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  • Good Beer Guide 2020 or the Good Pub Guide 2020?

    Since I’ve been asked about this….

    There are two books published every year which both recommend pubs which should be visited, the Good Beer Guide and the Good Pub Guide.

    I’ve had a browse through the Good Pub Guide and, although I appreciate everyone has different views, there are some really surprising and generic choices in there. Without denigrating any particular location, there are some listed pubs which are bland and lacking in any depth of beer options. And very many interesting pubs in areas that I know, which have a really good atmosphere, excellent craft beer choice, innovative real ale and engaging staff are all missed out.

    The Good Pub Guide also claims it’s independent, which I don’t deny, but then takes advertising from breweries and pubs. And then, the book admits, “the pubs featured as main entries do pay a fee”. So, for me, it’s meaningless, however well intentioned that is. They then claim that they’re “the only truly independent guide of its kind”, but I’m not sure how the Good Beer Guide is somehow in hock to anyone.

    The Good Pub Guide seems to really focus on mid to high end pubs which serve food, with few exceptions. If it was rebranded as the good pub food guide, then it might perhaps make more sense. But how they’ve managed to miss nearly every micro-pub, community pub, craft beer pub and quirky pub is surprising for a guide that has been published for so long. In some relatively large towns and even some cities, the Good Pub Guide has nothing to offer at all. The emphasis on country pubs is heavy, and there are a few areas which seem to have several pubs all clustered near together which doesn’t fit right with me.

    Whereas, the Good Beer Guide has rarely failed to let me down, indeed, not one choice has ever felt inappropriate. And some pubs in there have been real finds, with some fantastic craft beer and real ales, but also historic buildings and perhaps most importantly of all, a great atmosphere and service. The Good Beer Guide is up-to-date, they don’t sneer at pubs that might be cheaper and I like their often humorously pithy comments and summaries of the locations they’ve recommended. Indeed, the Good Pub Guide gives similar space to every entry, without really sometimes having much to say, whereas the Good Beer Guide does feel that it speaks its mind.

    By a country mile, I’d recommend the Good Beer Guide for anyone who wants pubs with character.

  • Warsaw – Monument to Janusz Korczak

    Warsaw – Monument to Janusz Korczak

    Located at ul. Świętokrzyska, in the shadow of the ridiculous Palace of Culture and Science, this monument is to the author Janusz Korczak. His real name was Henryk Goldszmit and he was not just an author, but also an educator who was heavily involved with orphanages. Korczak served as a lieutenant in the Polish army during the First World War and he tried to join the army once again at the outbreak of the Second World War, but he was 61 years old and thought to be too old.

    Korczak ran an orphanage when the Second World War began and he went with it when it was moved inside the Warsaw Ghetto, but he did his best to protect the children in his care. When the ghetto was liquidated in August 1942 all of the children, around 192, were rounded up to be sent to concentration camps and Korczak had two opportunities to leave the ghetto, both of which he declined. It’s not known what happened to Korczak and the 192 orphans, but it’s thought that they were all murdered at Treblinka.

    Władysław Szpilman saw Korczak and the children being marched out of the ghetto and wrote:

    “He told the orphans they were going out into the country, so they ought to be cheerful. At last they would be able to exchange the horrible suffocating city walls for meadows of flowers, streams where they could bathe, woods full of berries and mushrooms. He told them to wear their best clothes, and so they came out into the yard, two by two, nicely dressed and in a happy mood.”

    Some of Korczak’s writings in the ghetto survived, and they aren’t in the form of a descriptive diary, but are more of a literary bent. I particularly liked this text, of which there’s no shortage of existentialist meaning. The PDF of his book is available here.

    “I know that many are dissatisfied at my clearing the table after meals. Even the  orderlies seem to dislike it. Surely they can manage. There are enough of them. If there were not, one or two always could be added. Then why the ostentation, the obstinacy, and even maybe I’m nasty enough to pretend to be diligent and so democratic.

