Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • London – Redbridge (Borough of) – Holiday Inn Express Newbury Park

    London – Redbridge (Borough of) – Holiday Inn Express Newbury Park

    A short walk from the Central Line underground station of Newbury Park is this relatively new and shiny Holiday Inn Express hotel. On approaching, I thought that the reception was a bit hidden away (I like things to be very clear, I don’t like being expected to use my initiative as I can get muddled up) and there’s no way of accessing it at the moment without using a lift, which doesn’t seem ideal. After waiting for a while for the required lift to take me to reception, whilst quietly tutting at this set-up, the staff member was welcoming and so my initial pre-annoyance at the hotel dissipated soon enough.

    I very much like the clarity here with the welcome drink, and I know my place in the lower levels of the IHG rewards programme. I can look forwards to a free packet of crisps when I move up a level.

    The restaurant and bar area, which wasn’t exactly overly busy, but it’s a comfortable environment. There are numerous other dining options in the local area, which must make it challenging for the hotel to sell much food, but it was all reassuringly clean. Although perhaps a little sterile, but I suppose there’s a limit to what you can do on the first floor of a hotel in Newbury Park during a pandemic.

    The bar didn’t have any products available on draft, but the staff member said that guests could have any bottle of beer as their welcome drink. London Pride is an appropriate beer given, well, the hotel is in London and I was satisfied that an effort had been made to offer a range of beers that went beyond just having Carlsberg. The glass isn’t dirty, it had been chilled in the fridge.

    The view from the front of the hotel when I got to my room on the seventh, and top, floor. I was at this stage quite hopeful that my room would also have a view of something interesting and not just some shed or the like.

    All very standard as a Holiday Inn Express hotel room, but it was clean and comfortable, so all was well in the world (or in my world anyway). There are the usual tea and coffee making facilities, with all the room information material taken out.

    Until seeing the view from the area near the lifts, I hadn’t given much thought to the views from the windows of a hotel in Newbury Park, but it surprised and delighted me with the vista of central London in the background. Nice.

    The breakfast arrangement was a bit fiddly as although everything was laid out as it would be usually, a staff member served it from a little counter. Other Holiday Inn Express hotels don’t seem to be faffing about like this, although the staff member was keen to help. The food was all fine and I liked that the bacon was nicely crispy and that there wasn’t too much fat for me to laboriously cut off. Which was fortunate as guests were given wooden disposable cutlery.

    Of no real relevance at all, but I puzzled for a good few seconds why they decided to put the assembly point map the other way up to the floor plan. I decided not to let it bother me though as I had other concerns, such as what pub would I be popping to next……

    The reviews for the hotel are generally very favourable and I can see why, there was nothing problematic about my stay. I note they did get a negative review on TripAdvisor from someone complaining the hotel wanted £127 for one night for a late booking, compared to them only wanting £55 if he had booked much earlier. A guest who didn’t stay and complained that prices get higher towards the night of the stay, and then TripAdvisor wonder why their site seems to be dipping in credibility…. There’s a justified negative review though from a guest who complained that the hotel refused to deal with a room that was playing music very loudly. Pretty appalling, and I can see why the hotel apologised and offered compensation in their reply…..

    Anyway, I’ve digressed again. All told, I very much liked this hotel. I’m not sure what it cost per night as it was free as a rewards night by using 12,000 points. Given its convenience for the underground, its cleanliness and the general efficiency, I think I could manage coming here again in the future.

  • London – Camden (Borough of) – Regent’s Canal Walk

    London – Camden (Borough of) – Regent’s Canal Walk

    Just photos on this post from my little meander along the Regent’s Canal. This is quite a beautiful nine-mile walk, connecting into locations such as London Zoo, Camden, Little Venice, Regent’s Park and King’s Cross, amongst many other locations. Work on the canal started in 1812, with the first section being completed in 1816. Projects like this, given the tools of the time, are hard not to be impressed by, they were large scale and complex construction efforts.

