This is appropriate for a British visitor to the museum, it’s likely the head of St. George, the brave knight who fought a dragon that he found somewhere. The stone is actually Roman, but as recycling was quite big in the medieval period, it was repurposed in around 1200 to be used at the Church of St. George in Cologne.
The head fragment was found at the church in 1928 when a major renovation and restoration was taking place and it was likely part of a larger statue. Unfortunately the church was nearly destroyed during the Second World War, but it has now been rebuilt.
The head was once painted and I’ve had AI produce what it thinks it might have looked like. Although I don’t suppose that it did actually look like this, it seems an interesting recreation at least.
This artwork is by Franz Wilhelm Seiwert (1894-1933) who was a member of the Cologne Progressives who hated Hitler. He fled to the German mountains after Hitler took charge, but was brought back to the city by friends due to illness and Seiwert died on 3 July 1933.
The Cologne Progressives were artists and they were political, focusing on the rights of the workers. This artwork was painted by Seiwert in 1927 and the museum is using it to represent the entire movement which also included artists such as Gerd Arntz (1900-1988) and Heinrich Hoerle (1895-1936).
The works of this group were defined as “degenerate art” by the Nazis and promptly removed from museums and generally banned. Nearly all of Seiwert’s works in Cologne museums were destroyed, so it’s perhaps fortunate that this particular painting has survived at all.
As a slight confession, I like JD Wetherspoon venues and they also drive traffic to this ‘riveting’ blog so there will be more posts about them. If that’s what the public want, then that’s what they get.
I never visited the Banker’s Draft in Bedford as it closed in 2016 and was taken over by the Brewhouse & Kitchen chain, although this in turn has now closed. The image above isn’t one of my photos, it’s from Google Streetview.
Regarding the pub name, the chain noted when it opened that:
“This pub’s name recalls its former use as a bank. This site used to be a branch of Midland Bank. Established in Birmingham during 1836, the bank opened a branch in High Street, Bedford, in the 1890s. Around the time of World War I, it transferred to 115 High Street, remaining at that address until the mid 1990s.”
The later renovation from Brewhouse & Kitchen has made it look less like a bank, but it still very much appeared like one back when JD Wetherspoon had it. Amber Taverns have since purchased the building since the Brewhouse & Kitchen set-up closed in 2024 and it’s now open again as the High Street Social Tap.
I never went into the JD Wetherspoon operated London Hatter in Luton, long since closed but the pub name is still visible on the building.
The building was formerly used by Legends nightclub until 2011 and then JD Wetherspoon spent just under £1 million converting it into a pub. It’s in a location just out of the city centre, so I assume that they were looking for the student trade or similar. It didn’t last long as the closure decision was made in February 2016, which suggests that a fair sum of money was lost here.
The pub took its name from the Londoner who was involved in building the first hat factory in Luton in the early nineteenth century. There were soon over 500 companies making hats in the town and it was an important part of the local economy in the nineteenth century.
As for the pub, it seems from photos inside that there was a professional job with the conversion, despite the rather glum external look of the place.
Continuing my theme of working out which JD Wetherspoon pubs I’ve been to over the years, this is the Swan Hotel in Leighton Buzzard. I visited here with Liam in November 2018, so this is another one that I’ve had been to recently.
Explaining the pub’s history, the chain notes:
“The former Swan Hotel is situated at the Market Place end of High Street. The landmark building, with its statue of a swan atop the façade, was given a grade II listing in May 1975 and dated as ‘early to mid C19’. However, there has been a Swan drinking house on this site for much longer. The earliest reference to it is in the year 1600. The Swan soon developed into the town’s leading coaching inn and ‘posting house’, words which may still be seen on the front of the building.”
It’s not actually evident when it was rebuilt, but it looks to have been around the 1840s. This was a proper coaching inn though, lots of space and it was noted by an author in the twentieth century that “the yard once had stabling for forty horses; garden, piggery, henhouse, garages and stabling for six horses remain”.
The pub caught fire in 1967 but was rebuilt with some improvements, such as a new conservatory area. The former ballroom was converted into bedrooms in the 1990s, but by 2009 and the financial crash it was no longer viable for the operator and they put it up for sale. In came JD Wetherspoon who have done a really rather decent job here at keeping the venue alive.
This is my old staple of chicken wrap and chips, when it cost about £3 or something ridiculous. I do miss this rather simple meal, it’s £9 now including a drink.
And these were delicious until they took all the sugar out.
