ED Forum Drinks

[Sue]

Many moons ago, ED  forum members used to meet up on a regular basis (I think monthly) in a different local pub each time to get to know each other and to have a chat over a drink.

To help people like me who are rubbish at remembering names and faces, labels were provided!

A space was reserved in the pub each time.

If anyone would be interested in this (or else thinks it's a very bad idea!) , please either post on here or PM me.

The ED demographic has greatly changed, and many of those original forum members have moved out of the area, so possibly this may no longer work for various reasons.

My partner Nygel and I are happy to arrange the first one, but hopefully other people might step up to help after that, as we couldn't undertake to arrange them all on a regular basis, though we are  happy to take turns.

Edited July 17, 2025 by Sue
Update re date

[Spartacus]

It could well end up messy with different sides of various discussions getting a few pints in, before heated discussions, fisticuffs, news headlines and shame (or firm rival pub quiz teams 🤔) 

I would pay good money to come and watch 

[Sue]

Crikey, Spartacus, you have a dim view of forum members!

I remember the drinks as being quite decorous affairs, even on occasion - dare I say - boring.

I remember one time in what is now the Victoria Inn but then wasn't (was it the Wishing Well?)  Nygel and I deserted the room with the drinks to join the karaoke in the adjoining bar.

We did a terrible rendition of some song, I can't remember what, but the bad memories linger 😂

[BrandNewGuy]

Great idea! Let's do it, messy or not 😁

[Sephiroth]

1 hour ago, Sue said:

Crikey, Spartacus, you have a dim view of forum members!

I remember the drinks as being quite decorous affairs, even on occasion - dare I say - boring.

I remember one time in what is now the Victoria Inn but then wasn't (was it the Wishing Well?)  Nygel and I deserted the room with the drinks to join the karaoke in the adjoining bar.

We did a terrible rendition of some song, I can't remember what, but the bad memories linger 😂

I think on that night everyone at the drinks was doing the karaoke as well

The nights did vary from month to month - but more hits than misses I would say by far - and a chance to meet online "enemies" and find they were sound in the flesh

 

 

 

[Spartacus]

2 hours ago, Sue said:

Crikey, Spartacus, you have a dim view of forum 

Have you not visited the roads and transport section? 

There will be the biker gang with their home made weapon of choice, a bicycle chain, vs the car mob with their weapon, a SUV tyre iron (ironic as cars rarely have spare tyres these days) and the pedestrians and disabled with prams and wheelchairs as their weapons of chaos.

It would start out friendly enough until Malumbu tells everyone a bike can't go over 20 so why should they be regulated then it will turn nasty, Rockets will fly off on one, first_mate would get their mates together, a fist will fly and Ted would get fudged whilst Penguin68 would see red as its not quite black and white, Snowy would take a hit and go as pale as snow and DogKennelHillBilly would stop drinking moonshine and get into the frey.

Messy, very messy I can tell you now 

[Sue]

15 minutes ago, Spartacus said:

Have you not visited the roads and transport section? 

There will be the biker gang with their home made weapon of choice, a bicycle chain, vs the car mob with their weapon, a SUV tyre iron (ironic as cars rarely have spare tyres these days) and the pedestrians and disabled with prams and wheelchairs as their weapons of chaos.

It would start out friendly enough until Malumbu tells everyone a bike can't go over 20 so why should they be regulated then it will turn nasty, Rockets will fly off on one, first_mate would get their mates together, a fist will fly and Ted would get fudged whilst Penguin68 would see red as its not quite black and white, Snowy would take a hit and go as pale as snow and DogKennelHillBilly would stop drinking moonshine and get into the frey.

Messy, very messy I can tell you now 

Well, I hope you will come anyway! 🤣

2 hours ago, BrandNewGuy said:

Great idea! Let's do it, messy or not 😁

Ok, BNG, we will sort something out.

Please spread the word!

If anyone has suggestions for suitable pubs, please say. Things have changed so much!

I think the first one I went to was at The Uplands Tavern, which is now The Actress.

[Spartacus]

I might, if i can get a few hundred people to turn up wearing a spartacus badge 

[Sue]

5 minutes ago, Spartacus said:

I might, if i can get a few hundred people to turn up wearing a spartacus badge 

That would be very funny, but not quite in the spirit of the thing 🤣

[OutOfFocus]

I'd be interested.

[Sue]

2 hours ago, OutOfFocus said:

I'd be interested.

Great!

I can't say there has been a vast number of interested people so far.

Maybe it's a case of "if we build it they will come", as it were.

We will get on the case and try to find a suitable pub  venue, and then a date.

But I have a feeling the pub will want to be sure there will be a reasonable number of people there buying drinks, if we are booking a room, and at present I don't think we can give them that guarantee.

