Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • Newcastle – Holy Jesus Hospital

    Newcastle – Holy Jesus Hospital

    This old building in Newcastle looked interesting to me, even though it’s clearly been the victim of some rather aggressive road building practices in recent decades.

    It’s likely necessary to click on this dual map to mark it larger, but it shows how dominant the road system has become to the geography of Newcastle over the last century. What would have been a quiet area has now become something of a traffic junction.

     

    Anyway, back to the building itself, this is the former Holy Jesus Hospital building which was constructed in 1681 for the Corporation of Newcastle upon Tyne. It was designed to accommodate a master of the hospital, as well as 39 poor freemen or their widows, with an extension added on the rear in 1886.

    This usage as an almshouses was a continuation of its hospital usage from its period as an Augustinian Friary between 1291 and 1539. After the Reformation, a request made by Thomas Cromwell to leave the building intact for usage as the King’s Council of the North meeting facilities, a bit like an early Northern Powerhouse. It wasn’t much used for this though, so the structure started to fall into disrepair, before eventually in the seventeenth century it all came under the control of the City Corporation.

    The beautiful sandstone fountain outside the front entrance is now quite worn, but it does date from the late seventeenth century and so I suppose that’s understandable. The street level around it has been raised though, so it has now lost some of its visual impact. There is also a tower at the site, which I managed not to see as I was rushing to the pub, with this dating from some time around the late sixteenth century (the tower, not the pub).

    For some time the building was used as the John George Joicey Museum from 1950, which would seem an ideal usage for the former hospital today. However, that closed in 1983 and it is now used as offices by the National Trust and other organisations. Lovely as this is, it seems an entirely unsuitable usage for such an interesting building, which should really be accessible to the public. There are occasional opportunities to visit the interior as part of a guided tour, but it’s a shame that more isn’t always available given it that it was in use as a hospital for over 700 years and is one of only two seventeenth century brick buildings to survive in the city.

  • Newcastle – The Town Mouse

    Newcastle – The Town Mouse

    When I mentioned a few days ago on Facebook that I was in Newcastle, Tony from the brilliant Hop & Vine in Hull suggested popping into The Town Mouse. I suspect I would have gone here anyway as part of my tour of Good Beer Guide pubs in the city, but I wasn’t going to neglect a recommendation from Tony and made this one a priority.

    On my arrival there was a friendly welcome from the staff member and she was happy to find me a table even though they were busy and I was on my own. I add that as it would have been easy for her to shove me outside where there was a small table, but instead she did also offer a table inside. Tony had mentioned that the micropub was run by a man named Jon, and when I heard the staff member use that name to someone looking managerial I decided that I’d introduce myself (which was very brave, I normally try and introduce myself to someone who is nothing to do with anything). Anyway, on this occasion it worked out and it was great to have a chance to talk to Jon about his bar, craft beer bars in Warsaw (I don’t tire of talking about the exciting beer situation in Poland) and the Hop & Vine, amongst numerous other things. I’ll see if I can convince him into a little interview for this blog   🙂

    This is genuinely beautiful, a range of beer styles and a mixture of cask and keg. The cask range is more limited than usual, but will return to a wider selection when things return to normality in the world. Underneath this is a multi-page list of cans and bottles, which had sufficient choice for me to want to make a few return visits. I like it when pubs do this, as when they’ve got a gap in beer style for any reason, then customers can at least have the option of having a can or bottle or something similar to what they wanted. Although having noted that, there’s an opportunity to try a whole range of different beer options here.

    The Damn Dead Blueberry from Wild Weather brewery, who I hadn’t heard of but are from Reading and they brew some other similar options in the range including raspberry, apricot, kiwi, grapefruit, peach, strawberry, gooseberry and even cucumber. I’m not sure how the cucumber ends up tasting, but I like a bit of innovation in beer. This beer was quite intriguing given that it had a sour taste initially (unsurprising as it’s a sour) but then it seemed to have something of a sweetness from the blueberry.

