Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • Liverpool – Brewdog Deskdog

    I heard last week about a new scheme that Brewdog have introduced to allow people to get work done in their pubs (their own work, not work for the pub chain) which gives them a table, a free pint and unlimited coffee. The cost is £7, so I thought I’d give this marvellous concept a go.

    All rather excellent, they were expecting me. I don’t think a prior reservation is required though, so customers can just turn up. There’s a theoretical time limit of two and a half hours which the on-line reservation gives in the pub, but they do mention that it’s possible to extend this just by asking a staff member. I doubt that in practice there are any time restrictions (within reason).

    The first of several coffees. There’s a bell at the table which the very friendly staff member said that I could press to get another coffee, but, like the call button on aircraft, I rarely feel that comfortable pressing it. And since I was six feet from the bar, I was happy to make that commitment to walking over.

    The Punk IPA that was included in the price, the usual clean and refreshing flavours.

    The beer list with some tempting options, although I managed to restrain myself.

    Every Brewdog has a beer fridge where takeouts, or indeed drink-ins, can be obtained.

    The pinball machine area for those customers who might want a distraction.

    Decorative toilets with kegs on top of the cubicles, and they were also around the walls.

    Anyway, back to the concept. This is part of a sweeping move being made by pubs, restaurants and hotels to get remote workers, digital nomads, home workers, or whatever the exact term used, into using their facilities. Some do this better than others, with JD Wetherspoon leading the charge with their unlimited coffee for somewhere between £1.15 and £1.50 (or more at airports), but companies such as Accor are getting good at this as well.

    I like how Brewdog have made their plans very clear, as it means that people know that they are welcome within the pub for the day. The staff in this Brewdog were engaging and friendly, although the chain seems to be really good at this. The coffees kept flowing without any issue and the staff were knowledgeable about the whole process.

    I like pub and hotel environments with their ambient noise and ability to listen in to what are often ridiculous complaints made to staff. The noise in this Brewdog wasn’t disturbing at all, although the music did get a bit louder towards the end of my visit. I do prefer the policy that JD Wetherspoons have on dogs (they’re banned), but given the name of Brewdog and their open acceptance of dogs, at least their policy is clear and consistent.

    All in all, I really like this concept and Brewdog have implemented it with some professionalism. I can imagine that this will become more common over the next few years and it’s an excellent way of filling up what might otherwise be a nearly empty venue during the day.

  • National Express – Norwich to Liverpool

    After I had obtained some low priced accommodation in Liverpool, I just had to work out how to get there from Norwich. The trains weren’t priced at a particularly attractive level, which was especially irritating as there’s a direct service from Norwich to Liverpool (although I think that’s going as part of the franchise changes).

    So, I decided to abandon my favourite form of ground transportation and instead of using the rail network, I looked at the bus options. National Express had a return fare from Norwich to Liverpool for £28, which was much cheaper than any other option.

    The only little problem with this plan is that the journey was eight hours each way. Just what I wanted…..

    Anyway, I boarded in Norwich and the driver mentioned that I was going on a long journey. Much as I appreciated his enthusiasm, I did privately think that I was already well aware of this situation. On this point, the boarding process was all very efficient and I was able to get an emergency exit row seat (they’re not really called that on buses, but it cheered me up to compare it to an aircraft).

    I boarded the bus twenty minutes before departure, and like some child on a school trip, I managed to eat my Tesco meal deal lunch before we had even started. Marvellous.

    At Birmingham, we were allowed off the bus. I’m not sure if disembarking was compulsory, but I got off to explore the facilities. And the city’s coach station is pretty bland, full of expensive outlets, chargeable toilets and nothing much of interest. So, I waited in line to get back on the bus. Fortunately, the driver called us existing customers back on first, so we didn’t have to show tickets and the like again. Other than for one customer who the driver had clearly forgotten and he had to show his ticket again.

    Driving through Birmingham….. The bus was pretty much always on time, although it missed out several stops such as Dereham and Wisbech if no passengers wanted to get off there.

    As for comfort, the bus wasn’t too bad at all, particularly with the extra space of the emergency exit seat towards the back. One woman, who shall we say wasn’t exactly a millennial, decided she wanted to watch some television soap on a tablet with the sound on, which irritated me. So I stared at her angrily, to which she was oblivious, and I thought it might be best for me just to put earphones on instead.