Does anybody know how the people who organised it (I think Georgia was one?) did it before?

Please PM me if you would rather not post it on here, thanks.

[Sephiroth]

There wasn’t a lot to it.  Pick a pub that’s likely to have space on the evening - ask the pub can we reserve the tables. Post date and time in here 

it did grow to some quite big evenings.  But those early meet-ups were only 5 or 6 people. It grew from there 

if it’s a date I can be in London I might try and get along 

[Sephiroth]

well I killed this thread stone dead - fine, I won't come! 😉

[Sue]

1 minute ago, Sephiroth said:

well I killed this thread stone dead - fine, I won't come! 😉

🤣

Give us a chance, we are working on it! Just busy!

[OutOfFocus]

My recollection is initially it was a corner of the pub rather than a room. 

[Sue]

1 hour ago, OutOfFocus said:

My recollection is initially it was a corner of the pub rather than a room. 

Yes I think you're right, my memory is crap at the best of times, and this was a long time ago!

[OutOfFocus]

Places i remember 

- Gowlett 

- EDT

- CPT (great exhibition)

- phoenix at Denmark hill

- Magdela/ magnolia (now lordship)

 

[Sue]

4 minutes ago, OutOfFocus said:

Places i remember 

- Gowlett 

- EDT

- CPT (great exhibition)

- phoenix at Denmark hill

- Magdela/ magnolia (now lordship)

 

I don't remember the Phoenix, that's quite a way out!

[malumbu]

Phoenix and Firkin, in it's first 20 years, was wonderful. 

 

Edited May 1, 2025 by malumbu

[Sue]

2 hours ago, malumbu said:

Phoenix and Firkin, in it's first 20 years, was wonderful. 

 

They all were, the Firkin pubs.

What happened to them all? I vaguely remember the very first one they brewed the beer on the premises and you could watch.

When was that? Early eighties?

Or did I dream it?!

[OutOfFocus]

There were a number of pubs called "x and firkin".  I recall "font and firkin" in brighton. I think the original was in Lewisham.    I reemember from around 1984. At some point they got taken over by M&B and went through a number of name changes.

It was a bit out of area for forum drinks.....  My recollection is most people wore name badges with either their forum name or real name. Some people didnt want to reveal their forum id. I have some floppy disk labels I can donate to the cause!

 

[Sephiroth]

I don’t think i ever wore a badge / not because I didn’t want people to know who I was (I think most people knew) but I hate badges and wearing them 

find badges a bit cringe tbh  just ask someone there name - you’re already out socialising and drinking 

 

 

There wasn’t a lot to it.  Pick a pub that’s likely to have space on the evening - ask the pub can we reserve the tables. Post date and time in here 

it did grow to some quite big evenings.  But those early meet-ups were only 5 or 6 people. It grew from there 

if it’s a date I can be in London I might try and get along 

[Sue]

2 hours ago, OutOfFocus said:

My recollection is most people wore name badges with either their forum name or real name. Some people didnt want to reveal their forum id. I have some floppy disk labels I can donate to the cause!

I just remember sticky labels rather than badges, but I didn't go to all of the drinks. 

Floppy disk labels?! How old are they?! Are they still sticky?!

2 hours ago, OutOfFocus said:

 

 

2 hours ago, Sephiroth said:

I don’t think i ever wore a badge / not because I didn’t want people to know who I was (I think most people knew) but I hate badges and wearing them 

find badges a bit cringe tbh  just ask someone there name - you’re already out socialising and drinking 

I think they were just sticky labels which people wrote their own names on? Or at least whatever name they were willing to divulge (though it's a bit odd if they didn't want to say what their forum names were, as I thought the whole point was to meet forum members in the flesh and put faces to forum names!)

I know what you mean re cringe, but I don't remember faces/names, which obviously can appear very rude (I have recently discovered it's an actual thing which other people have too) so for people like me labels save embarrassment.

Edited May 2, 2025 by Sue

[Sue]

We have a place and a date for the first (and hopefully not the last) reborn ED Forum drinks!

We have booked tables at The Palmerston on Wednesday 11 June at 7pm, in the area by the window on the left as you come in.

It would be very helpful to us (and particularly the pub) if you could PM us in good time if you intend to come, so that we are not reserving tables which won't be used.

We will provide labels and pens  for those who would like to use them - definitely not compulsory!

Any comments or queries, please post them here or PM me!

[Sue]

This is NEXT WEDNESDAY 11 June!

Just turn up if you prefer not to give prior notice!

The Palmerston from  7pm, turn left as you come in!

(If you have been hiding under a rock, The Palmerston is the pub on Lordship Lane on the corner of North Cross Road).

Edited June 7, 2025 by Sue