The 'Worlds End' Pub Crawl

The first ever 'The Worlds end' Pub crawl started at the ripper COMMONWEALTH HOTEL on Bull street, which is where my Mum grew up in Cooks hill.

Inside 'The Commy' has changed heaps over the years and is really worth popping in you feel like a coldie, but the main reason we came into Newcastle was to visit where the boys Grand mother grew up, but seeing it was a nice day we thought we might have a beer in honor of my mum.

This is where my mum Maureen Paul grew up in a three bedroom townhouse on Bull street with her family of nine, with the outhouse out the back so the dunny man could empty the shitter without going into the house.

A short walk down Bull street we came to our second Pub THE ORIENTAL HOTEL, which hasn't changed a bit since I was last having a beer inside.

It's still a fairdinkum workman's pub, and I can see someone one day paying millions and changing the whole inside but I like it as it is.... Hard!

Now for a short walk to the next pub and when I say a short walk well it's actually just across the street, so we just stepped outside the second pub turned around and took the photo of the third.

The legendary CRICKETERS ARMS HOTEL which again has changed heaps but I reckon it's all for the better, and as you can see the fount bar is pretty quiet but it is about 11 o'clock.

The boys were interested in having a feed so we moved out the back to the beer garden for a beaut Chicken parmie and to sink our ripper cold third beer.

And the fellas decided they wonted to be beaten in a game of pool, so yours truly gave them what they wanted while enjoying the sun and a cold beer.

Now we had a proper short walk to our next destination which was one of my most loved pubs HOTEL DELANY, this pub use to have some great bands out in the back bar when I was a kiddie.

Inside the Del has changed heaps but still is a great pub as it's a lot more open then it was, and our fourth beer was going down so nicely I couldn't wait till the next one...

On our journey to our next drinking hole I noticed a legend painted on a wall, so I grabbed a kiddie and got a photo with the man himself Bob Hawke, Harry's like whos he? I said mate he's an Australian Icon back in the day and an aussie Prime Minster. Harry goes I thought you didn't like Politicians which I replied not after him.

At the end of Darby street we came to our next stop which to me is still a new pub FINNEGAN'S Irish pub, but after walking across the road we found the bloody pub doesn't open till after 6! Crikey bloody Irish... So we were now down a pub! Trust me that's not a good thing when your on a pub crawl, but after looking at google maps there was another pub just around the corner.

How good is this just around the corner on Kings street is a new place called the FOGHORN BREWERY

And isn't it a bloody ripper of a brewery it's well set up on the inside with heaps of room to move, so I reckon they would have a pretty big crowd in there on a saturday night. We ordered a Hunter classic beer and settled back to enjoy the buildings brickwork, I love an old building with all the classic effort they put into there design... not like today's crappy stuff

But it was time to hit the road again and after a short walk to Crown street we were in fount of THE LUCKY HOTEL, and all ready for beer number six but hasn't the old lucky changed heaps...

We grabbed our beer from the front bar and waked out the back to have a gander, as you can see there opened up the back the pub into the friggin' alleyway. A roof up top keeps the rain out and it really does work well, and there was a nice restaurant out the back as well but we were still in a drinking mood.

We lost Jacko for a bit but found him on his chair enjoying the Pub atmosphere and a ripper schooner.

Now we scurried along Hunter street to the old CROWN & ANCHOR HOTEL which was our seventh Pub on the crawl, and as you can see the drop was starting to sink in to Jacko.

And this time I lost both of the fellas but after a short walk around I could hear them talking, but just couldn't find them until suddenly the bloody bookcase opened up and there they were laughing there heads off... little bastards.

As a kiddie I use to walk pass this Pub most of the time as it was an old style of Pub, with a very old style of clientele which usually founded upon the younger folk. But hasn't times changed as now everybody who want's to can grab a beer inside, and it wasn't the worst pub about and it had a pool table so the kiddies had a game before we set off a long walk to the next establishment.

Yep it was a bloody nine minute walk well that's what google said but I think it took us a bit more longer, but it was well worth it to add this grand old lady into our Worlds end pub crawl. And her name you might ask is THE GRAND HOTEL which just so happens to go with Grand old lady!

And then we walked back downhill along Watt street to pub no'9 which turned out to be Jackos favorite THE GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL, and fairdinkum the brew was starting to get someone ha,ha. No joke it took four photos to get the young fella to stop swaying, but on the forth photo I thought bugger it...

Inside the Great Northy we had a beer and a feed and a beaut game of pool in the back part of the pub, we moved around the whole pub to see the front bar and the back before moving to the next drinking hole.

Now we have moved into double figures with the tenth pub the pretty CUSTOMS HOUSE HOTEL, which is just across the road from The Great Northern all you have to do is make sure you don't get run over. The beer went down well and there was a bunch of people on a pub crawl, all dressed up in costumes and having a ripper time... Good on them.

Now to pub No11, THE QUEENS WHARF HOTEL which hasn't changed much except they have taken down the big dick, they use to have this big viewing tower which worked well but unfortunately it looked like a big dick.

Up on the veranda of the Queens wharf we enjoyed a cold Great Northern while enjoying the view over the dark Hunter river, I told the boys an old story while we were drinking our brews. 'At 9pm on a Sunday night at the Beaches hotel the pub always organize a bus to correct all the drinkers, and drive them here so the Beaches could close down for the night as there was a night noise limit so people could get up for work in the morning'. As far as I know it's still in use I think.

And that was going to be the end of the crawl but what I didn't know is that they had moved the bloody train station, I thought you could get on a tram and ride it to the Interchange but this was not going to happen. So on our walk back along Workshop way we found some restaurants near the river, so we decided to investigate and we found a bar and so the crawl added just one more stop. THE PIRATE BAR became our 12th Pub and it has a nice view which I had a real hard time seeing, and I did a first with my photographic skills. I set up for my last selfie of the night. Come to think of it, it actually isn't a selfie anyway as I always had two other fellas in the photo. So I suppose you could call it a usie! But anyway as I was setting up for our last usie I noticed the name of the bar in the background and I was looking at it and moving the phone so I could get it in the photo, as you can see poor Jacko trying to stay in the photo ha,ha. But in doing so I forgot to get my ugly mug in it, so you could say it's the best photo of the night.

Now during the arvo I had forgot that the trains stop at night but with the help of google we found out we had about seven minutes to get to the last train, but between us and the train station was a KFC! So we ran it ordered the food.... waited.... then ran out of the shop. Stopped for a usie! And then proceeded to run like hell for the last train, which we made it just as the train closed the doors ha,ha... Timed it to Protection!

So that was the end of our legendary effort of the first ever 'Worlds end pub crawl', it was a great nights drinking and I can't wait till we get the opportunity to do our second one.