Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: London

  • London – Richmond upon Thames (Borough of) – Railway Tavern

    London – Richmond upon Thames (Borough of) – Railway Tavern

    There are no Good Beer Guide pubs in the centre of Richmond, so I thought I’d have a little visit to the Railway Tavern, which is run by Nicholson’s. Their web-site notes that this pub was opened in 1855 as the Railway Hotel, back when it offered overnight accommodation.

    The pub wasn’t very busy, but it’s a sizeable location with a large extension to the rear. There was a friendly welcome from a team member who let me in, as there’s a rope across the entrance to ensure customers are welcomed and comply with Covid-19 rules. I was told that I could sit anywhere, which was rather lovely.

    The rear section of the pub, all clean and perhaps a little generic in terms of its design.

    The real ales available were Nicholson’s Pale Ale, Sharp’s Doom Bar and Fuller’s London Pride, which isn’t exactly the height of decadence, but at least there was a choice. I went for half a pint of the Nicholson’s Pale Ale, which was well kept and at the appropriate temperature. As a beer it’s fine, although unexceptional. I paid using the app, which told me that the order had failed, but the drink was served about five seconds later anyway. That was fortunate, before I tried to go through the ordering process again. These apps still have some teething troubles, but I’m glad that they’ve been introduced.

    What was exceptional was the Irish barman who had got customer service down to a fine art. Friendly, engaging, conversational, pro-active and all the other epithets I use when I’m made to feel welcome. I liked how he suggested a spot which had a power-point, he offered more drinks but also made quite clear that I was “welcome to chill” for as long as I wanted. As the pub name suggests, it’s next to the railway station, which means they might get quite a few customers just popping in. His service was so friendly that I commented on it when I left the pub, and he replied “it’s takes nothing to be nice”. He’s right, and what a wonderful way to run a pub.

    Nicholson’s are a reliable pub chain, not too jazzy (not sure I’ve used that Inbetweeners quote for a while) but their food is consistent (not that I had any today) and the service is usually all fine. And as a pub, I liked this one, primarily because of that really rather wonderful service. I didn’t get chance to linger because I needed to move on, but this is the sort of pub that someone could linger in comfortably. The Pret down the road was packed with people with laptops, but they could do worse by moving down to the Railway Tavern.

  • London – Greenwich (Borough of) – Travelodge Greenwich High Road

    London – Greenwich (Borough of) – Travelodge Greenwich High Road

    It was too hot when earlier in the week I visited the Travelodge on Greenwich High Road, a hotel which is likely usually busy with tourists at this time of year, but is currently selling rooms at under £25. When I arrived the helpful man at reception seemed quite hot, which coincided with how hot I was as well. He was satisfactorily agreeable about how hot it was, so I liked him.

    Travelodge have two hotels relatively near to each other, this one at Greenwich High Road which is next to the railway station, and another simply known as Greenwich, which is next to Deptford Bridge railway station. I suppose tourists find the name of Deptford Bridge as being perhaps not quite as appealing. When I told the receptionist my name, he couldn’t find the booking, and I knew what was coming, he was going to politely tell me that I was at the wrong hotel. Fortunately, Google had already alerted me to there being two hotels, and I was at the right one. All was well. And another thanks to the receptionist for giving me paper so that I could handwrite the witness statement for some Norfolk and Suffolk LDWA group members. Actually, now I’ve written that, it sounds wrong. They weren’t in court, it was evidence that they had finished the LDWA 100. Anyway, I digress.

    The receptionist, who I felt I had built up a rapport with as we didn’t like the heat, gave me an ideal room right at the end of a corridor which he said would be quiet. He was absolutely right, I heard pretty much nothing from within the hotel, although I think it was fairly busy. I was pleased to discover that there was a fan in the room, so that stayed on the entire night. It was also clean, comfortable and sufficiently well maintained for me to be entirely pleased.

