Otley Run



The Otley Run is a pub crawl in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The popular route covers Far Headingley, Headingley and Hyde Park areas and commonly continues towards Leeds City Centre.

Today's Otley Run is seen as a rite of passage for students studying at Leeds' universities and its modern route features in a London Underground style pub map of Leeds designed by former graphic design student Steve Lovell. Participants now often wear fancy dress, coordinating their costumes to a particular theme.

Popularity and Participation
As a recurring event in Freshers' Week, Otley Road pub crawls serve to introduce incoming students at The University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University (originally Leeds Polytechnic) to Leeds' residences and campus locations. These are also a popular social gathering for student clubs and societies throughout the year and have been adopted by Leeds College of Music, Leeds Arts University, and Leeds Trinity University.

Otley Run participants also include members of The University of Bradford Hockey Club and students of the Grammar School at Leeds, Lawnswood School, Roundhay School, Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College, Guiseley School, Horsforth School, St Mary's, Menston and Abbey Grange Church of England Academy 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 Headingley Mile venues. In 2010, Oz and Hugh's Raise the Bar featured the Otley Run in a five-minute segment, showing both presenters join a group of students taking part in fancy dress.

The enduring popularity of the Otley Run has seen it become a common activity for birthdays and other celebrations among graduates, city residents, and visiting parties. It has inspired beer bottle designs, a verse novella, and artwork depicting the venues and scenery on the route.

History of the route
Influences on the Otley Run's name and route over time include:


 * A long-standing tradition of social drinking after lectures among students of the University of Leeds, with some heading to student residences such as Devonshire Hall and Bodington Hall which had on-site cafeteria and bar facilities.
 * An occasional "Otley Run" event also open to the general public,  in which Otley pubs were opened for farmers' business use under provisions of the Licensing Act 1964, giving them favourable opening hours on market days,  set out in relevant byelaws as on Monday and Friday
 * Tetley's incredible popularity and copious Yorkshire pubs, including The Oak Inn (Original Oak) and a brewhouse at The Woodman (Woodies)
 * Students being able to include bars and events on University of Leeds and Leeds Polytechnic union premises (which were originally members' clubs and required membership cards to enter), and on-site at residences such as Bodington Hall - events included a Wednesday Bop night set up specifically to attract sports clubs and their opponents after matches.
 * Proximity of The Stables (at Weetwood Hall) to Bodington playing fields [for sports societies], of the Three Horseshoes and New Inn (central Headingley) to Beckett's Park, of Woodhouse Lane pubs to various University of Leeds departments, and of The Cobourg/Pig and Whistle (Claypit Lane and Merrion Centre) to the Polytechnic civic centre campus.


 * Changes in permissible afternoon and evening opening hours encouraging new bars to open around North Lane/central Headingley and enhancing the appeal of bars and clubs at the city centre end of the main road
 * Advice from letting agents seeking to attract students with written articles about the local area, from hen/stag party planners and fancy dress shops advising customers on which pubs to visit, and further commercial interest from pubs and associated discount card providers looking to get their associated venues "on the route". Viral marketing campaigns involving Twitter feeds and web sites were employed, each claiming to be official sources of information.

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 made it popular with drinkers. For students, an Otley Road pub crawl might run to or from University Union premises and include (or stop at) residential cafeteria facilities and nearby Tetley pubs or the Bodington Hall on-site bar.

As city centre pubs began to adopt the new longer opening hours, the northern end point of the Otley Run route crept into Adel, Lawnswood, and Weetwood in keeping with the 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, Sports Park Weetwood, and location of The Stables (at University-owned Weetwood Hall). Woodhouse Lane/Albion Street bars and city centre clubs offered end points for south-bound runs should drinkers not qualify as members or guests as required for access to student union bars at the time. This journey would therefore pass or approach such sites as the University playing fields at Bodington Hall/Weetwood Pavilion, as well as Carnegie stadium, Castle Grove Masonic Lodge, Associated Tower Cinemas' famous Lounge and Cottage Road cinemas, the site of the Skyrack wapentake Shire Oak (now commemorated with a blue plaque at the Original Oak), Woodhouse Ridge, the site of Leeds Girls' High School, and Woodhouse Moor/Hyde Park.

As Headingley's student population subsequently grew, more, larger, and longer-opening pubs arrived in the area and were adopted into Otley Road crawls. Between teaching starting at LMU's Beckett's Park and the location of new University student accommodation (closure of the halls such as Weetwood, Cavendish, Tetley, and Bodington in favour of alternatives in and around city centre), the formal route ceased inclusion of central Weetwood and beyond and commonly headed south from Woodies' Ale House instead. Woodies' (originally The Woodman) was close to Beckett's Park, and being near the Headingley Centre boundary was served by cheap "Green Zone" bus tickets. Main road pubs such as the Dry Dock and The Feast and Firkin (which had an on-site microbrewery) were among those promptly adopted, as were North Lane pubs such as Arc in due course. Many city centre bars and club nights also began to compete for acknowledgement as an official end point.

The idea that followers of the modern run should start early and visit as many venues as possible rather than cover a greater area has prompted creation of a Cumulative Impact Policy in 2005 aimed at limiting the adverse effect of Headingley's new pubs on the surrounding area and quickly led to some pubs voluntarily setting up an informal warning network aimed at turning away visitors in fancy dress and in obvious large groups. Crackdowns on commercial interest in the Otley Run have been proposed and University accreditation schemes have also threatened to look unfavourably on heavily promoted pub crawl events in general. In 2014 the Home Office proposed an Alcohol Impact Scheme aimed at student drinking with support from the NUS. By 2022, the central focus of complaints had shifted from student sports societies to former students and visiting stag parties, with increasing involvement of police and pressure on pubs and bars to take action against anti-social behaviour among drinkers.

Following an appeal to the original licensing rejection for conversion of the former Elinor Lupton Centre to The Golden Beam, an updated application was accepted which stated that participants in the Otley Run would be refused entry.

Pubs on the Otley Run
The Otley Run typically involves 15 pubs :
 * Woodies Craft Ale House
 * The Three Horseshoes
 * New Inn
 * The Headingley Taps (colloquially referred to as 'Taps' among participating students)
 * The Manahatta
 * The Box
 * Skyrack
 * The Original Oak
 * Hyde Park Pub (HPP)
 * The Library
 * The Pack Horse
 * The Eldon
 * Leeds University Union (Old Bar & Terrace)
 * The Fenton
 * The Dry Dock

Other university pub crawls

 * Subcrawl, Glasgow Subway
 * Smithdown Road, Liverpool, Liverpool
 * King Street Run, Cambridge