The Crown Sports Bar, Bradford

I passed the premises this afternoon and the place was thumping. Outside in the street were persons wearing space trooper, transformer and other costumes. I take it from all that that this must be the official opening day. By the way it is called 'Ye Olde Crown' going by two new signs, one over the door and another swinging sign.

There seems to have been a lot of hype about the Olde Crown reopening so I was looking forward to paying a visit. I was in Bradford on Tuesday afternoon so thought I would take a look. I was slightly offput by the old blokes smoking in the doorway and the abandoned mobility scooter parked outside, but decided to press on regardless. Sadly it didn't get any better and on entering it was full of miserable looking old men, there was a strange smell, a strange furniture layout meaning there wasn't that much seating considering the size of the place, and to top it off at the bar there were three or four hand pulls but they were all turned round. I decided to do an about turn and left. It reminded me of the Ginger Goose but with a grander exterior and not quite as gloomy inside. Overall, fairly terrible and not a place I'd feel particularly inclined to give another chance in the foreseeable future. I really can't see what all the fuss is about.

The Old Crown opened up again about 3 weeks ago and although the Raffles amusement sign is still there the pub is still called the Old Crown. Called in around 3pm on a Tuesday and found the pub quite busy which i think was the attraction of a artist who was due to start with with his golden oldies show.There was plenty of electric pumps and of the 3 casks only one, the Doom Bar was on.