University of York

York

Nightlife at York

I've heard there is an abudance of pubs in York and for clubbing most people go to Leeds?
From experience, what would you say? And is it expensive/a bit of a trek to get to Leeds? Or are there student union clubs at all? I'm finding it hard to get a well rounded image of the social scene at York.

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Reply 1

tb93

Who need real life when you can have everything you possibly could imagine.
Just think of imaginary clubs and bars.

University of York

York

Reply 2

Drewski

Many many pubs and bars. Mostly good to very good. Some nightclubs. Varying quality.

Leeds = 25mins on train, so hardly a trek.

Reply 3

laser

I went to Leeds the other night, it's £10 return. York's got a pretty decent selection of bars though, and imo, your experience is more defined by your friends and who you're with - which I think is the only reason people go to Ziggys.

Reply 4

Teigan

Yeah the nightlife is something that's really affecting my decision... do a lot of people (at the Uni) go on nights out to Leeds or do they manily stick to York?

Reply 5

laser

Mostly people stay in York. The clubs are a bit lacking, but there are plenty of good bars.

Reply 6

Komakino

and what of the music scene, live music?

Reply 7

psiren

The live scene is pretty mediocre. the only decene bands to play york since october are lykke li, friendly fires, foals and mumford and sons. a lot of crappy second rate indie bands like the paddingtons and the rakes do gigs here :frown:

Reply 8

cullmac

Guys you need to have realistic expectations of York, the city itself only has a population of 100,000, there are towns in the country larger then York (Huddersfield has a population of 150,000...). Considering its size York has a great variety of clubs/pubs and music venues, mostly because of the student population.

Comparing York to other cities isn't really fair, Leeds for example is eight times larger then York so naturally the nightlife will be slightly better.

In a nutshell, York isn't a major city, but unless your used to visiting a different club every night in places like Birmingham, then the night life wont disappoint.

Reply 9

puzzlebox

I'm with cullmac on this one - you have to take into account how big the place is, and for a town this size the nightlife is pretty good compared to other places I've been that are similar.

Reply 10

LurkerintheDark

The most important thing is that there is an abundance of down-to-earth students who are up for a pub crawl, eh lads?

Reply 11

Dez

The only reason York is a city is because it's got a cathedral in it, it has nothing to do with size. York is tiny, though it has an astonishing number of pubs and bars. After you've been in a few of those, you'll probably be beyond caring what the nightclubs are like.

Reply 12

laser

Dez

Well technically it's a Minster, not a Cathedral :P I think it's for more reasons than that, mainly historical (York used to be the capital of Roman England, and according to Wikipedia, it is then it was declared a city)

Reply 13

puzzlebox

*spot the anthropologist* - technically any settlement incapable of feeding itself from the surrounding land is a city :P
Also it's technically both a Minster and a Cathedral - as its a missionary centre and the base of a bishop.
:smile:

Reply 14

Cooljack

Komakino

and what of the music scene, live music?

City Screen Basement bar is the best venue for live music in the city, there usually something worth seeing once every couple of weeks if not more often, there is also live music at the Dutchess and Fibbers though the dutchess is too big for a city like York and so you can guarentee 95% of the gigs they put on will look empty, and the owner has an apparent ego problem. Fibbers occasionally gets good bands.

As for general night life it's a bit gash, most of the bars and clubs are pretty undesireable. I don't go to the uni though so not really sure what most uni students do in York these days, when im in town I usually end up drinking by the river and then going to dusk before going home, or if I can face it some god awful place like the Willow, though your probably more likely to get hepetitus than have a good time in there.

Reply 15

Schmokie Dragon

effley

Loads of pubs, loads of good bars. Some very good bars.

Two well established clubs (Gallery and Tru/Toffs), a couple of seedier joints (Ziggy's and The Willow) and a few bar-cum-clubs (BPM, Salvation, erm . . . I think there might be some more). Oh, Fibbers and Duchess. They do live music and club nights. I hated Fibbers but Duchess is pretty good. Very cavernous. I tend to stick in York for clubbing. It isn't AMAZING but I manage to have decent nights out.

Leeds is easy to get to and about . . . £6 return with railcard? Not too bad. I don't know much about the club scene in Leeds, just the 'gay scene'. Mission is wonderful and Religion was dire when I went but I've not been anywhere else.

Reply 16

johnthackeray

York's night life is ok but I've got to say it's not very student based you see alot of oldies out and about going back for a weekend etc makes me happy I went to university somewhere else and didn't stay in my home town.

Gallery - overpriced, chav hole
Ziggys - cheap and nasty
Salvation - alot of old people
BPM - Stinky and oldies again

Bars in general that are really good are revolution and dusk. Dusk is very very good, always go for a drink there when I'm back up visiting.

Reply 17

laser

johnthackeray

There's a reason a lot of Uni students don't go out on a weekend, all the student nights are during the week

Reply 18

johnthackeray

laser

There's a reason a lot of Uni students don't go out on a weekend, all the student nights are during the week

it's like this during the week too and not alot of studenty nights are on in york during the week, I know of a few places, Ziggys being one on a wednesday but it's crap

Reply 19

cullmac

All of the student nights in York are during the week...
Student nights certainly aren't 'chav holes' or full of old people, they are as you might expect full of students, as they tend to be the only people who can go out to a night club mid week. Ziggies wont even let you in on a Wednesday without your York card, York St John students cant even get into ziggies on a Wednesday!