Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • London – Tower of London (Wild Flowers)

    London – Tower of London (Wild Flowers)

    Last year I went to look at the poppies that they put in the moat of the Tower of London, this year they’ve dug the moat up to grow wildflowers. As an aside, I still think it’d look better with water in it, but it’s been a dry moat since it was drained during the nineteenth century.

    The Tower authorities are making some big holes around the place as they’re planting 20 million seeds this spring so that they flower from June to September, to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. There will be chance to walk amongst the wildflowers, but I imagine that’ll be expensive, so I’ll just return in a few months to take photos from the same elevated position. I’m sure it’ll look impressive when the flowers grow (and probably play havoc with my hayfever), it certainly looks like they’re going to a lot of trouble to get it right.

    And as an aside, here are a few more photos of the exterior of the Tower of London at night whilst I was meandering around it.

  • Finding the Source of the River Wensum Part 3

    Finding the Source of the River Wensum Part 3

    PART 3 OF FINDING THE SOURCE OF THE RIVER WENSUM

    When Nathan and I were training for the LDWA 100, we started on a series of expeditions to find the source of the River Wensum. I accept this isn’t as challenging as finding the source of the Nile or the Ganges, but there was limited ability to use public transport and venues open during the lockdown, so we had to be a little resourceful. Anyway, we got as far as Lyng, and I wanted to go further to complete what we started. Nathan has retired from walking now, so this time, I convinced friends Richard and Liam to come with me. It took us a while to organise, but with my complaining that I was tired after marshalling the LDWA Winter Poppyline on the Saturday (more on which later) we were ready to go.

    Standing in the same spot as my photo from the last section of the walk, we started at Lyng Mill. The fun fact for this mill is that there is some support for the theory that it was where blotting paper was first created, a mistake caused by messing up production of normal paper. Another great Norfolk achievement.

    I was still quite sleepy when I took this photo, but Richard noted that the village sign notes some other spellings of the village’s name. The village sign was placed here in 2010 and shows the church, the now disappeared medieval abbey, the mill, a blacksmith and Humphry Repton who designed the gardens at Lyng Rectory. Lyng might now feel like quite a sleepy village, but it was once an important settlement with its two religious buildings.

    An old heritage map of the village. Some far-sighted council likely put this up 20 years ago and it’ll probably stay here until it falls down. We walked through the courtyard of the Fox at Lyng to get through to the church, reminding ourselves that next time we do this then we’ll get a Sunday lunch at a pub en route.

    St. Margaret’s Church in Lyng, which deserves a longer visit, as this was a building with some considerable character.

    The west tower dates to the thirteenth century, as does the bulk of the nave. The font is also from this period, another remarkable survival.

    This is rather odd (the church I mean, not Richard standing in the foreground), as the chancel is off-centre compared to the rest of the building. It transpires that the chancel was rebuilt in the 1860s on the site of the original floorplan, which suggests to me one of two things. Either there was an north aisle which has been brought under one larger roof later on, or the church was widened in the late medieval period and they never got to widening the chancel as well. I suspect it’s the latter, there’s not much space on that north aisle.

    The Victorian plan for the new church.

    I think this was appropriate to the day’s quest, a map of the local area on the wall of the church, with the river’s route being clearly noticeable.

    This is a legacy of when some pews were available for free usage, as opposed to those who got a seat up-front but had to pay pew rental for that benefit.

    A blocked up door, which I initially couldn’t work out, but I think it was the former entrance to the two-storied fifteenth century porch.

    There are numerous more stories to tell about this church, I’ll return…..

    Given the walk, I felt the need to take a photo of this sign.

    Our rule was to try and catch sight of the Wensum whenever we could. Walking through Lyng, this isn’t it, these are the lakes formed from the former quarry that was located here. However, the Wensum winds it way behind here, so we went to investigate.

    We walked by the lakes, located on Quarry Lane, in the hope of seeing the river at the rear of the lakes. Liam took the lead here in case there were any dangerous animals in the undergrowth.

    To cut a long story short, it’s not really quite possible to see the river, but we could see the route that it was taking in the distance. So we walked back to the road, but pleased that we had investigated.