    This is the Pastel De Nada Mexicake Stout from Elusive Brewing and, showing my ignorance again, I hadn’t heard of this brewery either (although I should have done, I had one of their beers in Brewdog Ealing a few weeks ago, but I have a bad memory for this sort of thing). Jon explained much more about them and I shall keep an eye out for their beers in future, it seems they have some collaborations with other respected breweries, not least Weird Beard as with this beer. At 8.7%, this was still smooth and there was that lovely decadent aftertaste that I crave with vanilla and chocolate flavours. There’s a warming touch from the chilli as well, although I thought this was quite subtle and I liked the subtle tastes with this beer. Definitely a beer

    As an irrelevant aside, I didn’t receive any badges on Untappd for either of the beers that I had in this micropub. For anyone who uses Untappd, they’ll know that this is quite a rare occurrence not to get a badge. I mention this as I’m not sure that Jon is quite as excited and engaged about Untappd badges as I am. But I’m easily pleased and need distraction and he runs a bar, so he doesn’t need any more distractions.

    Anyway, back to this bar which has been operating for a few years in a central location in Newcastle. Tony did comment on whether I noticed any similarities between this and his pub, and Jon said there were influences that he had incorporated from the Hop & Vine. The cellar element was of course the most evident in terms of the design, but there was a community feel here just as I’d like. It was clear that there were many regulars coming in and the environment was relaxed and comfortable. I liked that I was found a table willingly and that the staff were knowledgeable and helpful. But, this was one of those locations where I felt if I was new to the area than I’d be made to feel welcome not just by the staff, but also by other customers. On that basis, what I love from the Hop & Vine has carried through here. I’m pleased to report that I think this is a quite marvellous pub and absolutely right to be in the Good Beer Guide. Definitely one of the best micropubs that I’ve been in.

  • Gateshead – Millennium Bridge

    Gateshead – Millennium Bridge

    Back in 1996, Gateshead Council decided they’d quite like a new bridge for pedestrians and cyclists and so they started a competition to design one. The successful designer was the architects Wilkinson & Eyre, with the structural engineers being Gifford and Partners. It seems that because Gateshead Council were ahead of the curve (there’s an accidental pun there I didn’t initially intend) on this, they got to call it what they wanted, which is why it’s not called the Newcastle Millennium Bridge.

    An information board by the bridge notes that this is “the world’s first and only tilting bridge” and it still opens to allow boats of up to 25 metres in height through. It takes just over four minutes for the bridge to tilt and costs very little to do so as the design was initially environmentally conscious.

    The bridge (also known as the Blinking Eye Bridge) was constructed in one piece, which must have required some considerable planning as it was floated six miles down the river to get it here in November 2000. A floating crane was involved with the whole arrangement, but this sounds like a complex civil engineering challenge that is beyond my understanding, although my friend Liam is building a bridge and I’m sure he’d be excited by a floating crane (I don’t think they have one of those to construct the Great Yarmouth bridge). The bridge cost £22 million to construct, partly funded by the Millennium Commission and the European Regional Development Fund, which seems pretty decent value given how iconic it has become over the last couple of decades.

    I’ve been to Newcastle on a few occasions before, but this is the first time that I’ve crossed over this iconic bridge. I can’t imagine that anyone else is excited by my doing that, but I was (I’m easily pleased and should probably get out more).

  • National Express : Newcastle to London Victoria Coach Station

    National Express : Newcastle to London Victoria Coach Station

    I fear that I’ve been lulled into a false sense of confidence about National Express following a rather brilliant journey a few weeks ago from Norwich to London. This is the National Express bus station in Newcastle, which was perhaps not unsurprisingly closed at 22:45 which was when the bus was leaving to get me to London. Although on this point, I recall in the United States that the Greyhound bus stations I went to remained open if there were services going out. What was more surprising was that National Express haven’t bothered putting more than a couple of benches in the area, leaving most people to stand up.

    Here we are waiting for the service, which was due to arrive into London at 06:30.

    The coach turned up twenty minutes early, but this was mostly so that the drivers could stand in the entrance to the vaping. I have no interest in what they do, but it takes a little away from the National Express message not to smoke or vape on their vehicles if their drivers are doing it. The staff member was greeting customers by, well, saying nothing and just looking at their tickets or phones to ensure that they were meant to travel on that service. He wasn’t impolite to me, but it was all a bit cold. Although I was fortunate, he was quite abrupt with some customers behind.