    I usually use the stairs in a hotel (unless I’m on the top floor or something tiring) but I never worked out where they were (and I didn’t take much care to look) so I used the lift. Which gave an interesting (well, not very interesting, but I’ll mention it) lift etiquette issue. With this virus, hotels ask for guests not to share lifts. So I go down in the lift, which stops at the floor below. That irritated me slightly as we were now on the first floor, and I thought that I was pushing it not finding the stairs to go down from the second floor. Anyway, a moderately drunken man who seemed very friendly asked politely if he could get in the lift. I think the words were “am I alright to get in with you mate, I’ve got no virus”. I wasn’t, to be honest, much concerned of the pandemic risk and it also prevented an awkward social encounter where I told him to wait for another lift. But, being British and avoiding conflict (I mean in a Very British Problems way, not making reference to the nation’s empire building in the nineteenth century), I wonder how many guests would have politely told the man to wait. I’ve digressed again.

    A view from the hotel room window and there’s a DLR train at the station in the centre of the photo. And, yes, I did stand there waiting for a train to arrive to take that photo. I really do need to get out more…..

    I very much liked this hotel as it was clean, cheap, comfortable and the staff member didn’t like the hot weather. Frankly, I’d be willing to stay at a hotel far more willingly if I knew that they had a staff member complaining about the hot weather at reception, that’s something I’d find very beneficial for my stay. The hotel did have a bar and restaurant, and was also offering breakfasts, but I didn’t partake on this occasion. It’s a convenient hotel to get to though as it’s next to the station, which also has regular trains which go straight into the city centre. All very lovely.

  • London – City of London – Old Bank of England Pub

    London – City of London – Old Bank of England Pub

    London is a strange place at the moment to establish when and where it will get busy. Usually when I’m walking down Fleet Street and this part of the city, pubs would be pretty packed out in the evening. I walked by this pub and thought it looked interesting, but also thought it might be one of those decadent food pubs who hardly wanted someone in there for a quick pint before their train home. But, whilst merrily walking by and already having pre-judged it, I checked CAMRA’s Whatpub and discovered that it was in the Good Beer Guide. So I walked back again, trying to not look like a confused tourist.

    I had guessed the bit about decadent correctly. However, it wasn’t a gastropub at all as I had thought it might be, although their pies are apparently pretty decent. The building was from 1888 until 1975 used by the Bank of England as their Law Courts and then it was for a while used by a building society, before it was used for a much better purpose, as a pub. The building once had gold bullion in its cellars and the Wikipedia page for the building notes that it might have held the Crown Jewels for a time.

    Going back to the pies that I just made reference to, the pub themselves mention that it’s located between where Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovett operated (or allegedly operated since it’s likely entirely made up), noting:

    “It was in the tunnels and vaults below the present building that his victims were butchered before being cooked and sold in the pies to Mrs Lovett’s unsuspecting customers”.

    What a lovely selling point for the pies today…..

    The service was professional and efficient, although it seemed slightly over-staffed, so maybe they had been expecting more customers. It got a little bit busier during my visit, but nothing that was going to be a challenge for the staff to cope with in terms of the numbers.

    It’s a pub run by McMullen brewery, so it had their beers in, which is fair enough for their perspective, but gives less incentive for me to return to try something new.

    Slightly mispoured, but by no great margin as I think this was a lined glass, but the beer range was slightly less riveting. I had half a pint of the AK and half a pint of the Country, which were both well kept and tasted fine, but they were perhaps just a bit routine. The Country had some interesting flavours, not least being biscuity as promised, and I like that clean taste. The prices were actually quite moderate (and looking through the food menu, they were reasonable too given the location), fortunately not matching the decadent surroundings.

    One unfortunate omission is a photograph of the double decker bus that they’ve managed to move into their beer garden. I was going to take a photo from the beer garden after leaving the pub, but it transpired you now need to go through the pub, and I decided against meandering around the building again looking for it. But it’s worth Googling this double decker bus they’ve managed to position into their central London location.

    All in all, I’m pleased I popped into here before my train back to sunny Norwich, certainly a memorable interior and the staff were friendly. Maybe I’ll come back for one of their pies at some point…..