    Back on the main road we walked through the metropolis of Fustyweed, which seemed to consist of four houses, of which one was a treehouse. This small hamlet has name origins which are uncertain, although there’s a guess at trying to explain the situation at http://www.lyngonline.org.uk/whats-in-a-name.html.

    This is the bridge on Elsing Lane, with Richard and Liam standing in front of the river as it heads towards Norwich.

    And there’s the landscape from the other side of the road, looking towards the source of the river.

    A photo from the same location, without the bridge’s ironwork in the way.

    The village’s mill is visible.

    As we walked northwards, a rather fancy wall appeared, which I imagine is the country estate wall of Bylaugh Park.

    One of the lodges at the entrance to the road leading to Bylaugh Park.

    This will definitely need further investigation, St. Mary’s Church at Bylaugh. This is kept permanently locked, but there’s keyholder information and we’re planning to get in touch to visit this church in the future. Richard, who is the most social, is going to get in touch with the church as there are some interesting things to see inside it seems.

    The tower is late Saxon or early Norman, the rest is a much later rebuild from when a grander building was needed for the hall. It’s positive that this church survives as there’s no real congregation here, the hall isn’t lived in and there are very few residential properties nearby.

    Richard and Liam standing in the graveyard, and this is really quite a pleasant place to be buried (as far as these things go….) with its view over the River Wensum.

    All very tranquil and there’s a newer section to this graveyard a little nearer to the road. The Wensum is quite wide at this point, it’s showing few signs of narrowing at the moment.

    The pleasant path from the church back to the road.

    The second lodge of the hall. The road here goes to the north of the Wensum and we could see the river’s route, but couldn’t get near to it. The hall is worthy of more investigation and I wonder whether it might be possible to visit, although it’s currently in use as a training centre. The hall had been completed in 1852 and was designed by the architects Charles Barry, Jr. and Robert Richardson Banks. It was one of the most substantial residential buildings in Norfolk and one of the first to be constructed with a steel girder frame. The building was damaged during the Second World War after it was used by the military, and there were attempts to turn it into a nursing home following the end of the conflict. The core of the building was flogged off in 1950 at an auction, including the roof and the interiors.

    I noted this destruction to Richard and Liam as I had found that information on-line. So imagine my surprise when three minutes later we walked near to the entrance to Bylaugh Hall and it looks very complete with not much evidence of destruction. It transpires that it was only around twenty years ago that it was decided to save the building, and a grand reconstruction has taken place at what was previously a wreck. There’s more about this work at https://thecountryseat.org.uk/2013/02/22/bylaugh-hall-the-hidden-history-to-a-remarkable-restoration-opportunity/.

    There is some evidence that President Eisenhower came to the building during the Second World War and apparently Winston Churchill visited on a few occasions. It’s hard to imagine that a former President of the United States has been driven down this quiet back road, but I rather hope that the story is true.

    The walk then goes to the Swanton Morley Waterfalls. You can see the look of excitement in the faces of Richard and Liam, I think they felt quite humbled to be near such an important site. This is very much Richard’s patch of Norfolk (I mean Dereham, rather than this particular stretch of mud), although he hadn’t been aware of this water feature despite driving by it on numerous occasions.

    I’m surprised that there isn’t a visitor centre by this major attraction, although I accept that it’s not quite Niagara Falls. This isn’t the River Wensum, it’s a channel that was created from it for the purposes of constructing a mill. I think that’s one thing that I’ve learned from this whole process, there were a lot of mills along stretches of the river, an essential early power source. We saw a few fishermen in the area, and although this isn’t a hobby that is in the slightest bit of interest to me, I can imagine it’s a quiet and peaceful location if they can ignore the sound of the thundering waterfall.

    The river reappears at Swanton Morley, including this rather lovely bridge, but more about that in the next post.

    And here are Richard and Liam on the bridge, celebrating the completion of our short walk.

    Despite Richard being told clearly not to look at the next part of the river walk, which we’ll tackle in a few weeks, he ignored that and excitedly ran towards it pointing. I disregarded his exuberance and obsession with questioning authority. I mentioned that Nathan would have been appalled at this continued breach of the rules that we had established, but Richard didn’t seem concerned at his lack of river walking etiquette. Anyway, I digress….

