The Railway Mania Bar at the Royal Station Hotel, York

One of my watering holes when I was a student at York was the Railway Mania Bar at the Royal Station Hotel (now called The Principal York for some reason).

After a day out on the railways, we would retire there to drink keg Old Peculier. I have never found it being served anywhere else.

Years later I stayed at the hotel in the course of my day job. I found that the bar, which was in the basement and reached by external stairs, had long since been converted into a gym.

Put it down to privatisation: the Royal York Hotel was run by the publicly owned British Transport Hotels until 1983. It was a different world, kids.

But the Railway Mania Bar is not quite forgotten. A short segment of Anthony Burton's 1980 television series was filmed there.

It's a wonder I am not to be seen in the background.