Hoorah ! for pre-emptive micro pub ticks in rural Hertfordshire !
Hoorah ! for completely inappropriate pictures of Ullage in church graveyards !
And Hoorah ! for places like the Reading Room which serve proper pub food like scotch eggs with posh piccalilli and chocolate cake (Spoiler: We had neither).
Pubmeister seems to have a sixth sense for places like these, which he fitted in on his way back to his luxury pad in Luton. The same nose for novelty takes him to 11th division reserve matches on Sark.
The Reading Room has (almost) homebrew with pumpclips you can read, a real novelty.
But never mind that. It was a corker of a Proper Pub. Proper seating at the bar, cosy armchairs at the rear near the top reading material.
Two Old Boys were ribbing the Landlady, themselves and probably us.
“I love this job, especially the regular customers“.
“When do they get here ?” said the regular customers.
We were told we needed to look upstairs, so we did. It’s a cracker.
Suddenly, the Landlady’s schoolchildren came in with their mates and started on their Latin homework board games.
It was a bit of a magic moment, as the pub felt lived in with people from every age band. I’m often put off micro pubs by their exclusionary policies (formal or informal); this felt incredibly welcoming.
Duncan couldn’t quite prise an NBSS score out of the twelve year olds, disappointingly (they were keener on the gin), but as we left he said “Nice”.
And it was.
retiredmartin 
You could search the length and breadth of the USA looking for a drinking establishment with a room like the one in your “We were told we needed to look upstairs” photo, and I’d be surprised if you could find any quite like it. (I note that it required a portable heater though– was it a bit chilly in there?)
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Guess it could get cold, but we’re in an eternal summer !
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Shocking. You turn your back on a place and then 2 years later Billy’s in Harpenden gets replaced by a half-decent bar and the Wheathampster (as named on Mark and Lard) gets a top quality micro.
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They were waiting for you to leave before opening, as they knew you’d just complain about the lack of 🔺
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“Hoorah ! for completely inappropriate pictures of Ullage in church graveyards !”
Actually they do have a connection. For one of them, people are dying to read it. For the other, they’re dying to go there. 😉
“with posh piccalilli”
I haven’t had any piccalilli in years.
“Good homebrew, mind”
And on Farr Brew’s website they indicate Roger Protz commented favourably on their IBA. 🙂
“cosy armchairs at the rear”
Blimey. Looks like a men’s club in the posh bit of London.
“You could live here”
Funnily enough when I say the picture (without seeing your remark below it) I was going to say something similar. 🙂
“this felt incredibly welcoming.”
It definitely gives off that vibe.
Cheers
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Great post Martin and that is probably the nicest micropub I’ve seen….
….and to be honest I’ve seen a few (rather than a lot)… 🙂
I think sitting in one of those wing back chairs whiling away the hours with good beers and the Beano Annual has to be close to paradise…
Mind you I have a disturbing image of you sitting in a graveyard reading Ullage which I’m finding pretty hard to extinguish… 😉
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Graveyards and Ullage go hand-in-hand.
And yes, you do seem to have a good collection of micro down on the south coast. Good job the Southampton ones are so good.
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Were you taking a copy into the graveyard to see if it would spontaneously combust on hallowed ground?
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Actually I was exorcising the image of a pashmina on the cover.
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