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Saturday – Pubs of Darlington and the Town Library

The view from my Mercure hotel room in Darlington over the town square. It looked damp and cold (outside, it was lovely inside), which was a great relief to me. It’s a bit prosaic, but I did think about previous guests from long ago who shared this view, as this hotel was once one of the grandest in the area when it was described as a “temple of luxury” when it opened in the 1890s. This wasn’t just some Travelodge of the Victorian period, it was really quite decadent. Indeed, there has been a hotel on the site, albeit a couple of metres further forwards, since the middle of the seventeenth century. As an aside, in the former building, the meetings of the Stockton and Darlington Railway Company were held in its rooms, one of the world’s earliest railways.

With all that history floating about in my mind, I went to drink copious amounts of coffee at one of the town’s two JD Wetherspoon outlets, the Tanner’s Hall. They themselves note:

“Skinnergate was once the location of Darlington’s Skin Market. In 1621, the local council decreed: ‘Noe tanners shall bye any skins, but upon the Skynnehill.’ The long-gone tanners are remembered by the name of this Wetherspoon pub.”

The view of the interior, a little bit dominated by AWP machines, although the volume was turned off as a compromise. It probably needs a refurbishment at some point, but it was a comfortable enough place to visit. I enjoyed my numerous cups of coffee for £1.25 and they provided electricity for my to stay fully charged. A bargain.

And this is what it looked like in 2005, so it has been here for a fair while.

The town’s library is currently being refurbished and renovated, but they’ve kept the building open.

It’s light and airy inside. Although every time I think of that word I’m reminded by Basil Fawlty responding to the “is it airy?” question with “well there’s air in it”.

There was a little display about the history of the street names in the town.

And the local history room, although the books looked a bit locked away for the most part.

The library was opened in 1885 thanks to a donation from Edward Pease, who for a long time it was named after. This is when they built entrances to libraries to be functional, rather than to look like a shopping centre.

This photo is from the time that the library opened, I think it’s a beautiful building. The town should be pleased with itself that they haven’t let some idiot demolish it.

As an irrelevant aside, Wetherspoons ‘up north’ (defined by me as anything to the north of Cambridge) seem to have a lot more things going on than the ones down south.

I’m not going to get distracted writing about carpets in JD Wetherspoon pubs, but this is perhaps one of the best I’ve seen. It is a nod towards the name of the pub, the William Stead. As the chain notes:

“This pub is named after a former editor of the Northern Echo who went on to become one of the most influential men of his age. William Stead submitted several articles to the Northern Echo which were so well received that, in 1871, he was offered the editor’s chair without ever having set foot inside a newspaper office. He was in charge at the Northern Echo for nine years, before moving on. His new journalism paved the way for today’s tabloid press. One of the most influential men of his age, Stead was one of those who lost their lives on board the Titanic in 1912.”

The fish was much larger than the photo looks and it met my expectations.

It was a nice enough pub, very busy and more modern than their sister outlet that I’d been to earlier on in the day. It’s one of the few outlets that responds to reviews on social media, and I suspect it’s against company policy since Wetherspoon withdrew from social media as I assume they couldn’t cope with the deluge of negativity. I liked this one:

“I have a DEAD vape in my pocket which doesn’t work or produce vape… as I use it as a placebo.”

The pub replied they’d had a little look at CCTV and seen him vaping. Do people carry placebo vapes around though? Is that a thing?

And a review from what I assume was a 12 year old….

“It was vile and disgusting the food wasn’t what I ordered it says nothing about kids ordering food without an adult my food wasn’t nice I hated it it’s disgusting don’t go”

Anyway, it was time to move onto some more decadent and interesting pubs in the town.

The House of Hop and this is a pub that I really liked, with a suitably on-trend and inviting feel to the arrangements.

All clean and organised. I think I was the first customer of the day, the service was personable and engaging as well. All good.

Free sweets on every table, which I’ve decided should be a requirement in every bar in the country.

The Sticky Toffee Porter from Three Brothers Brewing and this wasn’t under-poured, it ran out during pouring and they gave it to me for free. A rich flavour, lots of toffee, I was pleased to be able to try it at least.

The Pape Jangles Voodoo Stout from Totally Brewed in Nottingham, a perfectly acceptable stout which I’ve had before.

I like how the beer is stored, keeps it chilled but also accessible.

And the mixture of cask and keg options that was available.

There are some lovely little alleys in the town.

One of the alleys led to Crafty Merlin’s Coffee House & Micropub.

For a small bar, this is an exceptional choice.

