Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • London – Soho (Brewdog)

    London – Soho (Brewdog)

    Part of my slow and steady attempt to work my way through the lists of Brewdog outlets, the Soho location is on two floors and is relatively spacious. The staff seemed to spend quite a bit of time worrying how they were going to fit their reservations inside the pub if it rained, not that they needed to worry, it didn’t rain and it’s still too hot in London. But, I digress and I can’t keep going on about how hot it is in the capital. Although it is very hot.

    I was seated alone at a table for eight, which seemed a grand use of space for me, but they weren’t getting particularly busy until later on.

    The interior of the pub, with the traditional Brewdog beer fridge.

    The menu board for those wanting to order at the bar. But, there were also drinks lists at the table and customers could order via the app as well. The coronavirus standards seemed to be high and the staff were asking customers to leave their details under track and trace, which a good number of pubs aren’t bothering with.

    I went for Wings Wednesday as this was half-price due to the Government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme. The first portion is served as a large-size and then they top up the wings on request. I was marginally irritated that I tried to hide the blue cheese sauce, as that isn’t replaced, but a staff member swept it up when clearing the first plate away and no replacement brought. I did think about querying this, but I didn’t want to cause a scene over some blue cheese sauce. Even I’d struggle to complain about something that minor. Although I thought about it.

    The additional portion sizes were more moderate, even for Brewdog, and the service was reactive and never pro-active. I didn’t want another drink, but they didn’t ask about that, nor did they ever ask if I wanted more wings. I suspect they were suffering from having too many staff on, which can sometimes lead to poorer service.

    This was the Dr Todd from the Wild Beer Company, which comes in at the best part of £14 for a pint. I’m not made of money and so I limited myself to a third, which was probably the perfect size drink as the taste is strong and this is better sipped than downed. It’s a sour, which was pleasingly not too, well, sour, but it did have powerful flavours of ginger and lemon, along with a more subtle hint of honey. The drink has been aged in whisky barrels, which was also evident from the taste and I remain convinced this is the best way to experience whisky. So, have a drink from a whisky barrel that isn’t whisky. Win-win.

    The walk down to the toilets and also to the downstairs bar area.

    The Government’s subsidy made this very reasonably priced and everything seemed well managed and under control. The service was always polite, but it could have been far more pro-active. I have to say though, the Brewdog choice of drinks was outstanding, perhaps not the cheapest, but there were numerous innovative options. The atmosphere was laid-back and friendly as well, it was a comfortable environment.

  • Mulbarton – Spong Lane

    Mulbarton – Spong Lane

    We walked along this lane on the 18-mile walk I led around Mulbarton last week and it was a word I liked, but didn’t understand the origin of. Anyway, after checking I have discovered that a ‘spong’ is a long and narrow piece of land, or an irregularly shaped piece of land. You learn something every day….. Well, most days.

  • London – Tavistock Place (Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Plaque)

    London – Tavistock Place (Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Plaque)

    This is 36 Tavistock Place in London and what might look like any other town-house, but it has a special little claim to fame. It’s where Lenin stayed in May 1908 on one of his visits to the city, conveniently located near to the British Museum’s Reading Room which he frequently visited during his stay. Under 10 years later he was the Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Russian SFSR, with the Tsars deposed.

    The plaque was put up by the Marchmont Association in November 2012 and they reported that not everyone was happy as they got a complaint from a local resident saying:

    “Appalling! He was responsible for a movement that caused far more deaths than Hitler, from which the Russians are only just recovering. I intend to email the Chair dissociating myself from the Marchmont Association.”

  • Bacton – St. Andrew’s Church (Snake Warning Sign)

    Bacton – St. Andrew’s Church (Snake Warning Sign)

    Richard spotted this as we left St. Andrew’s Church in Bacton and all I can say is that I might not have meandered quite as much around the churchyard if I had seen the sign on the way in…..

  • London – Amen Corner

    London – Amen Corner

    The beautifully named Amen Corner is located near to St. Paul’s Cathedral, in the bottom-right of the above map from the end of the nineteenth century.

    Although the buildings along Amen Corner are modern (and rather unimpressive), the street-line is original and is unchanged. The street takes its name from when monks used to walk along Paternoster Row chanting the Lord’s Prayer and they would reach the “Amen” section just as they walked down this street, before entering St. Paul’s Cathedral. That’s the story on Wikipedia and the one that’s repeated the most often on-line.

