Otley Run

The Otley Run is a pub crawl in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The pub crawl was commonly known as the Headingly Mile prior to the Otley Run. It was historically a mile stretch of Tetley pubs leading in to Leeds City Centre. Over the years more pubs and bars have opened stretching it over more than a mile. The route follows the A660, also known as Otley Road at the point the pub crawl commonly begins. The Otley Run is a popular social gathering for student clubs and societies from The University of Leeds, Leeds College of Music, Leeds College of Art, Leeds Trinity University, Leeds Beckett University and The University of Bradford Hockey Club ^[1] and is also a common activity for birthdays and other celebrations^[2] among graduates and city residents.^[3] Participants often wear fancy dress^[4] and coordinate their costumes to a particular theme. It is also traditional for students of Roundhay School, Notre Dame Sixth Form College, Horsforth School and Abbey Grange Academy Sixth Form to do the Otley Run on their last day, as well as students from Otley's Prince Henry's Grammar School Sixth Form, with their run usually including various pubs and bars around Otley as well as the traditional Headingley Mile destinations.

History of the route

Early incarnations of the Otley Run route covered considerably more of the Otley Road and followed it closely. The tradition of starting an Otley Run early predates The Licensing Act 1988's repeal of the law requiring pubs to close in the afternoon. Prior to this, Otley's status as a thriving market town having given it exemption from this law^[5][6] made it a popular start point. A journey covering the Tetley pubs lining the main road would therefore pass or approach such sites as the University playing fields at Bodington Hall and Weetwood Pavilion,^[7] as well as Carnegie stadium, Castle Grove Masonic Lodge, the famous Lounge and Cottage Road cinemas, Woodhouse Ridge, the site of Leeds Girls' High School, and Woodhouse Moor/Hyde Park.

As city centre pubs began to adopt the new longer opening hours, the northern end point of the popular route crept into Adel, Lawnswood, and Weetwood in keeping with the location of The Stables (at University-owned Weetwood Hall) and proximity of student residences such as Devonshire Hall, Bodington Hall, and Oxley. Starting around the ring road junction was also popular with student sports societies thanks to Bodington's playing fields and to Sports Park Weetwood^[8] in particular. Bodington Hall's on-site bar sometimes served as an end point for some runs starting at University and heading north, whereas Woodhouse Lane or Albion Street offered end points for south-bound runs should drinkers not possess the Student Union membership cards necessary for access to LUU's Old Bar and LMUSU's Met Bar at the time.

With the eventual closure of the halls at Weetwood, Cavendish, Tetley, and Bodington and the opening of alternatives in and around city centre, the modern route choice^[9] took inspiration from the Headingley Mile, a 1.3-mile stretch of pubs throughout LS6 from Woodies' Ale House (originally The Woodman, and technically in Far Headingley) to the Hyde Park Hotel. Woodies' was conveniently close to the boundary served by cheap "Green Zone"^[10] bus tickets. Newly-opened pubs such as the converted Lounge cinema in Headingley and Dry Dock in Woodhouse were adopted to fill the gaps on the list, and many city centre bars and club nights began to jostle for position as the official end point.

Followers of the modern run using the tradition of an early start to visit as many venues as possible has caused some pubs to turn away visitors in fancy dress and in obvious large groups.

Other university pub crawls

• Gloucester Road, Bristol
• Campus 14, Nottingham
• Micklegate Run, York^[11]
• Subcrawl, Glasgow Subway
• The Claret Run, York
• Smithdown Road, Liverpool, Liverpool
• The Lumley Run University College, Durham
• Didsbury Dozen, Manchester
• King Street Run, Cambridge

References

Coordinates: 53°49′14″N 1°34′37″W / 53.8205°N 1.577°W / 53.8205; -1.577