Beefy Seabrooks, what a time to be alive! I got a bit like Liam and was quite excited by the pump clip of the Dr Morton’s 4 Yorkshiremen of T’Apocalypse and although it was well-kept, it was a bit generic.

I treated myself to the Molinillo from McColl’s Brewery from County Durham, an excellent little number which has chilli to add some heat to the beer, as well as rich chocolate flavours. The barman, who I assumed was the owner, was conversational and friendly, there’s a laid-back feel to this venue and I wasn’t surprised that it was so busy.

The Mercure was quite expensive on the Saturday night, so I switched to the Dalesman for my accommodation, which was very reasonably priced. I was returning to Mercure the next day, but this was perfectly pleasant.

All very functional and they fixed the room door after there was a little issue with it…. I was going to go back out to visit a few more pubs, but it poured with rain and I wanted to save some of them for the next few days.

September 1, 2022
Friday – Arriving into Darlington (Part 2)

Picking up from the previous post.

The inside of Newcastle’s Central railway station, designed by John Dobson and constructed between 1845 and 1850 on a site which was three acres in size. The sheer scale of these projects was remarkable and today there are twelve platforms for trains and two platforms for the city’s Metro service.

I had a little issue that when I got the station that I had a ticket for a train that didn’t exist. I walked over to the customer service desk and the LNER staff member said that the train had been scrapped from the timetable the previous week and that I could board any LNER service to Darlington. I started my question with “I’m a little confused” and she responded “not as confused as we are”, so I liked her. The service was busy, not least because it was the day before and after a rail strike, but it meant I could depart 20 minutes earlier than I had expected. That strike action must have made matters challenging for the customer service staff, but they seemed to be doing a marvellous job.

I got a seat for the relatively short journey, but as it was so busy I didn’t take a photo of inside the carriage until I was disembarking. There was an announcement when I boarded that the trolley with food and drinks would be going through the train, but then another announcement ten minutes later saying that it wasn’t as it was too busy.

Safely in Darlington railway station which has some similarities to Newcastle, although was constructed later in 1887. There was an earlier station which had opened in 1841, but it didn’t prove large enough as passenger numbers grew.

Usually these signs note the local university of similar, but in this case, Lingfield Point is a large business park which is an important part of the town’s regeneration plans. One interesting little fact (or at least I thought so) is that the town’s name got shortened over the centuries and was frequently called Darnton during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was originally known as Deathingtun, meaning the settlement belonging to Deornoth’s people.

The frontage of the station which is now just the entrance to a car park area which I suspect might be repurposed in the future as it’s not a very attractive first impression. Although, looking at this news article, it seems they might be even more ambitious in their plans to modernise the station buildings.

Hints about the town’s railway history are visible at one of the main roundabouts. This is a model of the steam locomotive Tornado and there’s some information about this little arrangement at https://www.darlington.gov.uk/your-council/news/news-item/?id=997. More on this railway history in future days of this riveting blog though.

I was staying one night at the Mercure in Darlington, which I was returning to again later on during my little trip. The service was excellent, friendly and welcoming, and they kindly upgraded my room. There was a welcome drink available which I had to ask about, but that was willingly resolved. It was quite a hike to the room, it’s a large building and there are two separate sets of stairs (or lifts) to get there.

Ooooh, a Nespresso machine.

And a fridge with numerous cold drinks, all free of charge. I was very pleased with this.

It’s fair to say that there was no shortage of liquid soap and lotion options.

My welcome drink, a pint of John Smiths.

They’ve spent some money here on the hotel bar, and there’s a separate restaurant upstairs as well. The building has its origins as the Kings Head hotel and much of the original survives, although much modernised. The former grand entrance has been turned into shops, with a 1960s extension being where the reception and bar areas are. There was a large fire at the hotel only a few years ago, which led to a modernisation of the building, and everything still feels modern and contemporary.

The town’s market building, but more on this in a future post. I had a little meander around the centre of Darlington for an hour or so, although it was all rather quiet.

August 30, 2022
Friday – Wetherspoon Breakfast, the old Newcastle City Walls and Laing Art Gallery (Part 1)

Quick breakfast at Keel Row, the JD Wetherspoon operated pub located in The Gate Cinema Complex. There were several people who tried and failed to buy alcohol before 10:00, which must be when the licence kicks in, some of whom waited patiently at the end of the bar for the time to tick over. A slightly soulless venue, but the staff seemed positive and engaged.

St. Andrew’s Church, mostly dating from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, although there are some parts of the original twelfth century building still standing.

Some older graves remain around the churchyard, this is a later replacement of the stone placed here in honour of James Murray, “who fought a good fight, kept the faith, and finished his course the 28th June, 1782, aged 50 years”.

