Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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London – Camden (Borough of) – Brewdog

And another day in London, so another Brewdog for my little collection…. This one is located in Camden and was formerly the Laurel Tree which had closed and then been turned into a restaurant. Brewdog were given permission to return it to use as a pub in 2011 and it became their first outlet in London.

The pub is bright and modern in feel and although there’s a basement level, it isn’t the largest Brewdog in the estate. The staff member was friendly and helpful, with the appropriate health protocols all being handled professionally.

The beer choice was wide, although there were no interesting dark beers from guest brewers, which is a little rare for Brewdog. Anyway, they had their own beer of Pudding Face which I haven’t had before and this was a quiet remarkable drink, as it tasted of a chocolate eclair. Beer shouldn’t have to taste like this, but I’m pleased when it does. It was certainly just a little decadent and there were tastes of pastry, chocolate and toffee, all coming together beautifully in a beer. I’m now rather glad that there weren’t any guest beers to try, as I would have missed out on this. Brewdog isn’t trying to be the cheapest option for beers, and this was towards the higher end of the scale, but the quality was high.

As an aside, a senior person from Brewdog came in when I was there, but not many other customers did, only two during the time that I was there. I can see why so many pubs are deciding not to open at all at the moment in London, these are still challenging times.

When walking to the toilets I was confronted (from the other direction) with this ladder and I suspect a customer who was slightly (well, very) drunk would have marched straight up it. It’s just their store-room up there and the ladder had been left down, so I was pleased I realised to walk around it rather than straight up it.

Anyway, it’s another perfectly decent outlet and the beer is, as usual, towards the excellent end of the spectrum. The staff member was friendly, the pub was clean and so that’ll do me….

September 17, 2020
British Airways – Future of Gatwick

It’s not looking great for London Gatwick Airport, my flight from there to Faro in March 2021 with British Airways has been switched to London Heathrow. Although this is quite handy as BA have let me switch to a better timed return for no extra charge, it’s a little sad to think that there are no plans for the South Terminal to re-open in the near future. Seems a long time ago since I was in the South Terminal ready to fly to Malta, but it was only March 2020.

September 17, 2020
London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Museum of London Docklands (Lascars Only Sign)

This sign is now on display at the Museum of London Docklands and it was also located here when it was being converted. It’s a sign that wouldn’t normally survive and it’s thought to be from a toilet block within West India Quays. Lascars were sailors from the India region, south-east Asia and what are now the Arab States. There were relatively large numbers employed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the East India Company and they were primarily Muslims, although with some Christians from Goa employed as well.

The life of most sailors wasn’t one of wealth, but the Lascars fared badly and there were much poverty with the sailors and this was evident in their living conditions in London. The sailors were though well-regarded and the docks did make an effort to provide reasonable facilities for them. The facilities installed were squatting toilets and so it was more about meeting different cultural standards than segregation, but lascars did face discrimination in many areas.

September 17, 2020
London – Southwark (Borough of) – Churchyard of St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey

This is the former churchyard of St. Mary Magdalen church in Bermondsey, which closed to new burials in 1854. There was a growing concern in urban areas that disease was spreading due to these graveyards and space was often limited anyway, so there was a move towards the provision of municipal cemeteries. Today, the area is a park, although there are a few monuments remaining and some which are of historic note. The land was given by the church to the council in 1882, which after some changes in local Government over time means it’s now under the care of Southwark Council.

But, away from the memorials of note which are still in situ, this is the little arrangement that Southwark Council seems to think is entirely acceptable. It doesn’t look ideal to me, shattered stones just dumped here at the edge of the park. A sad end to these stones, some of which would have likely caused the family some difficulties to afford at the time.

September 17, 2020
Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 178

The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

Knight of the Post

This is defined by Grose as “a false evidence, one that is ready to swear any thing for hire”. So, effectively, someone who is willing to perjure themselves for money, which isn’t an ideal state of affairs for the judicial system. The phrase dates back to the late sixteenth century, although had fallen out of usage by the middle of the nineteenth century. In England and Wales, perjury only became an offence in common law in 1613, following a series of rather unfortunate cases.