    And that’s that, not the longest of walks, just 7.3 kilometres, but it was really rather lovely to get nearer to the source of the River Wensum……. And just as we finished the walk, I had woken up after my lack of sleep from the previous evening, which perhaps wasn’t ideal timing.

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – Oxford Street – Hard Rock Cafe (3rd Visit)

    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…..

  • Wizz Air (Gdansk to Luton Airport)

    Wizz Air (Gdansk to Luton Airport)

    And it was time to come back to the UK, departing from Lech Wałęsa airport in Gdansk. As an aside, it must feel odd for Lech Wałęsa when he uses this airport to know that the entire place is named after him. I’m always slightly saddened to leave Poland, but I’ll be back in a few weeks and so can look forwards to that.

    Usually I’d just download my boarding pass on my phone and go straight through security, but Wizz Air don’t have any on-line processes in place to check the documents of travellers, so everyone is directed to the check-in desks first. It’s positive that they’re checking the UK’s Locator Form, although to be fair they’re legally obliged to, but a shame they don’t have a set-up similar to that BA have with VeriFLY.

    I tried to get through a little earlier, but the friendly member of staff at check-in said they would only open the boarding desk for my flight two hours before the flight departed. She also helpfully mentioned that my mask wouldn’t be accepted by Wizz Air on any of their flights, although I did silently think it had been accepted on the Wizz Air flight out to Gdansk. But, I wasn’t sure on their policy and had a spare mask, so that was all fine. I was told to check the boarding screens around 150 minutes before the flight, which transpired to be useful advice, as that’s when the check-in desk for my flight opened. I was fortunate to be nearly at the front of the queue, as it snaked back to the entrance to the terminal within a few minutes. The member of check-in staff quickly checked that I had a passenger locator form confirmation and then my boarding pass was printed, which is a free service when customers can’t check-in on-line.

    Safely through security (where I was praised by the security staff for my efficiency, which I lapped up willingly) and into the lounge (more on which in another post) it was time to trek to the corner of the airport and Gate 1, located in the non-Schengen zone. There was a queue, but there’s always a queue with Wizz Air…..

    This process is the same with Wizz Air and Ryanair, they call passengers forwards to wait before the aircraft is ready for boarding. Which means a wait on the steps down to the tarmac, which is fine for me leaning against a wall reading a book on my phone, but less so for those who don’t feel quite as comfortable standing on steps for twenty minutes.

    And it started to rain quite heavily, but it was only a short walk to the aircraft. Wizz Air rarely use airbridges, which has the advantage of meaning that I can take photos of the aircraft.

    The aircraft was registration HA-LXS, an Airbus A321, which has been in the Wizz Air fleet since June 2017.

    I boarded via the back of the aircraft and the flight was clearly busy, and I think just about full.

    I had the middle seat, which is the first time I’ve had this in years, although the other passengers on each side were ideally behave which makes things easier. The leg room on Wizz Air really isn’t ideal, but the flight was only for two hours and so is bearable. The crew were friendly and helpful, although I couldn’t work out where they were from as their ability so speak so many different languages is really quite impressive. The pilot announcements were hard to hear, but we landed on time although the wind made the landing quite bumpy. Well, very bumpy actually, but it added to the excitement, although the babies on board decided at this moment that they really didn’t like what was happening.

    It’s also fair to add here that this flight cost me £7.50, so it’s hard to fault Wizz Air for anything given that. The service ran as expected, the aircraft was clean, the flight was on time and everything was as comfortable as could be expected. The arriving into Luton Airport on time was fortunate as my friend Liam was there to pick me up, so he didn’t have to wait for endless amounts of time in an industrial park in Luton. Anyway, based on this flight I’d happily fly with Wizz Air again, they fly to a wide number of destinations that I want to visit and although I can’t claim the flight was luxurious, it’d be ridiculous to complain at the price that they charged.

  • London – Trailer for Group Trip in February

    London – Trailer for Group Trip in February

    For legal reasons (I don’t want to be sued) I usually have to be careful about blogging about group trips, but I’ve received permission to blog about a trip to London in late February that I think eight or so of us are going on. This is just a little trailer post and I like blogging weekends as they’re good for access numbers on this blog (mostly Gordon’s legal team) and so I need little convincing to do them.

