THINK of a pub walk and you might think of a country lane, bathed in sunlight, and a fireside pint in an ancient inn.
“Those programmes where celebrities go for a walk - it’s always an idyllic landscape; Dales fields, sheep, Cornwall cliffs, pubs where smugglers met. All steeped in nostalgia and sentimentality,” says Bradford-born Ian Beesley.
“Yet for the vast majority of us the walk to the pub is often through an urban post-industrial landscape - along the canal, under a viaduct, through a ginnel, ending up at a fairly modest pub.
“In Bradford my pub walks involved dawdling down terraced streets and across industrial wasteland. The thing about an urban walk is you see a lot of stuff - graffiti, signs, gable ends, old buildings, an abandoned railway line, a blue plaque tucked away, maybe something funny - and you talk about it when you reach the pub.”
Ian, acclaimed social documentary photographer, and his friend, acclaimed poet, playwright and broadcaster Ian McMillan, pay homage to the urban pub walk in their new book, Take a Walk on the Mild Side.
The book celebrates urban pub walks in the North
Featuring hand-drawn maps and photography by Ian Beesley and new poems by ‘Yorkshire Bard’ Ian McMillan, it’s a charming ode to post-industrial pubs in the North and a guide to short urban pub walks. It even includes a pub quiz.
On sale from today at Salts Mill, the book is a sequel to Sup Up and Away, a celebration of pub heritage by the two Ians, which quickly sold out. Its success led the two pals to come up with another book.
“The first one focussed on the benefits of socialising at the pub. This second volume is about the benefits of walking to the pub,” says Ian. “It’s the anti-pastoral pub walk. I love walking through the countryside, but I also cherish cement, graffiti, street lighting - all beautiful and human to me, and with a good beer in an interesting pub.”
Quirky signs on a pub walk (Image: Ian Beesley)
Take a Walk on the Mild Side features Bradford pubs the Corn Dolly on Bolton Road, the Fighting Cock, the Boars Head, the New Beehive Inn and the Bridge Tavern on Bowling Old Lane, as well as the Sportsmans Inn in Huddersfield, Stalybridge Buffet Bar, the Grade II listed Victoria & Commercial in Leeds and a couple of Manchester pubs. “Manchester in the 1980s was dead, it was in decline. The city centre was revived by city living, and the old pubs that survived now have a whole new clientele. It happened in Leeds too,” says Ian.
As well as grand Victorian city pubs, the book pays tribute to backstreet pubs. “Growing up in Bradford, a lot of places I drank in were backstreet pubs, tied to the industry of the area. Once a big employer has gone, the pub loses its customers. That led a lot of the demise of pubs in Bradford,” says Ian, who has created a banner in homage to Bradford’s backstreet pubs.
The Green Man in Undercliffe - one of the old pubs featured in Take a Walk on the Mild Side
“I’ve always admired Trade Union banners, they’re great industrial folk art and express a strong communal spirit. I’ve made banners for organisations such as Bradford Memories Cafe. Someone said ‘Why not do a banner for pubs?’ so I created one for all those backstreet pubs struggling to survive. Orange represents hope. White is for new beginnings. The images are linked by hop vine; the central image is the Fighting Cock - a much-loved backstreet pub.”
Ian's banner paying tribute to Bradford backstreet pubs (Image: Ian Beesley)
The pub banner, along with images from Take a Walk on the Mild Side, will be on display today at Salts Mill and will be included in Ian Beesley’s exhibition, Life Goes On, in Gallery 2.
The book includes maps, with a focus on walks from railway stations to pubs. “Ian and I meet once a month in the Sportsmans Inn in Huddersfield. He gets the train from Barnsley and I get the train from where I live, near Saddleworth,” says Ian. “The maps came from me once trying to explain to someone how to get somewhere; I drew a little map and it went from there. Whenever people give directions it’s always by pub - ‘turn right at the King’s Head’.”
The walks include Forster Square station to the Corn Dolly and Apperley Bridge station to Amity Brew Co in Greengates. The brewery has created a companion beer - Sup Up and Away Brew 2 - for the book.
“ Amity is based in Albion Mills, where my aunt worked,” says Ian. “My mum and I once went to meet her after work, she walked through the gates with Roger Moore! Mum turned bright red. Roger was a knitwear model for the mill, long before he was James Bond, and my aunt got to know him at work. She said he was nice, very self-deprecating.”
Ian Beesley’s map from Apperley Bridge station to the Amity Brew Co taproom at Albion Mills in Greengates - and that Roger Moore anecdote! (Image: Ian Beesley)
The first book, Sup Up and Away, explored the industrial heritage of pubs. Take a Walk on the Wild Side highlights the health and wellbeing benefits of the pub walk.
In his foreword, Professor John Wright of Born in Bradford writes: “There is something powerful about walking and talking. Side by side, rather than face to face, conversation comes more easily. The rhythm of our walking creates space to think, to listen and sometimes to say things that might otherwise remain unsaid. At the same time, we are doing one of the simplest things we can do for our health.”
And of course there are all the things we see around us on a walk. “My local is 10 minutes walk from where I live,” says Ian. “The other day I approached a zebra crossing and sat there looking at me was a fox. It just walked across the zebra crossing and went on its way - and I carried on to the pub.”
* Take a Walk on the Mild Side is available at Salts Mill bookshop and online at saltsmillshop.co.uk