Trying to leave this drinking place, my feet are magnetised for furniture.

[reddragdiva]

Internet rumour actually true shock!

My suggestions for the SAVE THE DEV campaign:

1. Working dishwasher. Being famous for dirty glasses isn't actually a good thing.
2. Clean the pipes. The beer needs to be drinkable.
3. I've asked Robin about real ale before, and he says it goes off before actually getting drunk — even the nitrokeg stuff. But if you can sell Newky Brown in bottles, how about a real beer in bottles? (Anything but Bombadier, that is.)
4. More seating.
5. Ventilation.
6. Dress code problems, c.f. the unfortunate Earth Loop Recall incident. I've seen the obvious trouble chavs turned away, but it's biting too many of those precious few customers.

Your suggestions welcomed.

I suspect the problem is that twenty years ago goths were pretentious gutter trash, now they're overpaid computer geeks so they're fussier. (The other problem is that Camden is being methodically killed by the council, but that's not something the Dev can change directly.) For the poor, the competition is Wetherspoon's, who have no smoke and drinkable beer very cheap.

Comments

[jozafeen.livejournal.com]

Cleaner toilets! Smiley barstaff ;-)

[redshira.livejournal.com]

Yes! Barstaff who don't make you feel like they're doing you a huge favour just by deigning to take your money in exchange for a drink.

[redcountess]

Oh god yes, the women's toilet is a nightmare!

[yaruar.livejournal.com]

20 years ago most pubs in london were like that, just that most of them evolved.

I think to even stand a chance of survival those are the least amount of things they can do. I don't know how possibel it will be to turn the place around though. Location is one of it's problems, it's jsut far enough from the main camden drag to get no passing trade and all the regulars seem to have dried up and given up on it so they aren't even dragging new drinkers there. I think the management need a serious rethink as to what they want to do with the place. Maybe diversify a bit more (certainly last times i went a long time ago the metal nights were a damn sight more popular than the other gothic nights)

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a manifestation of "Maybe Next Week" syndrome. It's a circumstance where a physical establishment or *long*-lived recurring event loses steam after a while purely because it's become reliable. So long as there's not a feeling that "this might be gone soon" or "This might be the last time I'll ever be here", then the emphasis on actually GOING is lessened, which means fewer familiar faces, which pushes the appeal even further away. The nearest goth drinking establishment to me ends up with about a bi-annual scramble to stay open for this reason, and the main reason that it does keep coming back is that the owner realizes that when goths DO show up, they tend to drink a lot and not get into fights. It's worth having to re-motivate them to show up again.

[edwards.livejournal.com]

Do these cookies contain real goths?

[steer.livejournal.com]

Actually, I rather like the Dev as it is --- it has a certain charm and I seem to end up having a few pints there every time I visit london.

[vampwillow]

isn't that a factor of the problem though. The Dev gets visitors from out of town who come for the markets and the name of the place, but it is losing / has lost / isn't replacing (m)any of the 'locals' it needs for a 'base level' of customers and turnover. A place can't really survive just on occasional visitors :-(

And I'd include myself in that as I'm only a couple of miles away on a direct bus route.

[ergotia.livejournal.com]

I like it just the way it is as well.

[juliet]

I quite like Bombadier, myself.

Real beer would make the place tolerable; decent seating might make it approaching pleasant - I get dragged in there by Kitty occasionally when we're in Camden & always get pissed off because there's nothing I want to drink. Vodka & orange isn't really an afternoon drink.

[jasontheknight.livejournal.com]

Real beer would make the place tolerable; decent seating might make it approaching pleasant - I get dragged in there by Kitty occasionally when we're in Camden

Ah, I think I see your problem right there ;)

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I'm prepared to Support the Dev while it implements changes to make it a nicer place to be, but if they think they can treat us like crap and have me drinking there in support of them they're much mistaken!

[ergotia.livejournal.com]

So you want it tarted up and made over to be just like every other pub in London?

[secretia.livejournal.com]

Earth Loop Recoil incident

it's earth loop recall (http://www.earthlooprecall.com) - sorry, to be a pedant an' all, but pr is pr!
*smiles*

suggestions for improvement?
*cleaner/nicer toilets
*nicer furniture (it's not conducive to sit there for very long cos it's so uncomfortable!)

i feel however, that a lot of these suggestions are going to require a cash injection from the brewery - and unless they see trade picking up, that's unlikely to happen...so that means picking up trade without much cash - or at least good will from others

if publicity gets around that they need more trade, i'm sure that people would show up more often - whatever their reasons are for not going there anymore...i'll see if i can get the chaps at alternative london (http://alternativelondonmagazine.com) on to it to investigate the issue...

secxx

[reddragdiva]

*ahem* fixed!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

7. Music slightly quieter, or better quality sound system, so you can actually talk to the person next to you or listen to the music. Just reducing the volume and therefore the distortion slightly would help.