The entrance to Chinatown is marked by this rather impressive arch, designed by Shanghai craftsmen in 2004. In case anyone ever gets faced with this at a pub quiz, there are five Chinatowns in the UK, the others being in London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester.

Next to the arch is a long section (the longest still standing in the city) of Newcastle’s city wall (known locally as the Town Wall), with this being the Ever Tower which was constructed in the late thirteenth century and named after the family which funded its construction.

This stretch of wall was used by numerous different industries, with the structure mostly being destroyed when it was incorporated into different buildings. The Ever Tower was used by the Company of Paviors, Colliers and Carriagemen as their meeting house in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. I’m not entirely sure why a guild company of pavers, coal traders and carriage drivers joined together, but that’s a different story.

Speed’s map of Newcastle in 1610 shows where the walls were, with the Tyne at the south.

The area is now all open, but until 1933 this site was occupied by Gallowgate Lead Works.

There’s a clue here that there was a shaft here….. It was the lead shot shaft, where molten lead was poured through colanders at the top and it would fall into the water 200 feet below, where it would be collected by a man who was lowered into the water. I’m not entirely sure how enjoyable that would have been as a job.

This is the West Walls section of the Town Wall, located by the Heber Tower, first constructed in the thirteenth century. This one was later leased to the Felt-makers, Curriers, and Armourers Guild, and I can see more of a connection between felt, leather and armour.

The Town Wall is in the background, behind the Everchanging sculpture designed by Eilis O’Connell (1953-) between 2003 and 2004. It takes its name from the reflection of the steel meaning the artwork is always changing and evolving. I’m not sure if it has any other meaning, there’s none mentioned on the artist’s web-site, but I noticed someone else take a photo of it, so clearly people think it has some relevance and interest.

Laing Art Gallery, named after the local wine merchant Alexander Laing who gave a donation to allow the building to be constructed in 1904. There’s no admission charge and the staff member at the entrance was welcoming and gave me an introduction to the gallery and what there was to see, and there was a suitably friendly atmosphere to the whole arrangement. The odd situation with the wall in the background as it’s where the gallery was once connected to the central library.

As usual, I took far too many photos of artworks and I may come back to post more images, but this was one of my favourites given its local connection. This artwork of the construction of the Tyne Bridge, which opened in 1928, was painted by the Director of King’s College School of Art, Edward Dickey (1894-1977).

The upstairs gallery, with some more traditional artworks. Downstairs there was also the “These are Our Treasures” exhibition, which had items of great significance which belong to a range of people in the North East. I’ll try and write more about this, it’s a fascinating and very personal collection of items, placed her in collaboration with the artist Ruth Ewan. I’d certainly recommend a visit to this gallery and I was slightly disappointed to miss an exhibition of the Lindisfarne Gospels which is opening in a few weeks.

After having spent an hour in the Laing, I thought I’d cross over the road to inspect the city’s central library. There’s some interestingly designed furniture in the library and I liked that there were plenty of tables and power points dotted around the building.

There’s a bright and open design, all very modern, but I thought entirely soulless. There seems to be a trend recently to make public buildings such as libraries resemble the entrance to a shopping centre. The beautiful Victorian library that was once on this site was constructed in 1881, but was pulled down in 1967 to be replaced by a hideous concrete building which treated pedestrians with contempt and was designed for the benefit of the car driver, not least because they built a road through the site as a pretext for it being needed in the first place. I’ll leave others to form their own opinion of T. Dan Smith, who was responsible for so much destruction of the city centre. Anyway the dreadful concrete building, designed by Basil Spence, was such a disaster that it was pulled down in 2007.

One part of the artwork by Sean Henry, who I’ve written about on numerous occasions before. I’ve seen his artworks in Holland Park in London, in Colchester, Paddington and in Woking, where he’s from.

The sculpture, titled Man with Potential Selves, is in three parts, with the same man in a standing, walking and floating pose.

The third part, with it certainly being quite an intriguing and noticeable artwork. For anyone who wants to see it, it’s located on Grainger Street, just opposite the city’s central railway station.

And on that point, it was time to walk to Newcastle’s central railway station to get a service to Darlington, a town which I hadn’t visited before.

August 29, 2022
Newcastle – Laing Art Gallery (Steel Tailor’s Shears)

Just as an off-shoot of my post about the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle.

One of the most intriguing exhibitions at the gallery is the “These Are Our Treasures” which has a variety of items which are very meaningful to local people. The exhibition has been put together with the help of artist Ruth Ewan and it’s there until 11 February 2023. I have a great deal of time for items which are unexceptional in themselves, but which have a story behind them.

