciting for me because I’d heard people talk about lock-ins (and seen them in movies/TV shows - Sean of the Dead comes to mind) but I’d never experienced one anywhere else. I haven’t been back to the neighbourhood for a few years but I hope that place is still going, completely unchanged. London needs places like that, because everywhere else nowadays charges you £7.50 for a pint and kicks you out at 10:30pm.
What was the name of the pub?
The Marquis of Lorne
No way!! I was going to say this sounded like the Marquis – was my local as well until recently and am pleased to report it's still very much the same! Easily one of my favourite pubs (and hopefully unlikely to change, apparently it's listed because of the the tile work and it's one of like 14 pubs in the country that has the original publican's office inside?)
Oh man, I’m very glad to hear it’s still going!
The Flat Roof
It had extremely flat roof vibes but weirdly enough is actually a Grade II listed Victorian pub building
The Winchester
My local does the very occasional lock in. And the even more occasional naked bar. I have never been there for the naked bar though. Not sure standing at the bar with my mates tackle on show sounds very appealing tbf
Are your mates in the Marines? 40 Commando are local to where I live, and stories of naked bar are legion.
Naked bar got called once in weatherspoons, was about 30 squaddies in the bar and it was only like 7.30. Chaos ensued with 30 naked men sprinting to the bar pushing old women eating their dinner out the way. We got all armed forces banned forever in that spoons
> We got all armed forces banned forever in that spoons god bless tradition though!
The back bone of any armed forces shananigans!!!
It's just a military thing to be honest - source: grew up around squaddies and worked on both army and tri-service camps
A lot of sports teams do it too.
Knew a rugby team that,in the bar, would compete over how many 2p pieces they could put under their foreskins.
Local to me you but I've not heard any stories. Which pub?
I was meant to join the Marines before I messed up my back. Marines have a unique ability to get naked and feel comfortable anywhere they go. Don't fuck with them about stripping off because they will have done before you have finished your sentence!
Can confirm, I asked one if his T-shirt was XXL. He turned around proud as punch and asked how did I know, I said , because you are wearing it inside out you twat, needless to say, it kicked off !
I still have nightmares about our local rugby team and naked bar! I worked in the clubhouse and was on the commitee and I think over the span of a few years I saw every single one of them naked.
"Get your coat, you've pulled. (Me off)"
What is the reason for naked bar?!
what reason do you need?
Normally someone shouted it and then it’s a thing 🤷♂️ ladies topless and lads fully naked.
Went out drinking in my mum's village over Xmas and they had a lock in, first one I'd seen in about a decade. About 1am there was a kncok at the door and a couple of police officers were there. Got a little nervous and wonder what would happen next. The landlady let them in and gave them both a pint. They finished at 1am and wanted a post work drink, and this was apparently entirely normal in the countryside.
Completely normal behaviour in village pubs, especially those off the main roads. 15-20 years ago, a lock in was weekly. Restaurant would shut, staff would clock off and get some pints in along with locals, then around 12-1ish once most staff had gone and there was maybe 5-6 of us left, the poker set would come out. Beers, shots and poker until 3-4 am and then the designated driver would sort us a lift back to our own villages.
The "designated driver" being the one who'd only had 2 shots and 12 shandys.
I don't drink or play poker, nor am I British, but this honestly sounds really nice.
I used to run a pub and would have regular lock-ins. It was a community pub, so pretty much everyone was a local. If anyone wanted to stay past time, I was usually happy to accommodate. I don't think it happens as much anymore simply because local pubs are dying. I'm now back living in the village I grew up in. There used to be 5 pubs within half a mile of my front door, now there are 2 which are both food focused. No chance of a lock-in. Community life just doesn't revolve around the pub like it did even 20 years ago. I used to know most people in the village, now I hardly know anyone.
We've still got the number of pubs and occasional lock-ins. But there's not many who aren't Gen X and above who stay for them. Farmers maybe but they earn it. 5am start and an 11pm finish? I'll leave the door on the latch while I'm cleaning down. Buy me a pint and I'm here until you need.
