Victoria Hotel, 50 Talbot Rd, Blackpool FY1 1LR
Subject of many a venomous argument on social media about which is the smallest pub in Blackpool (we started many of the arguments…… and this isn’t the smallest 😉 The Victoria (known just as widely as Whittle Springs) is a small pub located just down the road from Ma Kellys North heading towards town. The pub is true to it’s sign, there is ‘always a warm welcome’ and always ‘a friendly atmosphere’ …… though given it’s a popular haunt for middle aged divorcees……. on occasion perhaps too friendly 😉
As with many pubs in Blackpool, the pub offers entertainment in the form of a DJ (strangely always dressed in a basketball shirt – weird USP tbh but whatever floats your boat), who plays all the Blackpool classic you could ask for, ‘Come on Eileen’….. you’ll love it!! 😉
Theres a reasonable amount of seats in the pub given its size but its not ideally set out for groups and if your planning on staying a while and want a seat, we’d say get there early, you don’t need that many in there for the seats to be all taken and standing room only……… unlike our next pub, which is one where we rarely struggle for a seat as it’s a pretty decent size and layout…………
8. Malloys
23 Talbot Rd, Blackpool FY1 1LB
Molloys is a decent size pub for town centre, part of the Stonegate chain, it serves food and your usual suspect drinks which you can enjoy whilst watching the big screens, playing pool, darts or if they still have it (not been since before lockdown 1), giant Jenga!! If you needed a reason to visit, there you have it!!
Punter wise, mixed….. it’s open all year so has a decent enough local crowd but during the season, we’d say it’s more tourist driven. It does have live music on some nights / days which may be a bit of a ‘hang over’ from what it was a O’ Neills Irish bar (you can still find O Neills written in the tiles as you walk in one entrance).
In all…. a fairly standard pub, we’d go in for a pint if we wanted to be pretty sure of getting a seat or if there was a band on……. or maybe on a pub run 🙂 ….whereas the next pub, is a relative new comer to the town centre and the type of place you go in for a drink and end up saying…. ‘shall we stay for another’ a few times without realising……..the LBP……..
9. The Little Black Pug
13 Talbot Rd, Blackpool FY1 1LB
I guess before we pass comment on the pub offerings and clientele like we’re better than everyone else 😉 ….we’d better just say…….what a gorgeous looking pub!! Compared to a lot of pubs in Blackpool centre, The Little Black Pug is a beautiful building inside and out.
The ex-school house adds a little bit of class, history and diversity to the town centre’s drinking establishments, grab a pew, grab a pint and listen to the fab DJ play his tunes. They play a variety of music in the bar with themed days / nights….. we saw Lionel Vinyl in there playing all his 70s classic hits and we’ve also been in when Northern Soul dancers are digging their thing!
As mentioned, its fairly new so doesn’t have a die hard following you get from some of the town centre pubs which we think is a good thing, there are some pubs you can go in which you can feel the eyes staring before you get through the door…. but it’s also not an impersonal tourist pub with no soul, indeed, quite the opposite and different than the others on this pub run which is why we chose it as a great place to end…… well…. that and the fact your now firmly in the town centre so to go for more drinks there’s loads of options around!
Hope you enjoyed our first town centre pub run BLOG, if so, please give us a like either here or on social media and comment, it helps soooo much. The more interactions we get on any platform, the more our ‘stuff’ gets out there (which can only be a good thing cant it?) ….. but if that doesn’t work, if you’ve enjoyed this one, give us a like on any social media and it will encourage us to do Blackpool Town Centre pub run ….THE SECOND!!!
Thanks for reading, stay safe (god, cant wait til that expression disappears!!) and drink responsibly!!!
Most of these pubs don’t serve real ale so I won’t go in