    However, a different reason was given in the nineteenth century, which was that this was where monks would find a corner to repeat their prayers privately, in the hope that they would be fortunate for a whole year. There’s probably more to this story than the perceived origin quoted today, but, I have no idea…..

     

  • Bacton – Name Origin

    Bacton – Name Origin

    After visiting the church in Bacton, I felt the need to check where the village’s name comes from. I’m like that…. Anyway, The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of English Placenames notes:

    Bacton, Norfolk. Baketuna in Domesday Book, Baketun in 1150 and Baketon in 1185. From Bacca’s Tun.

    The name in the Domesday Book is a little unfortunate as it sounds like a dish from Ready Steady Cook, but not much has changed in its pronunciation over the last millennium. The ‘tun’ is a settlement, usually one which has a farming element, but I don’t know who Bacca was, probably just an Anglo-Saxon farm owner.

  • London – Central London (Cordwainer Statue)

    London – Central London (Cordwainer Statue)

    This statue is located on Watling Street in the ward known as Cordwainer, named after the shoemakers who worked in this area. There’s a difference between a cordwainer and a cobbler, as the former makes shoes and the latter fixes shoes. The word is from the French ‘cordewaner’, meaning shoemaker, which is derived from the Spanish town of Córdoba in Andalusia whether the leather used in shoemaking was often from.

    The statue was commissioned in 2002 by the Ward of Cordwainer Club to mark their centenary. Initially, the statue was placed in the churchyard of St Mary le Bow, but was moved to its current location a couple of years later. The statue is located near to the site of the Livery Hall of the Cordwainers’ Company, where there were six successive halls from 1440 until 1941. When the hall was destroyed in the London Blitz, a decision was made by the company that they wouldn’t construct another. The Worshipful Company of Cordwainers still exists, but they’re primarily a charitable organisation, with some members being descendants of shoe-makers and some working in the industry today. One of their charitable efforts in recent years was a bike ride from Córdoba, where their name began, to London.

  • Bacton – Bromholm Priory (Gateway)

    Bacton – Bromholm Priory (Gateway)

    The gatehouse of Bromholm Priory remains standing, unlike much of the rest of the monastery. More on other sections of the monastery in other posts, but this was a prestigious priory which was shut down during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The above photo is from within the priory grounds looking outwards.


    The above photo is taken from around the same place, and there’s not much change other than some bricks added, a little unsympathetically, to the right-hand side of the arch.


    This is another photo taken from the same location, but is likely from a couple of decades before the 1955 date quoted by Francis Frith. This looks more like the photo taken in 1937 by George Plunkett.

    A photo of the gatehouse from the outside.

    This photo is also from the outside, showing that the gatehouse was formerly quite a substantial structure with two floors and two bays. Anyone coming to the priory for the first time would have likely got a positive first impression. This is a Cluniac priory and it reminds me of the gatehouses at Castle Acle and Thetford, also both Cluniac.

    One of the rooms inside the gatehouse.

  • Bacton – St. Andrew’s Church

    Bacton – St. Andrew’s Church

    Overlooking the sea and Bacton Gas Terminal, this church was originally constructed in the fourteenth century, although was remodelled in the fifteenth century.

    The church was heavily restored and faffed about with in 1847 and it was partly reroofed in 1895. What was discovered during the Victorian restoration were numerous wall paintings, some half an inch thick, which displayed stories relating to St. Christopher. Some of these wall paintings, thought to be from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth centuries, are still visible inside the church. And, as a reminder that crime has always been a problem for churches, in the 1840s someone pinched lead from the roof.

    The sign said that the church was open. The church was shut.

    The four-stage tower is from the mid to late fourteenth-century.

    I understand that sometimes creativity is needed with historic buildings when elements such as air conditioning, heating or ventilation are added. But this is bloody ridiculous.

    I’m not sure that we were entirely aware when we were at the church how dark it had become.

    Below is a photo of the church in 1955, those neat bush things leading to the porch have now gone.


  • Matlock – St. Giles’s Church (Wooden Grave Markers)

    Matlock – St. Giles’s Church (Wooden Grave Markers)

    I don’t have any background information to these graves, but I thought that they were interesting as wooden markers would have once been commonplace in churches. They seem to be bearing up well at the moment, but I still suspect many churchyards would have once been full of these, part of the reason there are in some places an absence of gravestones from before 1800.