Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Westminster (Borough of)

London – Westminster (Borough of) – Hunterian Museum

Just to break up my witterings on old Soviet statues displaced around Estonia, here’s a quick distraction about my visit to the Hunterian Museum in the week. I decided long ago that I wasn’t cut out to be a surgeon (there’s a pun there, but I won’t labour it) due to numerous factors, mostly relating to being slightly sensitive. The museum asks for visitors not to post close-ups of human remains on social media, so I’ve avoided taking any photos of all the human things that they have in jars.

It’s a well signed museum and I pre-booked a ticket, although I don’t think it was essential on a Tuesday afternoon in November. A staff member pointed out where to put my backpack and that was relatively simple after I had worked out the instructions on the lockers. I say relatively simple, it took me two minutes of standing there confused. The next stage felt a little sub-optimal, I was given a welcome and then told “there’s no fixed admission charge, you pay what you like but we recommend £5” whilst being walked to a contactless card machine. This slightly odd customer service approach is perhaps just a little sub-optimal as their web-site notes “the Hunterian Museum is free to everyone” and I ignored the situation and meandered in.

This is my first visit to the museum and I noticed a few reviews noting that they went through a large renovation a few years ago and moved the collection out of the grand two storey room it was displayed in and instead put it in some corridors. It is a poorly designed museum by any measure in terms of the customer flow, there are pinch points all over the place so groups cluster together. However, it’s free (well, sort of) and so it feels a little unfair to complain too much. During the renovations, they did though finally take the skeleton of ‘Irish Giant’ Charles Byrne off from display, this was a controversial thing to even be shown, although they’ve still denied him the burial he wanted.

This is a splinted fractured forearm from the Nubian Valley, although its date range is wide and anything between 2500 BC and 500 AD. It looks like something I would have been in charge of if I had been a medic back in those days.

There are lots of these displays of things in jars, I used this as an example as there are no human remains in it and it’s mainly fish and lizards here. I didn’t take a photo as they’re of human remains, but the Evelyn Tables were quite something, the oldest anatomical preparations in Europe.

The Hunterian doesn’t shy away from the darker side of medical history. Early surgical instruments, some looking more like torture devices to me, illustrate the crude and often painful procedures of the past. Pathological specimens, including tumours and diseased organs, offer a stark reminder of the fragility of human health and it’s been a useful resource for surgeons over the generations. It’s thought provoking though and I like that in a museum.

One of the displays of modern medicine, although I got the impression that most visitors seemed more interested in looking at the things in jars. I thought that this was a fascinating museum and I’ve been meaning to go for years, so I was pleased to finally visit. It’s a unique museum in very many ways and an essential part of the history of medicine in this country, with some considerable heritage to the collection and to the building. There’s a learning aspect which is perhaps becoming less relevant, but there was a school group when I visited and that’s part of the education side of the museum’s offering. It is a little macabre by its nature and feels dated, but that’s inevitable when the collection in jars was mostly put together two hundred years ago. There are moral sensitivities here about what should be on public display, as these are human remains. The museum benefits from being part of the Royal College of Surgeons, the moral issues are minimised here as there isn’t a commercial imperative behind what’s happening.

Anyway, I’m glad that I went and I’d say it’s worth an hours of anyone’s time, although I noticed two people from the school group saying they were feeling very queasy, but the museum themselves warns about this. It’s probably best to book a ticket in advance, it’s free and can be done quickly from the museum’s web-site. Right, back to Soviet statues in Estonia.

November 9, 2024
London – City of Westminster – The Rebirth of the Carlton Tavern

I’ve been meaning to visit this pub for a while, it’s a testament to the stubbornness of local heroes, rightly belligerent councils and loyal beer drinkers. The pub was illegally demolished in 2015 and nearly nothing was left standing. Pressure was brought to bear and the end result, after much legal wrangling, was that the pub had to be entirely rebuilt brick by brick. The difference in brickwork is visible, the section on the right is original and everything else is rebuilt. The local pressure group, the Rebuild the Carlton Tavern campaign, were praiseworthy of the restoration, although the developers CTLX decided not to attend the reopening.

I would have never have known that this wasn’t a traditional pub, the internal recreation is sensitive and apparently nearly identical to what was here before. Some parts of the previous building, such as fireplaces and some of the bricks, were reused, and fortunately efforts had already been made to detail the interior and its decorative elements which made the restoration easier. The venue is also listed in the Good Beer Guide, so that’s another little tick on my attempt to visit every Good Beer Guide listed pub in the country.

