Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Hull

  • Hull – George Hotel

    Hull – George Hotel

    Continuing on my trail around Hull pubs which are featured in the Good Beer Guide, this one is located on the intriguingly named street, the Land of Green Ginger. It’s one large room, which I assume was once two rooms, and the welcome was friendly and authentic.

    Not meant as a complaint as this is clearly a successful pub, but it is quite challenging for a customer when pubs let their customers sit in front of the pump fronts. This was a pub with plenty of space, including at other points along the bar, and my view of the beers was nearly entirely obscured.

    I decided against trying to poke my head between customers to examine the beer options and just ask what dark beers they had on. The staff member was apologetic that they didn’t have any, although he mentioned that some were coming in, so I think that I was just a little unlucky. I can’t help thinking that seven real ales and no darker choices isn’t ideal though, with the darkest available being Abbot Ale from Greene King, which isn’t something I’d particularly want to ever actually pay for.

    Of course, this left me in a position of not knowing what alternative to have since I couldn’t see half the pump fronts (although I was able to take a photo after to zoom in on the choices). I opted for Mad Goose from Purity since I hadn’t heard of it and it sounded appealing, although I then discovered that the reviews for it aren’t great. I rated it better than the reviews, it was quite a crisp taste with flavours that I couldn’t identify, but it was worth the £1.70 for a half pint.

    A nice interior, although I can’t help but notice that lovely space they could plonk the customers at, away from the pump fronts. Or, as a compromise, they could get blackboards and chalk the beer options up on that, which seems the usual alternative when pub customers can’t easily otherwise see the bar.

    Anyway, it was a friendly environment and the member of staff seemed to be knowledgeable and competent, so I suspect he might have been the landlord. I’d come here again because it had that nice calm environment that I like in a pub, but hopefully there will be some delicious darker options on next time. It gives the impression of being a Craft Union pub and some of these are clearly working, although I hope they don’t do one of their dodgy refurbishments on this place, as the interior is full of character.

    This is another claim to fame for the pub, which is the smallest pub window in the country. It’s apparently a throwback to when a porter would look out to know if he (or perhaps she) should let people in, but the pub has made something of a thing of it which is good. This is another one that deserves to be in the Good Beer Guide.

  • Hull – Three John Scotts

    Hull – Three John Scotts

    I think I’ve been to this pub before a few years ago, which is now just one of two Wetherspoons pubs remaining in Hull as two others have closed relatively recently. It’s in the Good Beer Guide and so a perfect location to start my pub exploration of the city.

    The pub name is imaginative as well, referring to the three generations of vicars of the church opposite, St. Mary’s (which I was fortunate enough to see inside today, more on which in another post), who were all named John Scott. And, it was second of those two John Scotts who invited none other than George Gilbert Scott (his cousin) to remodel the church’s interior. As pub names go, this is what I’d consider to be a good one.

    The welcome was excellent, an engaging and helpful member of staff who went through the different real ale options, with a nearby manager recommending the Muddy Boots from Great Newsome Brewery. I didn’t get much depth of flavour from it, but it had a pleasant taste, was at the appropriate temperature and was entirely drinkable. And, with my 50p CAMRA voucher, it came to only £1.65 for a pint. Bargain.

    This is a decent Wetherspoons, a relaxed atmosphere, friendly staff and some interesting beer choices. A customer at a table asked a staff member if they could order food by paying cash and a helpful manager agreed, taking the cash over to the till for them. I didn’t order food, but it looked well presented and everything seemed orderly and well managed.

    All told, a well deserved Good Beer Guide pub entry.

  • Norwich to Hull by Train – Greater Anglia, EMR, LNER and Northern

    My train from Norwich to Hull involved four train journeys, (i) Norwich to Ely with Greater Anglia, (ii) Ely to Peterborough with EMR, (iii) Peterborough to Doncaster with LNER and (iv) Doncaster to Hull with Northern. This trip cost just £12 and was a bit precarious, as if I missed any connection then I would have missed the last train operating into Hull. Anyway, all was well and I ended up in Hull on time and without any delays.

    The first journey was with Greater Anglia and the conductor was exceptional, and I partly know this as he sat down opposite me to read the Metro newspaper and he was conversational and humorous. His train announcements also amused me, I’ve never heard Ely described as something like the “effervescent and glowing beauty of Ely, which also has a big church”. Marvellous. The train was also the new Stadler service, which is growing on me after my initial scepticism (my favourite eight-year old boy has sold it to me).

    Not much to report on the second journey, which was just the short hop from Ely to Peterborough with the new EMR set-up. It’s an older train which doesn’t have the facilities of the Stadler, but everything ran to time although I didn’t see a conductor on the journey. I did see the Flying Dustman though…..

    The only train that I had which was timed was the Peterborough to Doncaster one, so I got on a train from Norwich which got into Peterborough giving me around an hour’s connection. This gave me chance to go to the nearby Wetherspoons and get a chicken wrap, as well as to moan about their quiz. And then complain about the LNER seating at Peterborough railway station…..

    LNER’s Azuma train pulls into Peterborough railway station. This is a beautiful and sleek train and it was easy to identify which seats on board were reserved. They have a red light by each seat for reserved, a green light for free to use and an orange light for currently clear to use, but is reserved later on. I’m surprised it has taken rail companies so long to come up with such an easy system, but it’s very logical. No staff checked tickets and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a bit of fare evasion going on along this route.

    Doncaster railway station, a solid traditional building which I got to see for around 15 minutes.

    LNER and Doncaster railway station are clearly, and rightly, proud of their Azuma trains.

    I didn’t get a service operated by Hull trains, but this is an innovative open access operator which is now owned by First Group. They operate on the Hull to London route and I like the idea of this set-up, something similar is happening in Germany and hopefully it’ll expand throughout the European Union.

    And safely into Hull railway station on the train which is on the right hand-side of the above photo. My ticket was checked by a friendly conductor and once again, for the fourth time out of four, I got a table seat so that I could type away on my laptop without having it perched on some dodgy tray table.

    For the money, this was an amazing value fare given that I used four different rail services from four companies. Two of the trains were state of the art and the other two were perfectly adequate. It’s easy to be excited about railway services in other parts of Europe, and indeed around the world, but the UK network is still one of the best in the world that I’ve ever experienced for trips such as this.