Nottingham pub Hand & Heart became a student local and kebab ritual spot

Rich Pelley recalled the Hand & Heart in Nottingham as his university “second home”: a pub carved into the city’s sandstone caves and a short stagger from the student house he shared with five others. He described a pre-TripAdvisor era when pubs lived as mental notes rather than star ratings — the one that would serve a pint to a 16-year-old who ordered chips, the spot you might get lucky in on Christmas Eve, the romantic view, and the place that sold cider in halves and inspired a boozy “Super Cider Sunday”.

At the Hand & Heart the group built a reputation for rolling up at last orders: leaving the house at 10.20pm, pint in hand by 10.30pm, and necking drinks fast enough to get two or three in before the lights came on. They also exploited pub quiz machines, standing around the Monopoly terminal and pooling specialisms — Phil (politics); Tony (history); Becca (French and Spanish); Saz (French and management); Pelley (chemistry); the other Rich (economics) — turning repeated questions and 50p stakes into a profit.

Pelley and a friend also practised the Noel Edmonds Telly Addicts machine and said they could reliably win the £5 jackpot.

Key Topics

Culture, Hand & Heart, Nottingham, Rich Pelley, Sheesh Mahal, Telly Addicts