
12th/13th January 2020
Today’s cover star is Crystal, seen enjoying Ramsgate hospitality the night before her trip back to the States with Nick.
After Arthur Brown and rhubarb cider we took a head-clearing stroll along the bay back to our digs. (Harold House, £32).
No, I hadn’t had tea yet. And I’d just spent three (3) hours in the Artillery Arms, my longest stint in one pub since I got trapped in Sinclair’s Oyster House watching England v the Swiss in Euro ’96. Detail, detail.
“A last half in the Queen’s” said Nick, whose biggest fault is the halves.

Actually I’d only walked past this beauty that Wednesday, took a couple of snaps, and thought “Wonder what that’s like these days“.


When I first came to Ramsgate in the mid-2000s it was pubs like this, and the scruffier Thorley Taverns in the High Street, that won me over. And Peter’s chippy.
Despite a decade of micros the locals remain, seemingly all appealing to the older folk with canine companions.



Safe to say we don’t have much like the Queen’s Head in Cambridge, though obviously Manchester is full of them.


Just looked at these photos and seen it was gone 10pm on Sunday by now. Where does the time go ? as someone once sang.
A No. 5 (NBSS 3)then, as Nick said “Bye” to another Ramsgate Landlord.

I took no notes of obscure ’70s classics they might have been playing. Here’s the seats.

So, where do you go for a proper meal at 10.30pm on a Sunday in January.

Yes, that is a pint of Shipyard IPA. My lad recommends it.
I felt fine in the morning.
Man, dog, pub. A recipe for happiness.
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Another thing I noticed with Ramsgate was the number of extension-style estate pubs. Few of these about these days, and to be fair I don’t know if there’s more in Ramsgate than other places, but an essential part of any self-respecting pub-town.
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England – Switzerland 96, sat in the Steamer in Fleetwood trying not to laugh when the Swiss got their penalty. That may well have been the weekend I saw a Mancunian in full Klingon battle gear try to chat up a barmaid in the Mariner in Bispham.
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potato & veg with the steak?
the Übermensch eat only steak
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TV sport in a Sam’s pub? How last century!
A week later and the pub would have been a wreck following the Manchester bombing.
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Yes. We were lucky. 😢
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– and drinking next door to a terrorist’s lair just a few months ago !
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He was in Hull more recently than that.
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I reckon the place to drink in Manchester at the time would have been the Castle, I think the Czech fans made a fair impression.
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Scott,
I think the worst damage football fans did in Manchester was to the Crown and Kettle.
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I’m sure they did. Two weeks later I was in in Prague’s central square with the final on a big screen. The bodies of the two who celebrated Germany’s golden goal winner were never recovered.
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A Magnificent looking boozer!
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