    The driving, which was completed by three drivers, was all professional and it felt a safe environment. The power on board worked well, although the Internet was a bit hopeless and I gave up with that very early on during the journey. The bus wasn’t spotless, but it was sufficiently clean to not cause me any concerns.

    The highlights, other than arriving, were seeing my accommodation at Keele University (B Block, Lindsay Hall) from the M6 and also watching Jonathan travelling in the other direction on a Megabus service from Liverpool. I can’t say that I exactly enjoyed the whole journey, but it was easy, comfortable and fairly priced.

  • Liverpool – Mr Seel’s Garden

    What is now Seel Street takes its name from Thomas Seel, who was a city merchant and former slave traders. Just to show how Liverpool has moved on over the centuries to share its wealth around equitably, note the tent to the left-hand side of the road with what I’m assuming is a homeless person trying to survive the cold months.

    An information board giving more details about the area.

    This is really nicely done, with a white asterisk marking the spot (towards the right-hand side) where I was standing. Unfortunately, all of these gardens are now under roads now, but it’s nice that a reminder of history has been made available.

  • Liverpool – Head of Steam

    I, rather ignorantly, hadn’t heard of this small chain of pubs before, but I shall look out for them now in the future. As with other pubs I visited tonight, I went to them all because they’re listed in the Good Beer Guide. As with the others, this one also seemed to be deserving of its place in the guide.

    There was a quirky design in what was a substantial pub in terms of its size, with plenty of different seating types. I didn’t order food, but the menu looked interesting and on-trend, with plenty of dining type tables available for those who wanted that.

    I understand, from the head of pub planning for our Sheffield trip in a few weeks, that a visit is already planned to the Head of Steam bar there. The chain is owned by Camerons Brewery, once a much larger concern than it is today. Many of the pubs which they used to own have ended up with the Brent Walker group, which then became part of Pubmaster, and then in due course, Punch Taverns.

    It’s not very original perhaps, but I usually go for a Plum Porter from Titanic Brewery when I see it. It didn’t disappoint here, lots of flavour and nicely refreshing.

    Although later on, unable to force myself to leave the pub, I also went for Tiny Rebel’s Cask IPA. The two staff members who served me had a vibrancy about them, so the whole environment felt friendly. It wasn’t quite as busy as I’d expected, but it was a rainy Tuesday evening in October, so they were probably not expecting a full house.

    More photos of the pub’s interior.

    They had nine pages of this….

    I’ve never seen this before on a screen, it’s the pub’s live Untappd feed. Given that I’m easily pleased, I decided to log-in and make my presence known to everyone who was looking at the screen. Which, realistically, was probably only me and I already knew that I was there. But, it kept me amused.

    This is one of my contenders for favourite pub of the year, because the environment was welcoming, some thought had gone into the decor and the beer choice was marvellous. The service was friendly, it was a comfortable environment and there was a sense of excitement about the proceedings. All  very lovely.

  • Liverpool – Sanctuary

    I’m not sure that I’d have come across this pub if I hadn’t seen it listed in the Good Beer Guide, but it’s a relatively new opening for the city. It’s good to see that the signage promotes the pub as a “dive bar”, which seems to be a common attribution in the US, but can be seen as a negative one in the UK. The phrase should definitely be reclaimed as a force for good.

    The cask and keg list.

    The bottles and cans lists.

    The Good Beer Guide book notes about this pub suggest that it’s designed to look like a “run-down 1920s hotel”, although I’m not sure that I’d have guessed this. The internal decor does give it character though.

    The back bar. There were no staff visible when I entered, but the staff member who did come and serve when available was personable and seemed to know most of the customers. The whole pub vibe was welcoming and comfortable.

    The pub regularly has the Plum Porter from Titanic Brewery on, which is one of my favourite beers, but I’d already had this at an earlier pub. So, I opted for the Stour Valley Old Growler, meaning I’d come all the way from Norfolk to have a Suffolk beer. But, all was well with it, at the appropriate temperature although the taste was perhaps unexceptional, but very drinkable.

    All in all, a rather lovely little pub, and it has a micropub feel making it all on trend and contemporary, without it being formulaic or forced. Another pub which in my, rather irrelevant, view is quite rightly in the Good Beer Guide.