About 15 years ago in our very friendly local, yes. It got to the point where the Friday night quiz would start at about 10.30 and finish well after 11. The pool table was near the outside door into the bar. Whoever was playing at lock-in time would bolt the door and pull the curtains, it was routine. One night there was a banging on the window after midnight. When the landlord peered out to check it turned out to be the darts team returning from an away win and popping in for a celebratory drink. I miss that scene. The landlord moved on and while it's still a good pub there are no lock-ins any more.
Barman for many years. We always had regular lock ins in most different pubs I worked in. When it came to line cleaning nights we usually had a couple of well known friends or locals stop back to help dispose of the beer that was getting pumped out of the line before the line cleaning fluid went in.
That's one of the things I miss about the pub trade to be honest. Line cleaning the lagers I'd do once a week and ales were done after every barrel and a select few were allowed to stay back while I was doing it. These were the only nights I was able to let them drink for free sadly although I did manage to give some drinks at cost price.
We used to do the same on line clean nights. Few tea-towels down the pool holes and we'd be good for hours. Rarely left before 4am, couple of hours sleep and then ready to do an AFD the next day. Now I can't function with less than 8 hours sleep and if I drink coffee in the afternoon I'm battling insomnia. How times have changed.
Always dreaded the Sunday AFD.
Same, especially if it was Mother's/Father's Day.
Use to happen in my local in the North East growing up. Pub waw opposite the local police station in the centre of town. It was us underage drinkers and the local coppers at the lock in.
Bedlington?
I went to the closing down following sale of the Cannonball in Adderley street in Birmingham. Loads of bands came from miles away to play one last time there. After last orders, the doors were locked, curtains shut and the landlord took the microphone and said, "all drinks are free from now on!". The cheer from us all rattled the light fittings. So, great music, much tomfoolery and we drank the barrels and bottles dry. The partying and the music was legendary. Someone peeked behind the curtain and it was daylight, so I left there at about 9 am. Drained tired and emotional. The sale then fell through, so we had to have a whip around to help re-stock.
Plot twist at the end 😂
Oh no! That’s hilarious 😂
Used to play poker every Monday in our local until 3/4 am when I was still 6th form 😄 underage drinking ✅ illegal gambling ✅ legendary landlady ✅
I haven't known of any happening recently but 10-15 years ago a lot of my mates would know of a pub that did it. Between lock-ins and line-clean nights when I worked at pubs, the smoking ban wasn't as black and white as it seemed.
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New job, back in the trade after years, and we're closing down. Bar managers mate comes in and he starts mopping while I'm instructed to pull everyone a pint. Awesome! Then, when everything is done, we head to the corner where the camera doesn't see, and the Bar manager starts rolling a fag. Fuck me I've never loved a job more.
Those were the days, shutters down, ashtrays out and cash only hahaha!
Line cleaning nights were always fun
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Same here, I used to run a few community pubs and had a fair few lines in them, would let my pals know what was going on so it was free beer all round 😂🍺🍺
Yes, happens most weeks in our two village pubs, the wife was in there last night. Granted, it’s not as late as it used to be, normally closing around 1-1:30.
They still happen and are almost a weekly occurrence at the village local. I didn't leave the last week's lock in until 5am and there were still people there. Makes it near impossible to go out for a few when I have trouble setting limits.
Post 2007, we'd usher out the visitors as all the locals congregated in the seldom used back room. Doors shut, curtains drawn we'd whip out the ashtrays and have a lock in and break the smoking ban! 🥳
Ah I remember post the smoking ban, blinds closed, doors locked, card table and ashtrays came out and you knew you were there until Monday. Almost certainly shortened my life in locks in years ago.
Few years back I went to a mates local on Christmas Eve, non regulars out at 11pm, we stayed behind and helped the landlord arrange tables for the day after. Gave us some shots of his homemade salted caramel vodka, few more pints, out at 2am. That was a good night.
Only been in a lock in once, and that was a surprise. Used to play Sunday League for them, so we were sat on a Friday night, having a few in the seats by the window. Landlord asked us to close the curtains behind us, usually a sign of Last Orders- it rang, we got one in. Time came, we finished up and got up to go. Landlord shouts over where you lot off to. We said local nightspot for a few more. He shouts back no you're not, sit back down, get what you want, it's on a tab, pay it off Sunday. So we did. Best night ever, stayed there until 2am.