    We’ve been planning this for a while and this was initially meant to be a trip to Amsterdam, but Omicron and the like means it’s just a little too early for some of our party to want to go there. We’ll do a foreign overseas trip later in the year if this weekend doesn’t end in arguments and a punch-up.

    It’s a cross between a walking weekend and a drinking weekend, but it’s mostly the latter, although this might not be clear to all of the group at this stage. Steve focuses on the walking arrangements and I focus on the drinking arrangements, because walking can lose its excitement without lots of beer. I’ll also put myself in charge of most of the food arrangements, although that will be less of a surprise to the group.

    The itinerary is something like:

    Fri 25 Feb: Bermondsey Beer Mile (1 mile / 17 breweries/pubs)
    Sat 26 Feb: Tracing the line of Falcon Brook (8 miles, 6 pubs)
    Sun 27 Feb: Walking the Monopoly Board (14 miles, 7 pubs)
    Mon 28 Feb: Limehouse to Little Venice along the Regents Canal (9 miles, 7 pubs)

    And Goose Island is booked for the Saturday evening, wooo!!! Now that is a delight and I can almost taste the decadent drinks already. Gordon is bringing cash to buy a barrel of the Bourbon County Stout as he’s kind like that.

    Names to be confirmed, but we likely have the following:

    Steve – supreme leader of one of Norfolk’s best walking groups, he’s cool, calm and very collected. Annoyingly photogenic, smooth and really lots of things that Gordon would want to be. Knowledgeable about cars, he’s going on a pilgrimage in a few months and I hope he’s quieter than when Gordon went shrieking along it.

    Sarah – becoming one of the strongest walkers in Norfolk, she’s now entering LDWA events like a champion. A bit huggy, but I don’t say anything.

    Andy – after strolling out bravely into the waters on the St. Cuthbert’s Way trip, nothing phases him. Steve nearly had us drowned doing that walk, but Gordon and I don’t mention that any more. Richard and Andy will be able to discuss sandals.

    Gordon – he retired early in his 40s and now lives in Old Catton in a private gated community. Quite an exotic and challenging character, he is always good for telling gossip. He’s recovering from nearly being washed away a few months ago. As mentioned earlier, his legal team read this blog carefully ready to take action, so I’ll have to be careful.

    Susanna – the model of the group, a Marilyn Monroe figure and another tough walker. Spiritually beautiful and has a great knowledge of history and culture.

    Richard – a VIP guest and he’s getting better at this beer drinking thing. He might be bringing his Christmas jumper which will annoy at least four people (Andy will probably embrace the quirkiness though). Richard might not be doing much of the walking.

    There are two more people I’m not sure if they’re coming or not, more on them when they’re confirmed   🙂

    How exciting! I don’t get to go to London enough, so this is all rather lovely. As usual, I’ll be the calming influence on the group, as well as being the voice of sanity and reason.

  • Wizz Air (Luton to Gdansk)

    Wizz Air (Luton to Gdansk)

    This is the delights of Luton airport at 05:45 this morning, after the ten minute walk from the nearby Holiday Inn.

    There’s the Wizz Air flight to Gdansk, with boarding information at 07:35. I didn’t fly with British Airways on this occasion as they have currently dropped the later flight to Warsaw and they’re dropped Krakow entirely. The Wizz Air flight cost a ridiculous £7.50 each way, which was another handy factor in this little arrangement.

    The boarding information didn’t ultimately come until 07:50. Incidentally, the security process at the airport was efficient and I was airside within five minutes of entering the terminal building.

    The boarding process was chaotic and ill-tempered, although I just let them get on with it. The boarding gate is on the lower level and so there is a flight of stairs between the corridor upstairs and the boarding gate, with customers waiting to join the queue. What is poor is that there are very few screens or boards to show customers that they’re in the right location as they’re going to their gate, this is in my view shoddy from Luton Airport, which feels a mismanaged set-up in general, as there were numerous confused customers about the place. I’m reminded just how well Heathrow T5 manage this.