And a beer. Annoyingly, I had started my Untappd account just one week before this visit, but I evidently wasn’t then in the habit of carefully checking in every beer. So, I can only describe this as some porter I obviously liked the look of at the time.
Obviously I feel the need to look at the reviews and the venue is towards the lower end of the JD Wetherspoon typical scoring. And, yes, I know that I need to get out more to have time to think about this.
“The first major thing thats a issue with this particular Wetherspoons is that they don’t serve real genuine cocoa powder thats dispensed through the hot drinks machine. they give you 1 instant hot chocolate galaxy sachet each time if you need to refill for another hot chocolate which might i add is extremely far less superior than the rest of the other Wetherspoons across the country that actually pour real genuine cocoa powder into an actual machine that dispenses it with milk simultaneously to give you that thick frothy chocolatey genuine warm and lovely Wetherspoons experience. imo it feels like they want to monitor how much hot chocolate you can have and don’t even provide genuine cocoa when you actually want hot chocolate anyway this is a huge disappointment. I also noticed alot of plates are being left with loads of food left still on the plate sometimes food looking nearly untouched. also the plates are left for a very long time until somebody even realizes they have to be picked up for the tables to be cleared and cleaned. also each time you want a refill you have to literally ask the bartender first for another galaxy sachet which feels completely infantilizing. when i asked for more than one sachet they refused to do so stating they will not do this because i could take them home basically implying customers would steal this trash hot chocolate. which wouldn’t even be a concern if they actually had the machine that dispenses hot chocolate in the first place. if you’re a fan of Wetherspoons being a reliable and consistent pub you can bring your family to be fed and drink i would say to skip this one as this one is doing a disservice to the Wetherspoon name.”
This is the challenge JD Wetherspoon venues had when the Government stopped them serving unlimited hot chocolate, a rule which has annoyed me but I try not to let it dominate my life. This pub changed its rules at the same time as all of the other ones. It’s a long review though about not having hot chocolate, I admire the depth of the annoyance.
“Tried to eat in the restaurant to be told , contrary to the licencing law , that the children were not allowed to eat . 8 people including 2 children were now left without anything to eat because weatherspoons rules are different from UK licencing laws. Would not use this or any other weather’s weatherspoons.”
Or it could be that the venue is following their premises licence.
“Okay the food is alright but honestly being sanitary is all they need to sort out, we have just been given cutlery that clearly hasn’t been washed properly as in the photo below. It doesn’t look like it has been in the dish washer at all nor even rinsed off with water.”
The customer has a photo of the cutlery in the review and it is grim. The pub has numerous poor reviews for this, I’m with the customer….
Anyway, back to today once again, I get easily distracted. Checking on the beer situation, they have seven real ales available from a range of breweries, including Greene King Abbot Reserve which is about as good as the brewery gets….
It’s too long ago for me to remember much else about the pub, but it’s certainly a positive thing that the chain has kept it alive and operating.
As part of a little project that will become apparent (as I obviously don’t already have enough) I’m working through a list of JD Wetherspoon outlets that I’ve visited throughout the years. I’ve got to go back to 2017 for the last time I came here, I focused on other pubs when I was in Bedford last year.
The pub’s explanation for the pub name is:
“This pub is named after one of the most widely read books in the English language, written by John Bunyan, who lived most of his life in and around Bedford during the 17th century. Born in 1628, at Elstow near Bedford, his career as a writer and preacher was enriched by deep religious experiences throughout his life.”
The building, which is relatively really quite large, was formerly used as a furniture shop before it was turned into a pub and hotel.
It is so long ago that I came here that I appear to have ordered wine. I’ve matured a lot since then. I can use my wine knowledge here to be able to narrow this down to being a white wine.
For reasons I won’t go into here, this was a free meal so I had more than I usually would. I note my food habits don’t change much though.
This is I think one of the platters that they used to do before the chain shifted to small plates, I assume that’s some sort of chicken in the middle.
A dessert, I can see that someone else was paying….
And an Eggs Benedict for breakfast, very agreeable. I’d add that I stayed at the venue as well as they have rooms here.
Anyway, back to today and I feel the need to look at some of the reviews and this is one of the better rated JD Wetherspoon venues.
