Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Birmingham – Craven Arms

    Birmingham – Craven Arms

    I am very reliant on the Good Beer Guide to find me decent pubs in areas that I don’t know and this was another excellent suggestion from the book (or app in my case) in central Birmingham. As is evident from the above signage, this was once a Holders pub and the building dates from the mid-nineteenth century. It’s now operated by Black Country Ales who have a small chain of pubs, most of which are located in the Midlands.

    There’s a mixture of old and new in terms of the decoration, with a traditional feel to the pub’s interior, but with a wide range of different beers on. You could never really design a new pub to look like this with that wallpaper and carpet combination, but I like it in this building.

    Service was friendly, engaging and warm, with the beers clearly visible on the front bar. There were also monitors in the pub which showed what beers were available and I noticed a couple of other options that I would have liked. It’s always good in my view to leave a pub thinking that there was more to try, it encourages me to want to go back.

    I went for two of the pub’s staple beers from Black Country Ales, the Pig on the Wall on the left and the Fireside Bitter on the right. Both were well-kept, at the appropriate temperature and had some flavours of note to them. I accidentally ordered some Mini Cheddars to go with them, which I felt complemented the taste of the beers perfectly.

    The pub gets very good reviews on-line and most are along the theme of this being a hidden gem that it’s worth the walk from the city centre to get to. I thought that this was a well-run pub which I had expected to be a little busier, but these are challenging times. The service was friendly, the pub was spotlessly clean, the environment was relaxing and there were plenty of beers to choose from. All rather lovely and I’m very definitely pleased that this is in the Good Beer Guide.

  • Birmingham – The Shakespeare

    Birmingham – The Shakespeare

    This Nicholson’s pub is located next to the Ibis Styles hotel that I’m staying in, so it seemed polite to pop in to see what it was like.

    There’s a selection of what I would consider to be quite generic beers, although the Mad Goose from Purity is something a little different. At least there’s a selection though, it’s be churlish not to acknowledge that.

    It’s a comfortable enough environment and it feels strange to order at the bar again. I could have ordered at the table and saved 25p by using the app, but that would have been a bit awkward given I was welcomed on arrival into the bar and asked what I would like. The service here was personable and friendly, so it was an inviting location to visit and my first impressions were positive. The pub serves food throughout the day and judging from the reviews, this is well delivered.

    I ordered the Mad Goose from Purity Brewing and it was, well, pretty tasteless. Slightly under-poured and lacking in any particular flavour, I couldn’t get the “zesty finish” that the brewery think this beer has.

    Anyway, this was a perfectly good pub for those who like Nicholson’s and it is well reviewed because of its friendly atmosphere. I also thought that the environment was clean and comfortable, with many of the customers clearly being regulars. For me, the beer range isn’t innovative enough to really make me want to visit again, there’s something unfortunately quite bland about the Nicholson’s offering in that regard. Incidentally, there is another pub with a similar name in Birmingham, with some customers merrily leaving reviews on-line for the wrong location….

  • Berwick-upon-Tweed – Keeping Cool

    Berwick-upon-Tweed – Keeping Cool

    I’m currently in Birmingham, where it is very much too hot. This therefore seems an appropriate time to post this “keeping cool” plaque (clicking on it makes it easier to read) I took a photo of a couple of weeks ago on Bank Hill in Berwick-upon-Tweed.

    In short, this is an ice house and it’s one of the largest that was constructed in Berwick-upon-Tweed to keep fish cool by ensure it remained in ice. Around 1,600 tonnes of ice was needed to fill the ice houses in the town, some of which was collected from the River Tweed during the winter, the rest was from the ‘stanks’, which were specially flooded containers. In really bad years, the town purchased ice from as far away as America and Scandinavia to ensure that the fish, mostly salmon, were kept cool.

    The ice house is Grade II listed and this heritage record notes:

    “This ice house is built into the hillside with a covering of earth acting as an insulating layer. Tapered retaining walls of coursed sandstone with ashlar copings flank the wide approach to the entrance arch with large voissoirs; a modern iron gate has been inserted here.

    The entrance tunnel with barrel vaulted sandstone roof and sandstone rubble walls leads directly to the main chamber; this is 11m long and 7.4m wide with a barrel vaulted roof 7.6m high. Although the tunnel indicates there were at least two doorways, there is currently no surviving evidence of the placement of further doors, which would have acted as an insulating airlock. There are, however, five simple metal hooks on the far end of the tunnel to the right, where bags of straw would have been hung.