The toilets are down those steps to the right and nearly none of this survived other than the back wall. The pub had first been constructed between 1920 and 1921 by the Charrington Brewery, whose name is still outside the pub.

But back to the present, there were three real ales available, and I haven’t tried any of them before, so that was something of a novelty.

I went for the ‘Flying the Mags’ from London Brewing Co, a rich and creamy mild that was well kept and at the appropriate slightly chilled temperature. The service was polite and personable, with the environment feeling warm and comfortable. I liked this pub, it felt very much at ease with itself and it’s hard to imagine how close the community was to losing this. There are numerous community events, quite a substantial menu and the prices charged were very reasonable. I’m glad that I visited and this is a perfect model for what I think should happen at the Crooked House, a pub where there was a mysterious fire a few weeks ago.

October 6, 2023
London – Westminster (Borough of) – Oxford Street – Hard Rock Cafe (4th Visit – with Robot)

And another visit to this central London hotel, restaurant and bar, with this meal being funded by TheFork.

I tend to notice different music memorabilia every time I visit here, this time the star of the show looked to me like this piano once played on by Freddie Mercury.

It looked quiet from this angle, but they must have had over 100 customers in for lunch. It’s the busiest that I’ve seen it recently for lunch, another sign of the tourists returning to London.

The menu mentioned at the top to ask the server for details of what craft beers they were offering. I asked and she said Heineken, which didn’t entirely surprise and delight me if I’m being honest. I ordered the Brixton Coldharbour Lager instead.

The beer tasted as expected, with the chicken wings being to the usual high Hard Rock cafe style.

This seemed quite exciting, as they were using robots to deliver around half of the meals. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the excitement (I’m easily pleased) on this occasion, so I took a photo of the neighbouring table receiving their child’s meal. Apparently there are two of these robots meandering their way around the restaurant, named Bellabot and Holabot, with customers clearly being impressed by the whole arrangement. Some diners weren’t quite sure whether to take their own food or wait for a staff member, as the policy seemed mixed, but the robot patiently waited before returning back to the kitchen.

I had gone for the chicken fajitas which came with a staff member telling me to be careful of the hot dish, which likely explains the lack of robot interaction.

And there’s the rest of the dish. It’s one of my favourite items on their menu, although the four wraps are never enough for the quantity of food which is provided.

The server returned to tell me that I had under-spent the allowance offered by TheFork and I could have a free dessert, but I had already gone through enough food, so they brought over half a pint of Guinness instead. That seemed a fair compromise, Guinness is like a meal, so that’s all well and good.

This is a well run restaurant and there are plenty of attentive and helpful staff members around, although it’s not the cheapest for those paying for their meal as mine would have cost around £44 before the tip. And if I get chance for another meal here, I will most certainly take it and hopefully next time I’ll get more robot interaction during the service.

April 25, 2023
Wednesday : Bunhill Fields Burial Ground, the Stablehand Pub and Another Bloody Tableless Train

The standard JD Wetherspoon breakfast at Goodman’s Field in London, with the bacon seemingly heated under a candle, but everything else suitably hot and appropriately cooked. This is a handy pub given the number of power points that they have, with the venue being clean and organised. It’s not going to win a Michelin award, but breakfasts at JD Wetherspoons are reliable for being of a reasonable quality and usually having one or two obvious faults such as a hard egg or a cold hash brown.

I’ve never previously noticed this memorial located by All Hallows-by-the-Tower church, commemorating the decision to give the entire population of Malta the George Cross in April 1942. The monument was placed here in 2005 and the limestone memorial is made from stone which comes from the island of Gozo. There’s quite a lot of text on the memorial and the Maltese cross image is visible above the information panel. There were many cases of bravery amongst the islanders who stood firm against the attempted invasion by the Axis powers which became known as the Siege of Malta. As an aside, the stone probably needs cleaning, it’s much brighter in images taken a few years ago.

This is the One Millennium Bridge development, converting the former offices known as Millennium Bridge House, opened in 1988, which were used by the Old Mutual. The new development is meant to combine offices, residential and social space, which will also increase the length of the Thames Path.

