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Oxford – Grapes Pub

As the weekend drew to a close, I had time for one final Good Beer Guide pub visit. Regarding the history, CAMRA notes:

“First built in 1820 and rebuilt in 1879, this is a rare Victorian pub in the city centre. There is a single narrow panelled room, with the bar on one side and seating on the other. The glazed timber screens have been removed to give more room. In the entrance there is some original tiling, mostly obscured. After being run by St Austell Brewery for a while the pub reopened under West Berkshire Brewery ownership in April 2019 but the brewery went into administration.”

There was an extensive and interesting selection of real ales which covered a range of beer styles, it actually felt curated. The service was slightly sluggish, but it was friendly and efficient, with the general environment being inviting and comfortable. Everything felt clean and tidy, with power outlets available for those who might need them.

There was also an excellent range of craft beers and if I had longer then I would have started to work my way down a couple of these, I had no idea that they would have 40 keg lines.

It wasn’t very busy, although there was some drama when the 15:00 national phone emergency testing alarm went off.

I went for half a pint of the Bliss Point from Thornbridge, which I haven’t had before. It was well-kept, light and had flavours of hedgerow (this isn’t an official term), pine and citrus. The price was towards the lower end of the scale for Oxford, although some of the decadent craft beers are of course more decadently priced.

Although I didn’t eat, there was food available and the only customer I saw order a meal came over to the bar to say how much they’d enjoyed it. The menu isn’t overly extensive, it contains small plates, traditional pub classics, burgers, pizzas and the like.

Some beermat decoration on the ceiling of the pub. There are also some vinyl records near to the door which I think can be played, with sports being shown on the TV. Neither of those latter two points particularly engage me, but it all adds to a rounded pub and I’d be happy just with the beer selection. The recent online reviews are very positive and I can imagine that this venue will soon get busier as its reputation spreads as it certainly surprised and delighted me.

This was the best pub that I visited in Oxford and I’m very grateful to the Good Beer Guide for pointing me towards it. The venue has won numerous CAMRA awards recently and shows what can happen when a large corporate doesn’t make it formulaic and drab. There are a few offers floating about, not least the current £3.50 for any pint of real ale on Mondays.

September 8, 2025
Oxford – The Royal Blenheim

This was an unexpected treat, being able to tick off two things at once, another Titanic pub and a Good Beer Guide pub. In terms of its history, it’s a Victorian pub which takes its name from one of the stagecoach services which used to serve Oxford.

What a lovely sight and the pub has won numerous CAMRA awards in recent years.

The keg section.

For the many and not the few.

The bar and there was a friendly welcome from the staff member. It’s always a delight to visit a Titanic pub and she was knowledgeable and engaging.

Clean and comfortable seating. The pub doesn’t serve food any more, instead focusing on its drinks trade and it clearly does that very well.

This is half a pint of the Idaho Pale, a Titanic beer that I haven’t had before. It’s 4.3% and was really rather lovely, hoppy, fluffy and rich in flavour.

My second half pint was also a first for me, the True Stout nitro, which the staff member told me is a long-standing Titanic beer, although I’ve not knowingly noticed it before. It was smooth, dark, creamy and again there was a depth of flavour. Titanic really are good at this brewing thing.

Well, indeed.

The online reviews are broadly very positive and this was one of the very few negative ones:

“Pretty unfriendly if you have kids. Great pub otherwise, but the unfriendly treatment spoiled it for me. I understand why the management might prefer to have a kids-free pub, but there are nicer ways to communicate it, even conceding this might be a tenable position to have in 2023.”

I don’t know how they communicated it, but I find it hard to believe they randomly turned on some kids that entered without them having caused a disturbance.

“There was live rugby on, but in the area we were sitting no one was watching and the sound was intrusive and distorted. Two customers, including the person I was with, asked if the sound could be turned off. The pub employee replied that it could not be turned off, and if people did not like it they should go elsewhere.”

This feels sub-optimal if true…..

Anyway, this was a pub that I thought absolutely deserved to be in the Good Beer Guide, a wide selection of real ales and keg beers, a friendly welcome, a quirky feel and something that didn’t feel formulaic. All really rather lovely.

