Otley Run


The Otley Run is a pub crawl in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The route shares much in common with the Headingley Mile but usually incorporating more pubs on the A660 road, typically those towards Leeds City Centre.
The Otley Run is seen as a rite of passage for students visiting or studying at Leeds and is a popular social gathering for student clubs and societies from The University of Leeds, Leeds College of Music, Leeds Arts University, Leeds Trinity University, Leeds Beckett University and The University of Bradford Hockey Club. It also a common activity for birthdays and other celebrations among graduates and city residents. Participants often wear fancy dress and coordinate their costumes to a particular theme. It is also traditional for students of Leeds Grammar School, Lawnswood School, Roundhay School, Notre Dame Sixth Form College, Guiseley School, Horsforth School, St Mary’s 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 Headingley Mile venues.

History of the route

Early incarnations of the Otley Run route covered considerably more of the Otley Road and followed it closely. Influences on the choice of route over time include:
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 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/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, 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 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 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. Prior to the introduction of a strong student following the regulars at The Woodman would go to the town of Otley on market day. Market day was traditionally a Monday and the pubs were open all day. This was unheard of elsewhere due to the licensing laws where most bars closed at 3pm and opened round 5.30pm. The Woodman was a popular pub for Leeds Supporters, bikers and students from Carnegie College. The visits to Otley would be usually the hardened drinkers and guests who would be celebrating a birthday, wedding, birth of a child, new job or other. The all day session was then told by stories to the regulars on a Saturday in The Woodman. This is where the term "the Otley Run" came from. The hardened drinkers would also go from The Woodman down Otley Road calling at the Tetley pubs all the way into town. The good relationships between students and regulars of Headingley pubs emerged into a cult like following for the beer crawls. The Leeds supporters in The Woodman would on occasions wear fancy dress. This transferred to the beer crawls and hence today as we know the fancy dress theme which is unique every weekend along the route.
With the eventual closure closure of the halls at Weetwood, Cavendish, Tetley, and Bodington in favour of alternatives in and around city centre, the modern route choice ceased inclusion of central Weetwood and beyond, taking inspiration from the crawl associated with the Headingley Mile which usually headed south from Woodies' Ale House; Woodies' was also conveniently close to the boundary served by cheap "Green Zone" bus tickets. Newly opened pubs such as the converted Lounge cinema and Dry Dock 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. Proposed University accreditation schemes have also threatened to look unfavourably on promotion of pub crawl events

Other university pub crawls