The Penny Black Through The Haze. (22/08/2002)

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My first taste and to date only taste of the Penny Black was on a very drunken Wednesday morning. Myself and 2 mates had been to see Jerry Sadowitz perform that previous evening as part of his 2 sell out nights at the Fringe Festival 2002, and the drinking just spiralled from there.

So here we find ourselves attempting to squeeze every last drop out of the night and get the last few pints in The Penny Black which apparently is the pissheads last refuge at that time of night, or should I say morning. It was about 7am and the clubbers who were chucked out at 3am had grabbed something to eat and the place was full of stalwart revellers who weren't quite ready for home.

A taxi driver told me it opens around 4 or 5am on some nights, but from my experience, it doesn't always seem to open late. An apparent haven to the early morning drinker it certainly seems to have attracted a niche and loyal market. The place was buzzing (or was that just me) and I would say that most of it's clientele is local.

It was funny to see the normal world going by outside with people on their way to work as we drank our Guiness inside in what felt like the back end of a Friday night.

The Guinness seemed Ok, the atmosphere lively and chatty with rock and classic tunes in the background. I will have to revisit at some point in a more sober position and add some footnotes to this.

Verdict: Lively late night/early morning drinking den. Could prove useful in emergencies and if you can appear sober enough to get past the doorman.
3 drunken pints from 5   (Subject to sober re-assessment)

Submitted by: Darren

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