Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: London

  • London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Fragment of Berlin Wall – Inside)

    London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Fragment of Berlin Wall – Inside)

    The Imperial War Museum has two sections of the Berlin Wall, this one is located within the galleries and the other is outside the entrance to the museum. There’s not much information given about this section, simply that it’s from the late 1970s and it’s made of reinforced concrete. It weighs over two and a half tons and stands just over two metres high, although it’s not as painted on as their other section. The Imperial War Museum also has a small fragment of the wall collected by the British Military Forces in Berlin and this is on display at the museum’s outpost in Manchester.

  • London – Westminster – Lord Moon of the Mall Closed

    London – Westminster – Lord Moon of the Mall Closed

    The Lord Moon of the Mall has closed this summer, the only JD Wetherspoon outlet in the country that I knew that had a pub sign with the face of Tim Martin on it. I had thought that this was an odd size for a Wetherspoons as it’s quite small, but I’m surprised they gave up on it given its prominent location on Whitehall.

    The pub is becoming a McMullen’s operated venue and it appears that they actually purchased the freehold a few years ago in 2015. I assume that JD Wetherspoon have done a deal to move out for a reasonable cost as McMullen’s believe that they can make money by operating the site themselves, although I suspect that might be a challenging trading environment given how small it is.

    The building was the former banking hall of Cocks, Biddulph & Company and was used as a bank until 1992, when Barclays Bank moved out.

  • London – Brewdog Seven Dials

    London – Brewdog Seven Dials

    I’m slowly working my way around the Brewdogs of the world, only nearly all of them to go (but I’ actively working on this)…. This one is in Covent Garden, named after the Seven Dials road junction.

    This Brewdog feels more pub-like than some of their other outlets, not least because it was a pub when they purchased it, the Marquis Of Granby and before that the Ape & Bird.

    The downstairs bar, which wasn’t in use, which has a step near to the base of the stairs down to it just to add some excitement to the proceedings. I managed to trip on it, but I put that down to me being an idiot, before noting four other reviews by others saying they’ve tripped. Someone will likely take action against Brewdog at some point about that step, but that’s a matter for them…… The ground floor was busier, indeed pretty full, although the first floor wasn’t in use either.

    The beer list and although the Big Joe by Overtone sounded exciting it came in at £6.50 for just a third of a pint, so I was more moderate and opted for Brewdog’s own Pineapple Coconut Crumb that I haven’t had before. I wish more pubs offered a beer list like this, or perhaps had a stab at just managing not to stock every bland IPA they can possibly find on their beer list. Looking at Greene King pubs here…. And Marstons….

    And here it is, a rather glorious beer with a welcome surfeit of pineapple and a taste of coconut to go along with it. A very summery drink, smooth and at the appropriate temperature (that was there for Nathan who noticed I keep using that phrase….).

    And the Cluck Norris burger, a chicken burger in buttermilk with avocado at the base and cajun mayo at the top. I do like avocado (I accept it’s a junk food compared to my usual diet of heavily processed, but yet glorious, chicken bakes from Greggs) and there was a generous portion of it and it added a lot to the whole burger, both in taste and texture. The chicken burger, and I’m not sure what part of the bird they’re using here, had a bit of a crunch to the outside and had the sufficient flavours that I was hoping for. The fries were moreish, fluffy on the interior and firm on the exterior, all served as a perfectly sufficient portion. Usually, this would be £14, but the Government’s eat out to help out reduced the price to £7, which is much more reasonable.

    The service was beautifully polite as ever, although it wasn’t the smoothest. I struggled to get a fork and my tap water never arrived at all, although I remembered I had my own water bottle in my bag. I decided to use my water bottle to advertise the LDWA to anyone who happened to be walking past the table, not that anyone bloody noticed. Anyway, I digress.

    I dread to think how much rent Brewdog must be paying for these premises, but the reviews of the bar are high and hopefully they’re getting it all back comfortably. The range of beers here was quite frabjous, to quote Lewis Carroll, so I’m prepared to forgive the lack of fork as otherwise the customer service was spot-on and the drinks range was better than any Fullers pub than I’ve ever been in…..

  • London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Poppy)

    London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Poppy)

    On display in the Imperial War Museum, this is one of the first remembrance poppies designed to raise money for veterans and their dependents. The idea was thought up by Madame Guérin and then taken on by the British Legion, who opened a factory in Richmond, Surrey, staffed by ex-service personnel. Guérin’s persistence with the British Legion was fortunate, as they were initially sceptical and she had to pay for the first batch of poppies herself before she was reimbursed. Today, over 35 million poppies are produced in Richmond and distributed for sale across England and Wales, one of the major fund-raisers for the Royal British Legion.