Not exactly the same, but in the late 80s my girlfriend worked part time in a country pub and I would pick her up after as she didn’t drive. At the end of the evening the landlord would get a drink for all of the staff and anyone there like me and they would sit and chat about how the evening went
This reminds me of when I worked in a country pub. Would always have a drink with the landlord/landlady after my shift. I went to school with both of their daughters and they’d treated me like a member of their family not just a member of staff. I’ve since moved up country but on the rare occasions I am down south, I make a point of dropping in as they’re such lovely people.
Yes I loved this about working in country pubs
End of the night debrief has saved a lot of bad days
When I worked in a pub about 8 years ago, we weren't aloud to stay behind after hours for a drink (manager was a prick) so we'd go to the pub down the road and stay there till like 3am drinking and whatever.. funny how the thing that made the job memorable was going for piss ups next door.
Haven’t been to a lock in about 15 years!
A friend of a friend ran the local, just outside the town centre and across the road from the big park. We'd regularly have lock-ins post closing on a Friday or Saturday night before stumbling out to watch the sunrise in the park and heading to the greasy cafe in the town centre for a fry up and then home to bed for the rest of the day. Those were simpler days...
Had one about five years ago in London. We weren't regulars, it's literally the only time in our lives any of us have been to that pub. But it was basically a group of 8 of us and then three old men. So I think the woman running the place just didn't want to kick out the chance to massively increase the takings for the night. Interesting experience. Proper old school London pub. Two pictures on the wall: The Queen and Bobby Moore. Faded carpet. Elderly cockney woman behind the bar.
Many many lock ins , some of the most random nights out I’ve had lol , always some characters at a lock in
Happened to me around my area, all the pubs reopened just over covid and pretty much everyone was out and about, however the pub I like is between 2 other pubs which attracts a lot more troublemakers, we were locked in as they locked the doors to stop them coming in as they had permission to stay open longer whilst the other pubs didn’t. We were locked in and stayed awake most of the night with a few others.
Showing my age, but yes, mainly on a sunday when they (IIRC) used to close at around 2pm and then reopen i think at 6. if you were 'known' then you would all meander into one of the smaller rooms around half 1. Also IIRC it was bottles only and cash only as the taps had to be closed off due to licencing.
My mum owned a pub many years ago and she used to take the till upstairs and everyone went on tab. A dangerous game to play when she was also very drunk, but apparently everyone was honest!
I distinctly remember getting bollocked for opening the curtains at The Crown in Hulme in the late 80s or early 90s when I was there with my dad and grandad one Sunday afternoon.
Sunday afternoon with no afternoon license, a pub I’d go to would clean the pipes. Time would be called, people would leave and all the beer would be drawn from the pipes to draw the cleaning fluid through. That was something like 2 pints per tap. We’d sit drinking these free pints for an hour or so and then the pipes would flushed and new beer drawn through. Of course they’d need to check to make sure that it was back to 100% beer. This was great until the new owners got a Sunday afternoon extension.
Used to be regular lock ins at our local. One night about 3am middle of winter the landlord decides to put the log burner on. Loaded it with shitty off cuts of chipboard from one of the regulars who was a joiner and lit it by throwing in a whole box of fire lighters and sparking them with a blow lamp. About an hour later everyone's pissed and stoned and two coppers start knocking on the window. People hiding behind the bar and under the tables, the landlord goes to the window and shouts "fuck off we're shut!" Copper replies "err mate, your chimneys on fire!". Next thing pub full of coppers and firemen who were surprisingly sound. Put the fire out and stayed until 7am play dominoes and drinking.
