Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: London

London – Southwark (Borough of) – Sun Wharf (New JD Wetherspoon)

A new JD Wetherspoon has opened at London Bridge station in what was formerly the London Dungeons. The entrance here is the former way into the London Dungeons, which was here between 1974 and 2013. This venue is a considerable project for the pub chain and it’s open for long hours, between 06:30 and 00:30 every day of the week.

As usual, I’ll take the pub’s history from their own website:

“Next to London Bridge station’s entrance, 48–50 Tooley Street are distinctive brick arches. Until 2013 (almost 40 years), this had been The London Dungeon. The arches were occupied by importers and provision agents, whose livelihoods depended on the warehouses opposite. Many have survived (Hay’s Wharf, now Hay’s Galleria). Fenning’s Wharf and Sun Wharf were replaced (in 1984/85) by the huge No.1 London Bridge complex. During that site’s redevelopment, a Bronze Age burial mound was unearthed.”

The bar which is bright and open.

Some of the brick arches and I can see why this was a suitable place for the London Dungeons. The rooms flow into each other, I like this sort of quirky thing.

The new coffee machine and there’s only hot milk, with no jugs for the cold milk.

There’s a bank of three coffee machines.

The unique carpet.

There’s a display about the carpet and why they’ve designed this one in this manner.

The menu.

Part of the support elements that I assume stop the building from falling down. The trains are evident running above both by noise and also because things vibrate a little.

This feels like a really well designed building, there is a choice of seating styles including low and higher tables. There are quieter areas, open-plan areas and plenty of power points. The team members seemed engaged, helpful and I saw numerous positive customer service interactions. As a conversion into a pub, this is one of the best that I’ve seen.

Although the venue has only been open for a few weeks, I thought I’d see what the few online reviews posted are like so far.

“Had had a lovely evening here but sadly the dessert menu isn’t clear enough – says “vanilla ice cream” as if it’s plain but it actually comes with sauce and the staff member wouldn’t switch it for plain despite asking. It’s a scoop of ice cream! Don’t argue the toss just switch it hahahah. Sauce was horrible by the way”

The printed menu and the online menu both mention toffee sauce and Belgian chocolate sauce. And then to give the venue 1/5 after a lovely evening….

“Told off for bringing in a fully wrapped Greggs Muffin.”

Probably best not to bring in a Greggs…..

No-one has complained yet that they can’t bring their dog in, but I imagine that’ll be coming soon. Anyway, this is a large venue that has lots of little smaller areas, something forced upon the chain by the historic nature of the building. It all felt well managed to me, spotlessly clean and evidently already popular with local office workers. All rather lovely.

November 12, 2025
London – City of London – Sir John Oldcastle Pub

As I had a couple of hours spare in London before my train from Farringdon, I thought I’d pop into the JD Wetherspoon operated Sir John Oldcastle which is at the end of the street. It’s not been one of my favourite pubs as it’s often very busy, but matters are more sedate on a Sunday early afternoon.

As usual, I’ll use the pub chain’s own history of the pub name:

“Named after The Sir John Oldcastle Tavern, which stood in the former grounds of Sir John’s nearby mansion, this was already long established by 1680. Oldcastle is thought to have been the model for Shakespeare’s character ‘Falstaff’.”

Not a vast amount has changed with the street layout here in the last 150 years, the pub is located just above the “EET” of Charles Street. The ward of Saffron Hill has now gone, which originally took its name as saffron grew around here. It’s also where Fagin’s den was located in Oliver Twist.

The bar area and coffee machines and today it was the £1.81 unlimited hot drinks that tempted me in here rather than beer. It all seems functional enough and it felt well managed.

Carpets in every JD Wetherspoon venue are unique, although this one isn’t necessarily the most decadent in terms of its styling.

The online reviews are pretty decent for a JD Wetherspoon venue, despite the challenges they must have here with having a small site and limited space in terms of facilities.

“I was so surprised when the staff said to me I can not paid by 50 in cash. No explanation why. The answer was “not because not”. This is absolutely disgusting and ridiculous. I asked about manager to explanation me this situation. He didn’t show up to speak with me. I will never back to this place. Higley not recommended.”