This all feels a little odd, it’s the Hoop and Grapes pub at 80 Farringdon Street in London. Demolition of the buildings either side have meant that the pub is just a little exposed, and rather inevitably, it’s also just a little closed. It was nearly demolished in the 1990s, but fortunately it was saved. I visited in late 2020 as it was listed in the Good Beer Guide, and hopefully that will come to pass once again when it’s re-opened. The building is a brave survivor of demolitions on this street, adding charm and heritage to the area.

Bunhill Fields, a burial ground in Islington which was in use between 1665 and 1854, with around 125,000 burials having taken place.

Disappointingly, there’s no public access to much of the site as there’s a large fence separating the central walkway to the graves.

There’s plenty of character to the burial ground and likely numerous rats playing in all of that undergrowth which is inaccessible to humans (unless they happen to have a key).

The end of platform at Farringdon Station, where I got the underground service to Paddington. I’ll leave the history of this station to Wikipedia, but I do think of the heritage of the service at what is one of the longest operating underground services in the country, having started in 1863 as the terminus of the Metropolitan Railway.

For the second day in a row, I had a meal paid for by The Fork, this time at the Stablehand pub near Paddington, built in 1839 on the site of an old archery range. My table reservation was for 17:00 but I arrived at the pub, completely soaked due to a typhoon which was hitting the area, and the signage said drinks only until 18:00 which didn’t seem ideal. It’s a gastropub in its intentions, having recently opened at what was until 2021 the Angelus French restaurant. The welcome was immediate and authentic, with the staff member merrily giving me the table with a power supply (as in the power supply was located by the table, it wasn’t a table which electrocuted me) which also handily had a hook that I could hang my drenched coat on.

The beer was reasonable, this is the IPA from Rebellion Beer which was well-kept but not particularly exciting in terms of flavour.

The staff at the venue were friendly, pro-active and helpful, saying that they were happy to see if the kitchen could produce something easy before the food service formally opened. I asked if the cheese board was available, and after checking if cutting cheese would be OK in terms of being easy, the chefs were keen to oblige. There were though a handful of customers who came in and left when they discovered food wasn’t available, it seemed a slightly odd decision to not serve earlier.

Back to the pub though, which is food focused, but is also welcoming to those who just want drinks. They offer a British only menu, so there’s an attempt to source good quality products without the need for importing anything. The cheeses were decadent and delicious, a rich blue cheese and a creamy brie, which isn’t a cheese I usually go for, but was suitably full in flavour. The staff member was also knowledgeable, and I liked that she remembered to come over to take my main course order when the kitchen had opened fully.

The photography here doesn’t show how decent this meal was, but it’s steak and kidney pudding served with vegetables and with a side of mashed potato. I asked for extra gravy and I received an additional jug which was richer than it looks in the photo, where it gives the impression of being watery. Actually, I’m not sure I would have ordered this meal if I had seen this photo in advance, it all looks a bit insipid.

However, this is probably the best steak and kidney pie that I’ve had, with large chunks of steak which were tender and had no sections of fat on them (I’m quite fussy). There were a few small pieces of kidney, but this pie was all about the steak and the kidney was just a sideshow, which is just how I think it should be. The gravy inside the pie was rich, the steak packed with flavour and the pastry was light. I don’t usually order mashed potato as it annoys me (I get pre-annoyed far too easily), but here it was smooth and not over-packed with anything like butter or cheese. All in all, very impressive.

I had hoped for the Arctic roll for dessert, but this was unavailable, so I went for this fruit based explosion instead. My bill came in at under £50, meaning there was nothing for me to pay, so thanks to The Fork for such a suitably delightful meal. I’d recommend this pub, it was informal and comfortable, with the staff being keen to engage and also knowledgeable and attentive. The prices were moderate for the area, with the quality of all of the food and drink being high.

Certainly drier than when I went in, when the road was more like a river. After a short walk back to Paddington, I got the underground to London Liverpool Street, although unfortunately this was the week before the Crossrail service between the two stations was opening.

My initial intention has been to position to near Gatwick Airport ready for a flight to Montenegro the following day, but I had instead booked a cheap train home to Norwich. I did notice this hoarding at London Liverpool Street, at least meaning that passengers can be properly fed before their rail departures.

Liverpool Street was busy, but then again, it always seems to be busy.

