Five trains headed north from Archway to High Barnet before one eventually took me south to Goodge St. Why is that? Who’d want to go to Barnet?
This stretch of tourist London north of Hamleys is unknown territory for tickers and giggers,
What pre-emptive potential would the Cock hold ?
More to the point, how much trouble would I get into for getting my mobile phone out ?
Quinno and Liberal James had bagged the seat nearest the door, an impressive achievement on a busy Friday night.
If the Cock has ever been in the Guide it was before BRAPA first urinated on a public railway (Malton, 2001).
Any sensible person would have gone for the keg Stout.
Not me.
Quinno and James had been working their way round South London’s Sam Smith gems, having a different drink each time. They’re from Reading, which explains a lot.
My OBB was as good as you could hope for in central London; cool, rich and chewy (NBSS 3.5).
I think we may have talked about Brexit, Rotherhithe and mobile phone bans.
I do know I went back to the bar to choose something they hadn’t had before.
Those two bottles cost £11.70. Don’t feel guilty, lads.
I had a taste of both. I might have even mixed them. Don’t @ me.
The Cherry beer may have cost more than a pie at the Etihad on a Tuesday but it was sensational.
He may be cantankerous but Humphrey still runs some marvellous pubs.
I’d had enough beer, but being London my gig didn’t start till 9pm, well after my bedtime.
So I did the tourist stuff for an hour, attempting to find food for less than a tenner within 500m of Oxford Circus.
No good beer at the Social, but (yet) another pre-Brexit opportunity to see the wondrous Amber Arcades wish the UK goodbye before 31 October.
The Dutch really do have all the best tunes, even if Humphrey has all the best pubs.
retiredmartin 
Of course the real question here is whether the BRAPA c*ck has ever made it into the guide, pre or post a pint of OBB.
Perhaps a bit too much Bizarro influence tonight.
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I was in the Cock last night en-route to The Social to see John Head (who was magnificent). I was sat on my own in a corner reading a kindle book on my iPad minding my own business. I was approached by a member of staff who, very politely, told me that I was not allowed to do that. I queried would it be all right to read a paperback. I was informed that indeed, this was acceptable, but I was reading via ‘tech’ and so not allowed.
I supped up and went to the Social to finish my book.
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Wow. You troublemaker you.
I know brother Mick and the first Pal Fountains LP was up there with Swoon in 1984 but ashamed to say I don’t know John.
The Social is tiny, isn’t it?
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Sam Smith’s OBB is one of the more unusual beers I have had. The taste is unique. Hard to place.
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That’s true. Hard to describe. This was one of the better pints, and good to see they sell enough here at £3.50 a pint to let Humphrey keep it on.
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£3.50 ?
it’s gone up 10p since I was in there sixteen months ago.
“I think we may have talked about Brexit, Rotherhithe and mobile phone bans” but hasn’t Humphrey banned conversations about mobile phone bans ?
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Everything is banned outside London.
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Dave,
Yes Sam Smith’s OBB is quite an unusual beer, and there’s no harm in that.
How did you think Sam Smiths in the Old Blue Bell compared with John Smiths a few minutes later in the Market Tap ?
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I’d say a lot of the uniqueness comes from the oak that every drop of cask OBB comes from. Keg OBB is a different taste.
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Ooh, never had Keg BBB. One for the bucket list.
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Nice to see The Cock in there – the interior is almost as good as The Champion down the road.
Good food for less than a tenner near Oxford Street? Should have gone to ICCOs.
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Did walk past that. Queue was halfway back to Holloway.
Went to Rosa’s Thai Cafe in the end. Very good.
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No problem with mobiles/electronic devices at the Chandos, just across from Trafalgar Square, last Saturday night.
Good OBB as well, worthy of 4.0 NBSS. Definitely best pint that evening.
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That’s good to hear, Paul, on both scores.
I certainly enjoyed the OBB in the Cock, though will guarantee it’ll never get in the GBG.
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The last time I went to High Barnet it didn’t turn out to well. https://thepubexplorer.wordpress.com/2018/10/26/should-i-stay-or-should-i-go/.
I could describe OBB but surely this is a family blog.
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Grief. Is it a year? How you feeling now?
We can blame most bad things on Barnet, I find.
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Feeling fine so far, a trip to Ye Olde Mitre is never a bad thing.
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Citra,
Yes indeed, a lovely pub, and I think you recommended the Seven Stars not far away and not just for the pub cat(s).
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Different Mitre Paul, but both good, as is The Seven Stars.
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Isn’t this the Addams Family Blog?
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Your pub life would be much better if you spent more of it in Sam’s pubs and less fuming outside inexplicably closed brewery taps and micros 😊
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But every pub visit without pink marker applied to a certain book brings a degree of regret….
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Maybe for a diversion you could switch to ticking Sam’s pubs. Would be rather more achievable as well. But you’d still have the problem of finding them inexplicably closed, and often barricaded with rocks 🙄
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Quinno and James are pursuing that with vigour one Friday a month.
I’d cope with just OBB, keg Stout and the cherry beer, but miss that micropub misery we love.
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I don’t think Quinno and James are going to have a week away in Rochdale, although I’m sure the TAND would happily give them a guided tour.
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Ha! All Sam Smiths keg pubs in Rochdale. That would make a great blog and Tandleman could interpret for them 😉
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When Smith’s got to 25 (or maybe 26?) pubs in London, which would have been some time in the 80s, they set up a crawl around them in the same form as the Youngs 135 crawl – i.e. you collected a leaflet from your first pub and got the entry signed by someone on the staff then when you went to the others you got those signed until the leaflet was complete. At that point you sent it to the brewery and got the special tie back. I still have my tie but it’s a bit inaccessible at the moment. I wonder how many of the pubs they had then are still in their ownership? It has struck me for years that they buy pubs as much for the investment value as to sell their products, which might apply more to the London estate than elsewhere.
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