Back in the Tudor and Stuart periods, and indeed later, it was possible to find people around the Inns of Court and Westminster Hall who were willing to lie and produce false documents for a suitable fee. The origins of the term are unknown, but it’s thought it likely relates to where the individual would stand, by a certain post where legal announcements were placed, waiting for their next commission.

September 17, 2020
London – Southwark (Borough of) – Marquis of Wellington

This looked like an intriguing pub and so I thought I’d have a little sit down in here, since it was quite a long walk from where I had just come from, which was Hawkes. Well, it was around thirty metres, but walking can be a thirsty exercise. The pub is operated by the Bermondsey Pub Company, the managed house division of the EI Group, formerly known as Enterprise Inns.

There was a particularly personable staff member at the entrance and he set the tone for this pub, quirky, off-beat and comfortable. That’s not a bad set of attributes for a pub to aim for. I had already eaten sufficient pizza for the day, but this pub also offered them, although a customer tried to order at just gone 18:00 and they had already stopped serving for the day.

I’m not sure how practical this is for a table, but I like the concept. Incidentally, this is another pub that has installed plenty of power points, I’ve had a good day for these today.

I thought that the drinks selection was a bit disjointed, although they have the Gamma Ray from Beavertown, which is acceptable to me. They also have a web-site in some need of attention, as their newsletter and offers page is broken when anything is submitted. Anyway, there was a warm welcome here and a comfortable environment, with the quirkiness all working well. With a slightly more intriguing range of beers, this would have been a lot better, but everything seemed well managed and I’d merrily recommend it to others.

September 16, 2020
London – Southwark (Borough of) – Hawkes Cidery

I admit that I hadn’t heard of the Bermondsey Beer Mile until last week, which is probably another one of my little oversights. There are quite a few of these to be fair. Anyway, there are some tremendous bars along this route, although a lot of them are closed mid-week and a few haven’t re-opened due to the current health issue. I definitely need to come back on a weekend.

I can’t judge which venues in London will be busy and which won’t, and I booked a table probably needlessly as it was relatively quiet. But, best to be sure. I took advantage of their two pizzas offer when I booked, but then had to e-mail to check that one person was allowed to do this. They replied promptly saying that was fine and the staff member who replied remembered my e-mail when I turned up. On that matter, the staff here were personable, laid-back and keen to welcome customers, all very lovely.

It’s a while since I’ve thought much about ciders, but I think that I might start thinking about them again. I went for the Dead & Berried Mixed Berry which was sweet, elegant and way too drinkable, with lovely flavours of raspberries. I also tried some Pineapple Punch, which was again so smooth it would be easy to forget that it was alcoholic. The pineapples certainly took the taste of the apples away, something a little different. I think there are some tasting trays available for those who want to try more, which I should have probably experimented with. Incidentally, I’m moderately obsessed with blackberries, I hope they do a cider packed with them with the apples.

This is all beautifully on-trend, but they probably aren’t aiming for that. Instead, I’m guessing, although I didn’t ask, that they just created somewhere they liked and hoped other people would like it as well, rather than going for something formulaic. This venue is in a railway arch and they also have a cidery on site where their products are made, it’s quite a sizeable location. Indeed, if anyone wants to send this place some apples, they send back cider, which seems quite a good deal to me. I might collect all the apples that Accor hotels keep giving me and send them here en masse.

I didn’t need two pizzas, but the staff member reassured me that this is a common thing to do. I bet it isn’t and she wanted me to feel better, but I didn’t much care. I liked the Diavola Chorizo, on the left, the best, but the Prosciutto on the right was also sufficiently tasty for my needs. I finished them both, but then realised I should come back here to get a Nduja pizza, I’ll just have to find someone to come with me to avoid ending up with two pizzas to myself though. Actually, on reflection, that would be fine.

