89. The Brownlow Arms

If you are a drinking man at all from the “top end” of the town of Comber, then you will be either a North Down Houseman or a Brownlow Arms man. It’s a mark of indecisiveness, of character weakness, to be seen regularly in both. The irony is that both are owned by the same man, one of Comber’s almost legendary figures, Jim Burgess, who has presided over the business with majestical ease since he purchased it in 1950 from “Coiner” Patton.

The Pattons were greyhound fans and owners, which accounts for the finely painted greyhound above the street entrance to the bar, a local landmark in the town. Many have assumed that this is the legendary Master McGrath, on account of the name of the bar, the Brownlow Arms, and that of the great dog’s owner, Lord Brownlow, but the truth simply is that the Patton family owners of the business liked greyhounds, and had one painted in a circle above their bar.

The name of the bar is after Brownlow Street, which may, in turn, have been named after the Lurgan Brownlow family. As for James Burgess, the present owner, he is very much the heart and soul of the pub, the kind of man who for relaxation chooses to watch TV in his own bar.

He is a keen horse racing fan and was the owner of a number of racehorses, some of them very successful. He still attends most of the big race meetings in England, and has lost none of his enthusiasm for the sport. Somehow the bar without his presence is like a meal without a flavour, or a rose without a scent.

The Brownlow Arms is basically a working man’s bar and a farming bar. It has always been the pub for the large farmers and landowners of the district, and is very much a traditional man’s bar. There’s no bar on women, it must be said, and occasionally women do number themselves among its clientele, but this is the exception rather than the rule. The Brownlow Arms exists solely as a drinking pub; there is no food served, and apparently none required.

Fresh from a paint job that has left it blue in the face, the Brownlow Arms is a fine instance of “what you see is what you get” – a no- nonsense, unpretentious, public bar setting.