Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • London – Merton (Borough of) – Wimbledon – Two Fat Ladies

    London – Merton (Borough of) – Wimbledon – Two Fat Ladies

    This eight foot high sculpture is known as the ‘the two fat ladies’ locally and was designed by Andre Wallace. There was a near riot amongst the local denizens when it was removed in early 2012 from its previous location outside of the railway station, but, fortunately, it was just being moved whilst work was undertaken on the forecourt. The sculpture is officially known as “Walking Women”, so I’m not sure what the sculptor thinks about all of this. Hopefully he likes that the public have connected with it….

  • London – Central London (Photos of St. Paul’s)

    London – Central London (Photos of St. Paul’s)

    Just photos, I quite liked the colour of the sky because of the heavy rain which was just passing by.

  • London – Merton (Borough of) – Wimbledon – Wibbas Down Inn

    London – Merton (Borough of) – Wimbledon – Wibbas Down Inn

    After a half-hearted attempt at the Wimbledon Heritage Walk I had a little look at what Good Beer Guide pubs there were in the area. There were none in the centre of Wimbledon, which was moderately disappointing. There was though a JD Wetherspoon, so that had to do. It’s name comes from an old spelling of Wimbledon and it’s located in a former Tesco, which is much better than a pub turned into a supermarket.

    It’s a large pub, with an entrance from both sides of the building.

    I splashed out 85p on half a pint of Shepherd Neame Bishops Finger, so no expense was spared here. A staff member came over with this pint and apologised that they had over-poured it and did I want it as a pint for no extra money? I did. Anyway, the beer was fine, at the appropriate temperature and with some fruit flavours to it.

    The pub handily has lots of plug sockets, so I got my 85p worth (even though to be fair I had already received that with a pint) by charging my devices up. I’m not entirely sure that I contributed much to Wetherspoon’s profits here, but there we go…. The reviews on TripAdvisor aren’t great, but I’m amused with reviews which start like this:

    “Known for its cheap, end of line, short shelf life beers”

    It isn’t and the rest of the review continued in this vein, ending that they left “in some fear for my well being”. Hmmm.

    This sounds more exciting though:

    “Our table was dirty so I tried to get someone to clean it, there were loads of staff that I could see but they were chatting in a corner behind the bar and a few at a table on their break. One member of staff walking around went over to the group at the table to talk to them, put one knee on a stool and proceeded to stroke her own bottom repeatedly for the next few moments whilst we are still waiting to get someone to clean our table! I eventually managed to get another person to clean it, whilst everyone else is still chatting and fondling themselves!”

    The pub didn’t reply to that one unfortunately. Although it was more entertaining than the customer who posted as their entire review on Google “went for the free water”.

    Anyway, it was all clean and organised, the staff seemed sufficiently friendly and I got a pint for 85p.

  • London – Camden (Borough of) – Holborn – The Holborn Whippet

    London – Camden (Borough of) – Holborn – The Holborn Whippet

    This pub in Holborn has an interesting name and, more importantly, is listed in the Good Beer Guide. As an aside, the 2021 edition is out next week, so I might be visiting locations that have already been removed from it. Such is the jeopardy I live with…. Or something like that, but anyway, I digress.

    There’s a focus on small craft breweries, with the prices being reasonable given the central London location. I opted for the Railway Porter from The Five Points Brewing Company, a small brewery from Hackney. It was a solid porter with a richness to it and plenty of chocolate flavour, although the aftertaste was a bit limited. Still a decent option though.

    The pub wasn’t particularly busy and drinks were brought to the table with customers asked to scan a QR code to order. Service was polite, but perhaps routine, and it felt a comfortable location to be in. This was previously one of the small chain known as Father’s Study, a slightly bizarre concept which didn’t last long. Before then the location was used as a cafe called Yum Nation.

  • London – Havering (Borough of) – Upminster – Upminster Park

    London – Havering (Borough of) – Upminster – Upminster Park

    I’m not usually too engaged with parks, but this one has an interesting backstory which is explained on this information board. In short, this was formerly land belonging to St. Laurence’s Church and the monies from this supported the parish. As the town of Hornchurch was increasing in population size exponentially from the 1920s, the authorities thought that it was probably best to get some space sorted out for a park.

    The information board suggests that there was a little argument between the Church Commissioners and the town when the sale was talked about in 1927. However, in 1929, the sale was completed and Hornchurch had a lovely new park. It was kept open during the Second World War and some air-raid shelters were constructed, although these were taken down in 1948 to build an ornamental garden.

    And the park today, it was being used by numerous sports teams, dog walkers and individuals when I meandered around it.

    This is what the area looked like in around 1920 when it was still glebe lands, it’s the square area which conveniently (for the purposes of this post) has the word Upminster in it.

  • London – Havering (Borough of) – Hornchurch – Old Buildings on High Street

    London – Havering (Borough of) – Hornchurch – Old Buildings on High Street

    This post isn’t of the greatest excitement I’ll admit, but this is the main street of Hornchurch and some of the historic buildings which have remained. The main building in the centre-right of the photo is 197-201 High Street and this dates from the seventeenth century. The smaller building in the centre-left of the photo is 195 High Street, a former residential property which was also built in the seventeenth century. The building in the left of the photo is now Prezzo, but was formerly the King’s Head Inn, again dating from the seventeenth century. It was only converted into a restaurant in the last few years, with this row of buildings being some of the oldest in Hornchurch. I’m moderately survived that this range of buildings has survived given the urban development that has taken place around here over the last century.