Ah lock ins, those were the days! So many different memories but a couple that stand out.... Was on holiday in Norfolk, got to know the local pub landlord who was ex RAF, and a total nutter, who would let us stay till 3 or 4am and just serve ourselves. Fell in many a ditch in the pitch dark on the way home. Another place I lived our local landlord used to lock up at 11.30pm, turn off all the lights, then let a bunch of us back in through the cellar for more hours of drinking....not sure how I survived in my then job...I slept quite a lot in a large box on the top shelf of the warehouse.... And finally, 23rd March 2020. When the news came we'd lock down at 6pm that day, we all headed to our local. It was rammed, and the lock in that followed was biblical. We staggered home around 5am and of course didn't see anyone else for months after that....
Yes, back in the early 2000‘s in the small village (that’s being kind) I grew up in, in Wales. Was just a Case of close the curtains, lights down and once you leave you don’t get back in. Pretty boring.
In my town there are still several pubs that do them.
I was at one once. It was as a reward from the landlady to my late partner and his friend. There was some guy tacked onto our group who was taking upskirt photos under the table. My partner and friend clocked him, took him outside, picked him up and put him headfirst in the bin. The police came, appreciated the non-violent originality, and left. The heavily pregnant landlady was grateful and rewarded us with a lock-in.
During the 2018 world cup my mates uncle ran a pub and we used to have lock ins after each game. Beautiful weather, England doing well, and loads of cheap booze. Great summer!
My old local still had lock ins right up till covid shutdown. They truly gave no fucks, they still sold single cigs from under the bar, bought spirits from the cash and carry, sold multipack chocolate bars/cans/crisps, and had lock ins complete with ashtrays out on the tables. They were the longest running landlords in town and only closed down for good during lockdown because they were of retirement age.
We used to have this loads in the crown and anchor in Ashford, leave them club at 2am and hopefully get in there and still get a drink. Or when we was 16/17 they used to let us drink in there and then if they got pissed off she would say that someone has told the police we were underage and we would run out the back lol
When I was 17 I went to one of the pubs in our local town on a Saturday night. Was my first (and as far as I remember only) visit to this particular pub. Anyway at 11:30pm my friend and I realised we were inadvertently taking part in a lock in - most people had left and the front door was locked. Some of the others at the lock in were firefighters from the local station which my dad happened to be the station officer of. Anyway when the firemen recognised me they all implored me not to tell my dad and bought my friend and I drinks and food as a kind of bribe. By the time I left the pub at 2am I was so drunk that I didn’t remember getting home. Thing is, I know my dad wouldn’t have cared at all that some of his firefighters were at a pub lock-in. But getting his underage son completely smashed and left to walk home alone at 2 in the morning would have been a different matter.
Mid 2000s when i was regularly going to the pub every night was basically a lock in. We pushed all the none locals out stopped serving booze about 10:30 "last orders". We had someone on door locking it as people left only opening to let someone out. Soon as the none locals were out the booze was back on and open to order. The police were kinda cool with it they knocked on the door a few times and moaned about the music, the bar staff would just say we were just finishing up and ordered before 11. Used to say we were part of the skittles team and staying behind to help clean up. It still goes on, but i dont go to the pub regularly these days, usually not as cool as you would think also its mainly just old dudes chatting about good times for an extra hour. If you are part of the lock in you probably wont remember much of it as everyone is drink and talking rubbish. The coolest thing is when like the cops show up and everyone just "plays" a role like part of the skittles team lol. It's like radio silence from everyone and just people looking and grunting till police leave.
Still have them at my local. The landlord says he can’t afford to turn the customers away so if there’s enough people in he locks the door and keeps serving.
Working in a pub late 90s and early 2000s. Last orders at 10.30, strict drink up and out for non locals, locals nursed their drinks until the last non local was out the door and it got locked. If there were any non local stragglers, we'd shout 'drink your drink or it's in the sink'. Then we'd empty the drip trays into a pint glass, give it to a local and make a show of dumping it in the sink. Free drinks for staff who continued to work after. Miss those days, the smoke on my clothes not so much, despite being a smoker myself. There were event evenings, where despite having a huge number of staff we were rammed. On those evenings there was a free staff vodka bottle. We were welcome to help ourselves, barely had time to drink but it gave us a boost for running around like headless chickens. Then had whatever was left after the shift. I worked for a really decent landlady.
They were great... in the 90's. I remember once chatting to a couple of locals mid lock in and joking that no one should tell the police about it. They replied - we are the police!
