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Category: London

  • London – Southwark (Borough of) – The Rockingham Arms

    London – Southwark (Borough of) – The Rockingham Arms

    I’ll add now that this visit was from some weeks ago, they’re not open during the second lockdown. I’m working through old photos since I can’t currently go to pubs….

    This is an image from Google Streetview of the front of the Rockingham Arms (taking its name from another pub which had been in the area), the JD Wetherspoon pub in Elephant and Castle, London. It’s not the most glamorous of buildings, it’s in the 1960s Metro Central Heights building, the former home of the Department of Health and Social Security. It was another little design error, the Government were very pleased with their new building, but it soon fell out of favour and it suffered from sick building syndrome. The civil servants moved to a lovely new building in Whitehall and this structure was repurposed to be used for residential flats.

    Anyway, back to what it is now, a JD Wetherspoon pub. Punk IPA, always cheaper than Brewdog charge in their own pubs, I find that this a very drinkable beer. It might be one of Brewdog’s more generic beers, but it’s still nicely citrusy and with some depth of flavour to it.

    And the chicken jalfrezi from Curry Club, which is very rarely a disappointment and wasn’t here either. Served quickly, at a hot temperature and by a staff member who was perfectly polite, it’s hard to find anything to complain about here.

    The pub interior is perhaps a bit bland, but it feels like a safe environment and I’ve never experienced any problems in the times that I’ve visited here. It lacks the atmosphere of some of the more historic buildings that Wetherspoons operate and the open plan of this pub does make it all feel a bit generic. The toilets, which are located downstairs in the basement, could do with a little bit of a refurbishment as well.

    The reviews for the pub aren’t great, but I think that’s more because some customers are keen to complain and the ones who are happy don’t tend to post. There was a 1-star review as the barman didn’t serve a customer who was on the phone, with the customer noting “I told him that it doesn’t matter that I’m at the phone as far as I order properly”. I suspect a fair few bar staff would have agreed with the pub here.

    Anyway, all perfectly acceptable, keenly priced and just a short walk away from the London Underground.

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – National Army Museum (Fragments of Arm Bone)

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – National Army Museum (Fragments of Arm Bone)

    This is another cheery little number from the collections of the National Army Museum, it’s fragments of bone taken from the damaged arm of Lieutenant Charles Fletcher, from the 48th Bengal Native Infantry. The incident took place during the Indian Rebellion when the compound at the Residency in Lucknow came under attack in 1857. A musket ball hit Fletcher, which isn’t ideal, causing this damage to his arm. The Residency building is still there in ruins, a reminder of the last days of the East India Company, before the 1858 Government of India Act transferred power to the British Raj. It’s an interesting souvenir to keep, I’m not sure that it’s something I would have kept in a little box though to remind me of the event….

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – National Army Museum (Ration Biscuit)

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – National Army Museum (Ration Biscuit)

    I’ve seen ration biscuits that have been sent home in many museums, they weren’t particularly popular with troops and they did make for useful souvenirs. Bread couldn’t be distributed because it went mouldy, so members of the armed forces received these dried things usually made from flour, water and salt, which then had to be mixed with a liquid to become vaguely edible.

    The National Army Museum has this item on display, sent back home by Trumpeter S Foster from the 12th (Prince of Wales’s Royal) Lancers. It can’t be seen from how the museum has presented it, but on the rear is the receiver’s address and two postage stamps, so it really did go through the postal system. I imagine that amused the postal authorities and it is remarkably undamaged given its journey from South Africa.

  • London – Tier Two

    London – Tier Two

    That’s a relief, since despite not having planned to travel for the rest of the year, I had accidentally booked a train journey to London and some hotel nights in early December before the Government’s announcement. So, here comes London and some ‘substantial meals’ with craft beer. I’m pleased that Brewdog have told me that they consider unlimited chicken wings to be a substantial meal (because it clearly is), so I’ve booked that as a little treat for myself in London….

  • London – Newham (Borough of) – Stratford – Cart & Horses

    London – Newham (Borough of) – Stratford – Cart & Horses

    I walked by this pub in Stratford a couple of weeks ago (just before the second lockdown), slightly concerned that it was boarded up. It has transpired it’s just being refurbished internally and will re-open in the spring of 2021. It’s perhaps best known for being the birthplace of Iron Maiden, where the band played numerous times in the mid-1970s. I have no knowledge about Iron Maiden (nor indeed much knowledge about anything music related to be honest), but the pub’s web-site does note the band’s pyrotechnics and theatre which soon meant that the building wasn’t big enough for the number of fans who wanted to get in.

    On a different matter, CAMRA report that the pub doesn’t offer real ale (let alone craft beer), which I have to confess is more relevant to me.