I was yet again annoyed that Greater Anglia were using a train which had no tables, which caused a number of passengers some difficulty trying to position their laptops and devices. The train was busy and Greater Anglia’s obsession with using the Stansted Express carriages on this service remains a complete mystery to me. However, there seems little point in my repeating my general annoyance at this situation, with the train being on time and otherwise clean.

June 6, 2022
Crossrail : London Paddington to Reading

One thing that I have realised is just how confusing the rail pricing is from London to Reading, with the rail fare being at least £20 if looking to use rail booking web-sites. I discovered, to my surprise and delight, that it’s a little over £11 if travelling off-peak on the new Crossrail service, which is much more realistic. It’s not ideal though that this train journey pricing isn’t on the rail matrix for those trying to book tickets, another failing of the whole Crossrail set-up. Anyway, complaining aside, the signage at London Paddington is clear and I caught the train with just a minute to spare.

Inside the Crossrail train carriages, this really could do with power points, but they decided early on that they weren’t going to bother with that burden. Nor does the train have toilets, despite the length of the journey and they had to bend the rules as a train service of this length would usually require toilets on board. I suspect they’ll retrofit power points at some random time in the future, it’s rare for services not to have them now. But, to be fair, these decisions were made by Boris Johnson when he was London Mayor, so it’d be unkind to expect them to be any good. Anyway, enough politics.

At the moment the train is departing from London Paddington to get to Reading, they still haven’t quite finished the testing of the middle section between London Liverpool Street and London Paddington. This whole line was meant to open in 2018, just as an indication of how messed up the entire project has become, billions over budget. However, it is a very useful line to cut across London and it increases capacity as well as speeding up many journeys. Unfortunately, the Crossrail 2 project which would have been equally useful was scrapped by Boris Johnson in his Prime Ministerial role in 2020. It will probably be reinstated in the future, although the earliest opening date would now be in the late 2040s at very best according to TFL.

It wasn’t a particularly packed service, but it was clean throughout.

There’s the journey section between London Paddington and Reading. Hopefully this signage will all be removed this year as the entire line should be formally opening in late 2022.

And getting off at Reading, on time and as expected.

I didn’t linger at Reading station as the weather was quite stormy, but the railway station feels quite modern with a new section added onto the older building.

This proved to be an easy way into Reading from London, with the journey taking under an hour. The facilities have actually been downgraded since GWR ran this line, as they offered more comfortable seating, power points and toilets. But, there has been an increase in capacity and for any passenger wanting to go through to east London, this is a much more efficient service than changing at Paddington and then switching to the underground and then another train.

February 17, 2022
London – Westminster (Borough of) – Oxford Street – Hard Rock Cafe (3rd Visit)

This visit to the Hard Rock restaurant at Marble Arch is from a couple of weeks ago, another funded by a promotion from The Fork.

Like another customer, I tried to be seated away from the stage, but they’re not having any of that. This has happened before and I think the staff are privately slightly annoyed that the restaurant is paying for entertainment, this is a music venue and that customers are trying to sit away from it. Fortunately, the music wasn’t too loud and seemed to my highly untrained ear to be suitably professional.

I was aware of the restaurant’s limited beer choice before going, but this was a tolerable option. It’s expensive at £5.50 and although I wasn’t paying, that really is at the high end of the scale. There are other options, such as a pint of Heineken which costs £5.95 and a Birra Moretti which costs £6.75. This isn’t a venue that will much care what CAMRA think, but they charge significantly more proportionally for a half than for a pint.

The BBQ chicken with fries, coleslaw and ranch style beans. This is a photo of the second meal, as the chicken they brought over on their first attempt was cold in the middle. I think they’re brought in pre-cooked as the chicken was entirely cooked, it was just cold rather than raw. I always have a moment of wondering whether the meal is tolerable to avoid having to waste it and complain, but it was fridge cold in the middle and that was far from ideal.

The staff member was apologetic and took it away immediately, and the wait for a new meal wasn’t too long. The chicken was tender and moist, with the half a chicken portion being entirely sufficient. The chips were the usual fluffy on the interior and firm on the exterior arrangement, with the coleslaw being of a good quality but rather sparsely portioned. For those paying full price, the meal would be £16.75, which isn’t cheap, but isn’t entirely unreasonable given the location and prestige of the restaurant. Although hopefully usually they’ll cook it properly.