    The floor is understood to be cobbled throughout, although the majority was covered with silt at the time of inspection. There is a doorway on either end of the main chamber near the ceiling, however, shadowing is all that remains of the staircases that once led to them. There are small brick partitions projecting from the end wall, presumably relating to its later use as a cellar.”

    I like that this has survived and no-one has converted into a cellar or something, it’s a little bit of the town’s fishing heritage that remains as a reminder of the fishing heritage of Berwick-upon-Tweed. And, given how hot is now, I wouldn’t mind standing next to some ice at the moment…

  • LNER : Berwick-upon-Tweed to Newcastle

    Back a couple of weeks again, this is the rail trip at the end of the St. Cuthbert’s Walk expedition when I needed to get back into Newcastle from Berwick-upon-Tweed.

    The railway station at Berwick-upon-Tweed, which has the distinction of being the most northerly in England. It opened in June 1846 as Berwick station, being renamed to Berwick-upon-Tweed in January 1955.

    Mine was the LNER Azuma journey leaving at 19:20 and arriving at 20:14.

    A little bit of history when going down to the platforms, noting that the station stands on what was the site of the Great Hall of Berwick Castle. It had to be knocked down when they wanted to build the railway station here.

    The waiting room at Berwick-upon-Tweed, which as can be seen wasn’t exactly packed out. There are toilets here as well, it was a better maintained railway station than I had expected.

    The train arrived and the destination on the locator board was wrong, but a nearby staff member reassured me that it was the right train for me. They had a helpful staff member guiding people towards the right carriage as well, which was all very handy. My faffing about checking I had the correct train meant that I didn’t get chance to take a photo of it (which I’m sure is of no real disappointment to anyone).

    This is a rather good idea, particularly given current events. I suspect it will increase the number of products ordered, as customers can see what’s available and the price at their leisure. There were some teething problems though it seemed given that there was a staff member from the cafe asking everyone in the carriage if they had ordered anything as they couldn’t work out who it was. I think it got resolved, but I suspect that projects such as this will be rolled out more. There’s a sensible set-up here as well that you can order and they won’t charge your card until they hand the food and drink over, to avoid any failed deliveries.

    The service wasn’t overly busy. I did have a reserved seat, but it was sitting next to someone else and it was just as easy to sit a little further down the carriage to avoid bothering them.

    Sweeping into Newcastle, which meant the excitement of getting to the Holiday Inn Express Metrocentre at Gateshead. The journey cost £7.30 and it left and arrived on time, so all very lovely and another efficient service. I probably wouldn’t have posted about this journey other than I liked the QR code to order which I felt was worth a little mention.

  • Gateshead – The Tilley Stone

    Gateshead – The Tilley Stone

    This is from a visit I made a couple of weeks ago (my posting out of order does make it all a little confusing) when I was in Gateshead. I did look at visiting a Good Beer Guide pub there, but there is only one which was the Station East and that was shut. So, without too much disappointment, I headed instead to the JD Wetherspoon outlet that is The Tilley Stone. It’s an interesting name, with JD Wetherspoon explaining their pub is named after two coal seams:

    “Tyneside and coal went hand in hand for centuries, with many mines in and around Gateshead. The ‘Five Quarter’ seam was worked at the Derwent and Gateshead Fell pits and the ‘Three Quarter’ at Dunston Colliery. The ‘Tilley’ and ‘Stone’ seams were also worked at Dunston. The wooden staithes at Dunston were built in 1893 for loading coal onto ships and continued to be used until the 1970s. Now restored and a listed monument, they form reputedly the largest wooden structure in Europe and a reminder of the busy days of the ‘Coaly Tyne’.”

    The beer options here were really rather impressive. There’s the pint of Brewdog Punk IPA which came with the chicken wrap, that was of the usual perfectly acceptable standard. In the photo to the left of the Punk IPA is Maximus from Maxim Brewing, a well above average ale. But it was the Raspberry Porter, also from Maxim Brewing, that I thought was particularly notable (it’s the second photo, of the beer on its own). It was a drinkable and creamy stout, with a strong flavour of raspberry running through it, both as an initial hit and as an aftertaste. For a beer that cost me £1 for half a pint, I thought that this was exceptional.