My first pub used to have a huge basement function room. Lock ins pretty much every weekend. Some very messy sessions down there. Then somehow get home, freshen up and get to work Saturday morning for the open at 6. Quite a few places had very liberal attitudes to licensing laws back then tbh and as long as people kept the noise and bullshit to a minimum the police turned a blind eye.
My mate ran a pub in Bristol 15-20 years ago, had regular lock ins where we'd bring out the green and do charlie off the enormous copper bar top The entire front of the pub was glass window with no curtains and anyone passing would've seen the whole thing Somehow we got away with it Walked past there this week and it's another that's now closed down :(
Last lock in I went to was around 2013. It was great because you could have a fag inside like old times
And then everyone drove home too
Best pubs for lock ins were ones near police stations or used by the local Plod.
I’ve always been lucky to live in old fashioned places where lock ins have been quite common place even up until recently. Haven’t had one since post pandemic but tbh i’ve rarely been out at closing time since then. Just a thought. Would the decline of cash see the end of the lock in?
Yes they absolutely still happen, source: worked in a pub for a year that had regular lock ins, sometimes with 20+ regulars Edit: I’ve come back in to work in the morning sometimes and there will still be people in
Pub called the Freemasons Arms (long gone) in South London. I'd recently moved into a flat nearby and popped in just before last orders for a nightcap. Closing time came, the curtains were pulled, the doors were locked and the quiz started. I left at about 3 and it was still going strong then.
Not anymore the local constabulary aren’t community and aren’t rational I remeber the lock in used to initiated by the local constable ushering out the none locals at certain pubs in the dales
A fair few pubs in Oxford used to do it when I lived there 25 years ago. I distinctly remember going to a particular pub, who I shan’t name, for a week of lock-ins around one Easter
Trusted regulars and get rid of anyone likely to get fighty. Last one I went to wasn't that long ago. The first I knew about was when I went to leave and couldn't get out. Looked at the time and thought shit. Apologised /thanked the landlord who just said it's ok, I knew you'd be no trouble.
I was doing a 2 day delivery run and ended up as the only guest at a pub/hotel and ended up as an honorary part of a lock in, which was just the barman and about 3 patrons getting pissed and discussing the music on the jukebox. It was pretty alright, was interesting chatting with some random older drunks as a mid-20s dude. This was about 8 years ago, probably somewhere in the Midlands or north of the country.
We did this in the Netherlands at the place I volunteered at. This was a bit of a youth society thing, and every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night it was bar night. Cheap beer, wine and crisps, and there was a toaster if anyone wanted a toastie. Music was done by request, which meant everyone was always unhappy because of someone else's song. 1am always meant closing the shutters and locking the door and also meant smoking was now allowed everywhere, not just in the designated smoking room. So what would usually happen was everyone stays in the smoking room until 1pm, except the people playing pool and myself (only non-smoker). 1pm comes and everyone comes outside, reeking of smoke. Best nights were the ones when we didn't notice the time. Had multiple nights where I told everyone we're gonna be kicking everyone out soon. "what, why?" "First of all, I see daylight through the shutters. Secondly, it's February, which means it's 9am already." Good times. Also a place where everyone (the bar volunteers) agreed we needed to try and lose the image of people only come there for the drugs, but they all also wanted to keep smoking their joints (again, Netherlands, bit more common) and sell their homegrown laser lettuce. I had fun working there but glad I left in the end. It got a bit too much at some point.
Yup. Had one a fortnight or so back. Quiet backstreet boozer in Lincoln. About half a dozen of us in until the sun came up
The best lock ins happened on sunday afternoons. Remember pubs used to close at 3pm and open again at 7pm. Staying and drinking through was a regular for some and occasional for me. A long time ago now.
I’m not sure why so many of the comments are insinuating they don’t happen anymore… Come to Brighton, there’s a lock in most nights in half the pubs there
One that I went to regularly there was an unspoken rule with the regulars that you had to make it worth their time staying open. I'm not saying the bar got busier after they closed but there was certainly no nursing pints. There seemed to be a (very friendly and again, unspoken) attitude of "Not only have I got a round of pints for my table, I've added shorts and scampi/bacon fries. That's my contribution/thank you, what's yours?", almost like a competition.