The display label for this exhibit reads:

“Steel Tailor’s Shears. My father bought them from Bowman the Tailor on Newgate Street in Morpeth. He bought them to use in his shop, he was a draper. When I was 10 (I am now 83) I used to stop to see the tailor through his shop window. He would be sitting cross legged on his shop counter working by Tilley lamp (paraffin lamp) sewing suits.

I still use them today and feel they connect me to my family history, place of business and home town. They were used by me after my father died when I took over his business. The shears stayed on Newgate Street right up until 1999, my wife, son, daughter and staff used them until I retired and the shop closed. They have never been sharpened since Mr Bowman used them to cut fabric to make his tailored suits. So it is surprising how sharp they still are! Charles, Morpeth.”

August 29, 2022
Thursday – Brewdog, Head of Steam II and the Newcastle Tap (Part 3)

Continuing on from my little meander which had started at Head of Steam Quayside.

When I visited Newcastle last year, the Brewdog was closed, which meant I never got to tick it off my list.

I was pleased to see the selection from Funky Fluid, one of my favourite breweries, it was just like being back in Poland for a brief moment. Well, perhaps I exaggerate there, but it’s nice to see Funky Fluid beers in the UK. The service in the pub was friendly, engaging and personable, with the team member nonplussed by Brewdog Plus. I’ve used that word deliberately as I’m moderately amused (I need to get out more) that the word ‘nonplussed’ is used to describe complete opposites (ie, a contronym), it’s original proper meaning is to be perplexed. But, mostly it seems used today, and indeed how I’m using it here, to mean the reverse, as the team member knew exactly how to process it. He mentioned he couldn’t serve the Funky Fluid beers yet as they weren’t officially on, which I assume means that they weren’t on the till, but he gave me tasters of two of them. That included the Triple Gelato Peanut Butter and Jelly, one of the finest beers out there, which I had in Krakow a few weeks ago.

The very acceptable Made for Us from Alpha Delta Brewing, a local brewery.

The bar had a laid-back atmosphere, although I had expected it to be a little busier in the evening. It’s very well reviewed on-line, although I was moderately humoured by this review:

“My friend, wearing a yellow suit was refused entry as they do not allow fancy dress. When told that this was his normal attire the BrewDog employee rudely replied ‘I very much doubt that’.”

It was then a quick visit to Greggs to pick up my free sausage roll as part of the O2 offer. This branch opened until 04:00, showing just what a modern and dynamic city Newcastle is. Norwich doesn’t have any late-night Greggs and it’s that sort of cosmopolitan and on-trend approach that we need here….

The Quayside Head of Steam I had visited earlier in the evening had opened in 2016, but this Head of Steam outlet in the city centre is much older and was opened in 1996 (and I think was their first). This bar set-up is a little unfortunate, the pub hadn’t updated its beers on Untappd, there was no blackboard and two customers were sitting in front of the pumps. The only thing I could do was to take a photo of the pumps and get the barman to read them out individually, a situation that wasn’t really ideal in a venue that was otherwise empty. The service was welcoming, although I was puzzled once again why this venue was so quiet for a Thursday evening.

I went for the Cloudy Lemonade from the nearly always reliable Vault City and the Papaya Don’t Preach from Brew York. Both beers were suitably refreshing, but the lemon curd taste from the Vault City was really rather lovely. The bar has now updated its Untappd list of beers and they have some excellent options, but as I couldn’t see at the time what else they had, I just left. My own radical opinion here, not that anyone will care, is that if they can’t keep Untappd up to date, then either list beers on a blackboard or take those chairs away from the bar.

Some of my professional photography skills, let’s call this artistic rather than on the slant. It’s a slightly odd design as well, the toilets are on the ground floor, but the bar itself is on the first floor.

The outside of Head of Steam and next door was the Newcastle Tap (the craft beers and pizza is visible at least) and unlike their neighbour, they had an up-to-date Untappd list and the beers were also clearly listed above the bar.

A fancy interior, I liked the barrel arrangement upstairs, that looked rather decadent I thought. They were serving pizzas as well, and although I had already eaten, they did look tempting, with 12 and 18 inch options. I managed to resist though, which I thought was quite impressive of me. This was another bar with a relaxed vibe and it felt suitably on-trend, with a mixture of cask and keg like the other pubs, but perhaps the widest range of cask options I had seen all evening, including at the Wetherspoons that I didn’t stay long in.

The bar is operated by Pivovar, who also run the Tapped Leeds amongst some others such as Pivni, Sheffield Tap and York Tap. I went for the John Barleycorn from Northern Alchemy, which was a little bland although it was well-kept.