The atmosphere in the restaurant was comfortable and the staff were attentive and polite, so the experience was once again positive. The number of offers here seem to be reducing, so I imagine that they’ll be gone nearly entirely in the next few weeks as the number of customers starts to return to normal. Anyway, I’d merrily recommend the restaurant, but would still recommend going on a voucher offer…..

February 9, 2022
London – Westminster (Borough of) – Only Fools and Horses The Musical at the Theatre Royal Haymarket

I’m not normally a theatre goer, but my friend Nathan, who likes his culture and opera, mentioned a company called TodayTix who offer discounted theatre tickets. I noticed a ticket for the Friday night performance of ‘Only Fools and Horses – the Musical’ was available for £10 plus a £3 booking fee, but I also had a £5 discount voucher for having just signed up, so that meant I got a ticket for £8. It’s fair to say they’re normally more expensive than that, but this price suited me best.

I arrived at 18:45, the earliest they allowed entry, as it said they were doing checks of Covid passes and the like. It transpired they didn’t do any of that, which is odd given their commitment to the process on their web-site. I didn’t mind them not doing the checks, but they might as well remove the instructions that say they’re a requirement if they’re not.

The theatre holds 888 people, some down below in the more expensive seats, but there are also some above as well. When I purchased the ticket there were some seats available which had a restricted view, but mine was unrestricted, albeit quite a way away.

I liked my seat of H1 (and I never knew that there was a site such as https://seatplan.com/ where seats are reviewed, a bit like the ones for aircraft), which was at the rear of this section with a lot of legroom as it was on the curve, which also meant space for my backpack which I decided to take out for the evening (I didn’t deliberately bring it out for a treat, I still had it from never going back to the hotel in the day). There were two people seated next to me on the left and I had the wall to my right-hand side. There was one boorish theatre-goer that the staff were struggling with at the beginning, and had to go back to warn later on, but he was more harmless and drunk than a serious problem, but I was glad that he wasn’t seated anywhere near me.

The Royal Box, where my wealthy friend Gordon would sit. He will never read this, so that’s fine for me to note here.

This photo is from the curtain call, as they asked for no photos during the performance as it disturbed other audience members. Since there was no-one behind me and I noticed others took photos at this point at the end of the performance, here’s my little effort to give an example of the stage.

I’m not a theatre critic, so my observations aren’t going to be overly deep and meaningful. This though was a performance that I lost track of time of, so that’s a good sign, I’m normally hoping the end comes soon when watching films at the cinema, my attention span already snapped.

For nearly all of the characters, it was easy to forget they weren’t the real actors playing the parts, so was the quality of the impersonations. Tom Bennett played Del Boy and Ryan Hutton played Rodney, both convincing and capturing the appropriate joie de vivre. Jeff Nicholson as Boycie was a clear favourite of the audience, an impeccable performance and indeed laugh. Unfortunately, John Challis died a few weeks ago, but Jeff Nicholson mentioned that he had been a helpful guide throughout to his performance.

Paul Whitehouse played Granddad and Uncle Albert, and had particularly caught the mannerisms of the latter, in a suitably exaggerated style. Although a musical, there were long sections of dialogue and the balance seemed entirely appropriate, with old jokes from the series blended in along with new ones crafted in. They managed to get Waterloo Clock into the performance, as well as the three-wheel van, with no end of complex stage changes. The complexity of these and knowing where to stand is impressive in itself, I’m not sure how individuals can remember so many lines of dialogue, dance and be in the right place throughout.

There were some obvious moments recreated, such as when Del fell through the bar, although no recreation of the falling chandelier, just a reference to it. The performance was fast-paced and the quality of the script was high, although some of the songs felt rather more worthy than others and almost felt included because they’d called this a musical. Maybe the story-line also jumped about a bit, but it remained coherent and it was always faithful in its intent to the original television programme. A chunk of the scripting had been done by Jim Sullivan, the son of the original author of the series, John Sullivan. Anyway, I was very pleased with my £8 ticket, entirely recommended.

January 8, 2022
London – Westminster (Borough of) – The Ship & Shovell

A quiet London gave me chance last year to visit a lot of Good Beer Guide pubs in the city which always looked too crowded to get in before. I’m not sure that’s ideal for the hospitality industry, but it certainly allowed me to see some historic interiors and venues packed with atmosphere. The Ship & Shovell is a new addition to the Good Beer Guide that was only added in the new 2022 edition of the book a couple of months ago.