  • Liverpool – Richard John Blackler

    I’ve been to this pub a few times before, but it’s in the Good Beer Guide and I haven’t posted about it, so I thought I’d better come and have a fresh look. It’s JD Wetherspoon operated, so I was expecting a decent choice of real ales.

    It’s an intriguing pub name, it’s named after the Blackler’s department store that opened here in 1908, owned by Richard John Blackler. The building was badly damaged during the Second World War, so the current pub is of a later date, but incorporates a little of the original that could be salvaged. One other claim to fame for the site is that George Harrison worked at Blacker’s as an apprentice electrician.

    And the pub didn’t disappoint, there are some interesting selections along here, including one of my perennial favourites, the Mauldon’s Cherry Porter, which I don’t see often enough. I’m not entirely sure that I’d call the Banks & Taylor SOD as a porter in the way the pub has, but, any which way, it’s another decent option. Incidentally, I’m not sure what price the pub was trying to display for the Mauldon’s, I assume £2.49 rather than £2.99.

    The downside was that the service in the pub wasn’t what I’d call ideal. I did hear another customer complain they’d been waiting twenty minutes, which I’m sure they thought was accurate, but it wasn’t. It was around seven minutes and I only know that as they arrived after me. The manager was flapping around serving customers randomly along the long bar, seemingly confused that people were telling her that she was serving out of turn.

    But, I was in no rush, so I waited by the Mauldon’s Cherry Porter, and I would have asked for a sample of Banks & Taylor SOD, but the staff looked so harassed that I thought I’d better not add to their burden. I never did quite work out how four bar staff could take so long to serve the grand total of around ten customers, but life’s too short to worry about that. Although, admittedly, not so short that I won’t write about it the day after.

    The beer was marvellous, the Cherry Porter had a depth of flavour, was light, had lingering flavours and it was at the appropriate temperature. Clean flavours, which is, to be fair, more than could be said for the state of the pub. But, for the price, it’d be hard to complain and the pub’s place in the Good Beer Guide seems entirely reasonable.

  • British Airways (Berlin to Heathrow T5)

    Every time I fly back from Berlin Tegel I wonder whether it’ll be the last time I visit the airport, with its replacement seemingly having been nearly ready for nearly ten years. Tegel has long since been unable to comfortably cope with the volume of passengers and it feels crowded and uncomfortable.

    The boarding process is unusual as the BA lounge is landside, so then there’s a long queue for the security and border checks. Above is a photo of the queue for the flight at the next gate, it’s one of the few airports I can think of where the queues to board are within a five second walk of the terminal entrance.

    The British Airways check-in desks. It took over 40 minutes of queueing to board the aircraft, with no seating for those who needed it. Interestingly, or at least I was interested, my battery pack was examined by the security personnel for compliance, which has never happened before. It is a large battery pack at 20000mAh and I was quite impressed that it was checked, since it is only just under the allowable level.

    The aircraft was G-EUPE, an Airbus A319 that British Airways have operated since it came into service in 2000. I had a window exit row seat, which was sufficiently spacious and clean. It was also a busy flight and was at near capacity, although fortunately there didn’t seem as much pressure on the overhead lockers as usual. Then flight left around ten minutes late, but the captain gave updates and it seemed to be because there was a slight delay with getting everyone through the security process.

    The crew were professional and the buy-on-board (BOB) seemed to be popular, with a new menu having come out at the beginning of October. I still don’t think it’s a very innovative on-board menu, although my views on this are a bit irrelevant since I never buy anything on board British Airways flights anyway.

    The DHL truck had appropriate branding for where I had just flown from.

    The flight arrived into London Heathrow T5 at the expected time and the disembarkation process was efficient and timely. It took around twelve minutes from the airport doors opening to my leaving the terminal, allowing me to leave Heathrow in good time.

  • British Airways (Heathrow T5 to Berlin)

    Today’s expedition was to Berlin Tegel airport and, as usual, I arrived hopelessly early in the day to ensconce myself into the BA lounge. It was evident from the volume of rain hitting the roof of Heathrow T5 B Gates building that there were going to be some weather issues, although there were only a few cancellations and relatively minor delays.

    Fortunately, my flight was only delayed by around an hour, although there’s always the fear of a creeping delay where that one hour turns into two or three.