    Just for completeness (and for no other reason really), a photo of the southern fried chicken wrap….. The reviews of this pub are mixed, as they usually are for JD Wetherspoon outlets. Some are judgemental such as “was a decent pub when it first opened. Now it just seems to attract the dregs of society“, but most are about slow service or average food.

    As a pub, this was a sufficiently well-run location for my requirements with several real ales available, as well as numerous craft beers. Service was efficient, the pub was relatively clean and everything seemed organised. Based on this experience, I’d say that this is an omission from the Good Beer Guide, especially as so many JD Wetherspoon outlets are listed.

  • London – Islington (Borough of) – Grave of Joseph Grimaldi

    London – Islington (Borough of) – Grave of Joseph Grimaldi

    I came across this grave by chance at the weekend in what is now known as Joseph Grimaldi Park, but which was once the burial ground of St. James’s Church. For anyone interested in visiting, it’s about a ten minute walk from King’s Cross St Pancras railway station, just walk along Pentonville Road.

    Here’s the church from 100 years ago, but that’s now gone (demolished in the 1980s) and the churchyard has been turned into a park which seemed to be a sea of litter when I visited. A few graves remain, most notably that of Joseph Grimaldi who is considered to be one of the people who has most influenced the clown and their performance methods. There is also an artwork in the park where apparently if you dance, then it’ll play some music or something. I didn’t fancy giving that a go to be honest….

    At least the renaming of the former churchyard in honour of Joseph Grimaldi means that his grave isn’t forgotten, although sadly many of the other graves here have now become rather neglected.

  • London – Hackney (Borough of) – Brewdog Dalston

    London – Hackney (Borough of) – Brewdog Dalston

    This is Brewdog Dalston and my visit here on Sunday evening means that I’ve now been to every location that this chain operates in London. Richard was down again for another one of his decadent business trips, so I dragged him along with me. This bar is Brewdog’s first vegan only outlet, which I thought made it quite an innovative and intriguing place to visit to see how that played out.

    It wasn’t busy in the bar, let’s just say that. The welcome was friendly and prompt and we could sit anywhere in this nicely air conditioned interior.

    This is the downstairs bar, which wasn’t needed during our visit.

    The decor is, as usual, quirky which is part of Brewdog’s style. It’s hard for chains to pull that off without it feeling formulaic, but there is an on-trend feel to the arrangement which isn’t forced.

    Richard wasn’t thrilled with the vegan menu, but I had eaten which meant I didn’t have any challenges in this regard.

    I went through five different beers, all served as thirds as I’m not that decadent to buy things in pints or halves. The second image above is the Made For Us by Yonder Brewing and that was my favourite drink of the evening. I’m now very much into sours and this was certainly that, but it had such a rich raspberry taste, aroma and feel that it packed quite a powerful first punch. In the background, there was violet, meaning that the aftertaste was effectively Parma Violets. That combination worked very well for me, a merging of two very different flavours and this is a drink that I’d merrily have again (despite my tendency to always want to try new beers).

    The service was always polite, but it lacked the engagement that we’ve seen from some other Brewdogs in the city. No real conversation about the beer or attempts to make recommendations, but, as I’ve noted before, some Brewdog outlets set the bar so high that it’s hard for others to match them. Nothing negative though, we were always made welcome and the bar environment was clean, comfortable and relaxed.

    The reviews are all pretty positive, although there are a few complaints that it’s not clear that the bar is vegan only. They take bookings for Wings Wednesday which I can see adds to the confusion, as they offer a vegan version of unlimited chicken wings. Other complaints include:

    “Not welcome here! Dalston is about independent businesses and this is just some more chain homogenised rubbish with no vibe.”

    I’ve met very few pub owners who go with this line of logic, although I’m sure that there are some. Like the rather lovely craft beer bar in Newcastle that I went to a couple of weeks ago next to a Wetherspoons, the large chain can drive customers to their smaller neighbours. Brewdog can set the stage for other craft beer bars to open and improve the options available in the locality. An area can become known for having excellent craft beer which benefits those who like chains and those who like independents. I like both types, they offer different experiences and one isn’t always better than the other, but they can work together really rather well.

