Off message - but last week a family visit to North Wales meant spending the day and night in the picture post card perfect "Queen of the Welsh Resorts" Llandudno. This kicked off with a lovely walk along the pier and then enjoying a cup of tea while taking in the views of the purpose built Victorian promenade and the limestone "Great Orme" headland. Glorious warm sunshine helped - of course it never rains much in North Wales.
There was predominately English accents about - Liverpool, Manchester and West Midlands - whose families may have holidayed in Llanddudno for generations.
That night we went for a meal and a few sherbets and ended up inside the recently restored Edwardian built "Llanduno Palladium". Alas, not restored as a musical hall any more but now a pub run by the ubiquitous Wetherspoon chain. The restoration does seem to have been done well and to a high standard. I sat on a table on what would have been the site of the theatre stage drinking beer in front of the stalls which in previous times the ancestors of those on the Pier would have been sitting enjoying live music and theatre.
The Palladium was quiet that night. Just people chatting and occasional pearls of laughter. It is also ironic that Wetherspoon is one of the few pub chains that doesn't usually have any bands, juke boxes or any background music playing.
BTW - The chain also apparently claims that many of its features "such as quiet bars and reasonably-priced lunches, are influenced by George Orwell's essay The Moon Under Water, in which Orwell described his concept of the perfect pub. Several Wetherspoons-owned pubs bear the name "The Moon Under Water".
There was predominately English accents about - Liverpool, Manchester and West Midlands - whose families may have holidayed in Llanddudno for generations.
That night we went for a meal and a few sherbets and ended up inside the recently restored Edwardian built "Llanduno Palladium". Alas, not restored as a musical hall any more but now a pub run by the ubiquitous Wetherspoon chain. The restoration does seem to have been done well and to a high standard. I sat on a table on what would have been the site of the theatre stage drinking beer in front of the stalls which in previous times the ancestors of those on the Pier would have been sitting enjoying live music and theatre.
The Palladium was quiet that night. Just people chatting and occasional pearls of laughter. It is also ironic that Wetherspoon is one of the few pub chains that doesn't usually have any bands, juke boxes or any background music playing.
BTW - The chain also apparently claims that many of its features "such as quiet bars and reasonably-priced lunches, are influenced by George Orwell's essay The Moon Under Water, in which Orwell described his concept of the perfect pub. Several Wetherspoons-owned pubs bear the name "The Moon Under Water".
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