    I felt sorry for the lad who was about 18 and had managed to buy a coach ticket for the wrong day and he then resorted to trying to buy a ticket from other passengers. I’m not sure what happened there in the end, but I don’t think he was able to travel. Nor indeed were a couple of customers at other stops further down the line who had turned up on spec in a bid to get to London.

    I boarded first and so had the full choice of seats although the first couple of rows on the right of the above photo were reserved. This is always a dilemma, there’s a better seat which is the emergency exit seat at the rear near the toilets, but there were a few groups of friends visible and I thought they’d probably want to chat and the like at the back, so it might be quieter at the front. So I picked the seat behind the two closed off for the drivers, so at least no-one could recline into me.

    Being used to not annoying coach drivers I had already put my bag on the floor and put my seatbelt on, so the driver meandered by me to announce loudly to a few people further back “get your bags off the chairs as this service will be full and you will have people sitting next to you”. It’s probably sensible to tell people to make it easier for later customers to board, but I did wonder how personable this approach was.

    That’s also the difference between the Caledonian Sleeper service I took last week and this coach service. There the stewards were wearing masks, there were big gaps between customers and there was a level of professionalism to the whole arrangement. National Express didn’t bother faffing around with that convenience and safety, they filled every seat. There was a slight disregard from the drivers over customers wearing seatbelts, but I think it did say to wear them on the pre-recorded announcement.

    On this, I note a swathe of negative reviews of National Express for returning to full seating with no social distancing, but their argument is that the Government said they could from 29 May 2021, so that’s what they were going to do. And I can’t much complain about that given the low price of the ticket that they charged me.

    The service isn’t the easiest to sleep on, as every stop the driver turns on all the lights so that customers can board. There’s probably not much that can be done about that, otherwise people would be tripping down the aisles when boarding, but it’s not the most conducive with regards to being a restful environment. At 02:30 we also had the added excitement of stopping at a service station for thirty minutes, although this was handy to use their facilities.

    As for the seats, they were crammed in to the point of being entirely unsuitable in my mind for an overnight service. With every seat full, it was all far too cramped for my liking, although since I seem to be able to sleep anywhere, I didn’t much let it bother me. I’m not sure that National Express themselves would even claim they’re going for comfort here (if they were being honest), it’s simply a way of getting people from A to B. For anyone taller than me (so over six feet) they’d likely be distinctly uncomfortable.

    The drivers didn’t worry about both coming in at the same time to use the toilets at the service station and leaving the coach open and unlocked. I imagine at some point someone will board the coach and nick passenger belongings, or indeed the entire coach, and then some more care might be taken. There were two drivers who took it in turns to drive the coach and although there was no real effort at customer service, they were professional drivers at the wheel and it all felt safe and secure en route. I suppose that I’d rather have this than a driver who is very friendly but yet collides with numerous things during the journey.

    Here we are in London Victoria Coach Station, a few minutes before the expected arrival time. On the plus side, this journey only cost £12 to get me from Newcastle to London. It was also on time, the driving was safe, the USB points worked and the coach was clean. On the negative side, it was cramped, uncomfortable and the drivers were grumpy. I’m not really a fan of coach travel, so the positive here for me is that I’m going to try and take the train in the future, it’s a better way to travel as far as I’m concerned. Although I might try Flixbus now they’re in the UK, as although they used to annoy me, I’ve become something of a fan of theirs.

  • Newcastle – Bacchus

    Newcastle – Bacchus

    Continuing on my tour of Good Beer Guide pubs in Newcastle, this is Bacchus Bar, which is designed to look like an ocean-liner. Something a little different I suppose….

    There was a friendly welcome at the door from the staff member, although I thought that the music was a little loud for my own personal preferences (which are, quite boringly, no music at all). I thought that the atmosphere was a bit muted, but it was a clean and comfortable environment. The beer selection was reasonable, a few different real ales and an effort has been made not to be bland. The staff were personable and pro-active, so everything seemed well managed and efficient.

