Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • Greenwich – The Gate Clock

    Greenwich – The Gate Clock

    I think this is one of the few Wetherspoons in London that I haven’t previously visited, or at least I can’t remember visiting it. It’s located opposite the Cutty Sark DLR station and is a relatively sizeable pub, with seating on two floors.

    I can’t be doing with change at my time of life, which is 43 years old, so I had my usual chicken wrap and chips. And, it was perfectly acceptable and good value for money, so all was well with the world.

    Not the most inspirational of photos I admit, but I’m pleased to see that this is one of many Wetherspoons where they’ve made a real effort to provide plug sockets for customers to use.

    The pub themselves give some information about their name:

    “This Wetherspoon pub takes its name from the ‘galvano -magnetic’ clock fixed to the gate of the Greenwich Observatory in 1851. One of the first electric public clocks, it shows Greenwich Mean Time, still used as a measure for longitudes and global time zones.”

    Service in the pub was fine, friendly and attentive with the environment being clean throughout. Well, other than the male toilets, I do wonder whether a staff member perhaps skipped a toilet check given the state of them. But, I don’t let such things concern me. This is one of the few Wetherspoons that I’ve visited where the disabled toilets are on the first floor, although there is a lift to get to them, which it seems from reviews was out of action for several weeks earlier in the year.

    Anyway, onto TripAdvisor to amuse myself.

    “We visited this pub on a cold day. We had two young children with us who are fussy eaters and wanted McDonalds. Their mother bought them their lunch and the rest of us went into the Gate Clock to eat. We found a large table and the two children and their mother sat at the table while we went to order our food. We had ordered our food and drinks and paid for them when the mother came over and told us that she had been told to leave as she could not consume other companys food in their restaurant. We have always used Wetherspoons when we have been out as we find them child friendly and have had no comment on the children eating their own type of food before.”

    Some customers never cease to amaze me. They bought their children McDonald’s and then sat in Wetherspoons with it, being surprised when the manager told them not to. And then they give the pub a 1/5 rating on TripAdvisor, as seemingly they’re meant to be a food court in the eyes of some customers….

    “So we are sitting having dinner and my friend is asked to leave because he is wearing his hat after 8pm. He is Finnish and elderly and they proceeded to intimidate him saying they can’t speak to me because their issue wasn’t with me. I’m 32 and speak English well so they decided to pick on him. It was because he never understood them the first time they asked. RACISTS RACISTS RACISTS!”

    Not that it’s anything to do with me, but they always say that gentlemen should take off their hat when entering a pub. I always do, although that’s primarily due to me never wearing a hat in the first place. I don’t rule out that bar staff might have had some race hatred against the Finnish, but I’m not sure they’re the usual group who are targeted in south London….

    “You pay upfront so they have your money and can serve you any old crap”

    I quite liked this reviewer’s turn of phrase.

    Anyway, I liked it here and that’s what mostly matters to me…..

  • London – Tower of London (Salt Tower and Hew Draper Graffiti)

    London – Tower of London (Salt Tower and Hew Draper Graffiti)

    There is quite a lot of graffiti on the walls of the Salt Tower, much of which was created by those who were imprisoned here, although a little unfortunately seems to be rather more recent.

    This is one of the most impressive pieces of graffiti I’ve seen though, credited to the brewer Hew Draper of Bristol, who conveniently dated it to 30 May 1561. By this time Draper had already been imprisoned in the tower for fourteen months, for the alleged crime of sorcery. The information panel notes:

    “The sphere is surrounded by the signs of the zodiac. The grid on the left shows the planetary influence over every hour of every day of the week”.

    A photo of the same graffiti, taken in 1898 by Sir Benjamin Stone, when the tower was used by Yeoman Warders for their accommodation. The fate of Draper isn’t known, with the Tower’s records not giving any information on whether he died or was freed. Missing records are hardly rare, but this hasn’t stopped some people suggesting that Draper managed to spirit himself away to avoid punishment. This graffiti was mentioned in the media as early as 1810, so it appears to have puzzled and intrigued many generations.