    The railway rather changed the commercial viability of the canal and there were several plans to build a railway line alongside it, although these didn’t get permission in Parliament. Today, the area is easy to walk along and although some stretches are inevitably busy, there are quieter parts where I didn’t see anyone for quite a way. I didn’t complete the entire route on this visit, but I might go back at some point and write something more substantial about this walk, one of my favourite in London. There’s something nice about being in central London, but feeling that the location is a little more remote and away from it all.

  • London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Canary Wharf – Brewdog (Attempt 2)

    London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Canary Wharf – Brewdog (Attempt 2)

    I tried to visit Brewdog at Canary Wharf at the end of last year and I was partly successful….. This was at a time when customers could go indoors, but there was a problem with the door to get in, so the only seating option was outside. This sufficed for a quick visit, but I wanted to return to see the main event.

    Richard accompanied me as he’s becoming ever more enthused about this whole beer drinking thing, although he’s now got some sort of weird obsession with brightly coloured gins. I try not to encourage that, but fortunately, he was entirely agreeable that this would be a beer night. Well, sort of, we left Brewdog and he then gets the most ridiculous coloured gin in the next pub, but I didn’t say anything.

    I’m not sure that Canary Wharf is ever really that busy on a Sunday night in summer, but it was certainly quiet during our visit. It’s a spacious bar, although not quite as large as I had expected, but we didn’t have any shortage of tables to choose from. I can imagine that when Canary Wharf is in full flow that this must be a very busy location and I can imagine the money that they make is substantial. As for this quiet Sunday evening, I can’t imagine there was much profit being made.

    There were the bright lights, looking only slightly like a brothel, that Brewdog often have in their pubs (I mean that Brewdog often have bright lights like this, not that they have brothels in their pubs).

    And the artworks on the wall, all very Brewdog.

    But, I’m not here to critique the bar’s interior design, it’s not that important to me. The main element here is the beer and there were numerous stouts for me to choose from. I went through a few beers here that included more than just stouts, doing my normal just purchasing them in one thirds, but the star of the show was the Russia Stout from Mikkeller. I ordered this one without much expectation and a staff member came over and said it was a beautiful example of its type, simple, but elegant. And he was right, this was just a well produced stout which didn’t have any gimmicks to it. It had a level of decadence that I didn’t expect it to have, meaning just small sips delivered the coffee and chocolate notes each time. Smooth, elegant and really rather lovely, rare to have such a richness when not an imperial stout (the ABV is just 5.1%).

    The staffing was excellent, knowledgeable, engaging and polite staff members who were keen to converse about the beers. The location was clean, the temperature wasn’t too hot, the beers were excellent, the staff knew what they were talking about and this is the first contender for my fiercely contested pub of the year award (when I say fiercely contested, I mean more, I think it should be fiercely contested). This is a bloody lovely bar. I suspect I’ll be back (although that sounds like a threat).

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

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

    At the moment, I switch hotels to whichever seems to be the cheapest in London for the evening, with that exciting accolade going to Travelodge Fulham yesterday with their room for under £25 for the night. Easily accessible from the nearby Fulham Broadway underground station, it’s a convenient option for those coming from central London.

    It’s not exactly the most decadent choice, but it’s a serviceable hotel option and the staff members at the front desk were helpful and engaging. The public areas seemed clean, if not entirely well maintained, and one of the lifts had a missing button to get to one of the floors and that wasn’t entirely ideal.

    My room and this is the first time I’ve experienced a hotel in the UK that doesn’t have a duvet on the bed, just sheets. There was a reason for this, which was that the room was very hot and the building hasn’t been blessed with air conditioning. The duvet was though there in the room, in that blue bag in the corner, for anyone who wanted it.

    Richard was staying in the same hotel, and he looks for decadence and expense in everything, so he upgraded himself to a Super Room. In the interests of showing the difference, this is his room. I didn’t allow him in it until I had taken photographs of it, although fortunately he didn’t complain at that situation. It does have a nicer feel to it.