  • London – Southwark (Borough of) – Hawkes Cidery (Wasted Apples)

    London – Southwark (Borough of) – Hawkes Cidery (Wasted Apples)

    I’ve written about Hawkes Cidery on the Bermondsey Beer Mile before, but I hadn’t noticed this warning about food waste before. Every second the UK wastes enough apples to create 3.5 pints of cider and that certainly does feel like a crime….

  • London – Camden (Borough of) – The Hardy Tree

    London – Camden (Borough of) – The Hardy Tree

    This ash tree is located in St. Pancras Old Church, located just a short walk away from St. Pancras railway station. And the railway is relevant here as in the 1860s a new line was needed which ploughed straight through the middle of the church’s graveyard. A decision was made to carefully move all of the bodies to another location, but that meant there were a big heap of gravestones that needed to be dealt with.

    The task of dealing with this problem was given to Arthur Blomfield (1829-1899) who was a leading architect who designed and modernised countless churches and other buildings. Blomfield really didn’t want to deal with the moving of the bodies (which all ended up together in a large hole), or indeed the moving of the gravestones either, so he gave that little task to his assistant Thomas Hardy (1840-1928). Fortunately, Hardy is now better known for his literary achievements later on in his life rather than moving bodies and gravestones around.

    Since Hardy’s time, the tree has become bigger and started to almost take on the gravestones as part of its own growth. The stones have been preserved, but they will likely never be moved from their location, which brings an interesting question about whether it was a useful preservation. It has though become a little bit of a tourist attraction and there’s now fencing around the area to stop people even getting up as close as the iron railings around the tree.

    I think it’s quite majestic, putting aside the caveat that I like gravestones to be accessible and readable. I note that there are quite a number of tombs in the current graveyard and although I don’t know, I suspect that these were moved with rather more care than the individual gravestones were. Wealth can be a very useful thing, even in death.

    This whole burial ground has had a slightly traumatic history as not only have many of the bodies been removed for the railway, many were also removed in the early nineteenth century by body-snatchers wanting to sell cadavers to medical schools.

  • UEFA Euro 2020

    UEFA Euro 2020

    I don’t burden my limited readership with many posts about football, but even I got some slight excitement when I was at Wembley seeing the preparations for the UEFA Euro 2020 championships (I was there anyway, I hadn’t gone specially….). There were also some people being interviewed which were attracting a crowd, but I didn’t know who they were, so that riveting football chat of mine doesn’t add much to this post.

    Anyway, I might get into the spirit of the whole thing and watch the occasional match at a pub. As long as it’s got decent craft beer….. There was though a real vibe around Wembley at the moment that I haven’t noted on my previous visits, so the excitement must be in the air.

  • London – Islington (Borough of) – Horseshoe

    London – Islington (Borough of) – Horseshoe

    The Horseshoe on Clerkenwell Close in London has, accordingly to CAMRA, been a pub since at least 1748. It’s a corner pub that was operated by Courage and although I didn’t realise at the time I was there how long it had been trading, it did feel like it had a real sense of history.

    This illustration is of a boxing contest that took place in the pub in the nineteenth century and the historical record is littered with events that have taken place here over the centuries. I also quite liked the advert placed by the pub in 1858 advertising for a head barman, with the comment that the applicant must be “a respectable young man whose character will bear the strictest investigation”. Entire books could be written about the history of this pub and I find it slightly magical that it has remained trading for so long.

    The bar today.

    The Brewdog Pale Ale had just run out (although luckily for Des, they had just poured his), so I went for the only real ale that was available, the Seafarers English Ale. The barman warned me that it might be off as a customer had just complained about it and I appreciated the warning and the chance to try it. It’s a tricky position to be in as a customer, as I felt a pressure to judge the pub’s beer keeping ability. But I remembered that a newspaper had called me a “real ale aficionado” a few weeks ago, so I felt ready and able to judge. Unfortunately, I had just eaten my body weight in chicken wings with a harsh sauce, so I suspect my taste buds were pretty much destroyed. I mentioned this to the barman who said, entirely fairly, that this was a bit of good luck. As far as I was concerned, the beer did have a distinctive taste, but I was content it wasn’t off.