    I went for the Stout 2021 from Nomadic Beers who are a small brewery from the Leeds area. Smooth, dark and chocolately, although perhaps lacking a rich aftertaste, but still very drinkable. The surroundings are a bit decadent, but that’s perhaps a little inevitable when you’re trying to recreate the theme of an ocean liner. There are normally around eight or so real ales on, but they’re down a little at the moment due to current circumstances, but there was still no shortage of options and most beer styles were available.

    This is an interesting and long-standing addition to the Good Beer Guide, although I suspect that on Saturday evenings it can all get a bit raucous for my liking. It does though seem to have been serving decent beer for some time, their web-site notes that it was a CAMRA pub of the year runner-up in 1995, so it appears to be something of a survivor. It’s run by a small chain, Sir John Fitzgerald, which I haven’t heard of, but they have numerous pubs in this area. This isn’t a pub I’d have thought to have gone in without the Good Beer Guide recommendation, but I’m pleased that I did.

  • Newcastle – Premier Inn Newcastle Millennium Bridge

    Newcastle – Premier Inn Newcastle Millennium Bridge

    This Premier Inn is a short walk from Newcastle city centre and was also very reasonably priced. They’ve changed the check-in time across all Premier Inn hotels to be after 16:00 to give them time to clean the rooms, but they were all ready just before then when I turned up.

    The room, which was all clean and sufficiently modern. The television is quite large for a hotel room and it let me cast my phone so that I could watch Britbox on the large screen. The blackout curtains are very effective, I decided to catch up on sleep (not least because I’ve got an overnight coach to London later today) and my alarm woke me at 09:00. Usually before then the sunlight would flood in, cleaners would clank about or other guests would fall over or something outside my room, but none of that happened here.

    As an aside, I wasn’t planning to eat at the restaurant at the hotel, but I liked that they’ve included a menu in the room. Some hotels seem to have chucked all of their paperwork out and blamed Covid, which isn’t ideal if they haven’t provided any QR alternatives or similar.

    The view from my room and I could see the River Tyne which was a little bonus. To be fair, I didn’t spend long looking at the river and car park view, but it was better than just having a view over air conditioning units or the like. The windows in this hotel also open and aren’t hermetically sealed as some locations seem to think is helpful.

    I asked for a few extra milks and the helpful staff member obliged   🙂

    I had a little look at the reviews for this hotel, which aren’t universally positive, but it’s above average. The majority of the complaints are about the lack of air conditioning (although at least a large fan was provided) and the behaviour of other guests, with the problem for the hotel it seems of stag and hen groups. I didn’t have any problems in that regard, although I was pleased to find myself at the end of a long corridor.

    The whole stay was faultless and it’s starting to become clear that Premier Inn and Travelodge have been able to have the strength to power through this Covid situation, whereas chains such as Accor seem to be positively falling apart. Very friendly staff, a clean room, a quiet location and a reasonable price, all really rather lovely.

  • Newcastle – Mean Eyed Cat

    Newcastle – Mean Eyed Cat

    As I’m in Newcastle for the day, I thought that I’d visit a few of the pubs in the Good Beer Guide and I started with this micropub near to the Haymarket metro station. When I went in it seemed to be quite busy internally and externally, but there was a friendly welcome from a member of staff who said that there was space in the rear garden area. That sufficed me as I wasn’t sure that I could get in at all on a Friday evening.

    The friendly staff member told me to have a quick look at the beers at the bar and she’d then come and take the order. I took one look and decided instantly, it had to be the Cherry Trifle from Brew By Numbers. A cherry imperial stout is one of my favourites and I’m a fan of Brew By Numbers and have been working steadily through their beers, as well as having visited their taproom in London. There were a range of beer styles there though to cater for most tastes, all nicely balanced and thought out.

    As it was a walk by photo this is a bit blurred unfortunately, but there were some cask options as well which looked tempting. As I wanted to meander around a few pubs, I had decided just to have one drink here, but not because of any shortage of options. The decor was sufficiently quirky to make it interesting and the whole atmosphere felt inviting, somewhat different to its previous use as a newsagents.