    The Super Room costs £5 per night more than the standard rate and for that the guest gets a coffee machine, a Kit Kat, nicer curtains, a nicer framed picture on the wall, a more comfortable (but less practical) chair and, well, that’s it. In some hotels, the guest would enjoy free air conditioning as well, but that wasn’t offered here. Richard did though get a fan that I didn’t get (although they’ve available at reception for us less decadent guests), so I think he felt his £5 was well spent. Incidentally, and I won’t go on about it, but Richard broke the coffee machine, but fortunately, I was there to ensure that the machine worked again. Sometimes you just need someone practical…..

    Although the hotel was quite hot, it is the case that London is quite hot at the moment, so that could perhaps be forgiven. Given the prices currently being charged, I thought that the value was really rather good, especially as there were no noise disturbances either externally or internally. The kettle in my room needed replacing, but I didn’t let that bother me, as I was busy collecting my free decadent coffee machine drinks from Richard’s room.

    The hotel is reasonably well reviewed, although on that review front, I did have a little browse through what guests had put on TripAdvisor. One reviewer had the title “teriminlly ill guest thrown out of hotel for having one ciggerate in room by manager” [sic] which is as it sounds, the guest decided to smoke in his room and was furious that the hotel was annoyed at this situation. The hotel unsurprisingly remained furious and stood by their decision.

    A few guests also noted that there was lovely air conditioning in reception and by the lifts, so they suggested moving bedding and sleeping there. To be fair, the reception area was kept beautifully cool, so that wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world, although I’d be interested to see what the staff thought about it if anyone tried. Another guest, also annoyed at the lack of air conditioning, posted a review titled “the oven of hell”, which summed up his experiences. He suggested, and this is a good strategy:

    “We had a fan on in the room, the curtains closed, window open, but the only way to sleep was to soak the towels in cold water and drape them over us whilst we slept!”

    He’s probably right though that it might have been better to put some form of air conditioning in rather than spend years fielding complaints from guests. The review about someone who left their phone charger is well worth a read, I can see why the staff soon got fed up with hearing about this phone charger.

    Anyway, I thought it was all clean and organised, so I’d happily stay here again, although only at a lower point. I note some guests paid over £100 for their rooms, and I can imagine why they were annoyed at the temperature issues.

  • London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Canary Wharf Amazon Fresh

    London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Canary Wharf Amazon Fresh

    I don’t usually shop on-line using Amazon, but I heard a few weeks ago that they had opened their first Amazon Fresh convenience store outlet in Ealing. They’ve opened a couple more now in London, with this one being in Canary Wharf. There are still only a handful of cities in the world that Amazon have opened in and it’s fair to say that the technology in action here is, well, breathtaking.

    The instructions to get in the store were prominently displayed outside. I was with Richard, who is pretty competent at technology, and we used his Amazon account since he actually has one he knows the password to. Customers need to have the Amazon App on their phone to scan their way into the store, but there’s no other registration process needed.

    A helpful staff member came out to check if we needed assistance, and he confirmed that the main cardholder can guest others in. There’s a lot of novelty about this whole process, so I suspect that the staff member is doing a lot of explaining. There is a slight catch though, if I picked anything up, it would be free of charge for me and would be charged to Richard’s Amazon account. I didn’t take advantage of this situation on this occasion, although I might in future. It’ll make family shopping interesting though, as if the child picks something up and hides it about their person, then the shopper who took them in will be charged.

    This whole shop works by cameras, sensors and technology that I don’t really understand. It knows when you pick things up from the shelf and when you put them back. You walk around the shop, put your purchases in a bag, your pocket or anywhere else, and just leave. The technology knows what you’ve had and unless you’ve got alcohol which needs a ID check, there is no human intervention in the process.

