My headline writer is on holiday this week so I’ve had to create one by picking random ’60s LPs with a vague Wycombe connection and adding the words “Craft Beers” for outrage factor.
The last time I mentioned Wycombe on this blog I triggered a resident, so I’m going to be a bit careful with my words.
A town most famous, of course, for an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for “longest time taken for an away fan to exit an association football ground (37 hours)“. And a chair.
I started my journey with some intriguing street art near the new Aldi, which I understand has sent the town into the proverbial Rapture with its bargain frikadeller.
Wycombe, high or otherwise, had provided me with a mere seven GBG entries over 25 years.
That may sound a lot, but contrast that with twenty-two in Reading or twenty-three in Durham. And of those seven I could only name Flintknappers and Bird in Hand, the two regulars.
So I hadn’t been for a while and was a bit taken aback by the sparkling new Eden Shopping Centre, a Cathedral to womens’ fashion and overpriced sandwiches.
Behind Eden, the old Wycombe struggles on.
That Rose & Crown was actually my favourite in town a decade ago. Still looks great.
Crossing the A40 from Eden to the remnants of the pleasant Old Town (allow 20 minutes to cross the road) I find the comforting sight of favourites such as the ’90s Spoons and older All Saints.
The Mad Squirrel Brewery Shop Emporium has made a spirited attempt at the longest pub name in the Guide, and provides the good folk of Bucks with their lunchtime craft fix in fine style.
Though of course it’s all about gin and pizza these days.
I know how much Mr Coldwell enjoys keg taps on white tiling.
Like the Red Willow Tap in Macclesfield, it’s a smart airy place with good staff and reasonably priced cask (well, under £4 a pint anyway).
There’s a few folk finishing their pizzas downstairs, and a couple of mates working through the beer list. The Berkhopsted (geddit ?) is cool and tasty, I can’t knock the quality (NBSS 3.5).
And the view to All Saints is so relaxing I forget to take notes. But I’m not sure anything pubby actually happened.
Sometimes it doesn’t.
retiredmartin 
The first photo is quite a pretty shot. Try doing a “what pub am I in” with some of those white tiled keg tap shots. That could be San Diego or Madrid.
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That’s definitely the cream of the crop re Blog titles….
(Fetches coat)
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You win the “retiredmartin” Badge.
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Crikey…. I feel I hardly deserve it as I so rarely comment. But I’m sure it will help no end if I wear it proudly when I go to a new Pub 🙂
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There’s no concept of fairness here, Raymondo. Wear your badge with pride (I’ll send you instructions on how to make it out of old Beavertown cans).
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The only ground where “is there a fire drill” should be met with, “no, I’d just like to get home before midnight.”
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Wycombe Wanderers can take credit for the lunatic idea of placing a football stadium at the rear of an industrial estate served by a single road, but this hasn’t stopped other boards of directors from subsequently making a bid for that GBoR entry. Chester City’s Deva bid was ruined by messing up every other aspect of their club, and plummeting down to Northern Premier League Division One North where crowds were not really an issue. Colchester United’s Community Stadium put Wycombe’s crown under pressure for a few years until dawned on someone a new road and junction might actually make the ground accessible.
However time marches on, and Brighton & Hove Albion came up with a whole new approach. Build a stadium miles out of town, and then filter 30,000 fans in and out through the caprice of public transport… or bicycles. We have a winner!
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Can’t you walk to the AMEC from Lewes ? Fairly sure I did.
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4.9 miles between Lewes station and stadium (says Google). Ours was a night game, and last train back from Lewes to London is 22.48. Trip was a few years ago, but don’t recall considering walking that as one of the travel options.
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Think it was Falmer village, then. Never actually got ticket to the AMEC.
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Looks like a Teku to me, but this post throws up a few really important points to me: Joking apart, as commentators on beer, I don’t think we should be perpetuating the cask v craft split (although you and others can, if you want). The reasons for saying this is evident in the nature and type of many of your recent GBG ticks – they are newer in style and outlook. When compounded by the recent findings in terms of cask sales reducing, this must surely start to tell us something …
I was going to go on but it’s probably an entire post on it’s own.
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“Commentators on beer” .Wow. As you’ll know, I tend to prefer keg to cask as it’s often cooler and at higher strengths carbonation isn’t a problem, though keg John Smiths or Banks’s Bitter will never be as good.
What I’m noticing, in Wycombe and Bristol and Cambridge, is the newer bars not really distinguishing between cask and keg or even cider) on the row of taps behind the bar. And it doesn’t matter; it’s about taste or strength or brand recognition (rarely price). The cask I’ve had from those bar back taps (Crofters Rights in Bristol for example) was as cool as the keg.
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I would have gone on to stay it doesn’t matter, but the more ‘some’ people make it matter the deeper the divide.
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The AMEC stadium is but a stone’s throw from Falmer station on the Brighton – Lewes line. Connections to and from London are available at both stations. Lewes is a beautiful historic town with some fabulous pubs. Brighton is an ugly, not very historic, city with some great pubs.
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Lewes one of my very favourite towns, good Chinese takeaways too. Only 95% of Brighton in ugly, I’d say.
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Andy,
My only time in Falmer was staying there while working at the Great British Beer Festival when it was in Brighton.
I agree with you wholeheartedly about Lewes and Brighton – a bit like Lichfield and Birmingham.
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Which one is which ?
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