This is a link worth bookmarking — Pubology’s Ewan has given a very thorough rundown of his favourite London pubs of 2009, which we’ll certainly be making use of in the coming year.
Posts Tagged ‘pubs’
Common sense guide to London pubs
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010Update on the Speaker
Friday, January 16th, 2009Just a quick one — the folks from the Speaker have dropped by with some updates on the various mini-festivals they’ve got planned this year, and answered some questions about their opening hours. Read all about it here.
Posh pub/hotel in Hackney
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
Old pub livery on the Ship Inn, Hackney
We’d walked past the Ship Inn tons of times. We’d even photographed it and put the pictures here. From the outside, it looked like a pretty rough old dive, partly because of the gang of people smoking outside the long tunnel you have to walk down to get in.
Then we read somewhere that, far from being rough, it’s actually the poshest boozer in Hackney, so we got over our nerves and went in for a nosy round.
It’s actually a boutique hotel, and a nice looking one at that. The bar makes more sense when you think of it as a service for guests rather than a pub for locals. It’s done up, as the phrase goes, like a tart’s boudoir. A good half of it is laid up for dinner with table cloths, big wine goblets and silverware. The barmen/waiters are smartly dressed with continental aprons. One of them looks like Tobey Maguire.
Standing by the door, we had one of those moments: it’s too posh! They’ll expect us to eat even though we’re not hungry!
But they didn’t. And they were very nice. The beer was nothing special (several so-called world lagers, Tim Taylor Landlord and the now ubiquitous Sharp’s Doom Bar) but well enough kept. We enjoyed our pint and felt, on the whole, that this would be a good place to go on a date or to bring people from work who don’t like ‘old man’s pubs’.
More to the point, though, it’s across the road from the usual venue for the Pig’s Ear Beer Festival (scheduled this year for 2-6 December). Any out of towners struggling to convince other halves to join them at a beer festival could find a couple of nights in this place will clinch the deal, and it’s pretty convenient to stagger home to as well…
The Ship is owned by Urban Inns, who also own the Coach and Horses in Isleworth.
Greene King Sundance
Friday, September 26th, 2008
The Garrick Arms (photo by EwanM, from Flickr)
Every now and then, we have to accept that the choice of venue isn’t up to us. That’s why, last Saturday night, we found ourselves standing outside Britain’s least characterful pub, the Garrick Arms on Charing Cross Road, trying to enjoy a pint of Greene King Sundance.
At first, we were just pleased to find something on offer other than GK IPA, Abbot and Old Speckled Hen, and it did taste fresh. But, by God, this is a boring, derivative beer.
It’s a production-line, by-numbers ‘refreshing summer ale’, which is to say that it’s got far too much sickly hop and honey aroma, no bitterness, and is a bit yellower than a normal ale.
Like drinking an air freshener.
Of course, our bad mood wasn’t helped by the fact that someone in the flat above the pubs was throwing eggs at people in the street, and that a tramp tried to steal our chum’s birthday presents.
The West End on Saturday night is a joy.
GK Sundance is 4.1% and is part of their new range of seasonal beers. It’s on massive discount in our local Sainsburys if, for some reason, you’re desperate to try it. Other bland yellow summer ales may be available.
Photo by EwanM at Flickr, under a Creative Commons license.
London pubs in the 1960s
Monday, September 22nd, 2008
The cover of the New London Spy (1966)
Beatles biographer Hunter Davies‘ New London Spy was published in 1966. It’s a travel guide aimed at cool people, and an excellent window onto the city at the height of its hipness.
In his lengthy section on pubs, Davies makes some interesting observations:
Pubs are what other countries don’t have. In England, country pubs are perhaps nicest of all. After that come the London ones.
Pubs change character as you tipple down from the top of Britain. In the dry areas of Skye you have none at all. In Glasgow they are just drinking shops. In Carlisle they are cheerless and state controlled.
But in London, there are pubs for all men and for all seasons.
He then goes on to classify London’s pubs into six categories:
- rough pubs
- posh pubs
- arty pubs
- pubs for unaccompanied men (“not queers”)
- pubs for unaccompanied women
- pubs associated with crime.
His descriptions of various posh pubs and of some of the pubs he recommends for women suggest that gastro-pubs had their genesis in this era — “serves very decent food, far better than the average pub meal (though naturally priced accordingly)”; “both setting and clientele are almost exaggeratedly decorous”.