    When I collect the dishes myself, I can see the cracked plates, the bent spoons, the  scratches on the bowls. I expedite the clearing of the tables and the side table used for the  little shop, so that the orderlies can tidy up sooner. I can see how the careless diners throw about, partly in a quasi-aristocratic and partly in a churlish manner, the spoons,  knives, the salt shakers and cups, instead of putting them in the right place. Sometimes I watch how the extras are distributed or who sits next to whom. And I get some ideas. For if I do something, I never do it thoughtlessly. This waiter’s job is of great use to me, it’s  pleasant and interesting.”

    The monument was unveiled in 2003 and was jointly funded by the Shalom Foundation and the Janusz Korczak Association. One of the underlying principles of the monument was to ensure the words of Korczak weren’t forgotten:

    “Sorrow is too cold for the children, so they quickly run into the sun of joy”.

    His sacrifice meant that many children had just a little bit of hope in their final days.

  • CNN – Warsaw In List of Best Beer Cities

    Well, how lovely, Warsaw has been listed as one of the 15 best beer cities in the world according to CNN. I haven’t previously given much attention to craft beer in the Polish capital on my previous visits, but I shall fully investigate this matter in a few days when I arrive there…..

  • Zurich – Zurich Airport (Observation Deck)

    Zurich – Zurich Airport (Observation Deck)

    Unfortunately, very few airports seem to now have observation decks and there’s little reason for this that I can think of. Since they’re after security, there’s no risk of attack and if they’re worried about smokers, they can always post security staff up there or shove in a smoking area discreetly.

    Zurich Airport have what I think is the best observation desk that I can recall visiting at an airport, free of charge and of some considerable size.

    It was possible to listen in to the radio communications system, with the phonetic alphabet displayed. I can never remember this, I just make words up, usually relating to food or products which Greggs manufacture.

    The view of an aircraft owned by Swiss Air Lines, with Zurich Airport being their hub.

    An Air Berlin aircraft.

    An explanation of the air traffic control system.

    A detailed explanation of the runway system.

    Everything was clean and well implemented, with the whole area offering somewhere more interesting to wait for a flight than sitting in the main terminal. It also adds an extra element of excitement for children and it’s a shame that more airports don’t offer this. Heathrow has made little effort here and although there’s an observation deck at T4, it’s enclosed and has obstructed views. Now that Heathrow have said they don’t intend to build a Terminal 6, I don’t imagine much will change in the UK’s main airport….

  • Zurich – Starbucks Train Carriage

    Zurich – Starbucks Train Carriage

    This is an old photo, from when I visited Zurich in 2015. The Swiss rail network (SBB – Swiss Federal Railways) had installed a Starbucks outlet on this train in 2013 in a bid to encourage people to use public transport. The branding doesn’t seem to have lasted long and there’s little mention of this on-line after 2015, so I assume that it was discontinued.

    But this does remind me of my idea to put a Greggs carriage on every train, or at least every intercity train to begin with. No point in getting too ambitious straightaway….

  • March – 38 West End

    March – 38 West End

    This property is one of the oldest in the town of March, with the central part dating to 1626, with extensions added in the nineteenth century. The town guide notes that, “inside, the house has elaborately carved wooden beams, one depicting the ‘Tree of Life’, the other grotesque heads and fantastic animals”. There are currently plenty of photos of the property at Zoopla and it looks like a building packed with character and history.

    Assuming that the houses haven’t been renumbered, in 1939, the house was occupied by Errol R Bassham and Violet M Bassham, along with their family. Errol worked as a bank cashier and was also an ARP warden, where Violet was a nurse for the Red Cross. Errol died in 1955 at the age of 60 and Violet appears to have become involved with local amateur dramatics.

  • March – Old Bank House

    March – Old Bank House

    This glorious building was constructed as a residential property in the seventeenth century, but was repurposed to become a National Provincial Bank in the 1840s. It is once again a residential property and the building is Grade II listed, with a note that an eighteenth century staircase remains in situ.

    There are some photos of the interior at the moment at Zoopla and the property sold recently for what seems a rather reasonable price. I don’t know when it stopped being a bank, but it was still open in 1916 and the manager at the time was Herbert N Shaw.

  • March – March Fountain

    March – March Fountain

    This puzzled me, as I was looking for the fountain and couldn’t initially see it, before I realised that it has been repurposed a little. And by repurposed, I mean it’s not a fountain at all. The fountain was constructed to mark the Coronation of King George V in 1911 and although this is also the date on the structure, it was unveiled in 1912.

