Old Nottingham pubs: Why Nottingham’s ‘roughest pub’ didn’t deserve its sketchy reputation

With Nottingham being home to two of the oldest pubs in the country, it’s hardly surprising that the city has such a rich history when it comes to boozers. 

Here at Nottingham World we love nothing more than rolling back the years and remembering some of the iconic pubs that the city has loved and lost over the years. 

We of course couldn't do this without the help of you, our readers, who have experienced first-hand many of these long-lost Nottingham pubs and are kind enough to engage with our content. 

A couple of months ago we asked our readers to nominate what, in their opinion, were the “roughest” pubs in Nottingham from down the years. 

We were inundated with dozens of suggestions but in the end narrowed it down to the top 10 most popular nominations, which you can read here.

There were some pretty unanimous suggestions among readers, but one pub in particular did cause a bit of a split. 

The Fountain, which was in Bridlesmith Gate between 1962 and 1999, was described as “rough” by some former patrons, while others were quick to leap to its defence. 

One reader even went so far as to say that it “kicked off every Sunday”. 

Others, meanwhile, refuted claims that The Fountain was rough, adding that they never saw so much as a fight in 20 years of regular visits. 

With plenty of debate surrounding how much trouble actually occurred in The Fountain back in the day, we asked readers for their memories of what the pub was like. 

On the whole, it’s fair to say that the vast majority of these memories were nothing but positive. 

Here are a few reader memories of The Fountain.

“Great pub. The music and atmosphere was great. I had many great nights in there.” - Carol

“Great pub. One Saturday afternoon they had go-go dances on. Brilliant surprise!” - Sharon

“Great pub - always busy. I would visit most Fridays and Saturdays back in the 70’s.” - Martin

“The landlord looked like Charles Bronson and the music and atmosphere was fantastic.” - Angela

“Was part of an iconic weekly crawl in the 80's. Preceded by the QE and followed by either The Cross Keys, Bench and Bar or Horse and Groom. Always heaving, cracking music and just occasionally a bit of a rumble.” - Andy

“Always the last pint before getting the last bus to Clifton.” - Jim