  • London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Old Plan)

    London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Old Plan)

    This plan (© IWM Q 60569) of the galleries of the Imperial War Museum dates to 1936 and would have been when they moved to their current site at the former Bethlem Royal Hospital. And, I have to say, I like this kind of layout for a museum, there’s a clear narrative to the story and it seems appealing to me looking at the map. This is probably why I’m not finding some current museum layouts to my taste, since it appears I’m getting on for a century out of date…..

  • London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum

    London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum

    I last went to the Imperial War Museum before it closed for a substantial refurbishment in early 2013 and the opportunity to visit now when it was quiet seemed quite appealing. It remains free of charge, provided with substantial funding from the Government, whilst it makes the rest from its commercial activities.

    The museum first opened in 1920 and it had become essential to tell the story of the First World War and other conflicts that the British had become involved with. This first museum was located at the Crystal Palace, before a new site being found in South Kensington in 1924 and then, finally, the museum moved to its current site in 1936, at what was previously the Bethlem Royal Hospital in Southwark.

    The entrance hall is impressive, with various military vehicles and planes visible. There are, broadly, four main exhibition halls which cover the First World War, the Second World War, the Holocaust and the Lord Ashcroft Gallery.

    The First World War gallery is perhaps the museum’s best, although I found it drifting all over the place and it didn’t present a clear narrative. The Second World War gallery was, in my limited view, hard to follow and again lacked any clear direction. There were lots of facts presented in a random manner and I’m not sure that I discovered anything new about the Second World War. It is a country mile behind the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk, although it might be unfair to compare it to this Polish institution, which is I think one of the best museums in the world.

    I’m not entirely sure why the Holocaust exhibition has been shoved into the Imperial War Museum, although it has been given the size and status that it deserves within the building. The UK needs a Holocaust Museum that isn’t just part of another institution, but the Imperial War Museum is currently working on a new set of displays that are meant to complement the controversial Holocaust memorial being built by the Palace of Westminster. The Holocaust displays are excellent, although very powerful, perhaps too powerful. They have some graphic images of nudity and videos of people about to be hanged, I’m always uneasy that someone who suffered in the Second World War should be further humiliated in this way. But, this was a sizeable display and it was laid out clearly and with a central narrative. Ideally, I’d have liked the Imperial War Museum to operate a Holocaust Museum on another site (preferably nearby) where it could have more space and more funding.

    This is the top of the building, I’m not sure what it’s usually used for.

    The Lord Ashcroft Gallery was, I think, designed for children and it has the world’s largest collection of Victoria Crosses. I struggled to engage with this gallery, I wanted them to pull out interesting stories of some of the individuals who had been awarded military honours, but there were just a few words about many individuals and the most confusing mixed usage of fonts, media and display methods that I think I can recall. I think I’m getting old and grumpy, but I did see lots of children reading the displays and that’s perhaps the most important thing, that they engage with the history.

    All told, I think I preferred the more traditional nature of the old museum displays, rather than the pared back current building. I often come to that conclusion though, but the Imperial War Museum is well-reviewed and is clearly doing something which appeals to the majority of visitors. But, the staff were all helpful and engaging, with visitors seeming to be enjoying their experiences. I think I wanted something with more narrative and I would have liked more exhibits and more stories about individuals. It was a perfectly pleasant way to spend a couple of hours though and more people should come here.

    And, as an aside, I have discovered that the Imperial War Museum has placed part of their vast photographic archive on-line, which is very exciting as there are over 350,000 photos on their web-site. That’s an impressive effort, but they have 11 million photos so the size of this archive will be incredible when they’ve finished making it all available.

  • London – Kensington – Churchill Arms

    London – Kensington – Churchill Arms

    It’s hard to deny that this pub obviously has character, even before walking in that’s evident. Although it wasn’t originally named after Winston Churchill, it is now at least a little themed around him and the pub’s web-site notes that his grandparents drank there.

    The interior of the pub was no less quirky. The staff in the pub were friendly, with the operation of track and trace being handled professionally and everything seemed clean. Just as my view, the beer selection was weak with no dark options, limited to London Pride (and I know many people like London Pride, but its appeal is a little lost on me) and Honey Dew, both from Fuller’s Brewery, who operate the pub. The pricing was some of the most expensive that I’ve seen, over £6 for a pint of real ale which tops the prices of nearly every central London pub I’ve visited. I was rather pleased that I only ordered half. The drink was, well, metallic in flavour with some sweetness. Lovely if you like Metal Mickey I suppose.