    Modernisation got the better of the fountain though, as it was seen as a complete nuisance that drivers couldn’t see through it, so the fountain element of the, well, fountain, was removed. And they got rid of the troughs as well at the same time, as it was originally built to allow humans and animals to get water (the humans didn’t have to use the troughs).

    March’s lovely fountain, which has no water. Personally, I think it looks a little ridiculous stuck on this traffic island, bereft of its original functionality and with barriers to discourage anyone crossing the road to actually look at it properly.  It has now lost its original purpose and any real context.

    It was listed in 1985, so its history has at least been recognised, although I would like to think that Nikolaus Pevsner would have offered some sharp note about the fountain in its current state. The barriers have though offered some useful protection, as in early 2019 a drunk driver’s car was saved from damaging the fountain when the barriers took much of the force from the car when it left the road.

  • March – Marriage of Thomas Arks and Mary Ann Cadwell

    The marriage licences for the Cambridge area in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have been published, including many which required a bondsman, rather than the reading of banns in the church. This is a much more exciting method in my eyes, a bondsman would guarantee financially that the marriage was legitimate, rather than it just being read out in church over a few weeks.

    Picking names at random, Thomas Arks and Mary Ann Cadwell obtained a licence on 22 October 1750 to marry each other in March. The bondsman was Charles Cadwell, the father of the bride who worked as a grocer in March. Thomas Arks was also a grocer and I assume that he and Mary Ann got married at St Wendreda, the church in the town. This was also the church in 1778 where Arks was to be buried and also where Charles Cadwell had been laid to rest in 1763.

    Thomas Arks seems to been a relatively successful man, so being a grocer must have been a useful exercise. In 1753, he was paid £15 by the family of Bartholomew Ramsay for the young man to become an apprentice of Arks. This likely worked out well, as in turn Ramsay received £10 in 1762 to be the master to John Eaton, who also wanted to become an apprentice grocer.

    Unfortunately, the daily happenings and goings on at grocer shops in provincial towns during the mid-eighteenth century isn’t well recorded. So, to my knowledge, there is little more known around Thomas Arks……

  • March – March Railway Station

    March – March Railway Station

    Above is the entrance to March railway station, which first opened to the public in 1847. I’m sure it made a good impression when soon after opening a hot cinder fell from a train engine and set light to numerous fields, machines and a barn. Although at least a house was saved from the fire. Initially, the railway station solely served the Ely to Peterborough route, initially an important route which connected Norwich to London before the direct service was created between those two cities.

    During the late nineteenth century, the railways were a key driver of growth to the town, with more people employed in the railway industry as a percentage of population than in towns such as Swindon. New routes opened and the town had a substantial freight yard, making the railway station a real hub.

    The two main platforms which are currently in use. To the right of these platforms are disused platforms, which form the lost link to Spalding. There are also plans to reopen the Bramley Line, which goes to Wisbech, although not much has come to fruition despite the hopes raised by numerous politicians over recent years.

    This is a good idea, a timeline of the railway’s history, clearly displayed on the wall.

    The Stamford Mercury reported in December 1904 the sad story of a lad called “Pratt”, although they don’t give his first name. He had been employed as a gateboy at the railway station gates and he jumped onto the footboard of an engine to fix a minor problem with the brakes, only to fall off and have his right foot cut off by the train and the other foot damaged. Unfortunately, I have no idea what happened to the poor boy, the media don’t seem to have reported it.

    The railway station today is a bit of a mess, not only because of the closed off platforms. The ticket desk was shut since it was a Saturday (although quite why I’m not sure, as it’s meant to be open on Saturdays) there were queues on the platforms, the toilets were closed and the only thing open was a small coffee shop. For a railway station serving over 400,000 people a year, it’s a pretty unimpressive effort from the station operators, Greater Anglia. The Friends of March Railway Station do a marvellous job at beautifying the site, but it needs a lot more funding both in terms of new routes and station modernisation.

    Hopefully though in a few years, this is one of those railway stations which would have been transformed.