[I originally posted this in May 2018, but I’ve reposted it to fix the broken image links]
The trip to Metz and Thionville came to an end with a rather delightful trip in Club Europe from Luxembourg to London Heathrow on British Airways.
I usually opt for an aisle seat, but I was allocated seat 1F and stuck with it. I was glad I did, as I got some unusually clear photos (well, unusually for me) of London as we descended.
And the UK coastline 🙂
I’m slowly, but steadily, working on my project to visit every pub in the Good Beer Guide. This building, located on Carey Street near to the Hunterian Museum, is thought to have been built in 1602 although the bar is mostly Victorian. There’s no shortage of history to the pub, which was originally called the The League of Seven Stars in a nod towards Dutch geography (the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands). I didn’t go up to the toilets in the pub, but they are noted for their steep stairs and a sign which requests customers not to swing on the rail. It’s located near to the Royal Courts of Justice so they are treated to a considerable amount of trade from the legal profession.
A range of Greene King and Adnams beers is not what I was hoping for as they’re so common in East Anglia, but it’s something perhaps slightly different for London. I went for a pint of Broadside which cost £6 and was well kept and tasted as expected. There are some reviews which mention, quite grumpily, that the pub doesn’t offer tasters and that is highly unusual. Anyway, the service was friendly and engaging, so the atmosphere felt inviting.
The slightly infamous pub cat visible in the background. It’s said that Shakespeare might have visited the building given that his plays were performed at Middle Temple, although that’s perhaps a little fanciful. More likely is that the pub was used as the inspiration for The Magpie & Stump featured in Pickwick Papers. The building is listed in CAMRA’s list of outstanding interiors of national historic importance and they note:
“The frontage bears the date 1602 but the building itself probably dates from “only” the 1680s, and was extended into the building on the right in 1878. The core of the pub is the part with doors embellished with etched and gilded glass, declaring ‘private counter’ (on the left) and ‘general counter’ (right). These names are probably unique, certainly in the experience of the writers, and correspond to the more commonly used ‘private bar’ and ‘public bar’. So there were evidently two separate areas fronting on to a common servery and divided, no doubt, by a timber screen. The counter (a plain affair) and bar-back are Victorian and the coloured advertising panels in the head of the latter are typical of the period around 1870-1890. The pub further expanded into the building on the left hand side in relatively recent years to form a cosy drinking area called the ‘Wig Box’.”
A rather better cat photo than my efforts.
I did try though.
I couldn’t quite understand these chairs, as one customer tried to sit on them and nearly fell off before meandering to one of the tables. The tables have table-clothes on so it wasn’t entirely clear to me whether drinkers were allowed to sit at them. The pub is primarily food led and there’s a blackboard which is chalked up with the daily menu. I must admit, the whole arrangement felt a little uncomfortable so I wouldn’t want to linger, but it’s a popular venue. Most surfaces were sticky which made it a little challenging to find somewhere to stand and not stick to something, but the food is very well reviewed and I’m sure it’s marvellous. Anyway, another Good Beer Guide venue ticked off.
[I’ve reposted this post from February 2021 to fix broken image links and also because I have more ‘riveting’ content coming about the National Maritime Museum.]
When I visited the National Maritime Museum a few weeks ago, there were numerous signs on how they were modernising the displays to be more representative and inclusive. This is an interesting interview (in.doc format) which took place last year with Daniel Martin, the Head of Collection Services at the museum and they seem to be pragmatic and forward thinking.
This painting of John Hawkins (1532-1595), in the gallery which is being reviewed, is going to present the museum some problems in terms of its interpretation. Depending on your viewpoint, this is either one of the greatest English naval commandeers that there has been, or he’s one of the men most responsible for starting the slave trade. Which doesn’t even cover that it’s Hawkins and his crew who brought tobacco back, thereby causing no end of addiction issues over the centuries.
There was a Royal Navy cruiser between 1919 and 1947 which was named after Hawkins, which does reflect that his naval prowess likely enabled England to fight off the Spanish Armada. The town of Chatham was so proud of Hawkins that they named a flyover after him, which has only recently been demolished. I’m not sure that flyovers actually need to be named after anyone, but there we go.
There was a book, Devon Seadog, published about John Hawkins in 1907 written by Robert Alfred John Walling and this condemned Hawkins for his involvement in the slave trade (although it made passing note that this often benefited the slave in some ways, which isn’t necessarily an argument that might be pursued today with such vigour) so there has long been condemnation of some of his actions.
Martin mentions in the above interview that it’s not possible to put every viewpoint in 150 words or so, which is challenging with individuals like this. The museum has though made an attempt on its web-site, where it has more space, to tell the story of Hawkins from different perspectives. I’m not sure I envy though the museum in its attempt to tell the story of Hawkins, as it can’t just ignore him as he’s an important naval figure and they’re a maritime museum, but they need to add context as well as to the impact that he had on the world.