September 7, 2025
Oxford – St Aldate’s Tavern

The next Good Beer Guide listed venue on our little pub crawl was St Aldate’s Tavern, a Young’s pub which makes an attempt to have a couple of local beers. The history of the venue is complex and Young’s have shown no interest in the pub’s heritage, but it’s not the original St Aldate’s Tavern which was located further down the same road. CAMRA notes that there has been an inn here since 1397, although rebuilt on numerous occasions and in 1716 it was known as the New Inn. It was then renamed as the Bulldog in 1965 before being rebranded back to St. Aldate’s Tavern in 2005.

The beer selection was dreary, although there was an attempt at having a local beer which was the Prospect from Oxford Brewery. The service was friendly and engaging, although the prices were to the higher end of the scale.

The seating was odd, a sofa that really isn’t that suitable to sit at for those wanting to drink or eat, it all felt formulaic. The online reviews here are a little poor, although I like this one:

“I went to this pub and was enjoying My self with friends when we were told to be quite? I won’t be going back as we had to be quiet”

The pub replied:

“Good evening, we are sorry you are feeling this way about your visit today. Your group were raising your voices and cursing, including raising your voice towards one of our team. You were politely asked to keep the noise level down. To give an opportunity to all of our guests so they can equally enjoy their time in our venue.”

I’m with the pub, I like them a bit more now.

“After a show in Oxford we went in the pub and Callum said to us that they were showing the World Cup Final. Great we thought! Lets stay eat drink and enjoy the match. After the match, extra time, two meals and several drinks later it was time for a penalty shootout. Lots of people in the pub in a good mood. Took to France missing second penalty and calum decided to switch all the TVs off in a huff. Plus the upstairs projector.”

I quite like Callum 🙂

The DEYA is decent, there’s a slight effort to offer some craft beer options here.

I went for the Prospect as it was the local option and it’s named after the story of when the unfortunate prospective Balliol scholars were set upon by the College Fellows and carried to College Hall where they were forced to tell stories to entertain them. The beer is 3.7% and was hoppy, a slight taste of toffee and was well-kept. It was slightly challenging to battle off all the flies in the venue, a slightly sub-optimal situation.

It was dark when we left…. Although it’s an interesting venue historically, I thought it was all just a little soulless, corporate and formulaic, perhaps fortunate to be listed in the Good Beer Guide.

September 7, 2025
Oxford – The Bear

It was the Norfolk & Suffolk LDWA weekend in Oxford and although there were some walking elements, I thought I’d come to tick off some more Good Beer Guide pubs. Located down a small side street, the venue refers to themselves as being the oldest pub in Oxford, but this isn’t really the complete story. There was a Bear Inn which was in existence from 1241, but they knocked that building down in 1801. The building which was once the residential property of the Bear Inn’s ostler had been trading as the Jolly Trooper since 1774 and so, in 1801, they renamed that to the Bear.

This is a small venue, with only 24 seats inside and so it’s not the easiest to take photos in. Here’s an AI of what the interior looks like….. There is more space in the garden area, but more on that in a moment.

The truly eccentric detail of the whole arrangement is the collection of over 4,500 tie ends which are mounted behind glass. Its origins lie with a 1952 tradition started by the then landlord Alan Course which is that guests clipped the end of their ties in return for half a pint of beer. Now the walls and even ceiling are covered in bits of tie which represent clubs, schools, colleges and just about anything else which is tie related. It’s wonderfully odd.

The pub is operated by Fuller’s, so the beer selection is pretty much limited to their own beers. In many ways, it does feel a shame that this isn’t an independent venue, that would perhaps fit much better with its independent and quirky feel, an example is that the website makes no effort to engage about the venue’s history. There was a friendly welcome and the staff worked around a completely oblivious and rude group getting in the way of everyone to ensure that I was served promptly. This is quite an achievement, there’s not much space to work around anything in this small two room venue.

The venue is only really viable as there’s a large beer garden out of the back and an external facing kitchen area.

The garden area. The land on which the pub was built was once the churchyard of St. Edward’s Church (in situ between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries) and perhaps rather sub-optimally, they have found skeletons relating to that period of medieval usage. The archaeological report relating to three bodies were found recently is online and shows where the skeletons were found in the sump of the cellar and I’m not entirely sure that anyone could have predicted that when the bodies were buried.

Bike storage in the middle of the beer garden. There’s quite an extensive food menu which is priced towards the higher end of the scale, but customers are inevitably paying a little extra for being in such a well known pub. We were fortunate to get a table, thanks to Helen for getting there a little early and securing that.

I went for half a pint of the HSB which was well-kept, clean tasting, malty and fruity.