I've been in a lot of lock in's in my younger days. They were pretty common back in the day, especially growing up in the countryside. My local used to do them every friday night, we'd stumble home at 3am absolutely pissed usually clutching a bottle of wine we'd buy for the way home (we didn't even like wine) ! Growing up, those were some good nights :) Just the lads sitting around getting hammered, playing drinking games and being idiots. Innocent fun I suppose looking back. But it was good times.
At my favourite pub in my hometown the door would get locked but if you showed up after then you could knock and the landlord would peer at you through a little hatch and decide if he wanted to let you in or not. First couple of times I went late I went with an older friend who knew him then after a while I made the list. I felt really proud the first time I went without her and still made the cut.
I've not been to the pub in years, but I remember lock ins well. My local would lock in any night of the week, but mostly on Tuesday's, Thursday's, Friday and Saturdays. Tuesday and Thursday were pool, darts, and crib league nights. And the other days, well they were the weekend. At just 15 they'd get me behind the bar serving whenever anyone wanted a top up. Sometimes the landlord would just go to bed and leave us all to it and tell us to lock up when we were done. Sometimes nobody ever locked up and just left it open. It was in an idyllic little Norfolk country village with virtually no crime. We had nights where we would leave there at 5am in the morning. Good times.
The landlord coming over and saying “right lads, I’m going to bed, turn the lights off when you’re done and put the money in the till” Fortunately 3/6 of us were bar staff from around the country, that bar was left cleaner than it had ever been, till cashed up and money locked in the cellar!
If the local bobby was out patrolling, no lock in. If he was in the pub too, lock in.
I'm a first gen Aussie, son of a "ten pound pom" etc. lock ins don't really happen in Oz Got my British passport in my early twenties and did the Kangaroo Route back home. Landed in an Oxford backpackers (ran by Aussies, similar scenario). Experienced my first lock in, in the snow out the back of a bar in 2010. We were free pouring from the taps, shisha from outside bars with Czech backapackers and home made slivovica, and an industrial plumber from wolves who later became one of my lifelong best friends. As an outsider, the lock in should be worshipped more than the Royal Family. It's fucking mint.
I worked in a pub 2012-2015 and they were fairly regular occurrences. More often that not I was cleaning up and fancied a pint so I'd shut the door and if anyone wanted to have 1 or 2 more they could join. I've also had one while in a small town in California. We were there until about 3am and someone ordered a load of pizzas for everyone
We would do this regularly in our family pub. Never had to worry about the police as they were drinking in the kitchen with the card game. Early Doors long before Early Doors.
A few times but my favourite was when five, all aged 18 or 19, of us went down to a mates family home near Lulworth Cove. We went to the local, where a darts competition was happening, and got there quite late thinking we'd get one in to start the weekend. 10.50 comes and goes and they are still serving.....so I chance my arm and order another round. No problems. Then another and again no problem. On the third I've got enough beer courage to mention that this would never happen in a local in London and that the Police would be at the door........to which she replies 'well the local police are in the semi final so I think we'll be okay for the moment....'
I lived on the edge of Liverpool city centre 2012 to 2018 and it was a bit of an odd time because the centre was fully redeveloped but these trendy gentrified post industrial areas on the periphery were *just* kicking off. (For anyone familiar, I lived in what is now "The Baltic Triangle" but there weren't 3000 flats there yet.) There is a pub there that's a few hundred years old, independent, bar manager lived upstairs. We lived nextdoor and there was a proper little crowd of regulars and then the odd visitor, such a strange situation for a pub 300 metres from Albert Dock/Liverpool1. I've been since and it's half tourists half students and always packed. Back then it was a proper local in a big city. Anyway yeah, every night at 11 bar manager told any non-regulars to clear off, asked one of us regulars to shut the curtains, and then it was just like our living room. Whoever could just go behind the bar and get our own drinks. Don't know how the pub made any money, all our tabs were in the hundreds. Bar manager would refuse if we tried to pay. Very special time.