    It’s handy that we visited when we did, as the bar announced yesterday that it was temporarily closing. I think a combination of Covid factors have caused that, it has also meant I can’t visit the Birmingham Brewdog this week as that’s closed as well. Challenging times for the hospitality industry….. Anyway, the vegan only situation didn’t negatively impact on the beer range and I liked that some real thought had gone into the food menu to ensure it was still a destination that people would go and get food at. Something of a shame that my tour of Brewdog bars in London has come to an end, hopefully they’ll open some more.

  • Birmingham – A Diversity Monument by Luke Perry

    Birmingham – A Diversity Monument by Luke Perry

    This rather lovely sculpture has only been in Victoria Square in Birmingham for a couple of weeks and the signage notes that it has been commissioned for a television series which will be launched later this year. There are 25 different steel figures who are together all pulling the city of Birmingham’s crest, a different way of looking at diversity and inclusion. It was designed by Luke Perry and the steel fabrication was completed at a metalworks factory in Cradley Heath.

    I liked the key messages of the sculpture, namely “No-one is here without a struggle” and “We all came here from somewhere”. I’m rather engaged with this sculpture as although the message behind the artwork is clear, individuals can interpret it as they wish as everyone has their own struggles and challenges. Apparently this is a temporary artwork, but I hope that it goes somewhere else in the public realm so that it can be seen for a longer period of time.

    There are more artworks from Luke Perry’s company, Industrial Heritage Stronghold at https://www.ihsartworks.com/.

  • Birmingham – Colmore

    Birmingham – Colmore

    There aren’t, unfortunately, that many Good Beer Guide listed pubs in the centre of Birmingham that I haven’t already visited. I’ll explore some others instead (there is a world of decent pubs not listed in the Good Beer Guide after all), and perhaps go further afield, but I haven’t been to this one before, formerly the Birmingham Tap.

    There’s a grand bar and there are QR codes at the table so that customers can see what’s available. I visited on the first “Freedom Day” and they’re taking orders at the bar again rather than offering table service, although I suspect they’d offer it on request as the staff seemed very keen to engage. The beers are mostly from Thornbridge Brewery, which is rather lovely as I rate them highly and have visited their taproom.

    The interior has been renovated to a high standard in what was formerly a branch of Lloyds Bank.

    I decided to go initially for two half pints, this is the Lord Marples which is a drinkable bitter with some hints of toffee.

    Quite a nice little quiff arrangement on the Green Mountain and I enjoyed this, refreshing, rich and with a suitably fruit finish to it.

    Since I liked the pub so much, I decided to order another half, this time the McConnel’s, which I thought was a really decent stout that was creamy, rich and there was some coffee in there as well (in flavour, they didn’t dump an espresso in). There’s meant to be raspberry in there as well, but I was struggling to pull that flavour out, which is likely a defect of mine rather than the beer.

    As for the service in the pub, it was conversational, engaging and warm. I liked how they told me that McConnel’s was a bit of a curse, as they’ve put it on twice over the last year and then the lockdown came the week after on both occasions. Apparently it wasn’t poured down the drain as a staff member was able to have it, although he is now no longer drinking it, which is understandable give too much of a good thing and all that. All of the staff members were welcoming and there’s a nice community feel to this place. There’s a food menu which is mostly based around pizzas, and I might well meander back at some point to try that.

    All told, I very much liked this pub and I’m pleased that the Good Beer Guide sent me here. Understandably, it’s well reviewed on-line, although someone was annoyed they were charged £12 for a large gin & tonic and a pint of beer. That seems perfectly reasonable for pub standards, and I can see why they were a little annoyed (but polite) in their response.

    Anyway, another early contender to be my favourite pub of the year   🙂

  • British Airways – No Gdansk Flight….

    British Airways – No Gdansk Flight….

    A few months ago, British Airways launched some new routes to Poland and Romania, which I thought was very exciting. I was only able to book one as I was already mostly busy, but I had hoped to go to Gdansk on 8 August 2021. Unfortunately, British Airways have today cancelled that flight which is a shame, although entirely understandable given the global events that are taking place. Hopefully though they will be able to put these flights back on next year as the route of London Heathrow to Gdansk is a very agreeable to me, such is my love for the Tri-City.

    My next flight is now meant to be to Spain in mid-September, but we’ll have to see what will happen there…..