The Percy Shaw, Halifax

The Halifax Courier conducted a poll among it's readers for ideas for the new pubs name, and Percy Shaw the inventor of the catseye in the 1930's prooved the most popular.The pub is situated at the newly opened Broad Street Plaza and is entered through a power assisted door. On entry my first thought was i had entered the wrong place as the first thing that catches your eye is a large number of basic chairs and tables (see photo)that would not go amiss in a backstreet cafe,and my thoughts seem to be confirmed as i glanced towards the bar area on the right with no customers there, and 4 BARSTAFF AVAILABLE TO SERVE YOU.After eyeing the place up soon realised it was one of those hideous American Diners,with ugly high chairs and tables and lots of glazed wall tiles. It is a small curved one roomed affair that had 7 casks on with one coming soon, but was devoid altogether of any atmosphere or character with window seating(some of which were plastic bucket seats)overlooking Halifax bus station.The pub was about half full on my Tuesday afternoon visit, with the clientele being made up of around 95% diners to 5% drinkers.On the plus side the barstaff were friendly and the pub bright and clean with the toilets spotless,and although not my favourite by a long chalk,someone else could see it in a different light.