“Disgusting. Was in there for my friend’s birthday and she is a very shy person, playing the Wetherspoons game. We were thrilled to see lots of drinks at our table. However, this was interrupted by a foul mouth female manager, raising her voice at us. My friend was starstruck. This lady was telling us that due to a staff error, the drinks we had already started drinking were delivered wrongly to our table. Despite us explaining the situation, this was met with a ‘Shouldnt have drank those drinks’ and a lack of apology. She then further said that the security will throw us out if we didn’t pay the for the entire bill, which we obviously did not order. Not only verbally threatened, but now with a physical fear, my friend, who is 18, was abused and forced to pay for these drinks. Absolutely horrific experience, 0/10 and I should hope the manager is fired. This was on Saturday 20th September at around 10:45-11pm.”
Hope someone is fired because a customer drank a lot of drinks that they hadn’t paid for? Hmmmm.
“Great if you like to stand in a que. This venue has not adapted to present life after the lockdown but requires customers to que so that staff don’t have to question who’s next.”
This standing in a queue thing is becoming more common at pubs, but it’s hard to not join a queue if there already is one. This is why I use the app to avoid these confusing situations….
“Always so very pleased with the service and beer. Breakfast is a delightful treat, but the extended range off eggs Benedict options has disappeared. I loved those with smoked salmon or black pudding. Please reinstate them. Staff are polite and helpful; toilets are immaculate. However, today my regular Brewdog Punk IPA was out of stock and staff unable or unwilling to tell me when it will be back on. I left earlier than usual. Not happy.”
Always so very pleased with the service and beer, but gives one star….
“I came into the restaurant to use the toilet and when I came out I took a seat for a few minutes and began eating a snack I had with me, I was planning to get a drink but was approached by 2 staff members, one told me I had to leave because I was eating my snack, not even offering me a menu or asked if I would like to order anything, the other female staff member under her breath said I’ll confiscate your food if you don’t leave. As a result of this awful customer service and lack of professionalism I won’t ever be returning to this restaurant. Staff need to consider their behaviour.”
So a customer didn’t order a drink and sat down at a table to eat food from somewhere else. And then seems confused when this is questioned?
“Here on the 9/8/21 19.00pm for my lads 19th bithday meal .totally ruin by the staff who ask for ID. Unable able to give paper ID. But got proof on phone of driving licence. Still not good enough. Totally ruined birthday atmosphere. So left after main meal. Didn’t bother with pudding.Gutted. His dad. Not visiting again .”
In short, customer asks venue to break their licensing rules, the staff refuse and the venue gets one star.
“It’s what you expect to be honest. Reason for 1 star is you cant add comments for food.on the app or add any allergen information. We decided.to eat elsewhere due to not having any confidence with their allergens with only a big screen thing to check.”
The big screen has all the allergen information so customers know what they can order, but the customer hoped they could type their allergen requirements in as a note to the kitchen and thought that would be a better way?
“Under 18s after 9 pm on a Sunday evening not allowed. Even though we are eating…..hmmmmm loads of other people under the age of 18 in there hmm it is their local license policy to keep their license with the council apparently……. Although the law states it is not the case.”
The law very much states that venues to have to meet local licensing law….
“Visited with my 18 year old son after we both finished work at 8pm, had a meal each and he had a cider, ordered on the APP and when it arrived the girl politely asked if he had ID , which he didnt, but he was obviously well over 16, then I asked the manager Nash or Tash, why he couldnt be drinking Cider as it was allowed by LAW, she then told me that it was a pub and NOT a restaurant. I went on the Gov.uk website out of interest more than anything else, and found that by law he was allowed to drink if he is over 16, if he had a meal with an adult from over 18. She then got the 2 doormen (these 2 were very professional unlike their manager) to throw us out. When I left I asked her name which she refused to give me as I want to esculate it. Are Wetherspoons above the law, Im not sure. She told me they have different rules, but surely they must stick to licensing laws and not make tgem up as they go along. I will contact their head office next week to get clarification on their licence laws being as they are different to the Government ones.”
And a customer who when told JD Wetherspoon doesn’t allow under 18s to drink alcohol in their venues, he declares that they must be acting above the law and leaves them one star. I think the Inbetweeners have a lot to answer here for when Will states the law….
Anyway, I digress once again. It’s been a while since I’ve been here, but the reviews are broadly positive. As I can check the real ales online, I can see that today they’ve got seven real ales on, including some options from Oakham and Elgoods. I should also add that it’s in the Good Beer Guide, but I won’t add it to my list of places visited as I didn’t have been there….
On the theme of challenging things for German history museums to tackle, this is a tefillin capsule as used by the Jewish community in prayer. It was likely made in the eighteenth century, but this isn’t really why the exhibit is important in this museum, it’s more what it represents.