    It took me a little while to realise that the television screen was showing the pub’s beer garden rather than some episode of Eastenders or the like. The barman was conversational and welcoming, although it was a shame (for the pub) that it was so quiet inside. I liked the character of the place, this felt like a community pub that someone new to the area could go to and be made to feel welcome. Quite clearly a pub that has a loyal following of customers, it still seemed an environment that wouldn’t scare anyone off.

    The pub is well reviewed, but there are of course some negative ones. One person gave the pub two stars out of five on Google with no comments, leading to what I think is a marvellous response from the pub of:

    “Many thanks for your insightful review. It’s always a pleasure to get a review like this so we know how we have gone wrong and how to fix it. Looking at some of your recent reviews here on Google , it does seem like you have visited many places in the last 24 hours, well done for fitting us in, it seems like everywhere you went you had a bad time, that’s a shame…Happy Christmas, and keep spreading that Christmas cheer.”

    A perfect response as far as I’m concerned, and someone else did the same of leaving two stars and no comment, with the pub on this occasion noting:

    “Many thanks for your very interesting and insightful comments. Luckily we are not the only establishment that manages to be blessed with your almost poetic words of wisdom in your reviews. Many thanks.

    I like that the pub doesn’t take itself too seriously. Although this isn’t a pub that has the greatest selection of craft beer or real ales, it does have a certain charm and genuineness to it. It hasn’t been modernised to death, so I really quite liked it.

  • London – Islington (Borough of) – The Jerusalem Tavern

    London – Islington (Borough of) – The Jerusalem Tavern

    This pub in Britton Street in Clerkenwell was suggested by Des and it was another one of his very good choices. I knew that St. Peter’s Brewery in Bungay had their own pub in London, although I’ve never understood quite why they choose there particularly, and I had meant to visit it at some stage. But I have a long list of places that I want to visit and I’d forgotten where in London it was, so this all worked out rather well. It’s also in the Good Beer Guide as well, so that’s another box ticked (not that I necessarily want my life to be a series of ticks, but there we go).

    As an aside, Rob and I walked by the Brewery last year on one of our little meanders near Bungay. Rereading that post back, where there’s a photo of the brewery, I even noted that I wanted to go to this pub in Farringdon (even though I had forgotten where it was in the intervening few months).

    The pub was busy outside and it wasn’t clear that we’d be able to get a seat inside as it’s not that spacious. Fortunately (well, fortunately for us, perhaps considerably less so for the pub), they were quiet inside and so there was a choice of tables available. They’re running with three different beers on draft from St. Peter’s, although unfortunately nothing dark at the moment, along with numerous other options. They were also doing a pint, scampi and chips for £10 which seemed like quite a decent meal deal arrangement.

    CAMRA’s Whatpub gives some background to the slightly confusing (to me) history of the pub, which they note was opened by St. Peter’s Brewery in 1996. The building was constructed as a shop with a residence above in the early eighteenth century (the pub itself has a date of “anno 1720” on the front) and it has today a Victorian wooden shop-front (visible in the photo above) from the same period, although I’m unsure where that was recovered from.

    Here’s a photo of the shop from 1961, after a long period of it being used as offices and as a shop. I like its current usage the best….

    A not very clear photo of the front part of the pub, which is quirky and different in its design, all adding to the atmosphere. The stand-out drink for me, despite some relatively low reviews on Untappd, was the citrus beer from St. Peter’s, a nice fruit flavour which was simple and as far as I’m concerned is a perfect way of getting five a day. This was previously known as Grapefruit Beer, but that perhaps put people off, hence the name change. I thought the citrus was more refreshing than sharp, so an admirable beer.

