retiredmartin

I’m not suggesting I used my parents house as a hotel, but I did use it as a base to make a trip to the capital on Thursday afternoon, saving £57 on the Stevenage Ibis I’d been despairing over spending a night in.

The planning for an assault on the new London Beer Guide entries is a highlight of any tickers life.

BRAPA relies on Tom Irvin and Colin the Cauliflower, while I of course have a team of 17 installed in the new garden shed Mrs RM bought me. This is the result of their labours.

The first tab shows the fourteen (14) newbies (for me, expect Duncan did some of them in the 1950s), and the map shows where they are.

Perhaps for the first time ever, no entries closed at weekends, but I’m still glad to be heading to Barbican (10 minutes on the Met line from Kings Cross) to tick The City entry on a weekday.

I love London (when there’s a clear sky) for the same reasons I love Manchester; a heady mixture of old and new, ornate and brutalist,

and a pub on every corner. In Manchester, you get better beer, but that’s a different tale.

There’s two pubs called the Sutton Arms within five minutes of Barbican Station. Our target isn’t the Fullers, though I was nearly tempted in and if this is Si’s sixth pint I bet he gets confused.

It’s this one;

Looks a corker, and it is. Reminds me a bit of the Old Fountain down the road in Old Street; proper boozer with a mix of custom and loads of interesting beer.

The highlights of my visit were the most cheery landlord in London, and a couple rhyming “all hands on deck” with Ant & Dec. You just don’t get that quality of entertainment sitting at home.

I’ll own up, I panicked and had a half of keg Boxcar Dark Harvest from Bethnal Green, and ask that my tick be allowed, though I’d be happy to go back here.

Though possibly not for the soundtrack, which was resolutely 2000s London indie.

The Landlord met me at the door. “Enjoy that ? Have a good Christmas mate“. I’ve said it a few times this year; London pubs have been wonderfully friendly this year. OK, that might be because they’re a bit too quiet, but it has been a wonderful return to form by our capital.

And one that would continue long into the night.