Kinda meta, but this is the first time in a long time where I've put only the first half of my postcode in expecting it not to work and been surprised. Most of these "find your nearest XYZ" site require the full postcode which is just unnecessary unless you're looking for a fairly precise location. A full postcode can narrow your location down to an individual street, so its nice not to give too much away if you can.

For anyone not in the know, UK postcodes are made up of two parts: a general area (the outward code) and then a more specific one (the inward code.) Generally speaking a postcode + house number will be good enough to get a letter delivered to the right place, though the sorting office might not be too happy with you...

The format [0] is roughly: AB12 3CD, though the number of letters/numbers on the left side can vary a bit. As far as I know the second set of numbers is always 1 digit though, so that's how you can easily split the two sides of it to format it nicely. There's a couple of special ones that break the rules though.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcodes_in_the_United_Kingdo...

Wow a fantastic independent pub near where I used to live in London is seeing its rateable value go up 480%! This website really puts the headlines in to a nice local perspective.

It seems like the taxes only go up while the services get worse in the UK, although I’ve been away for 5 years now so maybe things improved.

One striking feature in the UK is the number of pubs that 'went on fire'.

The business is no longer viable, planning constraints (and often listed building constraints, which is protection for historical buildings, many pubs are very old) won't let them do anything else with the building so they sit empty until they spontaneously combust. Soon after they get demolished and regrow as a supermarket or apartments.

Great idea!

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/personal-finance/finance-expe... shows how little pubs make per pint, very sad.

If anyone's curious about cask beer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ud_eTwY4nc&list=PLyDTS7ZG3z... is a very interesting youtube video series by The Craft Beer Channel.

Disclaimer - I don't drink at all. Still, when visiting London, I found going to Pubs (for the food mostly) a magical experience. When you enter such place, see that it's so so old, almost like a relic, like a monument, you really appreciate the place. My business trips led me to London centre so I saw the oldest ones.

People really struggle when given a link to a web site that isn't for them, huh.

Interest in context on "government pub rates". New tax scheme?

Nearest pub

2023 Rateable Value £13,800

2026 Rateable Value £12,250

Change -£3,300(-23.9%)

I guess "no" would be the answer then.

Nearest town has 3 pubs where rates are going down significantly and 4 where they're going up. I wonder why, is it that the previous setup was unfair to those who are seeing their rates going down?

The pub I do go to each week is seeing rates going up +£3,300. That's not as big an impact from yet another inflation busting minimum wage increase.

However the much bigger concern is that people will be scared to drive there. Currently you can drive there, have a pint, and then go home, and be confident you're not triggering the limit. They're reducing this limit, which means no more trip to the pub.

I'm sure it's fine in big cities where people live in walking distance.

It's important to separate the spirit of this from the spirits of it.

Pubs as social gathering places are critical to exist and keep alive.

Drinking neurotoxins that have a lot of destruction and damage, maybe not so much.

In the UK pubs are extremely different as well than the US. This site is for the UK, since it's asking for a postal code, among other signs. The UK also I believe has last call at 11 PM, which helps fuel the binge drinking before 11 PM and the wild public afterwards. In North America, last call for alcohol can be 1-3 AM, and people generally aren't in a rush to fuel up to blast off.

It's interesting, I was hoping it would be based on more than just the rates change though. Maybe combined with Google "how busy is this place" data, for example.

brilliant website which manages to convey classic British humour on a classically British topic. Also shines much needed light on the very serious challenges independent British Pubs are undergoing - these are essential social institutions, social coherence is damaged every time one of these shut down.

I like how the status values could be used as labels of economic wellbeing for people, too:

  Somehow Fine
  Feeling It
  Struggling
  Fucked
  Absolutely Fucked

Kinda wish there was some way to quickly scroll through the pages... Also data seems to be different when ordered by different values?

