retiredmartin

May 2023.

My first venture back into the rich world of UK pubs came four days after touchdown at Luton Airport, and with four (4) new London ticks I almost felt I’d got this Guide ticking lark sussed again.

In truth, only London really offers such an abundance of ticking joy so close together, and in 2023 the east of the city really delivered.

There is, of course, a HUGE difference between West Ham and hipster Stratford, where I changed tubes for Hackney. In fact, Stratford underground seemed like the most cutting-edge place on earth that Thursday tea-time. And I’ve been to Daventry. I still remember when the Goldengrove, not one of the top Spoons, was the smartest place in Stratford.

Two ticks in Hackney which had eluded me since GBG publication due to the curse of late week opening.

You can’t miss the Hackney Tap; it’s behind the bikes.

Not your typical view of Hackney, you’d think, but that’s gentricraftification.

The Tap looks like a mini Euston Tap, doesn’t it ? Yes, it’s that lovely Bloomsbury Group again.

Reminds me more of the oft-deserted upstairs room in Euston, as everyone was enjoying the E8 sun.

A more modest selection that usual in a Tap, particularly on cask,

so I stuck to the cool and murky Hackney Pale on keg. Once you’ve completed a Beer Guide, you get a little certificate from CAMRA that allows you to swerve the cask and still colour in your GBG.

Perhaps it was the combination of sun and a third pint in 73 minutes, or the Caribbean rhythms on the pavement, but it all made perfect sense.

But then a young lady started singing along to “Africa” (yes, that one) and dispatched her beardy boyfriend to the corner shop to buy some fags and the spell was broken.

But I guess multiculturalism means you have to tolerate white folk singing to Toto if it means you get top quality music venues and Bao buns and the liveliest McDonalds in England.

I had a black coffee in that McDonalds, and then began the long walk down Mare St.