    The rear garden wasn’t the most salubrious of environments if I’m being honest, but they’ve made it bright and colourful. The beer was good, not quite as rich as I had expected, but it didn’t taste its 10% with the flavour being sufficiently moderate. The cherries were there though in some form, with a bit of vanilla in the taste as well. I was perfectly pleased with this smooth and slightly decadent beer, but I wanted a slightly more powerful punch from the cherries.

    Anyway, back to the pub itself. Not being inside meant I couldn’t quite get the same experience of understanding how the regulars interacted and the like, but I always felt welcome and the environment was on-trend without trying to be. The beer selection was thought through, the staff were friendly and I’d most certainly visit here again. Indeed, a few of us have decided a trip to Newcastle in November 2022 will be a really good idea, especially as the Head of Steam and Brewdog here are currently closed, so a revisit is required. This pub is though a quite worthy addition to the Good Beer Guide in my humble view.

  • Edinburgh – Bow Bar

    Edinburgh – Bow Bar

    It’s been a little difficult visiting the local pubs in the Good Beer Guide, as many of them have been closed or are operating on heavily reduced hours. It transpired that Bow Bar has only just reopened as well, due to a staff member having Covid-19 last month, which must have been a blow after they were finally allowed to open. However, they certainly seem to have been honest and open about the situation, and everything is back to normal now for this bar.

    There was a very friendly welcome from the staff member at the door, she was conversational and welcoming. I did wonder whether this small bar might be a little cliquey, but it absolutely wasn’t, there was a nice relaxed atmosphere inside.

    There’s an interesting decor in the bar. I would normally meander around and take a couple more photos, but under the current situation, that wouldn’t be sensible.

    I don’t drink whisky as it’s too, er, powerful in flavour, for me. I like beers that have been in aged whisky casks, but the whisky itself does nothing for me. There were some tempting options here in the whisky month that the pub was running, with I note numerous flavours similar to those that can be found in beers. There were some very decadent options as well, so I can imagine Richard might well have been tempted by them (especially the expensive ones). It’s great to see such a wide selection available for whisky drinkers though, a few customers were drinking through some of the options on this list.

    There is a beer board, but it’s at the other end of the bar. The enthusiastic staff member checked whether I was a whisky or beer drinker, before carefully explaining all of the different beer options. I have a problem that I can’t remember a list of options, I just stop the staff member when they tell me a beer that sounds interesting. I liked the enthusiasm of the staff member as well, she must have to repeat the beer list a lot, but she remained helpful and willing, seemingly to genuinely want people to get a drink they’d like. Never scripted and never routine, I like it, although I did wonder whether it’d be easier to just have a print out of the beers they had. But, it was a good way to allow the staff member to engage, so all was well.

    My new drinking partner who spent the entire time ignoring me and looking the other way. I have some friends like this to be fair and it’s very annoying when I want to tell them about craft beer. The bar has put these giant teddies on some seats to aid social distancing, a really nice idea. Non confrontational and adding to the atmosphere, rather lovely. I did name the teddy, but I won’t put the name here….

    The beer that I chose was the Mochaccino Stout from Pilot, which is a micro-brewery from Leith, in Edinburgh. It had a rich flavour and had a smooth chocolate and coffee edge to it, although the aftertaste seemed to dissipate a little quickly. A really pleasant beer though and for some reason, it seemed appropriate for the bar that I was drinking it in.

    Looking at the reviews, the bar certainly seem to be doing something right as they’re nearly all very favourable. There are a few really idiotic comments levelled at the bar and they do sometimes reply in quite a punchy manner. I like that, genuine complaints treated with respect, but idiocy dealt with accordingly. Like the person who felt appropriate to leave 1/5 as they wouldn’t let his 17 year old daughter in, even though that is what the bar’s licence states.

    And someone who complained that they didn’t serve Guinness. I love the bar’s answer:

    “I see you have edited your review to now complain that we don’t serve Guinness. If we wanted to serve something that tasted like Guinness, we would serve Guinness. However, we support smaller independent breweries, and we have an alternative stout for the dark beer drinkers. If you don’t like it, that’s not our fault, and I don’t see how you can get so upset over it. It’s just beer at the end of the day.”