The second beer I went for was the Honeycomb Pale Ale from Seven Bro7hers Brewery, lots of honeycomb here and a very nice drink to end the evening on. They make a chocolate honeycomb stout as well which I’ll look out for, that sounds like a liquid Crunchie bar to me and needs investigation.

Back to the hotel down these steps, I was quite pleased to see that there were numerous others walking up and down as otherwise it would have felt quite eerie.

Back under the High Level Bridge, which had been constructed between 1847 and 1849, designed by Robert Stephenson. It’s not the most subtle of structures, but it is an engineering marvel for the period and it’s Grade I listed. The top deck still carries trains over the Tyne, whilst the bottom deck carries cars (although recently it has been limited to taxis and buses) and pedestrians.

And a healthy evening snack in the Travelodge.

August 26, 2022
Riga – Uzvaras Piemineklis (Victory Memorial to Soviets) – Demolished

And as I wrote about a few days ago….. It has now been demolished (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/25/latvia-topples-soviet-era-obelisk-amid-backlash-against-russia). I’m quite pleased to have seen it standing, but its demolition was perhaps always inevitable.

August 25, 2022
Thursday – Crossing London on a Rail Strike and Flying to Newcastle with BA (Part 1)

Starting Thursday having stayed at the YHA at Lee Valley, I was fully rested and ready for the excitement of crossing London during a rail strike. Although I’ve trailed that bit with the title of this post really.

Much of Britain has been a bit short of water recently and this is the River Lea looking the driest that I’ve seen it. Incidentally, it can be spelled either Lea or Lee, or as Wikipedia notes “the spelling Lea predominates west (upstream) of Hertford, but both spellings (Lea and Lee) are used from Hertford to the River Thames”.

The railway tracks for the Greater Anglia services are on the left, but they weren’t running at all from Cheshunt, although there were some trains shuttling up and down the line. The Overground was operating, although it wasn’t going to be the next day, but only from 08:00 which is later than usual. I wanted to get across London as quickly as possible for my 13:20 flight, so I caught the 08:02 service. I’m not entirely sure why the Overground was operating later than usual, but I assume it was because there were difficulties in getting drivers in on time.

The service was busy when I got off at Seven Sisters, but I think that was just a lot of people switching to the underground network who would have otherwise got the train into central London. It wasn’t busy for much of my journey, but I can imagine it was nigh on intolerable for many.

This is how I spent much of my journey, in the peace and quiet of the underground. I arrived at Heathrow T5 at around 09:40, which was as fast as I could have expected even on a day without strikes, so I was more than pleased with TFL.

I don’t often fly on domestic flights for environmental reasons (and my flights will be decreasing sharply next year anyway), but I have to note, it is much cheaper and convenient than using rail. However, I didn’t have many options when I needed to be in Newcastle and the trains weren’t running. A single fare cost £30 on BA, which I thought was very reasonable and compared to the railways, it’s just far better in terms of comfort, speed, efficiency and cost.

They’ve changed the security queueing system around a bit and I was stopped from going to the premium security bit by a staff member who said that there was no access via the way I wanted to go. I asked how I could get to the premium security line and she pointed me the way that I had been going. I suspect my dishevelled look must have slightly disorientated her. The staff were all friendly, but there was a woman complaining that her liquids were being seized. Again and again this happens, surely people must realise they can’t sneak stuff through, although I’m always impressed how surprised people pretend to look.

I had time to visit the BA Galleries South lounge and the breakfast spread here has improved no end recently. I’m not saying this is world class, but it’s more than sufficient and everything has reverted to being self-service once again. I’m pleased that they’ve stopped insisting on putting the bacon and sausages into rolls, it’s now served separately.

How decadent.

There’s now a market table as they’re calling it, with salad items and the like, as well as rolls.

And it’s the first time that I’ve seen nachos in a BA lounge as well.

Some of the hot options, which includes pies, chicken curry, vegan curry, chilli and the like. I was very pleased that the gravy was self-pour. They took the breakfast options away just before 11:00 and brought the hot food out just after 11:15, which I think is earlier than it used to be.

I was pleased to see the gravy was self-serve because that meant I could drown my pies in it, just as I like them. I’m easily pleased I accept. They’ve changed to pea and ham pies this month, and the quality is very acceptable indeed. I could have had quite a few of these. I know that as I did have quite a few of them.

There seem to be a lot of screens down around Heathrow at the moment, although the number of staff seems to have increased.