  • London – Brewdog Tower Hill

    London – Brewdog Tower Hill

    I’m slowly working my way around Brewdog locations in the UK, although I have some way still to go. I’m a martyr to my completist urges…..

    This is the Tower Hill location, just a short walk away from the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. It’s a large venue, but unfortunately a combination of an early evening visit just before Christmas meant that it was also not inconsiderably busy.

    I opted for half a Jet Black Heart and the staff member had real problems pouring it, some considerable fobbing meant he spent some time trying to get it to settle. He seemed to know what he was doing, but I’ve never seen a bar have sprays of water to clean down the side of glasses from where the beer was overflowing. I don’t know enough about the brewing and dispenses processes, but they seemed to be struggling a little here with some of the beers. The beer also didn’t taste quite right, the flavours were there, but it didn’t seem rich enough.

    Some highlights from the food menu.

    Behind the bar, which at the time was quiet, although that didn’t last long.

    The beer fridge, with some interesting options. Beers can be taken away, or consumed at the bar for a surcharge of around £2 per can or bottle.

    And some more photos of the interior. The service at the bar was friendly and efficient, despite it being relatively busy. I was impressed that customers were being served in turn, so the bar staff seemed aware of what was going on.

    A growler filler on the bar.

    Anyway, onto TripAdvisor to see what drivel people have posted there.

    “I visited Brewdog last week, ordered a pint of Punk EPA. When I got back to the table I realised there was a fruit fly in my beer. Took it back and barman told me it must have flown in there on way to table, put in his finger to scoop it out then offered the same pint back to me!”

    I liked this one, although as a customer I’d have just taken the fly out myself. Although bar staff taking things out of the glass with their finger isn’t ideal…..

    “1) drunken local men peeing in the sink in the bathroom. A sign would be helpful or an attendant to make sure these neanderthals can find their way to the urinal, and to teach them the difference between their backside and their elbow
    2) another drunken man crawling around the floor on all fours wearing a leather BDSM mask. Perhaps part of a stag-do, but it was still off putting when you’re with children.”

    Fortunately my standards are higher than that, goodness knows what was happening in the pub on that night….

    “This is the worst place to drink in the whole of London. Rude, overbearing staff with shocking customer service skills and bad attitudes all round. I would rather gouge my eyeballs out than ever revisit this place.”

    This one is from Google, where the reviews are normally more sensible. I can safely say that very few people would consider this pub to be the worst place to drink in the city. Certainly nobody would who has visited some of the rougher pubs that are in the city.

    All in all, it’s probably a much more sedate and calm environment during other times of the year, but the staff seemed on top of everything even when it was busy. The prices aren’t the cheapest, but the atmosphere was welcoming and comfortable.

  • London – Tower of London (Cradle Tower)

    London – Tower of London (Cradle Tower)

    The Cradle Tower was built between 1348 and 1355 on the instructions of King Edward III, who wanted it to be used as his private water gate to enter the Tower of London. The exterior of the gate is in the photograph above, with two rooms either side of the entrance, where porters were accommodated. The King used the gate frequently and it was protected by a drawbridge and two portcullises, of which the traces of one are still visible in the stonework.

    The gate, from inside the Tower of London.

    A fireplace in one of the porter’s rooms, which had a view to the front so they could see if anyone was trying to enter that they either needed to welcome, or repel.

    The other porter’s accommodation has been turned into a recreation of what the room may have looked like in the late sixteenth century, when it was used to imprison John Gerard. He was a Catholic priest, at a time when this wasn’t acceptable to the Monarchy, who was tortured in a bid to get him to reveal the names of other Catholics, but he never gave anything away. In association with John Arden, who was imprisoned nearby within the Salt Tower, they managed to escape from the Tower in October 1597, in a quite spectacular fashion via the moat and River Thames. Gerard faced intimidation throughout much of his life, and he did well to survive to the age of 72, dying in July 1637.