    The pub is well reviewed on-line and I like the current table service set-up, although that’s been rather forced out of necessity, with the staff member being able to helpfully remind me what beers they had after I managed to forget by the time it came to order a second drink….. They have had a little difficulty with some of their residential neighbours, which might be why they call last orders at near to 22:00. But, anyway, I liked this pub, relaxed, uncrowded, comfortable and a reminder of the joys of Suffolk where St. Peter’s Brewery is located.

  • London – Lambeth (Borough of) – Brewdog Brixton

    London – Lambeth (Borough of) – Brewdog Brixton

    I’ve been merrily working my way around all the Brewdogs in London and just as I thought I was about to finish that task at Brixton, I discover that Brewdog have a pub near Tower Bridge and have now opened a new bar in Ealing. This journey might take longer than I had anticipated, but I am trying to remain committed.

    I turned up at this Brewdog with a mess of a reservation, of my own making. I arrived an hour early, was far too hot and I had realised I had accidentally booked the limitless cauliflower wings rather than the limitless chicken wings. Fortunately, someone who appeared to be the manager was very forgiving and was able to resolve all the little issues that I had caused before I was even seated (and I walked in the wrong door as well to add to the situation). I’m sure cauliflower wings are probably lovely, but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for in a visit.

    The bar wasn’t busy, so I could sit anywhere. It’s a slightly smaller outlet than I had expected for Brewdog, a little more compact than the Norwich one (which doesn’t help many people reading this if they haven’t visited Norwich Brewdog). I’m not sure how well all this fits into Brixton either, which has a character very much of its own.

    The view looking towards the front of the bar.

    The beer fridge and bar area, with a relatively limited selection of cans for a Brewdog.

    This was a delight, the Blackcurrant Trifle from Mad Scientist brewery in Budapest. It’s an imperial pastry gose and the manager at the bar wasn’t wrong when he said it hits you at the back of the throat with the tartness and acidity. But, it’s a beautiful beer and a beer style that I’m starting to enjoy more, I’m liking those sharp flavours. This style of beer was once very popular in Germany and is making something of a comeback, so that’s another reason I’ll have to visit Germany soon.

    The first plate of chicken wings arrived. Unlike when we visited the Norwich bar a few weeks ago, the wings were pretty much on demand here. That was aided by there being nearly no customers, a situation that certainly helped on chicken wing delivery times. They’re not the easiest thing to eat without covering the nearby area with sauce, but they’re always tender and that blue cheese sauce is a little decadent treat. Credit to Brewdog for opening up these bars at the moment, it must be marginal as to whether they’re actually making any money with the number of customers who are out, but hopefully the good times will roll again soon enough.

    And then the Tonkoatko from Brew York arrived, which is an outstanding imperial stout. A common comment on this beer is that it’s like a liquid Bounty bar, because of the chocolate and coconut tastes. A rich mouthfeel and punchy aftertastes of Bounty ingredients, whilst also retaining a sweetness despite it being an 8.5% imperial stout, this was another magnificent beer from Brew York. I’m going to York in a few weeks I will have to investigate their tap room.

    The chicken wings kept coming……

    The engagement from Brewdog staff is very often excellent and this bar was just as friendly as the Canary Wharf branch that we visited a few days ago. Everything was clean, organised and laid-back, a comfortable atmosphere and the best bar that I’m aware of in Brixton. How very lovely.

  • London – Bromley (Borough of) – Charles Darwin Mural

    London – Bromley (Borough of) – Charles Darwin Mural

    It’s a long time since I’ve been to Bromley and I’ve never seen this mural dedicated to Charles Darwin and his work, but it’s an impressive sight. It’s been placed here as Darwin lived for forty years a few miles away, in the Down House in Downe. Darwin might not have strong links to Bromley itself beyond that, but it’s known that he visited the town many times.

    Until 2008, there was a mural dedicated to the life of HG Wells here, with the Darwin one being painted here in 2008 by Bruce Williams. He isn’t entirely forgotten though, and he appears in this mural as well (Wells I mean, not Bruce Williams), on the left hand side. In many ways, it’s a shame that the Wells mural was lost (this wasn’t vandalism, just that the wall needed replastering anyway), as he was born just a few metres away from this location.