Disgusting that a venue won’t accept a £50 note? Hmmmm. Seems quite reasonable to me given the number of forgeries.

“I’ve just been kicked out of here, because I had the audacity to bring a Costa Coffee in; even though I’d just ordered and paid for breakfast. They’d rather refund my breakfast purchase; than let me have a Costa with it. If their machine coffee was better; I wouldn’t have had to in the first place.”

Why not just bring in your own food as well?

“Good interior. Ordered porridge. I went to the toilet and when I came back some waiter had taken it away. I hadn’t eaten any of it. I found it was thrown away! Another diner’s beer was also taken away by the same waiter undrunk.”

Very efficient service, it’s good to keep the tables clean.

“If you want to sit and read a paper or a book, this is the place for you. If however, you want to have a laugh and giggle with friends, go to the castle pub instead.”

I’m with the pub, this group sounds needlessly frivolous.

“Leffe. £3.49 a pint in most Wetherspoons. John Oldcastle £5.49 some might say different location BUT McDonalds do not have this issue.”

It feels inevitable to me that a pub in central London will be more expensive than one in Swindon.

“Asked to leave when we were causing no trouble…”

I suspect another side to this story….

Anyway, once again I digress. I thought the pub looked relatively clean, although the toilets probably need more rebuilding than cleaning, with the team members seeming friendly enough. And the coffees and other assorted hot drinks tasted as expected, so a rather peaceful couple of hours.

November 2, 2025
London – Hackney (Borough of) – Baxter’s Court (JD Wetherspoon About to Close)

I’ve trawled to see what old photos I’ve taken of Baxter’s Court, a JD Wetherspoon pub that they’re closing this week. The venue notes about its history:

“This pub stands, more or less, on the site of an old alleyway, known as Baxter’s Court, which dates from at least 1700. Jerusalem Square also dated from this time, but both were swept away when Valetta Street (once Jerusalem Passage) was developed.”

They add:

“This Wetherspoon pub takes its name from a “lost alley” approximately on this site. Sir Thomas Marsh’s White House, also stood here until it was pulled down around 1869. In the late 17th century, Marsh used his house as an academy for training nonconformist ministers.

The bank next door occupies the former site of the Hackney Pavilion, an ornate 1100-seater cinema built in 1914. Defeated by television, it closed in 1973.

The building immediately to the south was at one time used by the Salvation Army, whilst next to that is the former Methodist Central Hall, opened in 1925.

Hackney’s first council housing was built in 1902 in Valette Street, which runs behind this pub. Valette Buildings, dating from 1905, stands on the site of the former Jerusalem Square, a development dating from around 1700.”

The chain has been making a large investment in more substantially sized pubs, including some new openings at railway stations in London.

The chicken bites basket with Mexican rice that I acquired here in 2022. I can’t remember what it was like, but I’m sure it was entirely adequate.

This is the Session IPA from Three Sods Brewery, a local set-up which closed in August 2022, a few weeks after I purchased this beer. I say purchased, it was given to me by the pub as they had started to pour it and realised I had ordered on the app the BoHo Bitter from the same brewery. I liked this arrangement.

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Deep in my digital archive, here’s a little throw back from the pub from 2012. Coffee back then was served by the staff, this was before the self-service unlimited hot drinks arrangement which I very much like. As I like things such as this, I had a look at how much this costs today in the pub:

Eggs Benedict – £5.29

Regular Cappuccino – £1.81

Large Pepsi – £2.05

So, a total of £9.15, which isn’t too much of an increase from the £6.24 of 13 years ago, especially as the coffees are now unlimited. Anyway, I digress, so I thought I’d have a quick look at the reviews of the venue and they’re quite low for the chain.

“Very bad … They Refused to serve me because I had a dog.. Dogs are not allowed which is okay But… Why I couldn’t Even drink my beer Outside? It doesn’t make sense at all!!!”

The obligatory complaint from a dog owner and the policy makes sense to me, they don’t want dogs in or out of the pub.

“I really struggle to give it 1 star. I went in there on Saturday 11/12/21 and manager tried to fiddle me. She overcharged me for a mixer for a whisky (I didn’t want or have) and when challenged asked me if I supported ‘Black lives Matter’… When I replied ‘no’ was told I was barred…. Watch out for her guys…. Still have receipt with date and time on!!!”