On the 9 to 10 November 1938, Kristallnacht took place where Jewish businesses and homes were damaged and often destroyed. Synagogues were burnt to the ground and many Jews were physically attacked, with many killed and arrested. This exhibit was found in the wreckage of Glockengasse synagogue which was destroyed on that evening of terror. It had been built between 1857 and 1861 and was a beautiful building internally, one of numerous synagogues used by the Jewish community in Cologne.
Today, the city’s opera house has been built on the site of the former synagogue, although there is a plaque there to commemorate what was once here.
German history museums do have a problem in how to tell the story of Hitler and his rise to power, along with the damage that was done to the country. It’s not possible to just airbrush him out of history, but they don’t really want displays that become shrines.
This is a very clever way of dealing with the problem, they’ve displayed the picture upside down. It was painted by Karl Rickelt (1857-1944) who moved to Cologne in 1936 and who was Hitler’s portrait painter. It is thought that the scratches to this artwork, which was a preparatory piece for a larger image at the city hall, were made by Rickelt’s wife.
In total he painted 29 artworks of the Fuhrer, more than any other individual. His own politics aren’t entirely clear, although it’s clear that he had sympathy for Hitler as a person. For his wife, who outlived him, she was left to deal with the reputation of what her husband had done in glorifying the German leader, so it’s no surprise perhaps that she vandalised this painting.
The Babington Arms in Derby closed last week as a JD Wetherspoon venue and has reopened nearly immediately under the same name but operated by a private company. So, rather belatedly, I thought I’d better note my experiences of visiting this pub in the past and how it was really rather one of my favourites.
The chain explained why they had given the pub the name that they did in 1997:
“This pub’s site was once part of the gardens immediately behind the long-demolished Babington House. This 17th-century mansion was the home of the Babington family, whose coat of arms depicted two baboons on a large beer or wine cask.”
I’ve been here a few times over the last couple of years and it’s a comfortable pub, but it did feel in need of a renovation. The price point was the lowest in the chain, despite them having another pub around a ten minute walk away which has higher prices.
This does feel like those JD Wetherspoon pubs that opened in the 1990s, lots of wood and a traditional feel. This venue felt more like a pub than some of their other locations, it evidently had a community and loyal set of locals. It was also quite a small pub for the chain, which is perhaps the reason that they no longer wanted it.
The real ale selection in June 2025, which was all keenly priced and a perfectly decent selection.
And a small breakfast which I recall was entirely as I would want it to be
I mentioned the refurbishment that was needed earlier and this little waterfall arrangement last year was perhaps testament to that.
Having a look at previous reviews, there’s the near obligatory one that someone has gone to a chain that doesn’t allow dogs and is annoyed that their dog isn’t allowed in.
“Cannot go inside or outside with my dog. Obviously they do not want regular customers that are sensible. I feel discriminated against, when I am willing to sit outside with the smokers, in the rain. Most pubs in Derby are pub friendly. DOWN MARKET WETHERSPOON WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP.”
Anyway…
“Only one checkout working all week, large queues on self-service and checkout. Customers moaning about the service. What a way to lose a lot of customers.”
How on earth can someone get a pub confused with a supermarket?
“This place starts selling alcohol at 8am. I don’t drink at that time but often take a morning walk. For years I’ve ordered a pint of soda and lime with just a single measure of lime. Soda water is free so I’ve just paid for the lime, which has recently increased from 20p to 55p. Still I don’t mind this as the company has rent and other costs to cater for.
Last time I was there they said I had to pay for 2 measures of lime because I wanted a pint drink. The manager confirmed to me that I had to pay for something I wasn’t buying!!! This company has two other pubs in Derby who don’t do this. This pub is blatantly biased against none alcoholics.
After contacting their head office, I confirmed that soda water is free. My tip to help change this rip off is to order a small soda and lime and then as many free pints of soda water as you like. More work for the staff, more washing up and a chance of changing policy.”
The last paragraph tells me what I need to know about the customer, but this was back in the day when venues were allowed to reply, and the manager at the time responded with “you are entitled to your opinion” and I like this sort of passive aggressive response.
Anyway, the reviews from the first new days of the new operator aren’t great, but I don’t envy them. Taking over a new pub is hard enough, but it’s especially difficult when you’re following a JD Wetherspoon with its cheap prices, generally efficient service and the wide selection of food and drink. Fair play to anyone for trying though as they’ve at least kept the pub open.
