Photo-a-Day  (Tuesday, 22nd December, 2015)

What on earth is a Spanish
restaurant doing at the Whitesmiths Arms ? Wigan is trying to become something that it's not. It doesn't work ! Get real.

I went in here once and the food was awful.

I'm inclined to agree with Alan, let's stop trying to make things what they can never really be.

Alan, it HAS been 'working' as you call it, for quite a number of years,it rescued The Whitesmiths, which would have probably been another empty pub but for Carlos. British bars work in Spain dont they, so why not Spanish here? There are tapas bars in most British towns, we have more than our share of Chinese, Indian etc, etc.I think YOU should get real.

I seem to recall in the late 60's early 70's when I started to go into pubs, the Whitesmiths was not only quite a "classy" pub, but one of the very few places around Wigan where you could get a pint of Boddingtons.

For new readers I would add that at this time Boddingtons was very much a Manchester based brewery at Strangeways next to the prison. Today that has completely gone and the brand owned first by Whitbreads and now Anheuser–Busch InBev - megabrewers. The beer also changed from a very thin, light, bitter very hoppy bitter beer which was almost unique, to a tasteless smooth bland beer for the mass market - the so called "cream of Manchester". Sometimes change is not for the best. Going back to the god old days not only did the Whitesmiths have the regular Boddingtons but I am sure that I remember they used to do caks of a special Winter brew version that was slightly stronger. Again its been 40 odd years ago so my memory could be playing up.

Have to agree with Jonno. The more variety the better. I wish them well.

Very good photo, Danny.

Moaning Mick strikes again

The times I've been to Casa Carlos the food has always been exelente.

So true Carolean Boddington's was an excellent beer, the only pubs that I knew had Boddington's was the Whitesmiths and also the Bowling Green at Newtown, Whitbread spoiled the beer it didn't taste anything like the original.

Everywhere you go, mick, is awful. Moaning owd sod.

Carolean, do you remember Eve and Tom, with Joe and Alf behind the bar?

Mick, that's because you are addicted to fish and chips, pie and peas, steak pudding and chips, or any combination of the above. Nowt wrong with that Mick.

Used to frequent the Whitesmiths every Sunday after mass at St. Johns in the early 60's. Surely this entrance shown is not on Standishgate, it must be the tradesmans entrance at the back. Good pic by the way.

Bass was sold at the Whitesmiths no head on flat, int 60s.

Cyril. Thanks for mentinoning the Bowling Green in Newtown. I could remember there was Boddingtons pub up there but not the name. I lived in Scholes but had friends from WGS in Newtown, including Ian McDonald whose father was the Vicar of St Marks.
david b Sorry I don't remember the names just the beer. I wasn't that old in the late 60's (if you get my drift) and left Wigan for college in Durham in 1970 and only paid social visits since then.

Sorry to put a blanker on bodington beer but my brother worked there for 20 years until it finished,he always claimed it was one of the weakest beers you could buy, today beer is made from water chemicals and sugar the days beer were made from hops ,barley and yeast are long gone,poor beer large profits.

Sam h Have you never heard of Real Ale or Cask Ale ? Not a chemical in sight, barley, hops and yeast are used, how can you make ANY beer without those ? Not with chemicals alone, you had better have a word with your brother.

Well me and the governor wouldn't be seen dead in the place. It smacks of that awful Benidorm holiday show, sorry not for us and it is well out of place in Wigan.

Some of the comments on here regarding a "foreign" bar are typical of some of the folk that make this town a victorian backwater full of prehistoric bigots

Jennifer, have you ever been to Benidorm ?

Absolute rubbish Jennifer.

Jonno ,when my brother worked there it was made from the raw materials properly,but large brewery's of today don't ,brew like they used to,the real ale you talk about today,is generally brewed in micro brewery's appart from the odd one,I've tried some of those at bent and bongs beer bash in atherton,and to be honest I woudnt wash the pots in it like said mass profits ,over priced

whitesmiths was my fav place .had many a good night there

Joe the barman at the Whitesmiths got so fed up with the misaiming in the gents that he put in a sign. Pleath pith ith'hole.