FEELING OLD AND PECULIER IN THE OPERA HOUSE

September 2023. Royal Tunbridge Wells.

Thank you for all your kind words of sympathy after the revelation I’d had to walk the 3 miles back from the Pantiles due to the last bus leaving at 17:28.

“In my day the last bus on Sunday left at 3pm on the Saturday. IF you were lucky” writes a reader.

Actually the walk itself isn’t bad, it’s the temptation put in your way by pubs like the Opera House.

When I first met Mrs RM I thought ALL pubs in T’Wells looked like this ornate Spoons, finding out years later that Stafford, Folkestone and March did these opera/cinema conversions just as well if not better.

My in-laws still talk about the Opera House with immense pride, though that’s more to do with having forced Tim Martin to stage an annual opera (currently the entire Ring cycle) than any love for cheap Abbot.

It may be smart but it’s the cost-conscious that make it the busiest place in town, and the pubbiest.

Local OAPs press staff for the exact details of the special deals for students, and “Tom” asks for cash back which he then leaves on the bar. The staff are uniformly cheery and chatty.

I really shouldn’t, but I succumb to that pint of Old Peculier for £2.05 with vouchers issues by CAMRA to save cask. It’s rich and gorgeous (3.5), but a pint too far with a 3 mile walk ahead.

“See ya”

“Love ya”

“Behave yourself”

Too late, ladies, far too late.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

12 thoughts on “FEELING OLD AND PECULIER IN THE OPERA HOUSE”

  2. The spoons in Folestone was a Baptist Chapel not a church It spent some time as a market hall before becoming a Spoons.My grandmother was a regular attendee [at the Chapel not the Spoons she died in 1969 just after watching the moon landing ]

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  3. I had a very nice pint of Old Peculiar two days ago in Stafford’s Hogarth pub. Cask beers there are £1.99 on a Thursday and so £1.49 with one of those vouchers issued by CAMRA to save cask which meant proper beer in a pub at not much dearer than the drinking at home that we all know we shouldn’t do. I would suggest that we should all get to pubs like that more often except that some do-gooder will immediately point out that as the pinnacle of the brewer’s art real ale is a premium product that deserves a premium price, at least thrice that £1.49 for a legendary 6½% brew from an ancient family brewer oop north. But we must object vehemently if that £1.49 gets increased to £1.69 later in the day as it’s getting busy.

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  4. I love how Spoons charge the same (low) price for their cask beers irrespective of strength. I was in one of their pubs in south Manchester on Thursday night when Timbo was running his VAT reduction stunt and they’d all been reduced from £2.55 to £2.34, including the 5% stout I was drinking (which with a CAMRA voucher only cost me £1.84 a pint).

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      1. The Rose and Crown was amazing when Doug ran it. After his retirement, not so much. However, seems it had improved again when you were there. I worked behind the bar in the Griffin Hotel under previous ownership and before a massive renovation. There wasn’t a Wetherspoons (fortunately) when I lived there.

        Don’t recall ever going into The Ship once in the 6 years I lived in the town.

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