When ordered by RV£ there are 43703 entries with data. Most negative RV£ change is -£137,500 for 33 Main Road

When ordered by RV% there are 43303 entries with data. Most negative RV% change is -87.0% for PAVILLION HOTEL

It shows three pubs very near me. Two of those actually closed several years ago.

The third is listed under an old name, it changed hands and changed names years ago.

it is rated: "The (FPI) score of 22 means this pub is classified as “Feeling It”"

For a dumb american, what is a 'pub rate'?

I didn't expect this website would double as an intelligence test.

Access to this site has been blocked by the Protective DNS Service of the UK National Cyber Security Centre via CloudFlare

This might be the single most British website on the internet.

I wonder if there's an equivalent use case in the US.

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For anyone else who entered a US zip code and was confused by the ‘invalid zip code’ error: this is UK only.

Broken - getting `ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR` when trying to open it in Chrome

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What is a pub? A place to drink in UK? What is a pub rate?

UK only

nice concept, but my 'nearest' was miles away and not really a pub. Hmm.

Title could use (in Britain)

Doesnt work in Europe.

Cool! Would be nice to include all world postal codes and addresses.

The one near me which is absolutely fucked, as far as I'm concerned, deserves it.

Fighty customers, crap beer, odd opening hours, and half their food menu is off ("sorry mate, we've got no cheese"). Oh, and now their credit card terminal prompts customers for a tip!

I love a good pub, but most are crap.

what is a "rateable value" here?

Ironically, the pub it suggested near me that was the most fucked closed down years ago (it's not just them, quite a few databases don't know that), so yeah, good call.

The Farmer's Dog pub is listed as fucked, maybe this site could get a shout-out on Clarkson's Farm. The difficulty of doing business in the UK is a common theme on his show.

The nearest "absolutely fucked" pub to me hasn't existed since 2008. I'd say they have bigger problems than a rates increase.

I mean alcohol is the worst drug: it’s highly addictive, toxic to the body, one of the few drugs with potentially fatal withdrawal, and a major driver of violence, accidents, and family breakdown. Unlike most drugs, it seriously harms people beyond the user — and because it’s legal, cheap, and socially normalised, its damage happens on a massive scale.

Sooooo yes happy with pubs closures.

Having watched two alcoholic family members die horribly, spurred on by functioning alcoholic friends whos only social interaction is at the pub through habit only, fuck 'em. Let them die.

We need better social spaces which do not have the token cost of drinks to use.

somehow my local, which is pretty dodgy, is doing fine. I need to driving distance to find one thats fucked, and Im not even in a well funded area

Just getting a totally black map with anonymous coloured dots on both chrome and Firefox. The pub may or may not be fucked, but the website is.

(Yes I tried disabling all the dark settings, no difference)

Find an English pub that needs you.

The UK government hates its populace, particularly its natives. Downvote all you want.

Would be much more helpful if it indicated literally anywhere on the homepage that this was specific to the UK.

Being a .com as opposed to a .co.uk, you can't even tell from the domain.

Man, it's weird being an American sometimes.

I do not drink. I am half Irish and half German.

Drinking is a _very_ weird cultural artifact from our past. It doesn't improve your life, it has been scientifically proven to not 'help you relax', and there may in fact be no safe amount of alcohol to drink; all the pop-sci headlines that say 'one glass of wine a week may improve your health' are really about studies that put the safe max at one glass per week.

From what I can tell, the UK is no longer subsidizing what is effectively a criminal enterprise that is centuries old.

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Am I the only one that has no idea what this is talking about? Even the "About" section just dumps a ton of jargon about something being a problem for "pubs" - which, very unclear from the homepage, is actually talking about bars/places to drink beer/etc in the UK.

But again, now I know it's talking about that kind of pub, what is the actual issue? Some sort of rate being added to something? What rate? Is this related to a rating system? Taxes? Is it affecting the consumer? The owner?

So confused.

While this is cool to see, would be nice to see some indication of the nation specific context for those outside that nation... especially since it's the more generic .com tld instead of say .uk ...

Maybe even a Union Jack in the corner as a background image, or something.