    The set-up here is that there’s a short priority queue and so the staff member called up to ask non-priority (people like me…..) customers to come down as there was a separate waiting area. A woman rushed down the steps, barged me out of the way and announced loudly “I’m priority, let me though” to the staff member. The staff member rolled her eyes and said “I called non-priority, I was very clear” which led to lots of muttering from the annoyed customer. There’s no real reason to need to rush to board, there’s plenty of space for bags and seats are already allocated.

    There was an element of just bad planning here though, as we were in the holding area between the aircraft and the passports being checked for around thirty minutes. I found a seat and read a book on my phone, but there were no seats in the priority area, so those customers were all stuck standing up. It just felt muddled and there were three arguments between staff and customers over bags. I do like the drama to a degree, but some customers were getting quite het up. Oddly, the only customers getting het up seemed to be British, even though the vast majority of the customer on the aircraft seemed to be Polish.

    We were finally allowed out to the aircraft, around twenty minutes later than scheduled. The aircraft is HA-LVI, a nearly new Airbus A321 Neo which has been used by Wizz Air since June 2020. The aircraft had a busy day, it came from Warsaw this morning, then went to Trondheim and back after it arrived in Gdansk. It’s off to Oslo tomorrow and I’m sure it’ll have a lovely time there.

    The flight was absolutely fine. I hadn’t paid to reserve a seat and I was automatically given a window seat, but there was no-one in the middle seat as the aircraft was only about 60% occupied. The announcements from the pilots and cabin crew were polite, but broadly inaudible and the safety announcement was given way too fast to be of any use. However, the cabin crew were friendly and their service was efficient and unobtrusive, with the flight being perfectly relaxed and comfortable.

     

    I had forgotten that it was winter in Poland, so this snow and ice everywhere was a slight surprise.

    The disembarkation process was a little sluggish, with everyone taken to the main terminal by coach. I was in no rush and lingered about, which meant that I was one of the last people to get on the coach. So many people rush about and I can’t be doing with all that stress. By chance, it also meant that as I was the last to board, I was the first off the coach and I was the first person to leave the security area which was handy.

    The member of security staff at border control was helpful, although he didn’t want to see my negative test I got yesterday, but he did check my Covid pass and my locator form. Although I could have got away without paying £32 yesterday for an LFT at Luton Airport, there are two reasons that I’m glad I got it. Firstly, I would have worried all day if I didn’t have it, and secondly, it’s just best to do things properly rather than risk being fined or deported.

    And Gdansk airport terminal, safe and sound. I have to say that this was ridiculously good value for £7.50 and Wizz Air felt a safe and secure airline to travel with, with the cabin crew being friendly and the aircraft being clean. The boarding process was unnecessarily stressful for many customers, but I was quite happy with my window seat and bag near to me, all perfectly comfortable. I will no doubt travel with Wizz Air more this year, not least because of their range of destinations, but also because their flights are so often reasonably priced.

  • Luton – Holiday Inn

    Luton – Holiday Inn

    I’ve never stayed overnight in Luton before (and let’s say here, this must be on the bucket list of any wannabe traveller), but I had an early morning flight from the airport and I also needed to get an LFT test the afternoon before to be allowed into Poland, so this airport hotel seemed a sensible option. It’s not cheap, it was showing as £65 per night on IHG’s site, but I had another free rewards night (so many hotel offers at the moment), so this was all without a charge to me. There was also the option of the Holiday Inn Express down the road about 50 metres, but I wouldn’t have been able to have the free breakfast as I needed to leave early, and missing out on something would have annoyed me (although I think they might offer an earlier takeaway breakfast at the HIE, but I didn’t want to overthink things).

    The standard Holiday Inn interior and the bloody windows that don’t open. There’s no excuse for this sort of short cut, the Holiday Inn Express has windows that open so if it’s good enough for them…. The temperature in the room was OK, but the air conditioning isn’t good enough to get my ideal temperature (which is similar to the chiller room in a fast food chain). Otherwise the facilities were all working and the room was clean and organised, although the television wasn’t one of the smart ones that seem to be so common in Accor properties now. There’s a gym somewhere in the hotel, but I forgot to use it.