    Boarding was from gate A2 and I fail to understand why BA don’t make this process easier to understand. They did have separate queues for the different boarding groups, with groups 1 and 2 each having their own lane, and groups 3 to 5 were merged into one lane. But, in a piece of design brilliance, the lane for groups 3 to 5 was in front of groups 1 and 2 and so the others couldn’t be easily accessed. I’m not important enough for group 1, but I can sneak into group 2 and it took quite a determined staff member to get me, and some others, to the right place.

    There’s the aircraft at the end of the airbridge, which was registration G-EUOE, an Airbus A319 which British Airways have been using since it was manufactured in 2001.

    The aircraft was clean, although the crew had their usual challenge of trying to fit all the hand baggage into the overhead lockers. It’s the one disadvantage of exit row seats for me, having to engage in this whole overhead baggage game. This is a problem for me as my bag is relatively small, and usually there is someone with a ridiculously sized cabin bag who takes great exception to my small bag being in the lockers. So they try and shove it somewhere else. Always unsuccessfully I’d add.

    Waiting on the tarmac for departure, with the captain sounding professional and fitting the British Airways brand perfectly. I was also pleased to note that there was silence during the safety demonstration, it makes things feel so much calmer. Indeed, the whole flight seemed calm and the crew were efficient and polite.

    We landed around sixty minutes late, with the pilot being able to make up a few minutes of the delay en route. I flew to Berlin Tegel around five years ago and thought it’d likely be the last time there as operations are being moved to Berlin Brandenburg Airport. Unfortunately, this is currently one of the world’s most mocked projects, with an opening expected nearly one decade late. All of which means that Tegel is looking quite rickety and spending more money on it is pointless given that it will all be demolished soon.

    Anyway, this flight was a Reward Flight Saver (RFS) so it cost £17.50 plus 4,000 Avios points.

  • Shoreditch – Brewdog

    Having arrived into London Liverpool railway station, I had no shortage of food and drink options in the Spitalfields and Shoreditch area of the city. I’ve been converted to Brewdog now, after initially taking a slight dislike to them for their corporate practices (which seem to have  now been moderated somewhat), so I thought that the ten-minute walk to their Shoreditch location was worth it.

    Not particularly busy at 16:00 in the afternoon, although it did get busier later on. Lots of different seating styles, including bar stools, tables and booths. All clean as well, with the surfaces not being sticky, which is an irritating feature of some large pubs.

    The Brewdog beer fridge, with choices to take away, or for a premium, drink at the pub.

    The beer choice, but my preferred option of Zombie Cake had run out and the only other dark option was an imperial stout and I didn’t want that strong a beer.

    Half a pint of Dead Pony Club and a sample of Clockwork Tangerine. There are a lot of hops in the Dead Pony Club, which is fruity and citrusy. Not my preferred type of beer, but full of flavour and very drinkable. Incidentally, I didn’t think that the Clockwork Tangerine had quite the strength of tangerine that I was expecting, but it was also light and drinkable.

    The meat feast pizza, which was a slight challenge to eat as the ingredients slid off the base with some ease. But, food should sometimes be messy, so it’s all about the taste. Actually, it’s about the temperature as well, which was very hot and I was a bit too eager to get started so nearly burnt the top of my mouth.

    As a pizza, we’ve established it was served at a hot temperature, but the ingredients were decent, the base was light and the sauce rich and flavoursome.

    The manufacturers of Dalston chillies say that “there is no junk” in their products and I have to say, I liked it. Quite a powerful little kick without being stupidly hot, so this complemented the pizza well. Although I might have got a bit exuberant with the amount of the sauce I put on one piece of the pizza, which required another emergency drink of beer.

    It’s painfully clear from the customers that this is a very on-trend brand and it’s perfectly suited to Shoreditch. There’s a contemporary and modern feel to the whole proceedings, which is also coupled with excellent customer service.

    If I could find fault, it’s one of those locations where some of the staff seem to be doing the majority of the work, whilst some of the others were perhaps preening themselves just a little too much. But, all told, the surroundings are comfortable and everything was as I’d like it to be. Other than they needed more darker beer selections.

  • Great Yarmouth – Forged Chain Sculpture

    The forged chain sculpture at the entrance to St. George’s Park in Great Yarmouth, designed by blacksmith artists Nigel Barnett and Ros Newman. It was installed in 2008 and represent chains from harbour with seagulls flying above them. It’s a pleasant addition to the area around the park, although I’m not entirely sure that the town needed any reminder of seagulls, but there we go….