Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • 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.

  • London – The Harp

    London – The Harp

     

    This pub in Covent Garden is sufficiently notable to have its own Wikipedia page, primarily as it is one of the few pubs which has won national CAMRA pub of the year. Formerly the Welsh Harp, the premises have been licensed since at least the late eighteenth century, but became particularly well known when Binnie Walsh owned the premises. Fuller’s purchased the pub in 2014, but have sensibly stayed out of the way to ensure that the premises can be run in the style of a freehouse.

    The beer choice was extensive and well balanced, with a range of beer styles available. The service was prompt, efficient and unusually friendly for such a central and busy location. The pub was busy, but this seems to be a common issue, although such a well run pub charging reasonable prices is inevitably going to be a crowded one in a city such as this.

    Pump clips showing the range of beers which have previously been sold here.

    The interior decoration, where it can be seen through the hub of people, is quirky and different.

    There are nearly no negative TripAdvisor reviews, other than the usual ridiculous ones. This is a favourite:

    “Does not allow even one small sleeping infant. Didn’t want to forfeit space to paying clients even though the place was empty. Disappointing”

    It’s almost as though a busy pub with highly limited amounts of space is an ideal place for a small sleeping infant…..

    Another review seems more justified when complaining about a manager, with the pub’s reply being:

    “I’m sorry to hear this news but very interested by your comments and I believe I might know of whom out of the management team you are referring to. If I’m correct in my assumption, then you will be pleased to know that he is moving on to pastures new at the end of this week.”

    Certainly honest.

    And just to show how bloody useless TripAdvisor is as any sort of useful resource, here’s another of the few negative reviews for the pub:

    “Went with the family stopping by the harp on our way to Niagara Falls. The idea was to experience some Irish foods since this is our heritage. We were very disappointed with the food. Our group ordered fish & chips (very very greasy), meatloaf, Shepard pie- both of which had a very bland yet strange taste to them, a cheeseburger( completely bland and dried out”

    This review was meant to be for the Irish Harp pub at 245 King Street, Niagara-on-the-Lake in Canada. Easy mistake to make…..

    All in all, absolutely lovely, something entirely unexpected in the heart of Covent Garden. It is still winning awards, not just from the CAMRA, winning the 2019 Evening Standard London pub of the year. Inevitably given all of this, the pub is deservedly in the Good Beer Guide.

  • London – Bear and Staff

    London – Bear and Staff

    I like Nicholson’s pubs, they have some intriguing historic buildings around the country and plenty of choices in London. I’m less impressed at their food, it’s often just average, but the beer is fine and I’ve signed up to their app. Which is why I visited if I’m being honest, I was given a free pint by Nicholson’s for my birthday and so I decided to use it here.

    Nicholson’s Pale Ale brewed by St. Austell brewery, it’s not what I usually order, but it was entirely acceptable and at the appropriate temperature.

    The service at the bar was way above average, engaging, polite and friendly. I couldn’t recognise the accent of the barman, perhaps Russian and perhaps Polish, but either way, he was welcoming and had sussed this customer service thing out.

    Bit of history from CAMRA:

    “First licensed in 1714 and called the Bear and Ragged Staff until 1835, this is a late Victorian (re-built in 1878) corner pub that was one of the smallest in the area until extended into an adjacent shop in 1997, giving it two distinct areas”

    The shop bit is at the rear of this photo and that extension must have been really appreciated by locals as there was otherwise very little seating available downstairs.

    Firstly, I don’t usually go around taking photos in toilets, that sort of thing is quite rightly frowned upon. But, I couldn’t help noting that this is a design flaw for anyone who comes out of one of the cubicles. A slightly generous push of the door will lead to an oblivious customer being shunted into the urinal, which I’d say isn’t an ideal situation for anyone involved in the proceedings.

    One TripAdvisor review interested me, which was:

    “We were not informed that our visit would have to be short when we asked if we could have a table in the beginning. The server kept making remarks that this is central London, and a lot of people would be waiting to go in for their dinner, but as far as I’m concerned, I’m as much of a customer as those people were”

    The pub has replied saying that table reservations are for one hour and this should have been explained. One hour? That is perhaps one of the tightest dining times that I’ve come across in a pub.

    And the review of overcooked beef amused me:

    “I went to the bar to ask for a replacment, i was told by a dour eastern european lady she would have the meat warmed. I assumed this was a joke as it was already overcooked.”

    Anyway, I liked this pub and apparently so did Charlie Chaplin, as he was a customer when performing in the nearby theatres. And, since my pint was free, I have nothing bad to say. Well, I do actually, the toilets really weren’t clean at all, to the point that they would have put me off ordering food. But the beer was fine, the service was engaging and the pub was historic, so all rather lovely. Other than the toilets.

  • London – Sutton Arms

    London – Sutton Arms

    This pub, chosen by Nathan on our meander to London Liverpool Street railway station, felt like what might be called a traditional London boozer, although that’s not a word that I frequently find the need to use. Carpeted, old-fashioned and entirely indifferent to modern design trends, it ensured that it maintained its authenticity. What the pub did offer was an excellent array of real ale, including a couple of dark beer options from Burnt Mill, a small brewery near to Stowmarket.

    Excuse my crude editing here, but the lady was sitting in front of the list of beers and I was keen to take a photo of them to remind me of what there was available. In terms of the welcome, this was authentic and unforced, with a warm atmosphere and an unhurried ambience which isn’t always achieved in London. The customers were varied in all manner of ways, primarily including what appeared to be a mix of locals and visitors which is often a positive sign.

    CAMRA helpfully have the background on this pub, noting that it’s a former Whitbread outlet which is now a freehouse, as well as mentioning that the name is from Thomas Sutton, who founded nearby Charterhouse many centuries ago. The pub is closed on weekends and although I’m sure there’s a good reason for this, I’m not sure what it is. Anyway, I can see why this is a CAMRA favourite, although not so much that it has reached the Good Beer Guide. All I can say to that is the standards in this area must be particularly high for a pub like this not to be included.

    The pub serves food, which seems to be of a decent quality from the reviews, but it hasn’t gone done the road of being a gastropub, a route which has been so heavily overdone. This meant that drinkers knew that they were welcome, the Sutton Arms remains as a pub which is all about the beer, which makes it all rather lovely.

  • London – Boris Johnson Cartoon

    London – Boris Johnson Cartoon

    Located on Hatton Wall in London, quite an interesting cartoon painted onto an otherwise uninteresting wall….