    I will give credit to the staff giving me the room furthest possible distance away from the lift on the top floor, which is my favourite room in a hotel (unless there’s a bigger one, or a room with free beer in it). I noted that the signs in the hotel to get to the room take guests a slightly longer way than possible, but then I realised that no-one really cares that another route saved three seconds. I need to get out more…. Oh, also, there’s a 24 hour bar at the hotel, which is no doubt useful for those wanting a drink after a late night flight (or indeed a pre-departure tipple).

    The decoration in the restaurant and bar, with all the staff being friendly enough as well which lifted things somewhat. There are numerous complaints on-line about how guests have got big bills for using the car park, but I suspect a lot didn’t follow the rules which look quite clear. It’s no surprise these rules have to be enforced here, as it’s so near to the airport and they charge drop-off fees and don’t allow stopping.

    A perfectly adequate welcome drink, it’s not going to be stocked in Goose Island, but it’s sufficient for a hotel bar. I will comment on, rather than complain excessively, that the hotel didn’t bother provided the promised snack (ie, crisps or nuts) listed on the drinks voucher. I have no idea why hotels try and make shortcuts with things like that for the sake of 20p given the huge costs they have with the rest of their operation.

    There was a little internal noise from the air conditioning making odd noises, which I wouldn’t have noticed if I could have had a lovely window that was open. The obsession that Holiday Inn have with sterile rooms, fortunately a relatively rare occurrence when I stay in Accor properties (I’ve realised I’ve started to go on about Accor more, sorry).

    The reviews for the hotel are adequate, although not as high as the neighbouring Holiday Inn Express and that’s odd, as I think Holiday Inn should be rated higher. I was amused at this review:

    “An employee brought our beers to table that were 2/3rd’s beer 1/3rd foamy head. Again, just a training issue I would think. My dinner guest happily showed the employee how to pull a pint.”

    I bet the employee wasn’t happy, but there we go…. One customer complained that the taxi fare cost £10 to take them to the airport, but that must be a one minute journey and I can’t imagine the driver wants to wait in the long queue for many trips like that.

    I think I’d be more inclined to use the Holiday Inn Express if I live the dream and stay again in Luton as they appear to have windows that merrily open and close to the heart’s delight of the average guest, and there’s also a free breakfast.

  • Luton – The White House

    Luton – The White House

    I wasn’t in Luton for very long today, but I had chance to pop to the JD Wetherspoon outlet as it’s listed in the Good Beer Guide. The company did have two pubs in the town, with the London Hatter being open between 2011 and 2016, but it couldn’t have done well for them given the short amount of time that it was open. The venue is still closed, clearly it doesn’t tempt any other operator either.

    But back to the White House, which I think is a marvellous name for a pub given my surname (I’m easily pleased). It’s a cavernous venue with two different bars, both of which were staffed when I visited just before lunchtime. As for the reason for the pub name, this is what the company say:

    “In the late 19th century, the Crown & Anchor Brewery stood on the site of this Wetherspoon pub, a short walk from the site of Luton’s first brewery. Founded by Thomas Burr, in 1780, it stood next to his family home, known as The White House.”

    The brewery isn’t noted on this map from the late nineteenth century, the pub is located just above where the PH is indicated on the map, so it’s nice that the site is still used by a beer selling venue.

    This is an odd JD Wetherspoon insomuch that the toilets aren’t upstairs, as they’re usually tucked away in the furthest corner of the pub. Despite being a modern building, there’s been some effort with decorative features and I liked the number of power sockets that were available. Plenty of books on the shelves upstairs as well, they add character to pubs and I approve.

    I went for a half a pint of the Devon Darkness from Hanlons Brewery who are based in Exeter, the same place that Tim Martin lives (I mean the city, not that the owner of the company lives in a brewery). The beer was well kept and at the appropriate temperature, and keenly priced at £1 for a half so there’s nothing much to complain about there. There was nothing of particular note about the beer, but it was an acceptable enough dry stout.

    The pub has about the same review score as the average JD Wetherspoon outlet, so it seems to be running as efficiently as most others, and I felt that the staff were friendly enough. There was a good choice of real ales, seven different ones across a variety of beer styles, all keenly priced. There’s nothing exceptional that I can note, but the pub seemed to be well managed and I can see why it’s been listed in the Good Beer Guide.

