More Marvin Gaye, more nearly gentrified London, if West Norwood can be called that.
I took the train from Hampton Wick to Tulse Hill via Wimbledon and strolled down the A215, which is a bit like strolling out from Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter into Smethwick.
I couldn’t get my bearings at all. Where is this place ?, who do people support (Palace ?), is there a mobility scooter shop ? etc. etc.
A run of fried chicken shops was interrupted by the impressive cemetery and St Luke’s, the point at which gentrification officially starts.
Suddenly remembering to eat, I popped in Patty King for some saltfish and ackee and the views.
So what brings me to West Norwood ?Ā Sadly, not Doom Bar at the formerly Courage Horns Tavern.
No, it’s another gastropub.
Well, it would normally be an Antic, but the Great North Wood is just an Enterprise Inn that fulfils the function of an Antic for a deprived community (fear not, there are many more Antics to come).
Plenty of drinkers at 3pm on a Thursday; some of them on laptops, some in Hi-Vis, few on the ales.
I lie, one chap did join me on the By the Horns, after considering it with the sort of suspicion usually reserved for a 11.2% Black Sour.Ā It was very NBSS 3.25, which is fine. Shame about the dimpled mug. Anyone telling me beer tastes best in a dimpled mug will be blocked.
So we had Marvin Gaye’s 1971 classic, we had a complete showing of the Portsmouth v Cardiff 2008 FA Cup Final* ((why ?), and we had the soundtrack of a baby hollering its lungs out and being ignored by its Prosecco-sipping mum.Ā Dads shared conspiratorial looks. I nearly picked it up myself but apparently that sort of intervention is frowned upon in London.
So I set off across the terraces to Streatham.
When I reached the brown Sunbeam, I knew I’d arrived.
*Yes, that really happened.
retiredmartin 
Truman’s seem to be getting quite prodigious these days.
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Indeed. And I doubt they’re playing to the nostalgia market among beer lovers !
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Well, Bob Dylan had a job there, working as a cook for a spell, according to what he says in Tangled Up In Blue.
I wonder what went wrong?
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But he never did like it all that much and one day the axe just fell.
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Are brown Sunbeams the new mobility scooters?
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No, but it’s the inspiration in Wolverhampton for a Banks’s beer and a Greene King pub.
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How could they hold the Beer writer awards last night when all the good beer writers were otherwise occupied? From what I can tell all you guys were in pubs last night!
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It’s Simon I feel for. He’s set his heart on being taken seriously as a beer writer. I think he may even have mentioned what beer he drank in that last post.
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Fame does seem to be his higher aim:) The readers know which writers truly love pubs and beer. And you hope that is reward enough.
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What is ackee ? We refer to a “knobbly pot ” rather then dimpled mug which sounds a bit twee to me
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Ackee is a Caribbean fruit mixed with fish and typically served with rice.
Knobbly pot is a peculiarly Pauline term, I feel.
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I was under the impression that an Ackee could only be found in Hamilton.
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I haven’t seen that show yet. Does the boat sink ?
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There was noting twee about Doris Day, Pauline.
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I’d always heard that the sound of a baby hollering its lungs out can drive a mother to drink, but it seems you’ve encountered proof of it in the field. š
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“Long waiting list to join the cemetery, apparently”
See my reply two posts prior. š
“Future micro”
Yes, but only at the very top.
“(fear not, there are many more Antics to come).”
I thought you meant hijinks but there is a pub chain called that. š
“Whatās in the bag ?”
The overflow of his ego?
“So we had Marvin Gayeās 1971 classic,”
Which pretty much sums up what was happening all around you. š
“When I reached the brown Sunbeam, I knew Iād arrived.”
You could change Sunbeam to Lada and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. š
Cheers
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Wonderful photo of a proper beer glass…
I wouldn’t say that a beer in dimpled beer glass tastes best (for fear of being blocked)…
…however can I just say that it does significantly enhance the beer in every way…
…a bit like looking through that old confectioners shop window on the Werther’s Original advert…
š
Isn’t that Sunbeam just a posh Hillman Imp…?
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Morris dancers often used to say that you can’t beat a leather tankard. I’ve never taken their recommendations on anything to date, mind.
Give me a plain, straight glass any day. (Even Nigel Farage uses one, when he poses for those “man-of-the-people” shots.)
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Good man.
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Who…?
š
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Away with you beer Satan š±
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