It is relaxed and convivial and doesn’t feel like the UK’s strictest pub.
But the Maltings pub in York must be up there, given its rules include: no swearing, no singing, no television, no music, no stag parties, no hen dos and, for the avoidance of any doubt about the ambience it wants, no fancy dress.
It means that the atmosphere is lovely and, many would say, what a pub is all about.
“One of the nicest things anyone has said to me is telling me how good it was to come into a pub on a Saturday night and they didn’t have to worry about their own safety,” said the landlord, Shaun Collinge.
“She was a teacher and said to me that she would normally have to wait outside for her friends to turn up but said: ‘I feel very comfortable coming in here on my own.’
“To this day that is one of the most flattering things anyone has said. It is what we wanted to achieve.”
After 31 years, Collinge is calling time on the pub that he runs with his wife, Maxine, which is owned by Maxine’s mother, Anita Adams. It is on the market for £1.5m and Collinge admits he has mixed emotions.
Maintaining the rules has become harder and harder, he said. “At our age it is very tiring and very challenging.”
It became more tricky post-pandemic. “I think before Covid people were more respectful of our wishes and the atmosphere and ambience we are trying to create.
“Things have changed. People don’t appear to have the same manners, respect … patience. A lot of people seem to have a sense of entitlement and it is usually people from out of town.
“Covid has definitely changed people’s temperament. People go to restaurants and everyone is now a Michelin-starred chef, sat there judging someone else’s cookery.”
But he has never contemplated relaxing the rules. “Why should we change our beliefs to suit them? We would lose everything we’ve worked hard for, we’re trying to make the majority feel comfortable.”
The Maltings is one of the first pubs people come to on the way from the train station into town. There are a lot of parties that come to York which try, and fail, to get entry. Race days are particularly bad, Collinge said.
People are fine when they come in pre-races. “It’s after 10 pints of attitude adjustment fluid … they’ve completely changed. They’ve had nothing to eat, too much sun on their head and too much to drink.”
The Maltings’ Tripadvisor page regularly features people expressing outrage for being told not to swear.
One person expressed horror that they had been asked to leave for putting their feet on a bar stool.
“Surely anyone who reads that will go: ‘Right, that’s brilliant,’” said Collinge.
One one-star review of the food is framed and pinned proudly to a wall. Under the headline “don’t touch the chilli!!!!”, it reads (without punctuation): “the chips are amazing the chilli unbearable I lost the hearing in my ears seriously I kid you not … we were given sour cream i think a fire extinguisher would have been better.”
The menu says the chilli, cooked by Maxine, is hot, and it is, Collinge said.
The Maltings is a multiple real ale award winner with no “supermarket beers”. “The amount of times I get asked have you got a pint of Carling and I have to say: ‘No mate; it’s a proper pub,’” said Collinge.
The rules sometimes prompt customers to ask if it is a Samuel Smiths pub, which it isn’t. The brewery banned mobiles and laptops in its pubs in 2019. The Maltings’ rules go back more than 30 years.
Collinge said he makes no excuses for having high standards. “I know I can sound pretty snobbish … considering I’m from a council house.”
He said he has been incredibly touched by the nice things people have said since he announced on Twitter that he was calling time.
“People from all over the country are saying: ‘I’ll have to come and see you before you go. You’re going to be missed.’
“I’m not used to it. But it shows you that it is a majority of people who understand and engage with what we are about.”
Collinge has no idea what he and Maxine will do next. While he can’t have any say in what a new owner does with the pub, he said it would be nice if some traditions continued.
“If someone came in and wanted to continue our legacy then that would be very flattering.”
