You may like to know that since getting back from my fest I’ve done 12 (twelve) loads of washing, mostly Matt’s hardcore band T-shirts, and spent 3 hours reading BRAPA to see what I can nick. Which is more time than I spend writing my own rubbish.
Up to my most recent ticking trip now, a romantic Dorset epic of moroseness, moose and micros. Stay tuned, Russ.
It should have been my last action for GBG18, but with #BeerGuideGate rumbling on, who knows.
An easy drive down to Christchurch, not passing Maidenhead and only seeing three New Forest ponies.
Bag dumped at my Christchurch B&B, I took the fast train (packed with posh teenagers, oddly) to Poole, an exciting station.
And a well-pubbed town, with plenty of GBG competition, some of which I wrote about in Easter 2016. That was the year I led a party of children through a field of dangerous cows and got told off by Mrs RM when it was the cows she should have shouted at.
Two newbies, for me, a micro and a Proper Pub, which is how it should be.
I have notes for this trip, and they say things like “More Claridge than Claridges” which hopefully LifeAfterFootball will get if no-one else.
Its a workaday town, poorly modernised near the station but giving way to a bit of glitz as you approach the penalty area harbour.
There’s some gorgeous buildings along the Quay, though some of them appear to be less pub, more Prosecco Palace.
Packed with daytrippers from Wareham , or folk who’d just realised that Swanage is actually rubbish, it’s a vibrant but working Quayside.
The little boat is no doubt bringing holidaymakers back from a secret micro called the “Scouting for BBB on Brownsea Island“.
Oddly, despite a prominent site, Drift is empty. Unless people are hiding from me, as I suspect.
If it didn’t have an upstairs and an outside it would be competing with the Lakeside for smallest pub (the Cleethorpes and Claygate pretenders are serving hatches).
I warm to it immediately, as I’m not interrogated about the weather/reason for visit/beer preference.
The barman just pours me a half of the sole cask (Oakham), and politely asks for £2. I’d have preferred it if he’d asked for £1.50, but it felt strangely comforting nonetheless.
Drift is appealing to folk who want to get sloshed on craft beer at lunchtime to the tune of “Dance Wid Me” and “Get Lucky“. I’m halfway there.
See how many things you can dislike in the photo below.
Stop there. But It was OK. The Inferno was cool (NBSS 3) and at least Mrs RM wasn’t there to overdo the Green Devil this time.
Pizzas here didn’t appeal; I wanted something without the taint of cultural appropriation, and pressed on.
retiredmartin 
I know you sometimes add the caption “Future micro” as a joke, but that Bennett’s place looks like it could be transformed into a very nice micro indeed!
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It does, particularly now “micro” encompasses lots of smarter, professionally run bars !
Do you have anything like that micro model ? I sort of imagine your taprooms as vast buildings.
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There’s a brewpub a few miles from me that could almost qualify as a micro– quite a small place, though not at the level of some of these former storefront places you’ve been to. You’re right, the “high ceilinged cavernous room” type places are much more the norm.
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“Stay tuned, Russ.”
I’m mesmerised (in keeping with the alliteration).
Oh, and if you look very closely you can see my house on the far left. 🙂
“not passing Maidenhead”
Which must by why you didn’t use any *******s.
“Loadsa pubs”
I still get disoriented at times. Over here all of those ‘P’s would be parking. 🙂
“Future micro”
It says B. F. B. under the crown on the sign. It would be better if it was G. B. B. 🙂
“The little boat is no doubt bringing holidaymakers back from a secret micro called the “Scouting for BBB on Brownsea Island“.”
I dunno. Furzey Island has more of a micro feel to it.
“Where to start”
I think you summed it up succinctly when you said ‘cluttered’.
“I wanted something without the taint of cultural appropriation, and pressed on.”
Are those the ‘unknown Italian sailors” I’ve heard so much about that washed ashore after the Battle of Trafalgar?
Cheer!
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The “Furzey Firkin”. Yes, it works.
Yes , slipped up on M’head. And Si wrote Leeds yesterday. Lack of new Beer Guide getting to us.
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Missing from WhatPub? What’s this then? https://whatpub.com/pubs/SED/182/poole-arms-poole
I posted a photo of the Poole Arms on Twitter and someone said it was actually a properish pub.
For once, somewhere I’ve been this year before you, although the weather was a lot hotter and sunnier when I was there.
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Thanks Mudgie.
It doesn’t show up on the WhatPub map of Poole entries at all, oddly. And I painstakingly pressed all the markers ! Quayside really attractive.
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“someone said it was actually a properish pub”.
Oh, come on now, either it’s a Proper Pub or it’s an Improper Pub.
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The Poole Arms is looking good again after the recent restoration of the tiled frontage. It is definitely a proper pub as the gents toilets are outside down an alley.
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Ever been in a micro-pub that didn’t have the old pump clips stuck everywhere?
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Only in the week it opened.
But who can blame them ? it’s cheaper than paying for a plasterer.
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I’m missing the Claridge quip ! Steve managed Weymouth, not Poole ?
I expected the block of flats in a bag on the left of your Poole station photograph to have “future micro” noted against it.
Does the chain ferry still run from Poole to Sandbanks ? Went on it once on an open-topped bus going from Swanage to Bournemouth.
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Oh don’t get picky, Fred, that’s Russ’s job. There’s NO way there’s not a Claridge link to Poole.
All buildings should be assumed to be “future micros” unless advised otherwise.
On ferry, not sure. I too Sandbanks to Swanage ferry in 2016.
http://www.sandbanksferry.co.uk/tolls.php
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