Boarding was a mess and it took them nearly 40 minutes from announcing the gate was open to letting people through. It’s easy to be critical, but they could have explained what was happening as I could see the annoyance on the faces of some people. And, if I couldn’t, the man next to me shouted down his phone to someone “it’s blasted carnage here”. I’ve changed the “blasted” word to be less rude, but readers (if it’s plural) of this blog can guess the word he used. I privately thought that the word “carnage” was a bit strong for a queue of this length, but sometimes people like to recount their stories of drama.

It transpired, as the pilot mentioned it on board, that the computer system had gone down and the gate staff were trying to fix it. They probably could have just said that whilst we were waiting, but they did look short-staffed and perhaps they were just focused on getting people through quickly. Boarding by group fell apart, although the queue I was in moved quickly and so I boarded relatively early. It was all fine, but it isn’t helped that there aren’t enough seats in this part of the terminal, so it’s not entirely comfortable waiting.

I can’t recall many air bridges that are so long, the terminal building is visible at the rear of the photo.

The flight was impeccable as ever and I had plenty of space and no-one seated next to me. The snack was the same crisps and water as with every other flight, but I’m content with that. Helpful and personable crew, but that’s fairly standard in my experience of British Airways.

Safely in Newcastle in under an hour from taking off. We had taken off 44 minutes late and arrived 38 minutes late, but I wasn’t in any hurry, so all was well. The boarding had been a bit odd as people were trickling on the aircraft for over half an hour, but on a day of a national rail strike, I was just glad to have arrived safely.

The aircraft is G-NEOR which as the registration suggests is an Airbus A321 NEO which BA have had since new in 2018. Of no interest to anyone else, but just for my own interest, I haven’t been on this aircraft before. The weather was colder than I’ve experienced in Norfolk over recent weeks, which to be honest was just a relief.

And I’ll leave this post here, starting off again soon enough with getting on the Newcastle Metro into the city and then checking that the pubs were all still open.

August 22, 2022
Brewdog Plus – A Quick Review

I mentioned in a post a couple of days ago that I had purchased Brewdog Plus. This is likely just a one-off for me, but I know I have a few Brewdog trips coming up in the next few months, so on this occasion I decided to go for it. It costs £99, but they give you £150 of credit at Brewdog (and I’m merrily working around their bars) which means that it works for me on this occasion. They also give you a free coffee every day as well, which is a handy little extra benefit, and although I can’t imagine I’ll use it, they give you free UK delivery on Brewdog on-line orders.

It is a bit of a decadent purchase, but is of course worthwhile for anyone spending over £99 in Brewdog over the year. I know a few people (well, two) who have purchased it for that reason, but the staff at a couple of bars I’ve spoken to have said that the take-up has been patchy so far. A few bars have had no idea how to deal with it, which is a QR code that they scan, but the outlet at Newcastle was very clued up. I don’t have shares in Brewdog, but it can’t be used in conjunction with Equity Punk discounts, which seems harsh for those who have loyally backed Brewdog financially. Perhaps they’ll change that next year.

For anyone who visits Brewdog infrequently, it’s of course not going to be worth it. I don’t think I’ll pop in very often just for a coffee, but it’s a handy little extra free of charge if I was visiting anyway. And, I can’t rule out just popping into the Norwich one every now and then to get a coffee, so it’s a nice bonus to have. I like that it’s easy to see the balance on the same web-page as the QR code, so at least that’s relatively clear.

Anyway, for anyone interested, sign-up is at https://www.brewdog.com/uk/brewdog-plus.

August 22, 2022
Wednesday – Sagardi Restaurant, Mikkeller, the Dundee Arms and Lee Valley YHA (Part 2)

Continuing on from part one.

I arrived at Sagardi restaurant in Shoreditch just a little damp from the rain, even though it’s only a four minute walk from Goose Island. I had £50 to spend thanks to The Fork, otherwise I’m fairly sure I wouldn’t have thought to come here and it’s a bit out of my price range anyway. The welcome was immediate and I was offered a choice of seats, but I thought it best to dry off at the rear of the venue and I’m sure they were pleased with that. They didn’t want upmarket and decadent customers entering to see damp patrons sitting near to the door.

Starting with still water and a pint of Txapeldun from Whym, which I didn’t even attempt to pronounce. It was a perfectly acceptable Spanish pale ale which was well kept, although it’s fair to say that this really is a restaurant which focuses on wine. The beer wasn’t much more than the water and it cost £6.50, which was perhaps the only element that seemed even vaguely keenly priced.

My rather blurry photo of the restaurant’s interior. Not ideal, but it’ll have to do. Handily, they sat me next to a power outlet which was useful in charging my phone back up which I had managed to discharge by spending about an hour staring at it. The interior design is functional and not too over to the top, but there has been some effort made with some decorative features around the place such as the coat hangers in the shape of horses’ heads.