    This is undeniably all very clever, and regardless of whether this is good or bad for humanity, I was impressed at the smoothness of the entire operation. Amazon are working in partnership with Morrison’s, so this technology would allow every checkout staff member to be replaced, just having security guards to monitor the entrance to a store. How the technology would work in a larger and busier store, I don’t know, but I assume Amazon will find a way to solve any problems which are encountered.

    The store was laid out like any other convenience store would be, all neat and tidy. The prices were either the same as in Morrison’s, and there’s lots of their stock in the store, but they were mostly more expensive. This isn’t the cheapest shop to purchase items in, but it’s also not hugely more expensive so it’s still a viable choice for customers. For convenience, it’s perhaps unbeatable though.

    Richard purchased two items and on the first product he waved it about in the air a bit, to ensure the cameras and sensors had picked it up. For the second product, he just shoved it straight in a bag. And it was as simple as that, we then walked out into the darkness of the Canary Wharf maze of buildings.

    For the next hour, Richard was convinced that he’d shop-lifted as there was no receipt sent. However, an hour or so later he looked in his Amazon account and the two purchases were there, he’d been charged correctly. He seemed relieved that he wasn’t a shop-lifter, but we were mostly just both in awe at this technology. It has implications for staff numbers, but as a purely technological achievement, this is one of the most impressive things that I’ve seen. I’d be amazed if this doesn’t become the norm for convenience shops (and indeed entire supermarkets) in the future, it’s the end of shop-lifting and the end of queues.

  • London – Southwark (Borough of) – Brew by Numbers Taproom

    London – Southwark (Borough of) – Brew by Numbers Taproom

    After a busy morning in central London, I thought that I’d return to the Bermondsey Beer Mile for a little reward at lunchtime. In the background of the photo above is the Shard, although it perhaps doesn’t show how bloody hot the weather was today. These units under the railway arches aren’t the largest, but there were several bench style seats inside, and a few external tables carefully partitioned off from the road.

    Incidentally, this is what these units looked like just a few years ago. The area has been transformed, although I’m not sure what the owners of the residential properties opposite think. Personally, I’d be pleased, although I suspect that some might not be quite as excited at the change.

    The table I was offered was outside, although I’d have been happy in a cold corner inside (I may have mentioned that I’m not one for hot weather), but I was at least more at the centre of the action where I was seated. It got busier quickly so that soon all of the outside tables were taken. The service was attentive and friendly, but I’d be disappointed if any craft beer business around here wasn’t. My server apologised in advance (a good tactic, I pre-warn people I might make mistakes in advance) that he was new that day, although I know there are some hospitality staff who say that even when it’s not actually their first day. Either way, he was a perfectly good server, so all was well.

    The beer list and the completist in me loves this whole numbering process and their web-site explains this:

    “Though experimentation, they progressed quickly by splitting batches and performing different tests on them. The winner of these batches would be brewed again, and the process repeated to find original flavour combinations. The numbering system attributed to these early gave rise to their name – Brew By Numbers. In April 2012, they took their ‘Hoppy Saison’ to the staff at Craft Beer Co. Clerkenwell for their critique. This beer would later become 01|01 and would be critical in shaping BBNo’s place in the market – an unusual style no other UK breweries where offering regularly at that time.”

    As an aside, Craft Beer Co in Clerkenwell is bloody good.

    On the right is 19|Gose – Mango, Guava and Passion Fruit and that colour is quite beautiful, it reminded me of a mango lassi that I’ve had in India. A rich mouthfeel, pleasant tropical taste although the aftertaste wasn’t quite as rich as I had expected, but this is still a rather beautiful beer. There’s meant to be notes of sea salt in it for balance, although I couldn’t detect them. On the left is the 10|Coffee Porter – Sumava which was beautifully rich with a depth of flavour and a heavy aftertaste of coffee. I liked this a lot, and although it was 9.5%, that wasn’t noticeable as the drink was quite smooth.

    All in all, this is another taproom style set-up that I like, from a brewery that I’ve had a few beers from this year already. I suspect they will become more prominent and they offer some experimental and innovative beers. I think I might come here again in the future to see what they’re brewing….