Without doubting the story, there must have been more to this exchange than just this.

“Horrible table service.. I ordered two glasses of wine at 5:00 pm it came to my table at 5:20 pm. I give them a negative 10”

This is the entirety of the review because two drinks took twenty minutes to arrive at the table….

“Absolutely disgusted just been in and ordered a pizza and asked for no chilli peppers as I’m allergic to them, sent the pizza back as they still came out with them on, new pizza arrived they just took them off and missed a few, staff didn’t care either when I took it back even when I explained I was allergic to them”

This is a bit sub-optimal….

“This establishment refused to accept a Clydesdale bank £5 note.”

They don’t have to….

“No John Smith what’s going wrong with this pub”

No wonder the place is closing if they couldn’t get that right….

Below is the sales document, it seems that the building has been acquired for over £2 million.

Sales Document Download

The pub has been trading as a JD Wetherspoon venue for around 25 years, I suspect that it’ll be missed by the local community, however many faults it might have had.

October 31, 2025
Wembley – England vs Wales

The excitement of Wembley Stadium ahead of the friendly match between England and Wales.

The crowds slowly starting to form for the match, which was in aid of the Alzheimer’s Society.

The stadium before the crowds arrived.

Getting busier. Apparently matches can have as many as 2,000 stewards and everything felt organised.

The players arrive. I hope no-one is expecting a detailed summary of the players, their performance or anything substantial about the football.

And we’re off. Well, the players came out to have a little kick about before going back in for a rest, or whatever it is that they do.

Getting ready to lay the FA flag onto the pitch. They didn’t use kids for the mascots and instead had 22 fans who were living with dementia, something that I thought was a rather lovely idea.

The flag in place. I did a video of the pre-match excitement….

Players walked onto the field and then they played the national anthems. The Welsh fans were very vocal and energetic during the match, they did their team proud.

There were three goals in quick succession at the beginning of the match, so England were 3-0 up after 20 minutes. Apparently the players who kicked the ball into the net were Morgan Rogers (3 minutes), Ollie Watkins (11 minutes) and Bukayo Saka (20 minutes) with the last one being quite good I think. I was pleased that no-one in the area near me felt the need to jump up and down a lot (or actually at all) as I find it easier to stay sitting down.

Thomas Tuchel, who I understand is the England manager. He also seems very good and I rather like this European approach of the FA.

I was puzzled as to why the players didn’t have their names on their shirts during the second half as I was sure that they did in the first half. It transpired that this was to fit into the theme of Alzheimer’s and it aimed to raise awareness of how the illness impacts memory. I must admit that is lovely, although it had the side issue that unless it was Jordan Pickford (I find it easy to identify the goalkeeper and I did learn the name of the Welsh one, but I’ve since forgotten it) I didn’t know who was kicking the ball.

The attendance at the game was 78,126 which seems like a lot of people. The stadium can in theory hold 90,000 people, but this was a higher attendance that I had been anticipating.

The final score was 3-0.

The expert football supporters might notice that I’m not really entirely knowledgeable about the current England and Wales football squads and I might have had to look up on Wikipedia who the managers were. But the venue was safe, secure and the football was interesting to watch, so I might go and do this again…..

October 10, 2025
Wembley – England vs Wales (Video of Opening)

And for anyone interested, of which I accept the number is limited, here’s the opening ceremony (as it were) of the England vs Wales match at Wembley. I feel that the person searching for their seat adds a little something to this video. More about the match (of which very little will be football related as this isn’t a sporty blog) in the next post…

October 10, 2025
London – Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal (2 Star Michelin Restaurant)

Richard does some very sensible things sometimes, like going to a charity auction, having too much to drink and then bidding on a five course tasting menu with champagne at a two star Michelin restaurant. So that’s why I was here. I haven’t yet won the lottery.

The restaurant is located on the first floor of the Hotel Café Royal, one of Oscar Wilde’s favourite restaurants.

Overlooking the hotel reception where rooms start from £700 per night. I had booked the £38 Travelodge at ExCel though, I know my place. Richard compromised and was at the Novotel ExCel at nearly £100 a night, but he has aspirations of grandeur.