How exciting, I’ve never had an e-mail before from TFL telling me how many tube stations I’ve visited in the year. This is a very poor performance for someone who loves London and the underground so much, especially as I did a quiz this weekend on how many tube stations I knew and I think I did rather well (on the same theme, try this…..). Anyway, I aspire to beat 59 tube stations this year 🙂 In other statistics, I made 108 journeys on TFL in the year and made the most in August. I’m sure my two loyal readers will be thrilled to know this. Oh, and if anyone wants an adventure involving craft beer, London breweries and visiting underground stations later in the year, let me know 🙂
I mentioned in a previous post for my two loyal blog readers that I was on razor thin timing for my flight, having left the hotel just 2 hours 30 minutes before take-off. I considered the reality that it might take over an hour to walk to the bus stop, get on the bus and then arrive into Heathrow Central bus station. In reality, it was 11 minutes. But, that meant one thing, I was safely at Heathrow Terminal 3 ready for my British Airways flight to Bucharest. For all of its faults, I’m still keen to use British Airways and I opted for them to get me to Bucharest. Steve had used BA the previous evening, whilst Bev, Susanna and Thim had decided that Ryanair was for them. Bev would use a cattle truck to get there if she could, but I’m surprised that Susanna and Thim weren’t a little more decadent. But, naturally, I didn’t say anything about the matter.
Back to the flight though. The boarding gate process was handled well, there was no wait and there was a seat whilst they called the groups forwards. All very organised and calm, this felt well managed. It’s always pleasant when the boarding process feels calm, sometimes it all feels a little chaotic and stressful.
Here we are on board. I say we, but I primarily mean me and the other passengers. It was an Airbus A320 aircraft, registration G-EUUF (although I need to check this, as two sites have different aircraft registration codes for this flight which I haven’t seen before). Assuming it was G-EUUF, BA have had this plane since new when they purchased it in 2002 and I don’t think it’s one that I’ve been on before (but my records are quite patchy, I didn’t know I was going to become interested in recording this for some time). Once again, I should really get out more…
One of the vestiges of my status with British Airways is that I can still book these for free, so I got an emergency exit row seat. I’ll be back to silver status early next year (the lowest status I can get which gives me lounge access), required given that I do like visiting the airport lounges as I get excited by free cans of Fanta. Also for my comfort, there was no-one on else this row which was quite handy. Especially given that Thim was reporting he had a somewhat less comfortable experience on the Ryanair flight he was on. The seating area was clean and everything worked as it should,
Satisfactory leg room and the cabin crew were pro-active and friendly. There were also working power points on the service which proved handy. The pilots were the usual middle to upper class sounding British Airways flight crew, sounding reassuring and competent. Not that other pilots aren’t competent, it’s just that the announcements made by British Airways crew seem to be so quintessentially British that it fits their brand well.
There were no delays on departing and the passengers all seemed sensible and efficient which meant no issues with people trying to shove large bags in awkwardly to the overhead lockers.
The free snack and water, which I still think is a positive touch rather than the previous effort they had which involved giving passengers absolutely nothing.
And safely into Bucharest, twenty minutes earlier than expected. There was little to report from the flight, which is a positive thing as too much drama on board is often sub-optimal. I had mentioned to Bev that I didn’t want her, Susanna and Thim waiting for me as they got in 90 minutes earlier, but that was good since they didn’t bother anyway. Once again, I didn’t comment negatively on that situation. On the matter of the weather, it looked just a little bleak, but the temperature was fine for my needs and the rain wasn’t too bad.
I won’t go on about the European Union as my thoughts on this are well known to my two loyal blog readers (and for anyone else, #iameuropean) and EU citizens were able to breeze through passport control. Those from the UK had a much longer wait which was sub-optimal. Anyway, I was again impressed with British Airways, everything worked as it should, everything was clean, the crew were friendly and the service was efficient. The flight cost £42 each way, which I think is very reasonable, especially as I used Avios from previous flights to reduce that to £24 each way. All rather lovely.
I admit to being slightly, but just slightly, geeky about London transport. Buses, trains, trams, underground services all hold some excitement and I’ve been following the introduction of TFL’s Superloop services. I decided to wait for a short while to get service SL9 which is the orbital route from Harrow to Heathrow Airport.
And here it is, the SL9. Admittedly, this isn’t really that exciting, it’s a standard bus that until recently was just branded the X140. For anyone further interested there’s more on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Superloop, with the new system being a little complex if I’m being honest. Or, at least, it seems complex to me which might be a different thing.
For the purposes of the trip to Bucharest, it took five minutes to get into Heathrow’s central bus terminal and the service wasn’t too crowded.