It’s an interesting and fascinating pub, quite rightly in the Good Beer Guide because of the historical interest, the range of beers and how well they’re kept. The Good Beer Guide is really just about beer quality, but, realistically, it seems to have become a little more wide reaching depending on the local group. The online reviews are generally positive, although some of the food reviews are quite scathing. Perhaps better suited for tie spotters and history lovers rather than groups and craft beer drinkers, it did feel clean and organised. As I mentioned, I would rather like that this was an independent arrangement offering something a little less corporate, but it was all functional and interesting.

September 7, 2025
Jerzens – Pizzeria Zirm

I would have been quite happy with a cheap and cheerful Aldi arrangement, but Richard demanded fine dining and so we compromised on this pizzeria in the quiet Austrian town of Jerzens.

There was a friendly welcome, but this wasn’t a busy restaurant so we weren’t burdened with having to wait for service. We were visiting out of season and many venues weren’t opening at all, so we were quite pleased that they had decided to open at all.

The pizza menu was extensive and here’s part of it. I’m not sure that there was a wood fired pizza oven going, but I was surprised at how wide the menu was in general, with plenty of pasta dishes to add to the mix.

Richard looked a little stressed trying to book the accommodation for the following night that I’d just booked with ease. To cut a long story short, booking.com weren’t showing him the same room availability as I’d seen and I tried to reassure him that perhaps he wasn’t seen as a VIP and they didn’t want him. It transpired that the app didn’t show full availability, but I preferred my reason.

My diavolo pizza which was more appetising than it perhaps looks, with the base being light and the ingredients were plentiful and evenly placed. There was a checkback and the service was always attentive, although we were the only customers dining in which probably helped a little with that. Richard went for some decadent Gorgonzola option, but I like to remain loyal to mozzarella. Richard was pleased with his pizza arrangement though, so that’s all to the good. My beer was the Erdinger Weissbeir which was smooth, wheaty and went well with pizza.

And a latte to finish the meal. It was all rather lovely, the prices were reasonable, the service was polite and the surroundings were comfortable. I can imagine that this whole arrangement is positively bustling when the ski season is taking place, but this was a pleasant visit and I’d merrily recommend it.

September 4, 2025
Dachau – Dachau Concentration Camp (Claus Schilling)

Claus Schilling (1871-1946) is not a name that I had heard of and he sits very uncomfortably in medical history, though it is one that deserves remembering for the darkest of reasons. A German tropical medicine specialist born in 1871, Schilling built his reputation on malaria research in Italy before the war. That early work was legitimate enough, but his career took a grotesque turn under the Nazi regime when his skills were redirected towards human experimentation at Dachau concentration camp.

In 1942, by then in his seventies and retired from normal academic life, Schilling was encouraged by Heinrich Himmler to continue his malaria studies, but now using prisoners as unwilling test subjects. The barracks at Dachau were adapted for this purpose, and over the next three years thousands of inmates were deliberately infected with malaria parasites so Schilling could observe the progress of disease and trial treatments. The authorities were told me Schilling that his experiments would be legitimate and avoid suffering, but I can’t imagine the Nazis would have stopped him if he had told them the truth.

The conditions were absolutely brutal for those chosen to be his patients. Prisoners were exposed either through bites from infected mosquitoes or by being directly injected with parasites. Once ill, they were given a variety of drugs, some experimental, others known to be ineffective, in order to measure responses. Many suffered agonising fevers, complications or long-term debilitation. It is estimated that around 400 prisoners died as a direct result of these experiments, though the suffering of survivors is harder still to quantify.

Schilling himself seemed to justify the work as a contribution to military medicine, I assume actually convincing himself of that. Malaria remained a problem for troops in southern Europe and North Africa, and his argument was that the research might save German soldiers’ lives. But the cost was borne entirely by the prisoners, who were stripped of choice, consent or dignity. It was medical science twisted beyond recognition, an exploitation of knowledge for cruelty rather than healing. When the war ended, Schilling was arrested by American forces. At the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial held between 1946 and 47, his actions were laid bare alongside those of other physicians who had abused their positions under the Nazi system. Found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, he was sentenced to death. Schilling was hanged in Landsberg Prison in May 1946, aged 74, one of the relatively few who lost their lives for what happened at Dachau.

There really wasn’t much compassion or understanding to him, he spoke in English when he told the war crimes trial:

“I have worked out this great labour. It would be really a terrible loss if I could not finish this work. I don’t ask you as a court, I ask you personally to do what you can; to do what you can to help me that I may finish this report. I need only a table and a chair and a typewriter. It would be an enormous help for science, for my colleagues, and a good part to rehabilitate myself.”