And the wine collection. I’d have rather it was an extensive craft beer collection, but there we go. I accept what they had was in keeping with the theme of the restaurant.

An anchovy and olive concoction that was brought over as some sort of amuse bouche. This was delicious, strong and clean flavours.

I raved on about tomato bread when I went to Barcelona (indeed, I think Bev got fed up with me raving on about it) and I think I ate about six loaves of it at one restaurant. The version here was less interesting, there was no depth of flavour, the bread was too thick for my liking and it didn’t take me back to Barcelona in any shape or form.

The pan-fried codfish in the style of Zapiain cider house, although of what relevance that last bit is I have no idea as there was no taste to the sauce. I probably should have gone for something more exotic off the menu (I had been tempted by the octopus, but it’s served in so many different ways I’m never sure how it’ll turn up), but the cod had an odd texture which only just seemed cooked. There was some texture from the garlic, but no flavours of note and it all felt rather basic and uninspiring. Not that I had paid for it, but if I had, I would have been disappointed given that this dish was priced at £22.

Just on the presentation, it’s neat, but it’s quite minimal on the middle of that plate. I accept that the Spanish style might be to serve a variety of items on different plates, but nonetheless, it does look a bit barren there. A few vegetable elements, and I don’t write that lightly, would have enhanced this a little.

The side of Sagardi style potato wedges, which meant that I had effectively ordered fish and chips, was rather more generous in the portion size. They were cooked fine, although heavily salted, and this was really the pinnacle of the meal for me, which probably isn’t much of an advertisement for the restaurant. It mentions on the menu that it’s “grandma’s home cooking”, but I’m wondering exactly whose grandmother they’re referring to.

There’s a butcher’s shop inside the restaurant, as part of the theme, but there were people standing in front of it and so I thought better of taking a photo, but it’s visible here through the glass windows. Overall, I left feeling uninspired and I could see why it was nearly empty inside, and they’re perhaps reliant on link-ups from companies such as The Fork. The service was polite, but the food was mediocre at best, although judging from the reviews, perhaps I didn’t order the right menu items to get the best experience.

TFL has a two-tier pricing system which has ridiculous differences between on-peak and off-peak fares. Off-peak is between 09:30 and 16:00 and from 19:00, which means that it’s cheaper to sit in a pub and get a drink whilst waiting for 19:00. So, that’s what I did, popping to Mikkeller at Hackney Road.

Twenty different beers, with the usual decent range of different beer styles and they had one from Adroit Theory which looked interesting.

I don’t like the third glasses that Mikkeller use, they’re too prone to spilling, but the triple IPA brewed by them, Luxury Fries, was decadent and delicious. As an aside, I’m pleased that I know what they mean by being dry hopped now (effectively adding them later on in the brewing process), it gives me confidence than in fifteen years or so I’ll have a decent understanding of brewing. The bar isn’t the largest and it got reasonably busy, but I had a seat by the window looking out over to the church opposite.

I didn’t go in the Royal Oak on Columbia Road, but I liked the external architecture of the pub, with some of the interior fittings surviving as well.

A quick visit to the Dundee Arms to wait the final thirty minutes before the cheaper fares. The pub has been trading since the later part of the eighteenth century, so that’s some heritage tied up in the property.

There’s a slightly divergent mixture of historic building, modern on-trend elements and darkness, although I still quite liked the whole arrangement. Service was friendly and immediate, the surroundings clean and comfortable. It feels something of a locals’ pub, although I mean that in the positive sense and not as a hint that I thought a riot might break out at some point.

I have no idea about the artworks in the background, but the beer was better than I had anticipated, the Sicilian Harvest from the Five Points Brewing Company who are just down the road in Hackney. I’ve somehow not been to their taproom yet, but it looks appealing.

Now able to tap in at the reduced rate, I was safely at Cambridge Heath station, first opened back in May 1872 and now part of the London Overground.

At the back is a Greater Anglia train flying through, but I don’t think that the mainline trains stop here anymore.

And I was heading to the end of the Overground line, at Cheshunt, which is where this photo was taken whilst I was waiting to cross over. The railway station here dates to 1846, but more interestingly perhaps is that nearby is where the Cheshunt Railway opened in 1825, known as the first monorail to open anywhere in the world. There’s a little bit more about this at https://www.hertsmemories.org.uk/content/herts-history/topics/transport/railways/cheshunt_railway_1825, but this makes Cheshunt one of the more important locations in the world in terms of the development of the railway in the early nineteenth century.