It’s all quite decadent. I think that would go without saying though.

We were seated at a table overlooking Regent Street, it was like sitting in a calm and suitably chilled observatory looking out onto a hectic street.

The champagne, which was Bollinger and which tasted like every other champagne to me, but I don’t claim expertise here. I didn’t expect otherwise, but I wasn’t surprised and delighted at the beer list, so I stuck to the free sparkling water, but Richard splashed out £120 on the wine pairing and spent the evening beaming like he had purchased a stake in a vineyard. I would have gone for a craft beer pairing, but although this is becoming more common, it’s still not treated in the way that wine is.

The menu for the evening which was swept away soon after, but not before I took this photo of it.

I think that they expected diners to have one roll each, but Richard had three, so I did the same. And then asked for another one later on, so that was four delicious rolls. The chorizo one, which is the fluffy puff pastry roll on the left, was really quite glorious and bakery certainly isn’t just a side show here.

The amuse bouche.

This is the aged Kaluga caviar. I’m not sure I understand the mystique of caviar, this was clearly a rather decent one with a creamy and buttery flavour, but I don’t understand why it has the luxury tag attached to it other than its rarity. But, hippo is quite rare, and they wouldn’t serve that. Anyway hippo matters aside, the sweetcorn retained some bite and the prawns added some texture to the arrangement.

This is the John Dory with brown crab and lovage, which proved to be my favourite dish of the evening. I like John Dory, it’s light but flavoursome, delicate and easy to bully, but it was the crab on the side that I thought was the decadent and rich tasting element to this dish. The presentation was rather fine as well, with a range of tastes and textures running through it.

A little mango based palate cleanser. Richard was struggling to keep up with his wines, as he had one per course. I was busy keeping up with my rolls.

This is the quail with courgette, anchovy and Parmesan, also being Richard’s favourite dish of the evening. I don’t get to eat quail very often, it’s not something Greggs pop in their selection of bakes very often, but it was gamey in flavour and also tender. The anchovy packed a salt punch through the dish, with the ingredients all complementing each other to give a real depth of flavour, with the Parmesan giving it that suitable umami feel.

The presentation here is quite special, with the meringue at the base being punchy and the sorbet being smooth and sweet.

A final trio closed proceedings, my favourite being a little praline number with a whisper of gold and a pleasing roasted-nut finish.

The atmosphere in the restaurant was inviting and comfortable, with a quite modern selection of music playing which I hadn’t anticipated. But, the aim appears to be to have a welcoming and informal dining experience, rather than a stuffy and unnecessarily upmarket one. There’s not much point in having a beautiful restaurant if no-one is comfortable in it though, so I felt that the design elements were all appropriate and in keeping with their aspirations. There was always a touch of theatre in the presentation of the food and plating elements at the table, but that never became intrusive. The restaurant was quieter earlier on, but got steadily busier so it was nearly full by the time that we left.

Overall, this was a rather lovely decadent experience, with the service being impeccable throughout. We were never rushed, but the pace of the dine was constant and appropriate, although it of course felt that it was over too soon. The quality of the food was as expected high and Richard was beyond excited about his wines, with the servers busily clearing crumbs off the table from my excessive consumption of rolls. I thought a lot of the dishes were quite understated and I reference that in a positive way, there was a competence rather than a desire to surprise by being quirky. The only problem Richard has now is that he’s decided this is the way he needs to live, so I expect to see him at all manner of Michelin restaurants over the coming few months….

August 29, 2025
2013 KFC Forest Gate Receipt

As to what’s this doing here….

Of no great relevance, but a minor piece of social history from January 2013 and a two piece variety meal.

August 11, 2025
London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Edith Cavell and the Royal London Hospital

Although I know a good deal of Edith Cavell’s story because of her links with Norfolk and her burial at Norwich Cathedral, I hadn’t realised that she had trained at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. She had applied in 1896 to be a nurse practitioner at the hospital at the age of 30 and she trained under the leadership of the hospital’s matron Eva Luckes. This was Whitechapel in its gritty Victorian prime, all soot-stained streets, overcrowded housing, and the lingering reputation of Jack the Ripper’s handiwork still hanging in the air. It wasn’t exactly the sort of place you moved to for its charm and craft beer options. She was known for being conscientious, which in nursing terms usually means ‘worked twice as hard for half the recognition.’ Her superiors noticed, and so did her patients. She remained at the hospital until 1901 when Luckes nominated Cavell for the position of night superintendent at St. Pancras Infirmary.