  • London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Apprentice You’re Fired Recording

    London – Hammersmith and Fulham (Borough of) – Apprentice You’re Fired Recording

    I got a ticket to see the third episode of the Apprentice – You’re Fired being filmed and this is the delight of the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. I managed to stand in the wrong queue last week when waiting to watch the Unbelievable Truth being recorded as I should have been in the priority queue, but here there was just one queue and that was something that confused a fair few people who tried to walk straight to the front of the queue. I didn’t walk to the front of the queue as I’m not that brave to check such things, but I was impressed at the nerve of those people who did. Although they then looked sheepish walking back again.

    There were thorough checks here unlike in other things I’ve been to recently, they needed to see proof of vaccination and proof of a negative test, hence the delay in proceedings to get everyone in. It was all efficiently managed though and the staff were keen to be helpful to everyone, which boded well.

    Before the recording started it was fine to take photos, but after the floor manager gave an introduction to the process then phones were entirely banned from proceedings. There were some dire warnings made if anyone tried to use their phone during the recording and I didn’t see anyone brave enough to try and break the rules. We then got to watch this week’s episode of the Apprentice before the You’re Fired show was recorded.

    And the rest I can’t say anything about as the episode doesn’t broadcast until Thursday, but it was interesting to watch how the programme was made. I was at the end of a row and the crane camera was very near to me when it panned across, so my hope of hiding in the background probably won’t have been met, but there we go….. I was told that I could wear my usual face mask if I wanted (my LDWA branded one), but I opted for a medical mask so I looked slightly more in keeping with most other people in the audience. One man was told twice to put his mask over his nose, but he ignored that and there wasn’t much they could do when filming had started.

    Incidentally, I noted a few people tried to take the Hired and Fired card, even though they asked everyone not to. I think they managed to reclaim a fair few of them from leaving the studio and I decided a photo of it was all that I needed. The filming was a bit laborious in places, but they met the time schedules we had been given, so everything remained professional. An interesting experience and I’d go again in the future if I got chance, although you can only be in the audience for one episode per series.

  • London – Hounslow (Borough of) – Tabard Pub

    London – Hounslow (Borough of) – Tabard Pub

    This is a Greene King pub, so I obviously didn’t come here for the beer, but instead because it’s listed in the Good Beer Guide and it was designed by Norman Shaw. There’s also the bonus that this was a building that Nikolaus Pevsner thought was “especially attractive”, so what could Greene King possibly mess up? Firstly, they make no effort to mention the history on the pub’s page on the Greene King web-site, the usual lack of effort they make in so many ways.

    There’s a corridor type entrance, with doors to the left and right. Food is served throughout the day and there’s a menu board visible on entry, next to the rather nice pillars. CAMRA have some information about the pub’s history on their Historic Interiors pages.

    That’s the other side of the door that’s on the left in the previous photo. There’s a Wikipedia page about the pub at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tabard,_Chiswick#Pub.

    And the same door, but my phone’s wide angle makes it look much wider. The central bar is visible at the rear, just behind my well travelled bag. The atmosphere was a bit excitable for my liking with staff members singing away, but there’s nothing wrong with that as this is a pub which is keen on its music.

    The beer was half a pint of the XX Mild from Greene King, which was served too warm, I think because of the temperature of the glass. The beer was adequate, about as good as Greene King manage to churn out. The service was verging on rude at first with staff members just standing about talking, but the staff member who served me was friendly and helpful enough.

    This building is exceptionally interesting and there’s even a theatre on the first floor. I can understand why it’s in the Good Beer Guide as it’s an historic pub and that makes it worth visiting in itself. There were five different real ales available, mostly generic and none that particularly interested me. However, it’s nice to see a mild, so I’ll credit that with being the most exciting option that they had.

    The reviews of the pub on-line are a little below average, mostly about unfriendly staff and food that didn’t surprise and delight. That probably seems to fairly sum the pub up, but they do respond professionally to all reviews that I’ve seen, so it’s positive that they’re keen to engage. I can’t help but feel that this pub would be lifted if it wasn’t operated by Greene King though, this is something that Fullers or Nicholsons would handle a lot better, but ideally it could perhaps do with an independent operator.