Leeds Football Pubs - No.1
No. 1 -The Scabby Taps or the Scarborough Hotel
The Guardian described the Scarborough Hotel as a ‘salubrious gastropub’, and the Guardian should know!
With its selection of eight indulgent pies, it's a far cry from the 1970s when for the first half of the decade it was the premier football pub in Leeds City Centre and a packet of cheese and onion was a rare epicurean delight.
Hundreds of youths with denim and white skinners, Docs, sheepskins or butcher coats would pack the Scabby Taps to the rafters. It was a meet and greet pub. Opposition supporters would arrive at Leeds Train Station on their football specials oblivious to their route would take them past Leeds United's most notorious followers.
Supporters who had spilled out onto the pavement outside would alert those inside that the opposition had arrived, and pursuit commenced. The police would try in vain to close the door, but the heavying mass of angry humanity would win the day. A phalanx of Leeds support would head off in hot pursuit, their battle cries frightenedly amplified by the Dark Arches, finally dying out as they reached the Dragonara Hotel to pitch battle with the fleeing away fans.
The Taps would be left silent, like a platform after a train had departed, apart from those few traditional Yorkshiremen who had just bought a round.
It was a meeting place for Leeds Supporters from not just Leeds but for all those supporters that had travelled to Leeds from all over the UK. It was common to see Leeds fans from Glasgow being misunderstood by supporters from Lincoln, Derby and Nottingham Leeds mixing amicably with their ‘eh up me ducks’, or Cockney Whites chatting to Harehills lads about investments.
Many had moved away from Leeds, or their families had, in the post war diaspora but there was one pull back to Yorkshire and that was Leeds United. By the mid 1970s too, Leeds supporters’ reputation was fearsome and the hardest kid in every school or college was always Leeds, resplendent with their Gelderd End and YRA badges and silk scarf wrapped around their wrist to identify themselves.
Cockney Reds arriving the night before a game expecting the run of the city but were surprised that Harehills and Seacroft lads had been tipped off and the Taps emptied on their arrival.
The Landlord, Jack Senior, didn’t seem to be interested in the age restrictions. It was all money to him. He would claim to anybody that would listen, and there weren’t many, that there was a phantom in one of the rooms upstairs.
Many supporters drifted away in the latter part of the 70s to nearby pubs and by the time punk was in full swing it was regarded as an NF (National Front) pub.
Although known colloquially as the Scabby Taps or the Taps, it is correctly called the Scarborough Hotel and was run by the Scarborough family from 1823 to 1847. An advert from 1884 extols the harmonica evenings and the aptly named Pablo the Magician once performed there too. You could water and stable your horses at the Hotel, but despite Leeds green credentials it is a facility little called for now.
Even in the 19th century it had a wild reputation and between 1875 – 1920 it was run, unusually, by landladies as they kept a ‘better house’.
It was part of the Leeds Jazz scene from the 1930s to the 1950s with the famous, well in Leeds, Bob Barkleys Jazz Band holding residence with the eponymous Bob playing the Tuba.
Its proximity to the train station has meant that the Scabby Taps has always attracted football supporters, although over the years it has become more gentile, sometimes merely watching the arrival of opposition ‘firms’ including the infamous ICF having their ‘lunch’ across the road at Dinos.
In 2003 the ever-youthful Toby Flint became the landlord. Toby must have been 12 when he took on the pub. The pub is now part of the Nicholson chain, and has moved decidedly up market, but so have football fans. At the side by the gents’ toilets, you will find the Mavericks congregating. A fiercely independent group of supporters that have travelled for years to virtually every game, home, away and in Europe.
On the other side a collection of supporters who at the core sit in the North East Lower, once affectionately called by a senior steward at Elland Road as the ‘naughty boys corner’.
In the middle , supporters four deep struggle to catch the eye of the bar staff mixing with the occasional scantily dressed hen party with the chief bridesmaid looking bemused that her carefully researched Trip Adviser descriptive of a traditional pub with ‘great ambience and character’ had seemingly metamorphized into a bacchanalian party.
Although it may now sport the label ‘gastro’ there is little food consumed on match day. There is neither time nor space, as the pumps are in continual use serving one of numerous draft beers and the tables are full. Despite the efficiency of the staff, such is the queue at times, that even football supporters have been seen buying a ‘nice bottle of red’ to maintain uninterrupted convivial conversation or perhaps its reflective of one of age's difficulties, a weak bladder.
In spite of this upmarket image, it will still be visited by the match constabulary who with a cursory glance withdraw, as inconspicuously as they can in near riot gear, disappointed that a free sweet potato and goats cheese pie has not been passed in their direction.
On non-match days the Taps takes on a different persona and is ranked number 1 on Trip Adviser for Leeds bars, but that is another story. Then its customers have time to consider its ceramic tiling and the Scabby Taps becomes the Scarborough Hotel taking on an architectural and sophisticated appeal.
For Leeds supporters arriving at the Station, it is worth a visit to this traditional football pub , down ‘the steps’ or ‘the turret’, to dwell on times past and maybe talk to those who ‘were there, back in the day’.
The Scarborough Hotel , Bishopgate Street , Leeds, LS1 5DY Tel 0113 243 4590
For full menu- https://www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/
Beers- Beavertown Neck oil, Beavertown Gamma Ray, Tiny Rebel Catch, Curious beer Lager, Schofferhofer Grapefruit Radler, Maisels Weisee, Peroni, ST Stefanus, Nicholsons Pale Ale, Sharp’s Doom Bar, plus a variety of cask ales.
Bottled Ciders- old Mout Berries and Cherries, Strawberry and Pomegranate, Sandford Orchards Devon Red, and Berry Lane, Bulmer’s original.
Liquid Spirits- 16 different Gins, 13 Different Whiskies, and a number of cocktails (not recommended on match days!)
Wines -14 different vineyards with 7 House wines
Taxis - outside or at the Train Station c£8 to Elland Road
Bus - R2 Service to Elland Road- a 10 minute walk through Dark Arches to Sovereign Street.