The plaque on the building, which is now used by the London Borough Council of Tower Hamlets and I won’t go on about the integrity of its mayor, Lutfur Rahman, and I will instead let Wikipedia do that. It’s perhaps hard to find a greater contrast of the morals of public service than Edith Cavell and Lutfur Rahman, but this isn’t a political blog and so I will limit myself.

July 22, 2025
London Craft Beer Festival 2025

My friend Simon mentioned last year about going to the London Craft Beer Festival, but I wondered if it was a bit expensive and so I didn’t get a ticket to join him. By chance, he mentioned last week that he knew someone selling a ticket at a much lower cost of £30, so I was there without much hesitation. Here’s the walk to Magazine, where this year’s event was being held.

There’s Susie and Simon, with the former’s efforts somehow getting us to the front of the queue. I hadn’t let myself get too excited about the event in case the ticket didn’t come to pass, but all was well and it’s fair to say that the excitement soon started when I had the wristband safely around my wrist.

Well, that’s exciting straight away.

The first beer of the day. The concept here is that all beers are free of charge and I won’t list here what I tried, but I did ensure that my Untappd remain updated for anyone who is interested.

We grabbed a table outside, but it soon became apparent that there was large amounts of seating, so this wasn’t an issue. Inside there were also fans and air conditioning, they didn’t want their beer drinkers over-heating, and I was happy to drink to that forward-thinking philosophy.

One of the two internal halls.

This was all so much bigger than I expected. There were some issues with the delayed opening where we left in the sun and that was sub-optimal, but once the event got going, it all felt well organised. There were maps dotted around of where all of the breweries were, but I’d need more than one afternoon to really visit every one that interested me.

I was impressed that there were no real queues at any of the brewery stands, you could get served nearly immediately.

There was a separate American beer bar and the list of options here was much wider than I had expected. As I’m not planning to visit the US for a while, this was an opportunity to tick some beers off.

One of the bar staff modelling a bottle of beer for my Untappd photo.

There was free water available of the sparkling and still options.

That path was what Liam and I walked on the Capital Challenge a few weeks ago…..

There’s Simon chatting away about Brazilian beer. I was pleased that the glasses were made of plastic, rather than, er, glass. So we had branded plastics, which means I could keep it without fear of it getting broken on the aircraft. Susie picked up a heap of free merchandise, which I’m merrily carrying around Portugal now, including baseball hats, t-shirts, lanyards and stickers.

I like a bit of Vault City, I should be visiting their new tap room later in the year.

A free ice cream and a beer slushie from Vault City which made me love them even more.

Simon wanted to go to the Vault City tasting, which was a marvellous idea, and this beer was handed around at the end of the session before.

One of the beers from the Vault City tasting.

Overall, I really enjoyed this evening and the atmosphere was informal and friendly throughout. There were no issues of anyone over-indulging, despite the large amount of free beer that was available. The organisation was better than I had expected, the scale of the event was broader than I had realised and the speed of service was faster than I had anticipated. I was very much surprised and delighted, so I think that I might just be back for next year’s event….

July 20, 2025
London – Giant Stickers on Elizabeth Line to Tackle Unexpected ‘Backprint’ Problem

I thought that it would be a marvellous idea for Liam and I to go a slightly convoluted way back to the hotel after the LDWA Capital Challenge to see these new stickers that TFL had put at some stations along the Elizabeth Line last week. The stickers have the moquette design that is used on Elizabeth Line trains, with a total cost of £30,000.

The sleek, pale wall panels, admired for their minimalist aesthetic, had instead become rather unintended canvases for human outlines which was seen by TFL as sub-optimal. TFL said that they would ensure that the stickers blended in and added:

“The Elizabeth Line has been hugely popular, and with high footfall comes unexpected wear. These stickers are a simple, cost-effective way to maintain the appearance of the stations while reducing maintenance needs.”

Liam pretended he was really excited at this piece of infra-structure development.

April 22, 2025