retiredmartin

I’d arrived in London at 11:40, was rating that Harvey’s in Balham at 12:10, and at 12:30 was heading off to Tick 2, the Abbeville in Clapham.

Now, your heart always sinks a bit when you see a new Guide pub in Clapham, home to atrocities like this one with its £10.45 G & T and this one with its 8 sided glass hell.

But the 20 minute stroll to Abbeville Road allows you to see art installations like “Dominos“,

singalong to “Stairway to Heaven” with the (many, many) tradesmen with blaring radios in SW4,

and admire the manic sameness of South-West London streets.

It made sense taking that photo at the time.

I’m in a buoyant mood as I reach the Abbeville. Oh look, there’s another customer.

Or were they at that expensive Gail’s Bakery I raved about yesterday ?

Anyway, NO-ONE goes drinking at lunchtimes in pubs anymore, do they ? And no-one sits at the bar in that narrow strip leading from door to loo. I sat outside the loo, and waited in vain for a 1pm rush that never happened.

“Would you like Cash or Card ?” I asked, prompting a horrified look. Feeling awkward about paying for a less than sparking half of Harvey’s on card I added a Salt & Pepper Calamari, the local national dish of SW London gastropubs.

The squid was great, crisp and chewy, to be fair, and I reckon CAMRA should be campaigning for Craft Union pubs to have it as a bar food item, rather than wasting their efforts saving pubs they don’t visit anyway.

Google Maps then suggested I walk back towards Balham to catch the tube to the Oval, but I don’t like being told what to do and headed along Clapham Common, which looks really dull when you’re not actually lounging about on it eating an ice cream.

But look at the blue skies my presence had attracted !

Americans will be interested to see this sign, which is actually older than America itself.

I thought it marked the distance to a Titanic pub in Stone, but further research reveals it’s now the home of Tiffany & Co.