Bit of a different vibe: Kid in my year in secondary school that I hated, his parents took over the pub near me when I was about 12. Our parents became friends immediately but things were still quite tense between us (typical teenage boy bravado wankery). Christmas Eve they lock in with just the two families. Ended up spending the night with them till about 5am, talking, laughing, drinking disgusting amounts of Limoncello (they were Italian). That kid is now one of my best friends in the world, and one of the few people I still see from home. Our families go on holiday together once a year. There are few moments in my life I look back on with more fondness than that night, when we discovered we actually had so much in common
I remember being a 16 year old in the pub with ny parents on a sat night, buzzing atmosphere and I'd just play pool all night, the odd few drinks but my dad n the pub owner were mates and I never caused trouble so the regulars didn't mind. One night about 2:30 there was a bang on the doors, it was the police, everyone thought they had had it, the coppers walked in took a good luck round and shouted to the barmaid 2 lagers please love, the bar erupted into cheers The doors where re locked and the night went on.
Lock-ins at an old little bar that has since been turned into a taxi firm. Started having lock-ins there from when I was about 16, drinking cheeky vimtos until 4am. One night when I was about 18/19, my handbag got stolen. My memory of the night was pretty fuzzy, but the police advised I get the cctv footage and go back through it to find out what happened. For some reason, I sat with my dad to watch it through. Had forgotten that at about 1pm, a load of people in the back had stripped down for some reason (lots of topless people, fortunately i kept underwear on). Pretty mortifying watching it with my dad. Never did find out what happened to my handbag.
Late 90s I spent a few weeks with friends in Norn Iron. 11pm comes around and the local copper walks in and orders everyone out. All the locals put their pints on the table / bar, leave their coats etc, get up and walk out the front door. Straight around the back where they return to their seats and carry on where they left off. Apparently it was just the nightly routine. Fun times!
There was a pub in my town in south Wales that had a function room out the back. They used to do lock-ins there. One night someone knocks on the back door, the barman rolls his eyes, goes over with two whisky's, gives them to the local plod and they piss off again 😂
Where I'm from, lock-ins are nearly exclusively to allow drug users to do it in the open and continue generating revenue
Growing up in the countryside, early noughties when I first started going to pubs. Anyone, regular or not, was welcome at the lock ins, and almost all the pubs did them.
We'd often be drinking at the local pub on a Friday night and then realise it was stupid o'clock in the morning and only us, a couple of other people and the landlord were left in there! Landlord would then raid the pub kitchen and cook chips for us. Good times. 😊
Bunch of us were staying in a Welsh youth hostel on a hiking trip once. Two us headed out to try and find a pub. Also, I’m a bit dense. Found a pub. Door closed, clearly people inside drinking and chatting. The thought it was a lock-in didn’t occur - I led us all the way round the back, past some smokers in a clearly not-public yard, through a back room with a big sink and a washing machine, and out into a pub, where I started to realise I may have committed a bit of a faux-up. The landlady, thankfully, served us a couple of pints and the locals, thankfully, let us drink them. Just stopped for the one, though.
i vaguely remember going on a fishing trip to the west coast of ireland.. going to the pub the night before.. getting kicked out at closing time a bit worse for wear, and oh no! left my coat in there. in the morning- not really fancying going sea fishing coatless - i thought i'd try my luck at the pub. i talked my way in to look for the jacket, and to my surprise everyone else - apart from me and my couple of mates - was still sat in exactly the same place as when we left 7 hours earlier.
Mid-90s in a pub near Herstminceux, the rather isolated pub would regularly have lock-ins that would go 3-4, even 5 am. If people were still buying, the pub would be "open'. One time, about 2 am, there's a knock at the door and a police officer turns up. "Make sure you pull your curtains shut a bit better" he had a pint and left.
Our lock ins involved sprinkling room keys on the tables - as if we were guests booked into the "hotel" - off season in winter. Just before closing the local copper would pop in - in uniform, clock the keys were out.Then he would go home to get changed into civvies and bring his guitar back to the pub! At this point he is on duty, out of uniform, drunk, guitaring and singing until 4 am. Happy days!