Unusually for a pub, it’s split in two opposite parts each side of the lane (the pub notes that this is unique in London), although it’s also apparently connected by the cellars which also contain the pub’s kitchen. This side was closed off when I visited, but it’s a handy way of having additional capacity. It’s located on Craven Passage, which is located underneath Charing Cross railway station.

Here’s the site in the 1890s, with the PH in the middle of the map marking the main part of the pub today, but there’s nothing marked on the extension bit. The building was listed in 1970, with the listed building record noting:

“Former pair of terrace houses, as one public house. c.1731-32, refaced late C.18 and with late C.19 public house front. Yellow stock brick, slate roof. 3 storeys and dormered mansard. 5 windows wide (3 windows to No. 2 and 2 to No. 3). Ground floor has wooden public house frontage with panelled and glazed doors and bar windows articulated by Corinthian pilasters carrying entablature-fascia. Upper floors have recessed glazing bar sashes under flat arches with stucco voussoirs. Parapet with coping. Pub interior retains good late C.19 mahogany bar fittings and some engraved glass. As originally built part of the Craven family’s C.18 development of their Brewhouse property; c.f. Craven Street.”

The bar area, all nicely presented and there was a friendly team member who welcomed me as soon as I arrived at the bar. Indeed, the service was always personable and engaging. The pub is only taking cards at the moment for payment, and they take Amex (although I only saw that sign after I had paid with a different card).

The ship element of the pub’s name is reflected here in the fireplace.

The pub is operated by Hall and Woodhouse Brewery, so their beers dominate here. There are plenty of draught (or draft if you prefer) options as well as bottles. There were no dark beers available on draught, but there is an interesting looking milk stout Milk Made which is rated 3.84 on Untappd, so I might ask for that next time I’m in one of the brewery’s venues, of which there are six in the city centre.

I rather liked the food menu, which I think is more substantial at lunchtime, but this caters for most snack tastes (well, no Wotsits I accept, but they do have Mini Cheddars) and there’s a 3 for £5 offer on. The prices for the drinks seem to be around £5 to £6 a pint, which is realistic given the central London location. I can imagine that when London is back to some form of normality that venues like this will be crowded once again, especially at 15:45 on a Friday evening which is when I visited.

The on-line reviews for the pub are broadly very positive and they’ve clearly pleased CAMRA for their members to list it in the Good Beer Guide. Looking for the negative comments that are sometimes exciting, there’s a complaint and 1/5 star review which notes:

“No preseco or sparkling wine, bar man just wanted to sell pints and bottles !!”

Good.

And another 1/5 complaint about a cold Scotch Egg that wasn’t reheated in a microwave. Personally, I’d rather have a cold Scotch egg and I can’t recall being given one that the pub has microwaved. And a 2/5 star rating from a customer that wasn’t allowed to use the tunnel.

Anyway, welcoming staff, a clean venue and a laid-back and comfortable atmosphere, so it seems to me like an appropriate and sensible addition to the Good Beer Guide. One of the better options for anyone waiting for a train to depart Charing Cross railway station.

January 7, 2022
London – Westminster (Borough of) – The Cambridge Pub

I got an e-mail from Nicholson’s pubs last week that said they had half-price main courses available on most weekdays over the next couple of weeks. That seemed like a very reasonable deal, so I thought that I’d pop to some of their London establishments that I haven’t been to before.

This is the Cambridge pub in Charing Cross, which is in the area of Soho. Nicely decorated ceiling and it’s also got an upstairs dining area. The pub says about its history:

“Deep in London’s theatre district, The Cambridge is popular with audiences and actors alike. Built in 1887 on the site of The King’s Arms, it is next to the Palace Theatre, formerly the Royal English Opera House. The Cambridge lies in the heart of Soho, a royal hunting ground in the days of Henry VIII. We bet you didn’t know that Soho takes its name from a hunting call.”

The pub’s location (the PH just above the CAM of Cambridge Circus) on a map from the early twentieth century, an arrangement named after the Duke of Cambridge.

The beer choice is quite limited here, or at least for my decadent needs, so I sufficed with half a pint of London Pride. It was well-kept, at the appropriate temperature and tasted as it should, that’s about all I can say.