  • London – Southwark (Borough of) – Anspach & Hobday

    London – Southwark (Borough of) – Anspach & Hobday

    Someone mentioned the Bermondsey Beer Mile to me last year, but most of the premises along it were shut last year when I visited, so the options were limited. Things have improved somewhat since then and there’s a good choice of venues open, although the downside is that they’re often small and Covid-19 has restricted the number of customers who can visit.

    This is the rather lovely taproom of Anspach & Hobday and they have a couple of other venues in London, including a new taproom in Croydon. The staff member at the door was friendly and helpful, telling me that they had a table for six available that wasn’t needed for nearly an hour until the next reservation, and I could have that. This pleased me. This isn’t a large location though, it has just a handful of tables inside and a small number outside, so I was rather fortunate.

    The beer fridges and the bar area, although table service was offered. It’s card only here, which I like, I agree with them that it’s the way forwards. The brewery produce quite a range of beer styles, and although it wasn’t available when I visited, I’d like to try their Sea Salt & Chilli Stout at some point.

    The beer list, including some of their own beers and some guests. Nicely balanced selection, including numerous different beer styles.

    The beers I went for, which are the Pacific Ale from Stone & Wood on the left and the porter from Anspach & Hobday themselves on the right. The former was refreshing, but not overly exciting in terms of the flavours. The porter was rich with its chocolate and coffee flavours, and it tasted fresh and was at the appropriate just slightly chilled temperature. Nice.

    The environment was clean and comfortable, I liked this taproom. Friendly staff, relaxed vibe and all really rather lovely.

  • London – Merton (Borough of) – Site of Wimbledon’s Plough Lane Stadium

    London – Merton (Borough of) – Site of Wimbledon’s Plough Lane Stadium

    Clicking on the above dual map makes it a more viewable size and it shows where Wimbledon’s football ground stood until relatively recently. It’s where the cursor is on the map and not the Plough Lane Stadium, which is where the club is now. The football team became quite notorious in the 1980s when they played at the original Plough Lane site, but the ground proved difficult to upgrade to meet new safety requirements of the time.

    This is what the football stadium looks like now. The old stadium, which was used by the football for first team matches between September 1912 and May 1991, was finally demolished in 2002. Safeway had wanted to build a supermarket on it, but the council faffed about a bit, so the project got delayed and then cancelled. A new more recent project has seen a large housing development built on the site of the former stadium.

    To mark the site of the former ground, this sculpture was placed on the corner of Plough Lane and Durnsford Road in 2010.

    The club’s crest is visible on the back of the sculpture, which was designed by Sam Burford. I’m not sure that I really understand what the whole sculpture is all about, but it’s useful that the site of the former stadium is marked.

  • London – Wandsworth (Borough of) – By The Horns Brewery Tap

    London – Wandsworth (Borough of) – By The Horns Brewery Tap

    I’m slowly, but very surely, working my way around London’s breweries and this one in between Tooting and Wimbledon is also listed in the Good Beer Guide (which I’m also working my way around). So, yesterday I made a booking on-line for today, and then was on course to arrive half an hour early so went to sit in a nearby graveyard to wait. Incidentally, I liked that it let me make a booking for one person, I inwardly tut when I see somewhere only allows bookings for two or more people.

    There was a friendly welcome from the staff member, who explained the ordering process which was done on-line using a QR code. It clearly wasn’t entirely packed with customers as the staff member knew my name when I said I had a reservation, but I’m always happy that I’m in the right place. The ordering system was all efficient and easy to use, and the environment was comfortable. It’s not the largest indoors space, but there are several tables and the outdoor area gives them more flexibility on numbers.

