Lastrounds - more bars please Wednesday, May 09, 2007
In response to a blog comment, I took a look at Last Rounds, which claims to be
"a London pub review site with a difference. The aim of the Last Rounds Project is to promote safe and sensible drinking by encouraging forward planning of your time out. "
Well, that will immediately put off most pub goers these days if the papers are to be believed.
I really like the site features, especially the ability to locate pubs near tube & train stops, and the impressive implementation of the interactive map.
The founder of the site is Luke Agbaimoni, who started the site as a hobby has got it thus far without any funding, albeit with a little help from friends.
Every pub on the site has details of
• Opening & closing times of the venue
• Addresses, maps, websites & phone numbers to check before you visit
• First & last departure times for all known local bus, tube and DLR services
• Local borough taxi numbers
• And the location & opening hours of local borough public toilets
There's only one big issue - the directory of pubs was sparse. I checked a number of my tube and train haunts only to be disappointed with how few results were returned, relative to the number I was expecting. For instance, when I selected Bank tube, I only got the following two results
| Pubs & Bars | Walking Distance | Directions | |
 | The Hatchet | 6 mins |  |
 | |||
| Black Friar | 16 mins | |
Let me assure you that the City would be empty if that were the case. And the idea of walking 16 minutes to a pub from Bank!
If Luke can a) source a more complete directory b) mashup with other review sites to provide fuller coverage e.g. Trusted Places perhaps, then I think this has the making of a great site.
As to whether sites like this will be popular, I'm less sure for several reasons. Firstly, unless you travel around the City like myself, most people tend to frequent familiar places and so their need for a review site is limited. Secondly, it's often when you are mobile that you are prompted to want the information. Finally, the advent of sites like Trusted Places, which allows you to garner recommendations from friends, are likely to be our first stopping point for suggestions.
Labels: Trust, trusted places
posted by John Wilson @ 10:42 PM Permanent Link
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1 Comments:
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At 11:21 AM,
said...
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I agree that this site has the potential to be very good. It seems to be growing by the day. I have talked with the adminstrator. He explained that as more information is added it will be a useful site for the disabled as well as tourists or people just trying to plan a night! He also said there will be a system where a map is sent to your phone of pubs in the area!
Sounds useful to me!
Obviously people will always have there local but this site is an aid at getting people past the end of their road safely!
Mind the gap!