The pizza menu, which is different to the one on the web-site.

On a customer service technicality, no-one mentioned the app (excuse the pun) to me and there was apparently a £5 off offer on there to anyone who spent £10. As someone who likes these sort of offers, I’d have merrily gone for that. It slightly annoyed me that they didn’t mention it. But not enough to dislike this place, which is a beautiful concept and one which I hope rolls out to more locations around the country. As an aside, they have a few beers which I think are from Brewdog, as well as some wines for those that insist on drinking them.

All told, I haven’t been to a place like this where it’s all about the apple, and, well, some other fruit as well. Friendly, laid-back and comfortable, I’m pretty sure that I’ll come back. All rather lovely.

September 16, 2020
Craft Beer and Brewing – Other Half Brewing Co.

I’ve been rationing myself to how much I look at Craft Beer and Brewing magazine, as otherwise I might book endless amounts of flights to the United States (well, there’s one little problem with that plan at the moment, but hopefully that will pass) to go to these breweries. But, I’ve never heard of Other Half Brewing (I know who will pipe up to say he’s heard of them) but I have now and this Bourbon Barrel Aged Pastrytown beer sounds, well, as near to perfection as it’s possible to get. And the magazine agrees with the 100 rating….

I need to get to Brooklyn and this brewery’s taproom. The ratings on Untappd make this one of the best breweries in the world and their beers look quite tremendous.

September 16, 2020
London – Southwark (Borough of) – The Trinity

This isn’t a great photo of the pub’s frontage, but it’ll have to do as I’m not walking back there to take another one. It’s another Fuller’s pub and I’ve been impressed with their estate with this week, although this one had the more limited beer range that I had anticipated from their other venues. The welcome was no less generous though, I’m not sure whether Fuller’s are just recruiting friendly and able staff, or perhaps they have a first-class customer service programme.

The interior of the pub, all quite open and modern in its styling, with a major restoration having just been undertaken by Fuller’s. The staff member at the bar was also very patient with a customer (not me) who marched in the exit, seemed to understand the card-only rule before trying to pay with cash and then walked around looking lost. Everything seemed clean and comfortable, with the handy advantage of having power points on the walls so that I could charge my laptop.

So, although I’m not sure that there’s anything exceptional here I’d want to mention, it was a laid-back location that seemed well managed. The half-pint of London Pride that I went for was well-kept and tasted as I expected, although I’d have ideally liked something a bit more exciting. The pub did offer food, although it was priced towards the higher end of the scale.

September 16, 2020
London – Southwark (Borough of) – The Ship

My opinion of Fuller’s has very much changed this week, some of their pubs are way above average and I had been expecting them to just be offering London Pride in the main. The choice has been much better than that and there’s some quirkiness, in a positive way, to what they’re offering. This Fuller’s pub has a traditional feel to it, located relatively near to Borough underground station and to Mercato Metropolitano.

The welcome at the pub was prompt and friendly, with the staff member showing me to a table outside and then explaining the set-up at the pub. Customers could either order at the bar, or scan a QR code to order direct to the table. Everything seemed well managed and organised, with a few different real ales to choose from. Nothing overly exciting in terms of dark options, but I’ve never seen the HSB before and so went for that.

And here it is, not bad at all, Fuller’s say that it has a taste of Dundee Cake and I had to look up what that was (fruit cake with currants, sultanas and almonds). I’m not sure I got those tastes, I got notes of toffee, but it was all rather refreshing and was well-kept.

The outside garden was suitably cooling and there were no wasps around to irritate me, something that happens too often when I sit outside. It was all organised and laid-back, this is a quite lovely way to spend the afternoon.

And the pub sign. All told, a perfectly decent pub which had a community feel to it. The service was friendly, the pub was clean and the environment was comfortable. So, all rather lovely.

September 16, 2020