*Bob*

What says 'it's 2013' better than a picture of a girl with an asinine facial expression and her knockers* out? * ?circa 1978

Not borrowing ANOTHER cup of sugar?

There's some thought there - and it sounds promising. Good on yer.. We'll be back to try it out for sure.

Gas and Electricity showrooms.. I still miss them terribly.

However - just to show willing - and in celebration of HB's return: Latte, Mungo, Timotei, Brock, Chlamydia etc..

Christ no, Jeremy. We went bog standard. It's just that there's only so many times* you can see the same identikit side-splitting post re-hashed again and again and again and again and again - before you start to lose the will.. *In this case, about 481 times to date

News stories like these tend to come in self-perpetuating cycles and then wear themselves down. It's also an overcompensation for 'not reporting' stuff like this (eg Savile) in years gone by.

Jah Lush Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- .. until my dad was pissed enough to > drive home. Sober enough, or pissed enough? Either way it's a good anecdote! One thing is definitely clear.. If The Herne wants to ditch the playground.. The jewel in its otherwise shabby crown - and stay busy - then it's going to have to get a whole lot better at everything else.

Much better, thank you, Mr Lush. I used to get taken to equivalent places when I was a kid, usually on a Sunday. They had their credentials - 'fun pub' or 'family pub' plastered an giants signs outside. The parents got pissed and let off some steam. The kids ran amok, sensing a loosening of the leash. Nobody died. Everyone else avoided these places like the plague. There were plenty of other places to go.. Why should they care? Why would anyone care now? Hardly a modern phenomenon..

Have we exhausted all of the hilarious made-up ironic middle class children's names yet? Please say there are loads more to come because the ones we've had so far have been hilarious.. Not to mention it being a completely original and imaginative way of making your point.

"You will always find 4 fools at the door. Tom, Matty, Ludder and jim. Freindly crowd around dart board. BEWARE dont sit in peggys chair on a saturday night." Sounds too good to be true!

You're only in Herne Phase One (HP1) though, Pibe. Herne Phase Two (HP2) is coming: Phase two is 'not' standing by the climbing frame, but instead spending most of your time at the table - with intermittent trips required only to ask them to come down from the aircon ducting. The is The Golden Time. Herne Phase Three (HP3) is the one we're about to enter: where you don't have to go any more - thank god.

Will be interesting to see what happens. It's an odd notion that pubs which are packing 'em in ought to be more like this or more like that for one reason or another. They're not a public service - their business is in packing 'em in - and trying not to go under. The food started out rather well - but went downhill very fast - within a year. Which was a long time ago. Personally I think they started-out with higher aspirations but (as mentioned above) gave the place over to the boozing parent crowd who will forgive almost anything for a climbing frame and a few pints. This seems to have been a successful formula.

LondonMix Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I have friends without kids and they don't mind > kids in pubs if the balance is right. The Great > Exhibition seems to have found that balance. True, but it's so much smaller - which means less potential for running amok and more obviously annoying if they do. > Redressing the balance though is risky. They > might not appeal to either demographic anymore > which is a real gamble. Agree too.

Girl82 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > +2 customers - as if the pub does become more > 'adult-oriented', I would certainly go there a lot > more often! As someone without kids, I much prefer > to have a quiet drink without children running > around screaming, and as a result tend to avoid > The Herne at all costs. I can't see this pub ever working as 'adult oriented' though. It'll never be adult-oriented enough to satisfy those who'd prefer not to mix with littluns. As it is it at least satisfies one group - and it's easy to avoid for anyone who wants to.

If they do ditch the play area and even if ("if") it manages to hang onto its key clientele, the place will be even more fruitbat crazy kidz than it was before. There'll be nowhere to contain the little blighters and they'll just run around the tables screeching like banshees - as their limp parents make half-hearted efforts to chide them. So anyone hoping for a quiet drink in the sunshine, post-change can think again. If the new owners thoughts are 'hey, this pub's doing ok - let's take that playground bit out and make even more cash!' someone should tell them that the place used to be one giant morgue before it scooped the family crowd.

It's a big old place. The playground bit takes-up a good portion of potential table space outside, but it can't account for much more than 25%, tops. Taking into account the inside, that's not a massive amount of overall capacity. Lots of people with kids go not just because there's a mini-playground, but because the prescence of the mini-playground is like a big flashing light which says 'it's ok'. The playground is the only real USP of that place. To anyone with kids of a certain age, the playground overcomes all other failings (of which there are many) in one fell swoop.

UncleBen Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- I will definately be going to the Herne once the changes are made. Well done the new owners. Okaaay, so let me just keep a note this. So far, that's +1 punters .. and -300 punters

woodrot Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > aaaaaaargh...my EYES! > > http://womad.org/artists/sometime-soon-arts/ Very funny. Well I suppose if something's worth saying..

still banned?

Great stuff.. Has potential to develop. MrBen Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > And no Sue (yet). Only a matter of time.

http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/200477/london_life/3006/they_are_coming/1

Ps - if by some remote chance they do all die then it's James Barber's fault - naturally.

I guess it's either an insult or a compliment, depending on who's saying it