retiredmartin

There really was no earthly reason to finish my Southport night at the Lakeside Inn, but at sunset the lake looked magical.

I’ve included Bog Hole and The Bog Breast on the OS map for the enjoyment of Russ, who this blog is missing a lot.

There was no reason to visit the Inn. I’ve been to before, it’s not in the Beer Guide, they don’t serve Cloudwater DIPA, and I had a bag of Chinese takeaway swinging around and getting cold.  But you know how it goes.

I reckon the views here are among the best in the UK.  Stuff your Maidenhead retail parks and “Cities of Beer”.

Debates about oldest/smallest/scariest pubs leave me as cold as my crispy shredded beef.

It sometimes seems new micro pubs are being set up simply as an attempt to get in the Guinness Book of Records as the place with least room for punters or shortest opening hours.

But “pubs” like Platform 3 and the Signal Box are merely serving hatches with outdoor seating*, and other challengers like the Little Prince are just market stalls with the focus on drinking outside the box, as it were.

Like the Nutshell, this is a proper pub, with proper seating round the walls and shiny tables.  You can see the entire pub, and the dancefloor, from my seat.

Simple, but immaculate.  And any pub that plays “Torn” can’t be scored lower than NBSS 3, can it ?

One cheerful couple discussing other peoples relationships, one other boozer, one cheerful barmaid who helped me find a 5p I dropped on the floor having counted out my £3.30 to the penny.

I know that these days London Pride and Black Sheep are persona non gratis in CAMRA circles.  But it wasn’t always so.  As recently as 15 May 1997 they were officially considered “good beers” and probably seen on some local Beer festival lists.  No longer.

But I tell you this.  Some of the best kept beer I’ve had the last year has been from Banks’s, Greene King and Black Sheep (rich, full, chewy, NBSS 3.5).  And I like fizzy craft.

Look how wobbly the Lakeside looked at the end of my pint;

I cleared my head in the fresh air in the “beer garden“.

Whatever the strength of its record breaking claims, don’t come to Southport without coming here.

And don’t forget to pick up your Chinese takeaway on your way out.

 

 

*And should be discounted for serving beer in plastic glasses if you ask me.