A bit rough then?
I used to drink at a pub on Teesside that had, to say the least, a bit of a rough edge. Bare boards on the floor, with a sprinkling of sawdust (still sawdust on the floor in the 1980s, you never see it now outside of theme pubs). Although there was the odd table with old men playing dominoes, in the main its clientele was hard-bitten foundrymen mostly, covered in tattoos and burns from the molten iron.

A real old-fashioned boozer, really. What I was doing there regularly I'm not very sure, now that I come to think of it, good beer I suppose, but once you became a regular you were kind of accepted as one of the hive and I never had any trouble myself; however fights were common and seemed to spark up from nowhere.

One evening I was once chatting to the landlord about the fights in the pub, and commented that I supposed he kept a baseball bat or something under the bar for when trouble really got out of hand.

"Nah" he said "The thing with bats and stuff is that they're quite intimidating, but they're not always that easy to swing and get a good hit in, and it can get grabbed, and all that. If I just want to get people out I just grab them and chuck them out" - this was true, that's just what he did, usually after getting their attention with a polite tap to the kidneys.

He continued "If I want to really stop them then I use this:" He reached under the bar and pulled out an old tenon saw. This thing had a blade about ten inches long, with a thick brass bar down one edge, and a set of jagged teeth down the other that, though dirty, still managed to glint in a meaningful way.

"It's got a good handle for grip", he said, brandishing it by way of demonstration, "and once you chop someone with it the bastard's not coming back for another"

"I bet they don't", I said, musing on what sort of wound a thing like that would leave.

Despite the reassurance on the security front, I started to find myself drinking in different pubs more after that.
(richardm, Fri 6 Feb 2009, 10:10, 5 replies)

It wasn't
the Bongo was it?
(TheColonel, Fri 6 Feb 2009, 12:26, closed)

The Bongo ??
There's never been any sawdust on the floor - and there's certainly no old men sat in the corner playing doms!

Bongo is famously infamous - but is still one of the best (and safest) clubs in the town.
(apollo36uk, Fri 6 Feb 2009, 14:38, closed)

Sounds like
The top house at Haverton Hill - Friday lunchtime strippers plus Pie & Peas for a quid

Either that or one of the pubs down South Bank (now mostly gone or boarded up)
(apollo36uk, Fri 6 Feb 2009, 14:31, closed)

A 10-inch tenon saw.
Now that is damned good idea.
(JohabMorelli is spenging merrily away, Sat 7 Feb 2009, 19:18, closed)

Is the Tap and Barrel still there?
Spent most of my student days in there - lock ins, dodgy Russian Sailors and excellent beer. It moved to a new location near the courts IIRC
(Mousy Tongue ...Generally bemused by life..., Sun 8 Feb 2009, 20:20, closed)