A London pub, as illustrated by Kaffe Fassett
It is the so-called rough pubs that sound most intriguing, though. Dirty Dicks opposite Liverpool Street had dead cats, cobwebs and sawdust for decor. Charlie Brown’s (the Railway Tavern) on West India Dock Road housed a “collection of Curiosa” from all around the world (sadly sold off in the late 60s). And of the Steps (the Custom House Hotel) on Victoria Dock Road, Davies says: “It is not unusual to see somebody almost kicked to death outside.”
The illustrations in the book are by world-famous knitting pattern designer Kaffe Fassett. You can pick up a copy of the New London Spy for next to nothing at abebooks.co.uk if you want to read more.
A real ale pub that doesn’t feel weird
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
Dark Star Espresso Stout
On a recent business trip to Cheshire, I got billetted in Frodsham. My taxi driver volunteered the information that the pubs in town were decent and recommended the Helter Skelter.
Good call.
It’s pointedly a “real ale pub” but with an extremely mixed clientele and a genuinely relaxed atmosphere. There were lots of lads and ladies drinking lager, some middle-aged couples on a double date, a few old ladies on a night out and, of course, a huddle of men with beards having an earnest conversation over a notebook.
The beer was in astoundingly good condition. Phoenix’s West Coast IPA offered a late taste of summer and lived up to its marketing (a weaker Liberty Ale?) and Dark Star Espresso Stout was sweeter and chewier than from the bottle.
The beer was served with a sparkler, as you’d expect in that part of the world, but here it just seemed to give the head some body without turning it into shaving foam. I’m coming round to the idea.
What is this pub getting right? Friendly staff, for one thing. Lots of information, for another — a board behind the bar with a guide to the colour of the beers on offer is a stroke of genius. It helps that they’re not trying to beervangelise to anyone: there are no scary signs telling people off for not liking real ale, for example, and you can get a pint of Stella if that’s what you want.
And a bit of quiet background music doesn’t hurt, either.
Bailey
Can a pub with football on the telly be any good?
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008
Portugal warming up at the 2006 World Cup in Germany
CAMRA guides to pubs often praise the absence of a TV screen, and indeed, a big sign outside a pub boasting Sky / Setanta sports and a big screen is usually synonymous with mediocre beer.
I can see why people hate TVs in pubs, because they can distract people from conversation and detract from the atmosphere.
But occasionally, I do want to watch a football match in the pub, and I always have to compromise on the quality of the beer (and pub) to do so.
Has anyone got any suggestions for places in central London that are really good pubs with nice beer that just happen to have a screen? Or are the two mutually exclusive?
I suppose what you need is a pub that has several sections, where you can keep the football in a discrete area, so everyone’s happy. In Germany, both during the World Cup in 2006 and the European Championships this year, loads of cafes and bars got in screens, but put them outside, helping to create a fantastic street party atmosphere.
Incidentally, Zeitgeist is pretty good for big sporting events, but you have to choose your night carefully, as Bundesliga and Germany qualifiers get priority!
Boak
On having a one-track mind
Thursday, September 4th, 2008Wilson at Brewvana wrote a great post a few weeks ago about being beer-obsessed, and how the symptoms manifest themselves.
But what I’ve noticed about myself is this: when I’m in those “mixed-company situations,” those “meet a new person situations,” those “whatever the heck situations,” and yes, those “sitting around the house with my own darned wife situations,” it always comes back to Beer.
This is my topic of choice. This is what’s on my mind. This is the way I make connections to people, places and things.
I’ve been meeting a lot of new people recently, for various reasons, and have noticed how quickly I try and get the conversation round to pubs. Trouble is, that just makes me sound like an alcoholic…
Read the post, and see how many symptoms you recognise! I particularly liked the bit about spotting beer names in cemeteries…
Boak
Random bits of London pub livery
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
The Old Justice pub, Bermondsey
Charrington pub livery, Wapping
Courage pub livery, Islington
Watney's pub window, Islington
Pembrokeshire – great place for walking and drinking
Thursday, August 28th, 2008
The Griffin Inn, Dale, Pembrokeshire, Wales
The Pembrokeshire coast path, in South Wales, features 186 miles of gorgeous cliffs, hidden bays — and the occasional wonderful pub. I don’t mean that there are lots of pubs and only some of them are wonderful — more that pubs are spaced quite far apart in this part of the world, possibly something to do with widespread Nonconformism and therefore teetotalism. There are exceptions, for example Little Haven has three pubs, and I’ve already written about Solva. They must have been very sinful places. (more…)