    The Honey Dew taste and price was enough for me to abort my plans to eat food, which was awkward as the staff member seemed moderately confused as why I hadn’t ordered after I said I was planning to. This was quite a surprise even to myself, as it was half price day for food as part of the Eat Out to Help Out, and the Thai kitchen menu items seemed intriguing and tempting. The reviews suggest that the food is excellent (and I could hear the number of phone calls coming in asking for reservations, but they were full), but there is something I didn’t like about any pub, even in Kensington, topping £6 for a pint of real ale, so I resisted the temptation of the Jungle Curry.

    But, the pub is clearly a local favourite and it has a long tradition with a friendly welcome. It wasn’t for me though, but I’d have probably been more of a fan of the whole experience if they’d stocked Fuller’s Porter. Incidentally, although the Thai cuisine perhaps seems a little mismatched for the British theme of the pub, it clearly works as they’ve been doing it since the early 1990s. Besides, any pub which has its own page on Wikipedia is likely worth a visit.

  • London (Marylebone) – Metropolitan Bar

    London (Marylebone) – Metropolitan Bar

    JD Wetherspoon might not surprise and delight everyone, but they certainly do have some pubs located in beautiful and historic buildings. This is the former Chiltern Court Restaurant within Baker Street underground railway station, which has also been used by the railway network. It’s named after the Metropolitan Railway, which was the first passenger-carrying designated underground railway and it operated between 1863 and 1933.

    It wasn’t very busy and I only went in to get out of the heat. It was all clean, well presented and comfortable, with the helpful advantage of having lots of power outlets.

    The most delightful element about this pub, although there were numerous, was that it was freezing cold because of that air conditioning by the window. This was quite marvellous and I very much appreciated it, as I may have mentioned to numerous people that London at the moment is too hot. The drink was £1.10, a Dalston’s fizzy rhubarb and this apparently contains real British rhubarb. So, with my refreshing drink with ice along with the air conditioning chucking out cold air, I was quite settled.

    I didn’t see much of the staff, just the drink that I ordered on the app being dropped off. They seemed friendly enough though, it was a relaxed environment and it would have normally been much busier than this. It might take the pub many more months to return to how busy it was, the number of rail passengers and the reduced number of tourists in the capital seems to be taking its toll on many pubs.

    As an aside, and I’ll let those interested read more about a little incident (well, quite a major incident really) that the pub had in their toilets a few years ago…. https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/765720/hole-in-pub-lav-was-den-for-pee-ping-tom/

  • London (Marylebone) – The Volunteer

    London (Marylebone) – The Volunteer

    Since I was in the Marylebone area I was going to pop into a pub listed in the Good Beer Guide, but unfortunately most of the ones around here haven’t re-opened yet. So, the Volunteer looked quite historic and interesting, located opposite Regent’s Park and also on Baker Street, of note to Sherlock Holmes fans.

    There was a very prompt and polite welcome from a team member, so it felt a friendly location. I was asked if I wanted to sit inside or out and I opted for inside as it’s still hot in London and there’s still been no rain to cool things down a bit. The pub’s web-site notes that “come along to The Volunteer, get cosy and escape from the cold in our pub”, but it was the reverse that I was trying to achieve. I had just been near frozen in the Metropolitan Bar, the local Wetherspoons, and I very much liked that, but this pub was a bit too warm for my liking. But, the weather is ridiculously hot, there’s a limit to what they can do.

    The beer choice wasn’t very exciting at all, the real ale choice was limited to Doom Bar. That meant I was only going to have half a pint, although the beer was well kept and tasted as it was meant to. They did apologise for this limited beer choice, I was unfortunate that they were between barrels. Whatpub mentioned they usually have three guests as well as Doom Bar, so the choice isn’t usually this limited. Customers seemed happy with the food and drink being offered and although I didn’t eat here, the menu looked like a mix of traditional British dishes and some more contemporary options.

    I was pleased to have visited though, there’s plenty of history to this pub and they explain some of it on their web-site. it takes its name from when it was a recruiting office in the nineteenth century (other stories for the pub’s name exist) and there are a few war-themed sections in the pub. The owners say that it’s haunted, but I’m pleased to note that I didn’t sense anything when I was there. The story goes that there was once a large property on this site, but it was destroyed by fire, and it’s the ghost of the owner of that building, Rupert Neville.

    The pricing was reasonable and the pub seemed well managed, feeling safe from a health point of view. I wasn’t asked to leave my name for track and trace, but they did have a QR code system to register on-line. The tables had already been socially distanced and I liked that staff were prompt to welcome customers at the front door. The main reason I like this pub is that it isn’t branded around Sherlock Holmes, even though they are just a few doors away from the museum. The pub could have felt quite tacky if they’d taken it down that route and hidden its own identity, so I thought it was all well thought through.

  • 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.