    Also imprisoned here was Anne Askew, who was punished for being a Protestant, the reverse of what Gerard suffered from just a few decades later. She may have been the only women tortured at the Tower of London for her Protestant beliefs, as well as the only female burned at the stake. The story is enormously gory, she was imprisoned here in June 1546 and was tortured on the rack, with her joints being forced apart, so her shoulders and hips were dislocated. She still didn’t reveal any information and she was burned at the stake at Smithfield, at the age of just 24. She was brave even at that point, screaming only when the flames were nearly at her head, but despite the efforts of others, she refused to recant.

    There was a large fire at the Tower in 1841, with the Cradle Tower used to throw vast amounts of explosives from, in a bid to minimise the damage to the site. The media reported at the time that, “it is stated that no less than 9,084lbs of powder and ball cartridges were thrown into the moat by the tower”.

    The upstairs of the tower is inaccessible to the public, but is less interesting historically as it was entirely rebuilt in the nineteenth century, although the upper portions had been derelict and damaged for at least a century before that. There was a report in the media in 1961 that the tower had been cleared of the armoury that was being stored there, which was being moved to the new armouries museum.

  • Cheshunt – The King James

    Cheshunt – The King James

    There appear to be no Good Beer Guide pubs in Cheshunt, so my first port of call instead was The King James. It’s an interesting location as part of a shopping arcade, being relatively small inside for a Wetherspoons. CAMRA note that “the pub takes its name from King James I, whose royal place – Theobalds – stood about 1.2km away”. I’m not sure when it opened, but it was around 2000, so not one of the earlier pubs operated by the company.

    There were no dark beers available, although the member of bar staff recommended this winter ale, which is Rosey Nosey from Batemans. It was well kept and at the appropriate temperature, but no real depth of flavour or interesting taste. I’d struggle to complain about the price though, as with my 50p off CAMRA voucher, a pint cost the grand total of £1.49. And when having a sample of the beer the member of bar staff also poured the best part of a third of a pint, so extra value was provided there…..It was entirely drinkable though.

    My usual go-to meal of southern fried chicken wrap and chips, costing the grand total of £4.69 including unlimited coffee. Pretty decent quality as well, the chips had some firmness to them, the chicken wrap was evenly filled and everything tasted as it should have done. Although I’ve never seen a coffee machine in Wetherspoons so rarely used, I only saw a couple of customers use it in the over two hours that I was in the pub. Anyway, everything was clean, the pub was organised and there was a relaxed feel to the location.

    Onto TripAdvisor….

    “To the staff who work there…you could not cut it, in a normal pub..sooner The James closes, the better. You arent up to JDW standards.”

    The above punter seemed displeased, although I thought that the staff were performing well as they smiled, made eye contact and seemed genuinely helpful. There are a fair few reviews complaining about other customers, but everyone seemed entirely well behaved to me.

    All in all, perfectly acceptable.

  • Norwich – Primark

    Norwich – Primark

    I try and avoid anything related to shopping whenever I can, but I needed a new belt and I didn’t know where else in Norwich might sell them. Well, I knew where might sell them, but at a price that was ideally less than £5. Norwich’s Primark re-opened in the week and I entered to be confronted with what can only be described as what I imagine walking through the Gates of Hell would be like. The store appeared to be full, with excited shoppers galore all over the place.

    Incidentally, this is where I heard one of my favourite quotes of the year:

    “We can’t steal in here, imagine getting banned from Primark for ten years, can’t risk it”.

    That’s one way of avoiding shop-lifting I suppose….

    In the distance, there’s a blue “pay here” light. That’s how long the queue was, around 45 people from what I could count. A poor member of staff was reduced to standing with a large sign saying “queue starts here” to bring some logic to the proceedings.

    Nearing the front of the queue…. In fairness, it took me nine minutes to be served, which is way too long, but since it’s a new store on a Sunday shortly before Christmas, I suppose that’s inevitable. The queue was well managed and the staff at the counters were all young, enthused and efficient.