It seems to me that this type of behaviour is the most challenging of all the atrocities that took place during the Second World War. A medical doctor, who I assume had been trained to alleviate pain, had instead gone down another route and dehumanised people for his experiments. He doesn’t appear to have been a Nazi in terms of joining early or showing political interest, he just got swept along with the hate of the Nazi regime and became a war criminal. I’m not sure I understand how what appeared to be a mild-mannered doctor managed to end up being one of the worst war criminals of his generation.

September 4, 2025
Reading – Three Guineas

This is the only Good Beer Guide pub in Reading that I haven’t been to, as I had a rather comprehensive stay in the town a few years ago. There’s plenty of history in this Grade-II listed building, which was constructed to be the main entrance and booking hall to what was then known as Reading General Station. It was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel between 1865 and 1867, but the station was reconfigured in 1989 with a new entrance and this building was turned into the Three Guineas.

The real ale selection was extensive although it’s all quite mainstream and it didn’t seem entirely well curated as they’re missing some beer styles here with some heavy duplication. The welcome was immediate and friendly, with the venue being relatively busy with mostly mainly weary looking commuters just arriving back from London.

I went for the Lavender Hill from Sambrook’s Brewery which I hadn’t realised I’d had before a few years ago, but it was well-kept, clean tasting with a floral and sweet flavour to it. The pricing was towards the higher end of the scale, but not unreasonable.

I wasn’t looking to eat here, but there’s a relatively extensive food menu and there’s an open kitchen which always gives me a feeling of some confidence.

This is the main room of the station’s former ticket office, but it’s not that spacious although there are plenty of external seats available. The pub wasn’t that clean, the team members were ignoring the fine array of empty glasses on tables, surfaces were sticky and it didn’t feel that loved. The venue was reconfigured and redesigned in 2017, although it feels just a little tired now.

The history of the pub name.

I rather suspect that this venue is clinging onto its place in the Good Beer Guide given the choice that there is in the town, but the beer was well-kept and the surroundings were comfortable. I like the heritage of the building, although that’s perhaps a little understated and I’m pleased to have visited, I’m fairly confident that they were doing some construction work when I last came to Reading and that’s why I didn’t visit.

September 4, 2025
Dachau – Dachau Concentration Camp (Former Dormitories)

Although there is one recreated dormitory building at Dachau, all of the former dormitory buildings on the left and right of this rather stately looking poplar lined main avenue (known as Camp Road) have gone with only their footprints remaining. The long rows of prisoner accommodation that once stretched across the roll-call square are now reduced to just these outlines on the ground, faint concrete or gravel borders marking where walls once stood. Walking down here in the rain, it was hard to really imagine just how noisy and unpleasant this area would once have been.

These footprints are the remains of the camp’s other dormitories, the majority of which were demolished after liberation. Their traces are preserved not as reconstructed facsimiles but as bare, skeletal floor plans so visitors have to use their imagination to contemplate the scenes that once unfolded here. The choice not to rebuild them all was deliberate as to reconstruct twenty-odd barracks would have risked creating something that looked too complete, too much like a functioning place rather than a memorial.

From 1942, medical experiments used to take place here at Barracks 1, although by 1943 they were using prisoners to supply the medical care. Initially, the medical barracks was well-equipped and had the facilities that it needed, but that situation didn’t last long and they were soon struggling to get hold of medical supplies. There’s a hollowness to all of this now, but there’s enough left to be able to understand the scale of what went on here, architectural order and human chaos.

Here’s what the scene looked like in 1945, shortly after the American liberation.

September 4, 2025
Dachau – Dachau Concentration Camp (Recreated Dormitories)

There’s one accommodation block at Dachau, although it’s not original but it still tells a harrowing story. The first set of barracks built in the 1930s have long since been demolished, erased as part of the camp’s post-war dismantling. What stands in their place was put up in the 1960s as part of the memorial site’s efforts to give a sense of the living conditions without pretending that the wood and nails themselves date back to the darkest years. It is, in other words, an interpretation based on plenty of evidence rather than an untouched relic.

The decision to rebuild was controversial at the time, not least because it risked accusations of falsifying history. But the curators argued, and still argue, that leaving the ground bare would rob visitors of any real sense of what life looked and felt like inside. The result is a set of reconstructed barracks, faithful to the original dimensions, where one can move from one dormitory style to another and see how the regime altered living space over the course of the war.