    Someone also complained that they paid £5 for a pint. The bar’s response was moderate, adding “PS, we are not Wetherspoons” at the end. Fair play, there’s a place for JD Wetherspoon as far as I’m concerned, but there’s even more of a place for brilliant little independent bars like this who focus on great customer service and beer from small, local breweries.

    I really liked this bar, primarily because the service was personable, pro-active and simply welcoming. This is certainly one of my best pub experiences of the year so far that isn’t in a chain (well, in a Brewdog) and it absolutely deserves to be in the Good Beer Guide. It’s in a touristy area of Edinburgh, so I imagine they get a real mix of locals and visitors from further afield, but the welcome seemed authentic to all. All very lovely.

  • Edinburgh – Brewdog Edinburgh Lothian Road

    Edinburgh – Brewdog Edinburgh Lothian Road

    Given that I’m working my way through all the Brewdogs in the UK, it’s probably about time that I started visiting some of their Scottish outlets, given that’s the country that they come from. They have two outlets in the centre of Edinburgh, but I started with this one as it’s the only one of the two which offers unlimited chicken wings on a Wednesday. The other Brewdog is in Cowgate and has a menu similar to the one that we had in Clapham a couple of weeks ago, offering food such as pizzas and cheese boards (Richard would be pleased).

    I was seated near to the bar, in what I considered to be a rather good location since I could see what was going on. The welcome seemed genuinely friendly and the staff members were always polite, but they weren’t pro-active in talking about the beers in a way that some other Brewdog bars have been. But Brewdog set themselves a high bar in terms of their engagement, so there was nothing wrong here, just other venues in the chain have their staff talk about the beer in quite a natural way even when customers have already ordered it via the app.

    This is the rear of the bar, which they’d closed off when I visited as they didn’t have sufficient customers to need it. This is a large Brewdog outlet and they also have a fair amount of space outside, so finding a seat is usually not a problem most of the time.

    The beer fridges.

    Indeed I did….. Actually, this reminds me that I booked 16:45 because 17:00 was unavailable. I’m not sure I understand Brewdog’s logic here, since they had no more customers in at 17:00 than they did at 16:45, as can also be noted from the closed off rear area.

    I went for two drinks, just getting thirds of each as usual. This is the One Day Maybe Never from Verdant Brewing, which was a little disappointing as there was nothing particularly exciting about this beer in terms of flavours or the depth of taste. The brewery is from Cornwall and I’ve had a few of their beers before, including the Even Sharks Need Water, Bloom and Maybe One More PSI, but this was the blandest that I’ve had from them in terms of the flavour.

    I then followed this up with Cosmic Raspberry from Overworks, which is Brewdog’s own brewery. This beer didn’t hugely excite me either, it was just tart, without much smoothness to it. The taste of raspberry wasn’t unpleasant, but I had expected something a little more sophisticated.

    I’m not helped here either by having nearly run out of different Brewdog beers to try, I might have to put a gap in between my next visit so that they can rotate the guest beers that they have to choose from. They do change their guests relatively frequently, but the guest beer menu in Edinburgh was similar to what they had in their London bars.

    I went for the unlimited chicken wings again, since I haven’t had them for two weeks. Served at the usual very hot temperature where I have to let them sit for a few minutes, they were different in shape to other Brewdog outlets, which slightly surprised me as I wasn’t sure that there were many different options in this regard. I didn’t let it bother me….

    And more…. And quite a few more that I didn’t take photos of. The service was always efficient and I was never left waiting for long, so the whole bar felt well managed. it was well staffed, indeed to the point that I wondered if they’d been expecting more guests.

    Anyway, obviously there’s a limit to how unique Brewdog bars are when comparing them to each other, but this was a perfectly pleasant experience. I was never rushed and I liked the engagement from staff, with complete compliance with the current Covid rules. It wasn’t overly busy, although they were getting a steady flow of customers, and the bar is genuinely pretty well reviewed. So, all fine for me and no issues.

