retiredmartin

You left me in Motspur Park, (F) which at least I can tell my children I’ve seen now.

Wiki tells me the area has had two famous residents; Nigel Winterburn and George Clinton. Nigel apparently played maracas on the video for “Do fries go with that shake ?“.

Anyway, too exciting for me, so I caught the train from Earl Beatty to Earlsfield (G). Bing maps doesn’t let me show the route by public transport (booo !) so you’ll just have to imagine.

By now it was dark; you’d think a rich city like London could have solved that problem by now, it was light in Sydney till 7.59pm.

I don’t like the dark. You can’t see the architecture and street art and I always feel the blog loses a lot when it’s just the inside of pubs.

Earlsfield is one of those confusing bits of SW London. Part of the borough of Wandsworth, included in Tooting parliamentary constituency, dominated by Wimbledon and officially known as Nappy Valley, all of which are likely to be used as geographical homes in the Good Beer Guide.

The Jolly Gardeners is the sort of GBG pub you half expect to be closed for a private party, particularly in December i.e. any pub in SW18.

Single room, bare boards, casual dining, two local beers.

Oooh, Hopadelic. Surely a reference to George Clinton ?

Plus points : “Solsbury Hill”, an OK By The Horns, nice old photos of Garratt Lane

Low points : £2.50 a half (a half)

By now my phone was instructing me to leave the pub immediately and run across the road to the bus stop to catch the 5.19 to Tooting and thence to Balham.

NOTE TO SELF : Just walk next time. The 2 miles of culturally diverse Garratt Lane took 20 tortuous minutes.

Decorum was restored in Balham, with Hagen & Hyde maintaining the Antic track record of daft names and 1970s lampshades and weirdly placed tables.

“Up to ten real ales, twelve keg beers” threatens WhatPub, but thankfully Antic seem a bit more sensible than that and the Wimbledon Mild was a solid NBSS 3.

Because children (well, BRAPA) may read this blog I’ll spare you the octagonal beer glass.

Or perhaps not.

I also spared myself the 27.5 minutes as it was clear nothing was happening.
That was actually my last South West London tick, and I’d emerged unscathed if not exactly life-enhanced.

But I still had a couple of hours before a gig that night in Hackney’s Moth Club.

Twenty minutes of those two hours were spent getting lost in the dark at Liverpool Street, but a rather happier time was had at the Pembury.

This is the place my local village brewery owned for more than a decade before the local outfit took it on.

Milton beers have gone, but Five Points have commendable pump clips and beer names.

Everyone was on pints, bar a few escapees from the Pig’s Ear Beer Fest down the road

Like Milton, Five Points make a wondrous dark beer.

And like Milton, their pub serves “awesome pizza” to young professionals.

But while Milton’s pubs have quizzed and Kerplunk (probs), the Pembury has billiards. Noisy billiards.

So noisy it competes with “Cannonball” by the Breeders, and the inevitable shrieks of Christmas joy from office parties.

I couldn’t fault it.

Frankly the EOTR Christmas party at the Moth was a dud, ruined by chatterers, but if any of you can identify this track it would make me very happy.

 

EDIT: Thanks to Saimon of my own parish for identifying the Mods.