    The prices here are ridiculous though, certainly a throwaway culture. But, it’s what people demand and the clothing is affordable and the quality looked entirely reasonable to my untrained clothing standards eye. They had hiking socks at prices so low that they were almost not worth washing and the stock range in the store was enormous. And, particularly important for me on this visit, they had a belt which cost £4. Most lovely.

    Anyway, that’s pretty much my entire clothes shopping blogging done for the year.

  • London – London Liverpool Street (Overground)

    London – London Liverpool Street (Overground)

    Heading to Cheshunt, I realised two things, that firstly there was a direct Overground service there and, also, that it departed from London Liverpool Street railway station. Network Rail, with their usual quality of customer service, didn’t seem to have much information on where I could catch this service from. Although, fortunately, it transpired to be much easier than I had expected as the Overground service uses the standard platforms.

    There is some Overground signage on the platforms, although it probably needs better signage around the concourse, with my train departing from Platform 1.

    The service got busier as we progressed towards Cheshunt, but not dramatically so. The carriages could probably do with an upgrade at some stage, but they’re clean and sufficiently comfortable given the short journey length.

    Disembarking at Cheshunt.

    And, here we are, the journey takes around 30 minutes and it ran perfectly to schedule. The journey is meant to cost £4 via London Overground, although it’s possible to go by train which is slightly quicker and also more expensive. I’m hoping that my Contactless card was charged the appropriate amount, with I assume the lower amount always being charged. Although, I’m unsure how that works exactly….

    Personally, I’d rather that this service was returned to the rail network as I can’t quite see what benefit Transport for London are adding by operating this journey. It was run by Abellio Greater Anglia until 2015 and there appears to have been nearly no investment in the service since. If it had continued to be part of Greater Anglia, then perhaps it would have received new carriages with power and more comfortable service.

  • Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    Greater Anglia : Norwich to London Liverpool Street

    I’ve taken this journey from Norwich railway station to London Liverpool Street railway station many tens of times before, but this is the first time that I’ve had a ticket on my phone to show, rather than a simple paper ticket. I was hoping that it might be as advanced as the ones used by Deutsche Bahn, albeit theirs was hardly reliable, but instead it’s just a QR code. Functional, but not exciting.

    I got 10% off this journey as part of a promotion offered by Greater Anglia, with first class being just a few pounds more than standard.

    Travelling at 11:30 in the morning has the advantage of meaning the carriage was relatively empty. The train is comprised of something like eight standard class carriages and two first class carriages. However, due to the forthcoming replacement of these carriages, they’ve been using first class carriages in standard class, but have declassified so anyone can use them. Fortunately the crew made an announcement that customers in declassified first carriages might want to move to actual first class carriages.

    The crew members were all polite and helpful, with the train being clean and tidy. Other than the windows that is, these needed cleaning so that customers could actually see out of them. The wi-fi was broken on the train, although I don’t use it, but the power points were functioning and this was more important to me.

    First class means free drinks and snacks from the buffet car, with the snacks being very lovely, although the coffee was not exactly packed with flavour. Well, it was packed with a bland and bitter flavour, but not much else. Greater Anglia also apparently don’t stock sparkling water any more, so it’s just still water which is available. Greater Anglia need to do more here, especially since they don’t give them out any more at weekends as apparently customers abused them. By abused them, I suspect they meant that they asked for them. I’m not sure how much Greater Anglia really lost on biscuits, but there we are….

    The train left on time and arrived into London around four minutes late, due to some congestion near to London Liverpool Street. The fare for this journey was around £18, which I thought was entirely reasonable given the free snacks and drinks. It won’t be long before the new carriages are being used on the mainline, at which point the journey might become even more comfortable.

  • London – The Craft Beer Co Clerkenwell

    London – The Craft Beer Co Clerkenwell

    This was another of Nathan’s excellent drinking choices, but I had been trying to remember why I had heard of this rather lovely pub chain. This is the advantage of this blog, well to me anyway, as I was able to see that I had visited their outlet in Brighton.