I like on-line quizzes, although not real-life ones as I realise how little I know compared to others, but this trending London Metro Memory game is just the sort of thing that I should be good at. It’s a memory test to remember every one of London’s stations and I confess that I haven’t done as well I would have liked. I got to 40% and then thought that was enough, I wasn’t getting anything more.
The game can be played at https://london.metro-memory.com/. I think I need to study the map for longer when I’m next on the network, I’m sure I should be able to get to 50%!
I’ve been meaning to visit this pub for a while, it’s a testament to the stubbornness of local heroes, rightly belligerent councils and loyal beer drinkers. The pub was illegally demolished in 2015 and nearly nothing was left standing. Pressure was brought to bear and the end result, after much legal wrangling, was that the pub had to be entirely rebuilt brick by brick. The difference in brickwork is visible, the section on the right is original and everything else is rebuilt. The local pressure group, the Rebuild the Carlton Tavern campaign, were praiseworthy of the restoration, although the developers CTLX decided not to attend the reopening.
I would have never have known that this wasn’t a traditional pub, the internal recreation is sensitive and apparently nearly identical to what was here before. Some parts of the previous building, such as fireplaces and some of the bricks, were reused, and fortunately efforts had already been made to detail the interior and its decorative elements which made the restoration easier. The venue is also listed in the Good Beer Guide, so that’s another little tick on my attempt to visit every Good Beer Guide listed pub in the country.
The toilets are down those steps to the right and nearly none of this survived other than the back wall. The pub had first been constructed between 1920 and 1921 by the Charrington Brewery, whose name is still outside the pub.
But back to the present, there were three real ales available, and I haven’t tried any of them before, so that was something of a novelty.
I went for the ‘Flying the Mags’ from London Brewing Co, a rich and creamy mild that was well kept and at the appropriate slightly chilled temperature. The service was polite and personable, with the environment feeling warm and comfortable. I liked this pub, it felt very much at ease with itself and it’s hard to imagine how close the community was to losing this. There are numerous community events, quite a substantial menu and the prices charged were very reasonable. I’m glad that I visited and this is a perfect model for what I think should happen at the Crooked House, a pub where there was a mysterious fire a few weeks ago.
Wooo, a new project for me! I’m aware I haven’t finished some of the other little endeavours that I’ve started, but I will get there eventually. My new riveting project for my two loyal readers involves me noting the best, or indeed just interesting (to me), pubs at every stop along the Hammersmith & City line. All 29 of them….. I will be doing this using a combination of Untappd, the Good Beer Guide and also my own endeavours.
I’ll link them here when I’ve done them.
With no disrespect to Crewe, but I couldn’t find much to excite and delight me on the Monday afternoon that I was there. There were no museums, Good Beer Guide pubs or craft beer bars open, although there was a micropub which looked marvellous if it had been open. There wasn’t even a JD Wetherspoon pub in the town, it’s shut. It meant the limit of my expedition, and it’s over a mile to the centre from the railway station, was a sub-optimal Poundbakery visit. Also, apologies for the slightly blurry photos, that’s partly a result of the greasy bakes from the aforementioned location.
As an aside, and it was rebuilt in 1880, but the Crewe Arms Hotel was built in 1838 and is the first specially built railway hotel. Queen Victoria stayed there on numerous occasions and it’s still in use as a hotel today.
There’s a pleasant waiting room at Crewe railway station. There was no town at Crewe until the railway boom built a junction here and the railway station was first constructed in 1837. It was rebuilt in 1867 and then extensively remodelled in 1984.
The interior of the railway station and this was nearly all shut down around fifteen years ago when there were plans to move to a new building which would be nearer to Crewe. There were meant to be HS2 services from Crewe, but the whole project is currently up in the air.
As a fun fact, there are seven rail operators which operate services to Crewe, which is the joint highest in the country.
The West Midlands Train service that I was booked onto arrives.
Seats were shoved in, it wasn’t overly clean and there were no power points. However, the journey was on time and only cost £10.20 which all felt quite reasonable. I moan quite a lot about this trying to five seats in across, not least on this blog, and I’m sure my two loyal readers are tired of hearing about it. But it all feels sub-optimal, it makes the aisle quite narrow and the seats are hopeless for anyone who is slightly larger.
Happy memories of Rugeley from a previous GeoGuessr expedition with Nathan.
And safely into London Euston with its shiny new boards. I still liked the old ones as I could read them more easily, but maybe I’m just old fashioned now I’ve reached 24.
I’m going to bring the Liverpool weekend story to an end here. I had a marvellous evening in London with a visit to the Craft Beer Co at Holborn, before getting the train back to Norwich. All tired at the end of it, but it had been a really quite marvellous weekend. Thanks to Steve, Susan and Bev for their company and I’m already looking forward to the next set of adventures. The trip to Bucharest with Bev and Steve, amongst others, is already booked and I hope that Bev in particular will be well behaved.