    This map is just over 100 years old and even then Hornchurch still resembled a village. The whole of this area is now built on, with the population being under 11,000 in 1920 and over 130,000 in 1960.

  • London – Camden (Borough of) – King’s Cross Railway Station – Nigel Gresley Statue

    London – Camden (Borough of) – King’s Cross Railway Station – Nigel Gresley Statue

    The rather beautiful extension to King’s Cross railway station, which opened in 2012 as part of a refurbishment of the building.

    The statue of Nigel Gresley, which was unveiled here on 5 April 2016, to mark the 75th anniversary of his death. There was quite an argument, which led to resignations from the Trust behind the statue, when grandsons of Gresley wanted the duck figure removed from the statue as they thought it was demeaning. Perhaps there are better things to worry about, but the end result was to remove the duck. I think I’d have left it as it might have encouraged more children to meander over to see what it was and they might then want to know what Gresley did.

    And there’s information about the engineering career which Gresley had, namely the Mallard and the Flying Scotsman.

    NB, as an aside, my friend Nathan grumbled that I didn’t link this post to the Nigel Gresley pub we visited in Swadlincote a few weeks ago. He was right to be fair, it is an omission of mine…

  • London – Camden (Borough of) – St Pancras Railway Station – Barrel Vault Pub

    London – Camden (Borough of) – St Pancras Railway Station – Barrel Vault Pub

    This is a relatively new JD Wetherspoon outlet at London St. Pancras railway station, located right near the back of the building. The pub is named after the station’s design, which is slightly elevated so that the huge undercroft could be used to store barrels of beer, mainly Burton Beer. In a running theme of things that British Rail wanted to demolish, this entire railway station was for a time at risk, but fortunately it has been saved.

    JD Wetherspoon had created a national pricing policy (excluding airports) for their extended eat out to help out campaign, meaning that London prices are now particularly cheap. This San Pellegrino cost 99p.

    And I’m still on my run of traditional breakfasts, with this being £2.99 instead of the usual price of £4.99. It was served promptly, although the staff member rushed off before I could get any sauces (which are now brought to the table) but it was otherwise all fine. Everything was hot that was meant to be and I liked that the toast was slightly burnt.

    Unsurprisingly, the pub wasn’t very busy given how few people are travelling at the moment. I quite like the review on TripAdvisor of when a customer was most upset when she wasn’t allowed to eat a croissant brought in from another station outlet, but otherwise there’s not much of excitement on there.

    The decor is a bit bland, although perhaps there’s not a great deal that JD Wetherspoon could do with the space. The staff were friendly and everything was clean, with it being hard to complain with a breakfast and drink for under £4. I didn’t order alcohol, but they had 11 different real ales on, but the range of beer styles was poorly managed so there was a lot of duplication and no dark beers.

  • London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Hackney Wick – Crate Brewery

    London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Hackney Wick – Crate Brewery

    This probably isn’t the best view of Crate’s exterior, but it’s the only one I took, so that’s that decided. This is a craft beer bar and they also sell pizza, located next door to Howling Hops.

    The interior wasn’t particularly busy, although there were a few people sitting outside overlooking the canal.

    The beer is their own, with the stout being pleasant and slightly sweeter than I had expected. Crate also produce some other stouts such as imperial coffee stout, toffee milk stout, imperial pecan stout, chocolate orange stout, bourbon barrel aged stout and sticky toffee stout to name just a few, although unfortunately none of these were available. They did have a few beers of varying different styles, so it felt like a well-balanced selection.

    Apparently this bar can get very busy at weekends and I can understand why, it feels like a place which would make for a good Saturday afternoon out….

    All told, I liked this bar, with the staff being friendly and helpful. It’s in an old factory setting which gives it some atmosphere, although the toilets probably need to be cleaner given the times in which we’re currently living. The reviews are mostly positive, although there are some ridiculous negative ones that the bar has responded to politely and with some considerable patience.

    The bar also does tours of their on-site brewery with tastings, and a food option, so when things return to some form of normality, that might make a rather lovely day out. Anyway, I’m sure I’ll come back here again, I liked the atmosphere.

  • London – Hackney (Borough of) – Hackney Wick – Beer Merchants Tap

    London – Hackney (Borough of) – Hackney Wick – Beer Merchants Tap

    This is another recommendation from Nathan and he’s on a roll with these now…. This craft beer bar in Hackney Wick looked exciting from its selection on Untappd and it has a sizeable can and bottle selection. It’s a reminder of what can be done with a couple of fridges and some beer knowledge.

    The welcome was friendly, the pub was clean and the reviews are all positive. The pub is using Untappd as its menu system, which made things much easier, with food also being available in the form of toasties and cold platters. There’s an on-trend feel to nearly everything going on here.

    But, the most exciting thing about the visit for me was that they had Mexican Cake from Westbrook Brewing Co in the United States. This is a delightful stout with an array of flavours which almost fight for attention in the aftertaste, and, yes, this is a ridiculous statement, but I’m going with it. The taste of habanero peppers is there, along with chocolate, coffee, vanilla, cinnamon, biscuit and I think that’s it. Decadent and delightful, I can see why this is one of the best rated stouts in the world. I only had a third of it, namely because that’s all I could afford, but that was sufficient as it was rich and smooth. Or, in short, this was bloody lovely.

    I don’t feel I’ve written enough about this beer yet. To have tastes which are subtle make a beer more delightful, but it’s easy for one to over-power the other. I now feel I need to go to South Carolina to visit their tap room, I get the impression that I’d very much enjoy that.

    So, all told, this was an excellent bar and this is one of the best beers that I’ve had. Right, I’ll shut up now.