    The menu here is for drink as the pub stocks several hundred different bottles from around the world, alongside twelve or so guest beers on tap from around the country. The choice was certainly excellent with just about every beer type that I could think of being listed. The pub doesn’t sell food, but customers are apparently able to bring pizzas in from next door. There’s a Greggs opposite, I’m unsure whether customers are allowed to bring in their fine food as well, but I’m sure the staff would be amenable to such a sensible request.

    It’s clear from some of these prices that this pub isn’t nervous about stocking higher end beers which are harder to find. I’ve never really understood why some people feel that expensive beer is somehow unjustifiable, whereas expensive wine is acceptable. I’m not drinking anything that pricey, but small scale imported beers are sometimes inevitably going to be a little specialist.

    There was quite a refined atmosphere in the pub, but it remained relaxed and comfortable.

    The ceiling of glass panels was intriguing….. There’s seating upstairs in this pub, which dates from the Victorian period and was formerly known as the Clock House before the Craft Beer Co took it over in 2011, although before the 1860s it was the Coach & Horses from at least the late eighteenth century. It was a Greene King pub before 2011, so there’s certainly been an upgrade on the beer at least, with some of the pub’s old internal features retained.

    Service was relaxed and engaging, with the staff member chatting away about the range of drinks. The prices aren’t the cheapest, but I’m far more interested in the quality of the beer than the quantity. As clearly was Nathan, as he spent some ridiculous sum on his beer, the name of which I can’t recall.

    So, on to the delights of TripAdvisor, where this pub is very well reviewed by hundreds of happy customers. Bar this one.

    “Not only I work in the area so tried it a few times but also on occasion went with friends who are professional brewers from Switzerland. On all occasions beers were just rank. My friends pointed out they are infected with wild yeast hence the spoilage but the reaction was “nah mate all good”. Bottled Budweiser (and oh dear lord is it pisswater) tastes better than spoiled beer. I’ll always avoid at all costs and recommend you do the same, plenty of other good places around serving fresh beer from a tank.”

    From a tank?!?!?! And the chances of the beer being infected is near zero in my view given how many they sell and not one other person has managed to find infected beer in any other TripAdvisor review….

    This pub is the first in the chain, which other than Brighton is only in London, and they note:

    “Our first pub was opened on an historic site on London’s Leather Lane and held the distinction of having the most beer taps in the UK until May 2014 when it was overtaken by out very own Covent Garden pub”.

    That is some claim to fame….  Anyway, a marvellous pub and quite rightly in the Good Beer Guide.

  • London – Masque Haunt

    London – Masque Haunt

    I’ve been to this JD Wetherspoon outlet many times, but I felt that a repeat visit was necessary since we were walking past it anyway. I’ve spent too many hours here faffing about whilst waiting for VISA applications, not a process I’ve had to endure recently. It’s located near to Old Street and it’s a relatively large Wetherspoons, with a raised area towards the back of the pub.

    The Market Porter from Portobello Brewing Co was unexceptional as it lacked a little richness, but it remained entirely drinkable.

    I like the below review on TripAdvisor, it seems to have escalated quickly…..

    “We came in as a group and the bar manager decided we were too loud and refused us service. No food, no napkins and [they] threatened to call the police”.

    Also, I’m not sure that this is how London pricing works….

    “I bought a nachos (normally What I get from my local Wetherspoons) they’ve given me a tiny teaspoon of each ? when I asked for more because I’ve paid extra because I was in London they were REALLY REALLY rude”

    Long ago, around the end of the eighteenth century, the site of this pub was the White Hart and it remained open until around 1910. The old buildings have now been demolished, but I like the continuity of the site once again being used as a pub, a Wetherspoons since 1994.

    The name of the pub is also intriguing, and Wetherspoons note:

    “In Elizabethan times, the nearby gatehouse of the former Priory of St John served as the office of the Master of the Revels, who was responsible for licensing plays, masques and other entertainment for the queen. A masque was a lavish drama with music and dancing, written by the leading poets and playwrights of the day. It was performed by masked figures and had an unusual name, like the masked haunt.”

    Anyway, a perfectly acceptable pub and the prices are towards the cheaper end of the scale given the location.