    I was given the chance to move my reservation outside into the hot external seating area, like everyone else seemed to be doing during my visit, but I was quite content inside in the cold. I’ve had enough of London’s heatwave…. I’d actually had enough of the heatwave yesterday about ten minutes after it started, but I digress…. The cricket was also showing on the television and the staff member mentioned I could turn the volume up if I wanted. I didn’t, but I liked the engagement and I also liked the ready supply of power points dotted around.

    There’s an in-house pizza oven and the taproom surroundings are industrial and what I consider to be on-trend and exciting.

    The reasonably priced pizza menu is visible in the above photo (click the image to enlarge it).

    The brewery’s web-site seemed to focus on IPAs, but I noticed they had two darker options available and so I went for half a pint of each. The Lambeth Walk is a porter made by the brewery and it had a pleasant taste with an aftertaste of chocolate and coffee, although it wasn’t quite as rich a flavour as I had expected. A nice beer though and it tasted well-kept (it should since they made it here so it’s hardly gone far) and was at the appropriate temperature. I don’t like porters that are served at some point near freezing, although I might have forgiven that today given the heat. Anyway, it was all perfectly served.

    I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the Deep Funk which is also made here, it’s what they call a farmhouse stout (is that a thing?) and it’s a rye kettle soured stout mixed with a graf, which is effectively a beer cider (I had to Google that). I wasn’t sure whether I was ordering an artisan craft product or an expensive snakebite, but either way, I liked it. A complex taste, or as much as beer and cider mixed together can be, and there were some interesting flavours going on. The mixture of sourness and sharpness worked for me, although I’m struggling to put that effectively into words. It’s not hugely well rated in reviews, but it’s something different and I like trying new concepts.

    Anyway, I liked this brewery and the taproom set-up, it was a relaxed environment and the staff were friendly and everything was organised. There’s usually a wider beer range I understand, but I was entirely satisfied with what they had. I’ve mentioned already that the whole look is quite on-trend, but I don’t think they’ve tried to create that deliberately, it’s just a by-product of friends interested in making craft beer. All really rather lovely.

  • Southrepps – St. James’s Church

    Southrepps – St. James’s Church

    Southrepps is a small village in the north of Norfolk, which we visited when marshalling the LDWA 100 and we’ve also used it as a checkpoint during events. However, although the church remains today a large structure, it was once a much more substantial building with side aisles and there was clearly some wealth here in the past.

    The Grade I listed church dates from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, although it was constructed on the same site as an earlier building. The four-stage tower, which is grand and rather beautiful, dates from the middle of the fifteenth century. There are scallop shells in the stone, as the church is dedicated to St. James of Compostella.

    The font, which is from the fourteenth century (and has recently been restored), and the base of the tower. There are six bells in the tower, with one dating to fifteenth century, four of them dating to 1641 and the other one is more recent, from 1988.

    The side aisles were removed in 1791 although the arcading is still visible on the side of the nave. I assume that the structural situation and lack of finances at the time meant that the removal of the aisles was inevitable, but I wonder if the congregation of the time were somewhat saddened at the situation. There wouldn’t have been much of a congregation by the end of the eighteenth century and funding a church of that size would have been of some considerable burden to the locals. The impressive roof is a more recent addition, having been reconstructed at the beginning of the twentieth century.

    The medieval screen with its oak panels, which I assume were painted over following the Reformation as there isn’t much imagery remaining.

    The church’s grand chancel, much restored in the nineteenth century.

    It’s fair to say that the window arrangement in the chancel allows a considerable amount of light into the church.

    What I assume is a piscina in the wall of the chancel, perhaps original to here or perhaps from the end of one of the removed aisles.

    There isn’t much left from the medieval chancel, as nineteenth century modernisations swept most of that away, but these sections remain.

    Unfortunately, it seems that the stone here is still crumbling (but on the bright side, the church was granted some restoration funds a few weeks ago), but I like the touches of medieval history that remain here.

    This is a rather beautiful church and an effort is made to keep it open which is really lovely. The tall tower, one of the highest in the county, is a reminder of the wealth which once existed in Southrepps, despite the impact that the Black Death had in the area.