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – National Army Museum (Siege Bread)

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – National Army Museum (Siege Bread)

    This item is on display at the National Army Museum and it was kept by a soldier as a souvenir of war, displayed in what was likely originally a wooden packing case. The bread is from the Siege of Ladysmith which took place between 2 November 1899 and 28 February 1900, when supplies were short and so the bread was made from maize meal and starch. The museum also notes that the soldiers during this period would have also had the delight of eating horse-meat soup. It’s not known which soldier kept this little piece of bread, although the arms are that of the Army Ordnance Corps, but it makes for an interesting memento….

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – White Horse

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – White Horse

    This isn’t a recent visit, I went to this Nicholson’s pub in Soho back in August, when things looked a little more hopeful for the hospitality industry…..

    I like pubs which have signs explaining their history, including why so many pubs have the name ‘The White Horse’. Incidentally, there are lots of pubs called ‘The Black Horse’, many of which are named after Dick Turpin’s horse because of the mystery and intrigue that caused. In short, this pub was rebuilt in 1939, replacing the earlier 1718 pub of the same name, and the exterior of the new building has some Art Deco features.

    Everything felt safe and there was a staff member at the front door welcoming customers and taking them to their seats. I visited in the early afternoon and it did get a little busier, although the outside seating area was always busier with customers people watching (on my visit I preferred sitting inside phone watching in case anything exciting was happening on social media).

    I have to add here that Nicholson’s gave this pint away to me via a promotion on their app, so I can’t much complain about the range of drinks. But, there were no dark ales and another customer later asked for the same, we were both told that they had Guinness and that was it.

    This was the Nicholson’s Pale Ale (made for the company by St. Austell Brewery), perhaps just a little unexciting, but drinkable with a depth of taste to it at least. Nicholson’s seem to have a habit of pushing drinks that aren’t beer, instead particularly advertising gins and other spirits, but they do have some marvellously historic pubs in their estate that are worth visiting in their own right.

    As an irrelevant aside here, I’m moderately confused why the pub has this on the front page of their web-site:

    “It’s only 12 minutes on foot from Bond Street Underground Station.”

    It’s also only four minutes walk (according to Google) from Oxford Street underground station, which is on the same line and around the corner from the pub. Strange…

    Anyway, most of the recent reviews are positive and the staff here were friendly and helpful. Food is a bit richly priced, but the White Horse focuses on their selection of pies which is part of the Nicholson’s aim to push a certain style of food in each of their pubs. I’m not entirely sure I’d return here as the beer selection isn’t really exciting enough (even before the current restrictions) in an area with plenty of competition.

  • London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Brompton Cemetery (Ernest Wedgwood Harper)

    London – Kensington and Chelsea (Borough of) – Brompton Cemetery (Ernest Wedgwood Harper)

    This is the grave of Ernest Wedgwood Harper, located at Brompton Cemetery in London.

    Ernest was born in Burslem on 21 May 1898, the son of Ernest (born on 11/04/1865) and Florence Mary Harper (born on 16/09/1872). He went to Middleport Council School and Longport Council School between 1911 and 1912 and he then went to Hanley Municipal Secondary School between 10 January 1912 and 15 July 1916. He took the Oxford Local Seniors Honours Exam (a system of external grading) where he received a third class award.

    At the 1901 census, the family were living at 179 Newport Lane in Burslem, an area of the city which has now been heavily changed and most of the residential properties demolished. At this point, he was aged two years old and he had a little sister who had just been born, Dorothy May.

    At the 1911 census, the family had moved to Grove Pit, Green Lane in Wolstanton, with the older Ernest working as a school teacher. There was a new addition to the family, Byron, who was aged 2 at the time of the census.

    Leaving school at 18 in Burslem, Ernest might have felt a long way from the military action when signing up. He joined the third battalion of the Grenadier Guards as a guardsman, service number 28840. It appears he did see some service in France in 1916, but there were medical problems with his heart and he was sent back to London and was admitted to Tooting Hospital. He was readmitted to his unit, but instead took on clerical duties and wasn’t going to be sent back to the front line.

    The story becomes endlessly sadder here, on 24 July 1918 Ernest shot and killed himself at his rifle barracks. An inquest found that he feared that he had spotted fever, but the doctors had told him that he hadn’t despite numerous tests. Florence, his mother, went to the inquest and told them how Ernest had been a clever boy and the family were very proud of him. The verdict was announced by the inquest of “suicide during temporary insanity in consequence of valvular disease of the heart”.

    One can only speculate about the mental challenges that Ernest went through, clearly scarred by the conflict and perhaps having no other way of dealing with the worries about his own medical condition. I’m not sure that his service records survive, but perhaps he experienced significant trauma in France and he would be one of many who did.

