16th January 2020
Day 2 of the Great Cornish Slog, and we arrived in Falmouth where Sis was meeting up with my niece Patricia.
The way people talk about Cornwall you’d think it was a different country, rather than a mere 6hrs 14 away. Grief, they even have shops in Kernow !
I’d managed to leave home wearing a pair of battered shoes with holes in them, bought from Oldham indoor market for a fiver in 2014, so for the first time in two years I decided to reflate the local economy by going shopping. I know some of you only read this blog for fashion tips.
My only criteria for clothes shopping is as follows;
- I do it myself
- It takes less than 10 minutes
- There’s must be a new GBG tick I can do at the same time
So, at last a use for Truro.
Truro seems to exist purely to make journeys to Falmouth painfully slow, and to provide the Cornish with all the well-known brand names they’d otherwise have to go to Plymouth fore, risking plague and pestilence. It’s the Bedford of the South-West.
Nice cathedral, I guess.
But it lacks a bit of character, and the Old Ale House is the only GBG regular.
This blog can be easy, photo opportunities jumping out at every turn. Not in Truro.
To be frank, the Mens’ shoe section in Marks & Spencer would have been more photogenic with its hilariously bad sale section. M & S really have lost the plot.
The new GBG pub is promising up the hill in a neighbourhood setting away from the St. Austells diners.
The wall is literally packed with awards from “Taste of the West”, “Kernow Kapers” and the “Gardens & Allotments Competition”. Be proud, Rising Sun.
Hops dangle from the ceiling, pashmina Paulines sip Chardonnay, the Doom Bar pump clip is turned round.
What !
“Do you, do you have any real ale?“ I ask, fearing a resort to the evil keg.
It turns out the unattainable Doom Bar is the exotic guest ale, and the real stuff is from the cellar. I apologise profusely for sending the Landlady down the steps to fetch a half of Porthleven. Why would I apologise ?
It’s a bit sharp, but tasty. The pub is the epitome of neighbourhood sleepiness.
Even the version of “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” is a lounge pop cover which makes Sting seem even less threatening than Sting, if you see what I mean.
So, to shoes. Does Truro have shoes ?
Truro has shoes. Five shops in the same street. I buy a pair of brown walking shoes from Clarks that were £65 before Christmas and end up at £27 after a series of improbable discounts that require me to recite the Kernow national anthem.
You can rely on Clarks.
retiredmartin 
A very dull and unexpectedly upmarket pub. I remember questioning whether it was worth the steep uphill climb to get there.
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Has true craft reached Cornwall yet?
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Only in Falmouth, where there be art studentz.
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Arrrrr
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Actually they say “Arrrrrrrrghhh”
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Thought as much.
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“Arrrrrrrrghhhf of dat Doom Bar”.
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We have Verdant, very trendy, but the Hand Bar in Falmouth is now closed
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Yes, heading there next with these posts.
I really loved the Hand when I visited regularly in 2016 but its character changed and I saw it had closed.
Verdant are very trendy, aren’t they. Those fresh beer cans sell for £7 in craft beer bars and off licences in Leeds and Manchester.
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“It’s the Bedford of the South-West” except that all the breweries had closed by the 1930s. .
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When a style victim like what you are reports that M&S are done for, it is their death knell.
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Exactly.
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This is my dad’s local, he’s nearly 90 and getting a bit confused, but they get his Porthleven ready when they see him coming in.
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He’s doing very well then. I’d hate to think he might order a Doom Bar by mistake.
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“which makes Sting seem even less threatening than Sting” –an all-time great RM line!
I had a chuckle when I realized that Doom Bar was the guest ale. Am I right that the whole idea of a “guest ale” dates from the time when most pubs were tied to (or outright owned by) certain breweries?
The whole idea of a guest ale is a bit of a foreign concept over here, as I don’t believe we ever had “tied houses” in the bar or restaurant industry. Though interestingly there is an echo of that practice in the soft drink realm, where most American restaurants are apparently forced to make a choice between Coca-Cola products and Pepsi products– don’t think I’ve ever been in a place that had both on the menu.
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I think you’re spot on (though all I know about pubs comes from Boak and Bailey’s book).
Pubs have generally been tied to breweries by ownership or loan arrangement, with a shift to the “new” pub companies of the 1990s giving pubs a list to choose from.
I’d never ever seen Doom Bar as a guest before. Must be popular as it had run out 😉
American bars seemed to have very similar beer ranges e.g. Fat Tyre, New Belgian, Brooklyn, the one with the goose. So i suspect tied supply exists through more subtle routes!
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You’re probably right about that; with so many big brands having been swallowed up by the giants, I could be in an American bar where every last beer came from, say, AB InBev, and not really notice.
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