I was heading here, to the YHA London Lee Valley which I’ve stayed at before. I choose to come here as although it’s miles from London, it was by far the cheapest accommodation option that I could find. It takes just over thirty minutes from London Liverpool Street making it more accessible than its geographical location might suggest. Friendly staff as ever and they have a range of food and drink to buy at reception, although it’s more expensive than at some pubs which I’ve always thought is slightly odd. I think they’re more thinking of a captive market than the price point of the people staying there.

This YHA works on the lodges concept.

There’s a communal kitchen in each lodge, although I had already eaten an adequate (at best) meal and so didn’t need to use anything here.

And the private en-suite room for £40, which is very good value for London at the moment, as even the cheapest Travelodge room was twice that. Indeed, it would have been the same price for an extra person, if they want to climb up to the top of the bunk bed arrangement.

It’s not going to win any design awards, but it was clean and comfortable.

And, thanks to this, lovely and cool.

There was some external noise from over-excited youngsters (which I define as anyone under 30), but it had stopped by midnight and so I wasn’t too bothered, bearing in mind it is a YHA. Although, to be honest, the average age at a lot of YHAs is older than I am, which is marginally over 32. It all meant that after several weeks in Norwich, I was at least staying somewhere different.

August 21, 2022
Wednesday – Greater Anglia Trip to London, Brewdog, Goose Island and Rain (Part 1)

I’m not going to be travelling as much next year, so make the most of this riveting content whilst you still can. Because next year, it’ll be limited to the Vulgar Dictionary, graves from the Rosary Cemetery and photos of chips from the market. For now, this is Norwich railway station in all its glory. They still haven’t found a replacement for West Cornwall Pasty which is unfortunate, nor has the M&S ever re-opened from its “temporary closure” in March 2020.

I always get everywhere early, on this occasion so early that the train hasn’t arrived yet at platform 2. The eagle eyed would have noted that if I had decided to depart from another platform, I could have gone to visit Cromer Carnival. I’ve also never noticed that some London trains have eight carriages and others have twelve carriages, but I can’t imagine that sort of information will excite or delight many people.

Wooo, it’s not the Stansted Express train, it actually has tables. The service was relatively busy, but there were always seats available during the journey. Not that I’m one for complaining, but these new Stadler trains do make for a bumpy journey, but I’ve noted that before when the man in the on board cafe was struggling to even pour a coffee.

London Liverpool Street was busier than when I arrived at 4am two weeks ago. I think I prefer it quieter. Note the new Greggs is open, and there’s another one just opened opposite the entrance to the station, they must be quite an opening drive. I can only imagine that it will be Pret who lose out here.

Then a quick visit to Brewdog Shoreditch to take advantage of my new Brewdog Plus subscription, more on which in another post. Like the Norwich outlet, they struggled a bit with the QR code, but it all worked out in the end. The beer is the last of the Donut Series that I hadn’t tried, this is the peanut butter cup with salted caramel glaze. The flavours were pleasant enough, but it was a bit thin and it needed a bit more salted caramel taste for my own personal preference.

It would be wrong to be in the Shoreditch area and not pop into Goose Island. As usual, everything was in order, and although Daniel the manager was there, this bar seems to run efficiently all the time. I mention that as it can’t be easy to run a venue in this part of the city with an often fraught atmosphere outside, but with calm inside. Nicely done as ever. This is the Cold IPA (I had to Google what that beer style was, apparently it’s an IPA fermented at lower temperatures) and it was rather decadent, quite a touch of grapefruit flavour in there. I expect Nathan would have known that without looking it up, he knows a lot of irrelevant stuff.

I’ve complained that it’s too hot for weeks, and then at the very moment I need to go to the nearby restaurant, it pours down in Biblical terms.

Well, how lovely. I can’t really complain, I’m happy with rain as it makes things much cooler.

I’m standing under a railway bridge here trying to wait out the rain, whilst admiring the street art.

On the Zeppelin walk that Des led a few weeks ago, he mentioned that this area had Shakespeare connections, something that I hadn’t been aware of before. And, since late 2019, there’s been a statue of him (Shakespeare I mean, not Des, although I’m sure his time will come), marking the nearby Curtain Theatre.

And for anyone interested, here’s a bit more about the uncovering of the Curtain Theatre. The theatre had opened in 1577, remaining in use until at least 1624 and one of the discoveries was that it rectangular shaped and not round. The stage was 14 metres long and despite it clearly being well attended, it’s not entirely cleared why it closed. I’m impressed that so many bits of it survived, including remnants of ceramic boxes where admission fees were placed before being taken to the office to be opened, a forerunner of the phrase ‘box office’.

Anyway, with that I meandered across, whilst quite soggy, to Sagardi, but more of that in the next instalment.

August 20, 2022