The fish and chips, which looked a smaller portion that it actually was, I think because of their plate of choice. Anyway, this was actually very good, the fish flaked away and was of a decent quality, with the batter having some flavour to it. The batter wasn’t greasy, the chips were fluffy inside and the mushy peas had an air of sophistication to them although they were a tad cold. And lots of tartare sauce, I liked that.

Service in the pub was friendly and engaging, with the member of bar staff being warm and conversational. The pub was clean and comfortable, as well as being surprisingly busy. I can imagine how busy this pub must get when things are a little more normal in the country and the nearby theatres are packed. The reviews are generally very positive and the management responses on TripAdvisor to the negative ones are some of the longest and most comprehensive that I’ve seen. They’re actually very professional responses, it made me like the venue even more as I imagine they’d resolve any actual problems if they occurred.

The whole cost of this decadent lunch was £10, which I thought was reasonable as it’s the same as the nearest Wetherspoons and it’s good to visit somewhere different. I’d rather Nicholson’s work on its beer options, but the venue seemed very well managed and so I haven’t got any complaints beyond the lack of decent and perhaps even innovative beers. Certainly not a bad lunch option, although the pricing is a little rich for me when there aren’t offers on.

January 5, 2022
London – Westminster (Borough of) – West End Comedy Club

There was a Time Out offer on last week to get a comedy club ticket for £5, instead of the usual £12, and as I haven’t been to one before, I thought this seemed like a good idea. Live comedy has been rather decimated over the last two years, so there are big efforts being made to try and bring people back in. The West End Comedy Club is a new set-up upstairs at the Covent Garden Social Club, at Great Newport Street. It was easy to find and the signage was clear.

I read that it was good to get there at opening to get a seat as it wasn’t a large venue, with an absolute limit of 70 people. It certainly wasn’t a big space, just one quite large room with a bar in it, so it felt quite an intimate performance area.

There was a friendly welcome from the organiser, who mentioned to me that it was sold out and to find a space that wouldn’t take up a larger space give that there were groups coming.

Given what I was told, I decided to opt for a seat by the bar, this is always a comforting place for me to be. Only two people had got there earlier than me, so I didn’t have to fight for space.

I had also read about the decadent drinks prices, although £5 for Staropramen isn’t entirely unreasonable given the location. Since this was a night of comedy I won’t comment on the lack of beer options, humorous as the limited selection was. Incidentally, the bar mostly served cocktails and there was one poor barman on his own making these drinks and causing quite a queue to develop although not because he wasn’t actually a decent barman, but because those drinks take so long to serve. And the bar is also brave as any customers wanting a tab had to leave their card behind the bar, which will likely haunt them at some random point in the future. Anyway, bar commentary aside, onto the main event.

Photos from the venue itself, with Michael Odewale (top-left) being particularly good and I hadn’t realised that he had been on BBC’s Mock the Week before. There was one performer who wasn’t named before the event, and was just listed as a celebrity, and that transpired to be Simon Brodkin (bottom left) who I’ve never really paid much attention to in the past other than reading about some of his stunts, the best known to me being Brodkin’s great work in annoying the disgrace that is Sepp Blatter and also his handing Theresa May a P45 at a party conference.

Inevitably some material was stronger than others and one comedian had a more muted reaction from the audience as his content was a bit strained. Some of the material is new and the comedians are trying it out with a live audience, with Tom Ward (top-right) having the most surreal of the content, but he integrated music well into his act. Brodkin seemed the smoothest performer out of them all, but he’s had the chance to have more experience and opportunities so I guess that’s inevitable. Incidentally, I hadn’t realised that Brodkin was a trained doctor (I say that not to suggest that some doctors are untrained, just to show he had completed training) before starting a stand-up career, which made his Covid health jokes seem even more appropriate.

There was a smattering of political humour through the performances and inevitably Boris Johnson and Priti Patel didn’t come out too well from that. Covid humour was also in there quite regularly, but not to excess as that would have likely grated after a while given that people want to get away from it. It was a decent balance of different styles of humour and content, all nicely done.

Fortunately, my seating location meant I avoided any of the audience participation, although I think the comedians were most interested in those sitting just in front of them on the sofas. Anyone sitting there would deliberately want attention, so that seems fair enough. And a Scottish man who kept shouting, but the comedians had him sussed quite early on. It all went quite quickly, which must have meant that it was an enjoyable enough experience and I thought rather good for a total cost of £10 for the entry and the drink. Something different at least.

January 5, 2022