  • Edinburgh – Conan Doyle Pub

    Edinburgh – Conan Doyle Pub

    The Good Beer Guide hasn’t been able to achieve much for me today, as every pub in it that I tried to visit was shut, including those which were meant to be open. I’m moderately confused by this, as Edinburgh is busy and other pubs seem to be doing well. Anyway, that meant an opportunity to just try some other pubs and see what I could find. The Conan Doyle takes its name as it’s near the birthplace of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, born at Picardy Place on 22 May 1859. For reasons unknown (or at least, unknown to me), the home of his birth was demolished in the early 1970s.

    The pub is Nicholson’s, so arguably I could have just stayed in London as they have no shortage of venues there. The set-up is the same, although I’ve had to download a different check-in app, as the one I’ve been using is created by NHS England. There was a staff member at the entrance to guide me through the process, all efficiently managed. I didn’t have to fight to use the app here, they didn’t seem to object to me using technology rather ordering through them.

    There’s apparently usually a wide selection of real ales, but at the moment it’s limited to just Nicholson’s Pale Ale or Timothy Taylor’s Landlord. I got my 25p off half a pint, making the price £2.20, which isn’t unreasonable given the location. The beer was all that a pint of Landlord could be, it was entirely adequate and well kept, but not really anything more. The surroundings were relaxed and the pub was relatively busy, although it was never full when I was there. Unlike the Nicholson’s pubs that I’ve been visiting in London over the last couple of weeks, this one seemed to be serving a fair amount of food.

    I did look at the menu on-line (although I was saving myself for Brewdog food) and thought frickles were some local speciality. They’re actually stocked throughout the Nicholson’s chain and I’ve just never noticed, but they’re beer battered gherkins and that is something I’d very much like. I might e-mail Greggs, they need to stock decadent products like this. There is though some localisation, as the pub stocks haggis, neeps and tatties, as well as the dishes of Stovies and Balmoral Chicken. They also have the dessert of Cranachan, which I’d never heard of until Andrew ordered it when we were in the Isle of Skye a few years ago. As an aside, one customer complained that they weren’t happy with their small portion size of haggis (I would have been, I don’t like haggis) and the pub replied in a review they would have been give more free if they had asked. Handy tip for anyone visiting in the future…..

    As a pub, this was all fine, as it was clean and comfortable. Nothing exceptional, but the environment was welcoming and there were a few customers sitting on their own, usually a sign of an accepting environment. I had a little look through their reviews on-line, which are broadly positive. I quite liked the one from last year:

    “Obviously you get the odd ignoring while waiting at a bar for service wherever you are, but this was just blatant. I must assume it was because we were English, as the bar was full of Scottish indy stuff. Bit ironic as I fully support the Scottish Nationalists”.

    I’m a bit bemused by that one, as I’m not sure that staff in a pub in central Edinburgh are going to turn against anyone who sounds a bit English. I also didn’t see all the Scottish independence stuff that is mentioned, just a sign for Scottish malts. The pub didn’t bother replying to that review.

    Drifting off the subject somewhat (but I’ve become judgemental reading these reviews), a customer complained that they were given an unsuitable wonky table for two and asked for a larger one which was more convenient for them. The pub reply was “this is standard practice as you would know, having visited so many restaurants before”. I’m not sure it is, I’ve seen very many venues sacrifice larger tables to please their customers, thereby avoiding the negative review that this pub ended up with. The pub has a few negative reviews similar to this one, but there we go….

    I did though like the pub’s reply to a customer who complained that he was patient whilst waiting for his beer, but was then charged over £5 for it. The reply was “unfortunately in Scotland this doesn’t entitle anyone to a change in the price. You have yourself a wonderful day!” and that seemed a most suitable response.

    I was also amused by an angry Canadian who was furious he had to go to the bar in the pub to order and then carry the drinks back himself to the table. I’m not entirely sure that he got the spirit of pub culture in the UK. Anyway, I’ve now got entirely distracted from my initial aim of writing a few comments about the pub. All was fine, but nothing exceptional, but it’s nice for Sherlock Holmes fans to visit.