I second the basic pipe and glass cleanliness problem.

[secretia.livejournal.com]

7. Music slightly quieter, or better quality sound system

oh yes, please!

secxx

Drinking weak lager in a Camden boozer

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

And I thought this was about the Camden Town tube station yuppification (http://www.alwaystouchout.com/project/62) (i.e., flattening the entire block up to the end of the market and replacing it with a shiny wedge of glass).

Anyway, Wetherspoon's is far from the only competition in Camden as far as drinking establishments go; I can vouch for Quinn's (http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/show.shtml/2555/Quinns/Camden) having a more than decent variety of beers and ales, pleasant enough decor, and (apparently) a strict no-chavs policy.

Re: Drinking weak lager in a Camden boozer

[siani-hedgehog.livejournal.com]

for those interested in stopping the wholesale destruction of all the interesting bits of London, SAVE (http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/) would welcome your help. they've been working night and day to save Smithfield Market, and i know that at least one person there is equally annoyed at the plans for Camden.

[vampwillow]

notes for the record that I will usually drink / meet friends in Bar Uno (Inverness Street) or Henry J Beans rather than the Dev ...

[lpetersson.livejournal.com]

The beers too expensive and it's too smokey....
Well, IMO...

[juliann.livejournal.com]

Maybe they fixed it (although I soooooo doubt it) but I stopped going years ago because it's a PITA to try to get in in a wheelchair, and the tables are too low to get the chair arms under. So unless it's chair friendly, let it DIE!

[redcountess]

1. Not just cleaner glasses and a better range of beers, but a better range of soft drinks as well - I like my coke fizzy! And snacks available, not just crisps and nuts.

2. Serious renovation of the toilets

3. Sort out the sound system so that speakers aren't next to where people are sitting.

4. More comfortable seating and better lighting - dark != atmospheric.

[redcountess]

Oh, and they need to sort out the ventilation!!

I forgot until I looked at the website that they serve Pepsi, not Coke, but even Pepsi is ok if it's fizzy and served in a clean glass.

[poggs.livejournal.com]

Yes, ventilation. I'm a non-smoker and although I'm OK around smokers, when the smoke lingers (and this is a venue problem, not a gripe I have with smokers), I feel less inclined to drink.

Also, summer is hot here compared to the rest of the time. Yeah, I know you Aussies think our summers are like a cold winter's day ;)

[redcountess]

No, not really, remember, I'm from Melbourne, which is very similar to London in temperature range. However, due to it's clay pan and being below sea level, London is *more* humid, and the two Summers I've spent here have been very uncomfortable. Especially as you Engrish don't believe in air conditioning ;-p

my 2 cents...

[ravennoir.livejournal.com]

I'm an outsider(I hail from the US) but upon going to London the few times that I have,I must say that the Devy is one of my favorite places in Camden to visit and it would be a real shame to see it go.

[siani-hedgehog.livejournal.com]

years ago i met yaruar in a goth pub in Camden. i'm assuming that must have been the pub that's closing? it's just... it wasn't that bad. has it gotten a lot worse, or is there another goth pub in Camden?

[flavius-m.livejournal.com]

There isn't. While there's more than a germ of truth in all the things that have been mentioned, I do feel that there is an element of familiarity engendering contempt. Oh, that place. It's so last decade, or something like that.

Having said that, I have had to make an exit to Quinn's (much better beer, yes, fantastic selection yummy yummy, better seating, yes, but horrible plasma screens vomiting foot-ball, not remotely the same kind of place, I feel like a Martian walking in there and having people turn around to look at the freak -certainly not the staff, who are actually very friendly, but customers). because a friend was nixed service at the Dev (at least initially, because of dress code although it was early and empty; then they turned around and said he was 'ok as he was with me', but the embarrassment by then was a bit too much).

It wouldn't take much to change the bad things about the Dev, but I suspect many of the people who are now dancing on its grave wouldn't go to the Dev in any case, even then.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

You can let it die.
No skin off my nose. :)

On the other hand, it does appear folks seem to be making the same complains (bad beer and unclean classes).

Of course, they'll probably yuppie it up, or turn it into a strip joint.

What was the Earth Loop Recoil incident?
Was there High Drama?

[redcountess]

Nah, I have a theory the site will be flattened and sold to developers for a yuppie ghetto to be built.