    At the time of his death, Ernest was part of no.8 company, 5th reserve battalion of the Grenadier Guards, with his parents living at The Grove, Wolstanton, Stoke-on-Trent. It must have been a traumatic event for his mother to travel to Westminster to attend the inquest. Ernest’s family didn’t have any connection with the area, but he was buried at Brompton Cemetery because he had died at the nearby Chelsea Barracks.

    As an aside, Ernest’s little brother Byron was married in 1934 and their parents were there at the marriage ceremony. As was Ernest’s sister Dorothy May, who was the bridesmaid to the bride, and I wonder how much they thought about the one member of the family who hadn’t made it. Byron lived until 1988, remaining in the Stoke-on-Trent area.

  • London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Hammersmith Bridge

    London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Hammersmith Bridge

    This is from my visit to London a couple of weeks ago and there’s something of a debacle about this whole Hammersmith Bridge arrangement. The bridge was first constructed here in 1827 and was paid for by tolls, with these charges finally being removed in 1880. All looked rather well for the local denizens, they had their bridge and they didn’t have to pay to use it. So, all rather lovely.

    Anyway, then a boat ran into the bridge in 1882, so it was thought that it had better be replaced. Joseph Bazalgette, best known for his construction of the London sewers, designed a new bridge and this sat on the same pillars as the previous structure.

    The bridge has struggled to cope with the weight of traffic placed on it throughout the twentieth century, it was never designed to deal with such volumes. It also hasn’t helped that the IRA have tried to blow it up in 1939, 1996 and 2000, all of which hardly helped with the structural integrity of the bridge.

    In 2014, the bridge was temporarily shut to motor traffic because of concerns about the safety of the structure, with this temporary closure effectively becoming permanent. A single bus was allowed to go over at any one time, but then Transport for London decided to remove its staff who were monitoring this, before an agreement was made. There has been a lot of arguing between Transport for London and the local council about this whole matter and who is paying for what, which seems to be the real reason for the delay. Cyclists and pedestrians were allowed to keep using the bridge, but then on 13 August 2020, this was then banned as well.

    The Government announced it was going to come up with a solution, but to cut a long story short, it announced that motor vehicles won’t be returning until at least 2027. I’m not sure how it takes that long to fix a bridge, but then I’m not a civil engineer…..

  • London – Newham (Borough of) – Stratford – Goldengrove

    London – Newham (Borough of) – Stratford – Goldengrove

    There aren’t many photos of my visit to this JD Wetherspoon pub last week, as I must admit to popping in solely to benefit from the 50p half pints of real ale that were available. However, I’ve now realised that the pub is in the Good Beer Guide, and so that’s another one for my list….

    I’ve visited here before several times over the last decade, it’s a large pub which goes back further than its frontage might suggest. The pub name is a bit niche, it’s from the poem Spring and Fall by local man Gerard Manley Hopkins. Before it became a pub, the building was being used as a clothes shop.

    As for the 50p half pints, I did have six of them over the course of the night, which was a little excessive, but I knew that pubs were closing for a month…. They were the Cowcatcher from East London Brewing Company, Old Hooky from Hook Norton Brewery, Black Stallion from Arundel Brewery, Pure UBU from Purity Brewing Company, Gold from Exmoor Ales and Hobgoblin from Wychwood Brewery. The Pure UBU was the one that I liked the most, but it’s an interesting selection across different beer types and all of the ales were well-kept. I can imagine the annoyance that JD Wetherspoon had in having to get rid of all of this at 99p, but, as they said in their signage, it saved it from being thrown away.

    This photo is from a previous visit, the London Thunder which is a chocolately porter from Rooster’s Brewery.

    And, just for another photo, a chicken wrap that I’ve had here on a previous occasion. On that point, I’ve always thought that this feels like a safe pub, although there was an argument between a customer and a staff member last week, but that all adds to the drama and excitement. The pub was opened by JD Wetherspoon back in 1993 and things have changed substantially for the area, with the construction of Westfield around the corner and then the Olympics, as well as the company, which is now much bigger.

    The reviews are pretty much average for a JD Wetherspoon outlet, although several complaints are for when service is slow during football match days. West Ham moved to their new stadium in Stratford from the Boleyn Ground in 2016, shifting trade from the Millers Well pub to Goldengrove for those fans who wanted a cheap pint. At least the app makes ordering somewhat easier for customers, so although there might be a wait it does avoid standing at the bar getting annoyed when other customers are served out of turn.

    Anyway, all rather lovely during my visit (although the toilets probably need more reconstructing than cleaning), and JD Wetherspoon did well to start shifting their stock early to avoid it needing to be destroyed.