Inside, there are three types of dormitory arrangement, staged in sequence. The first represents the early years of the camp, when conditions were already harsh but still allowed something resembling order with neatly aligned beds, lockers, and a sense of regimented, almost military discipline. It wasn’t comfortable by any modern measure, but it was structured, a vision of a barracks meant to break individuality but still keep the veneer of control. At the time the intention was still to operate as a form of prison and although the Nazis strongly disliked their political opponents and weren’t afraid of killing some, the arrangement wasn’t designed to be a mass killing machine.

The washroom facilities.

The second reconstruction shows how the accommodation degraded as prisoner numbers grew. Here the beds are closer together, storage space has vanished, and the atmosphere is more obviously oppressive. It is a space designed not for discipline but for crowding, with privacy and dignity stripped back even further. The physical closeness illustrates what documents and testimonies often describe, namely overcrowding that was deliberately allowed to spiral.

The third dormitory shows the final stage, when conditions collapsed entirely into rows of bunks crammed together with little more than straw and blankets. It is the starkest of the three, stripped of any pretence of order and with no living space supplied as had previously been the case. This space is meant to demonstrate the extreme overpopulation of the camp in its later years, when disease and exhaustion became as much a part of the environment as the walls and ceilings. The contrast between this room and the first is brutal, and that is very much the point.

The reconstructed barracks are not there to trick anyone into thinking they are standing in untouched history. Instead, they function as a visual and spatial narrative, walking visitors through a steady decline in living conditions, from rigid control to chaos. By building them in the 1960s, the memorial’s designers created a tool to teach rather than a relic to worship. They remain one of the most immediate, unsettling parts of the site, not because of their authenticity, but because they distil the story of degradation into something that can be seen and felt in the space of a short walk.

September 4, 2025
Food from Every Stall on Norwich Market (2025 Edition) – Week 27 and Tasty House

We’re approaching the end of visiting every food stall at Norwich market and this week’s expedition was to Tasty House, which we visited before when we did this before in 2023. I very much liked the food on this previous visit and everything felt organised and well managed, so my expectations were high. After we waded through the throngs of middle-class people that James knew, first impressions this time were positive as we reminded that the menu is actually rather exciting.

The menu options with most of the dishes already being pre-cooked, although a couple are made fresh to order. There was also a daily special of ribs available as well, so the menu options felt extensive, with a choice of sticky rice, jasmine rice or noodles with each main course. There’s one vegan and vegetarian option, which is listed top of the menu, but all of the others are meat based.

The counter and the stall accepts card and cash. The service was friendly and helpful, although there wasn’t much engagement beyond the minimum needs but there’s a lot to be said for efficiency. We had a wait of around thirty seconds to be served as the customer in front was asking quite a lot of questions, but James pretended not to be annoyed and obviously I’m always calm.

I like the variety of free condiments that can be added to the food, although there’s a sister stand opposite the shop which sells all these raw ingredients. There was quite a lot of general litter on the counters such as abandoned water bottles, coffee cups and other detritus, so that didn’t feel entirely optimal. There’s a small seating area at the end of the stall, but we had our food standing near to the condiments.

I went for the large panang chicken curry with jasmine rice which came to £9.50, an increase of £1.50 from when we last visited. This arrangement seemed a little odd as they were quite stingy on the portion of rice, but very generous with the amount of chicken. However, this meant that the meal seemed a little unbalanced as I had plenty of chicken curry, but nowhere near as much rice as would have been ideal. Given rice is a cheap ingredient, it’s usually the other way around. The curry was though aromatic, rich in flavour, the chicken was tender and moist with the vegetables taking on the flavour of the sauce. I can’t say that the lettuce does much here, but the quality of the arrangement was high and the curry was at the appropriate hot temperature.

James’s food and he went for the Korean BBQ beef, the regular £8 size, but they forgot to ask him if he wanted noodles or rice, but he was satisfied with the sticky rice that he was automatically given. I’m not sure that there was much kimchi which was mentioned in the menu description, but James said that the food was agreeable although the beef a little dry.

I left feeling satisfied with the lunchtime snack, it was filling and had a depth of flavour to it. Ideally they could have packed the large bowl out with a little more rice, but I have no complaints about the quality of the curry itself. The service was friendly, there was a minimal waiting time and I’d merrily recommend this stall to others once again.

September 2, 2025