PERSEVERANCE

October 2024. London.

Despite investing in one of those travelcards the Mayor of London will apparently scrap I opted to walk back from the Viaduct to King’s Cross for my Wednesday gig.

A mile walked in London is worth a marathon elsewhere, I reckon, and I don’t know how I resisted the call of the Fryer’s Delight and a certain Sam Smiths pub on Holborn.

I really must take Mrs RM to the Cittie of Yorke, much more picturesque than GBG newbie The Perseverance (opposite the Lamb),

but being picturesque doesn’t get you in the Guide,

and in an odd way I’m as pleased that the Perseverance makes the GBG with its under-30s crowd and whole upstairs room reserved for pizza kidz and Redemption beers.

Yet another small corner pub, London is full of them, so full I headed outside where a Kazbek enjoyed a small boost to NBSS as dusk approached (NBSS 3+).

London’s street drinking areas are great, though the chap I note as “manic laughing bloke” saw me head off to a public WC,

though that turned out to be the WC (winebar and charcuterie). Manchester does converted toilets best.

I was actually in London for my annual Matilda Mann gig, back at Lafayette at King’s Cross.

Mrs RM had promised she’d watch “Matilda the Musical” for the benefit of my blog title, but sadly had to settle for this one;

Apparently it’s quite popular, despite being about American history.

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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.

14 thoughts on “PERSEVERANCE”

  1. I recognise that pub as the Sun that I last used over forty years ago when it was probably the first London pub to have a dozen cask beers on. I’ve always preferred the Lamb opposite.

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    1. The Lamb has had quite a rocky time over the last decade or so, landlords/managers seeming to come and go quite frequently and an increased focus on (admittedly good) food rather than the beer. Also, always seems very warm and stuffy in there for some reason…

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  3. I’ve not bought “one of those travelcards” since getting an Oyster Card which cut my fares from £28.40 to £13.30 over 28½ hours earlier this week.

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  4. A part of London that seems to have changed very little, at least since I moved here from Leeds in 1980. I already knew several people and about six of us would meet in the Lamb on Tuesday after work – six people meant six pints a round. We would usually have the last ones at the Sun, which was run by a chap called Roger Berman who I think had a short lived brewery of his own at one time and also a smaller pub nearby called the Moon. The Fryers Delight was there then and a portion of chips would last you the walk to Kings Cross for the train home. All very nostalgic nearly 45 years on.
    [IPW]

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    1. IPW, Yes and the Lamb was just about the nearest Youngs pub to Euston railway station while the Star Tavern was probably the nearest Fullers. We probably couldn’t have imagined then how ubiquitous their beers would become.

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    2. Happy days at the Lamb. Always a good pint. And the Friars Delight’s chips were excellent. The Moon always smelt of cats piss.

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      1. Well, of six pubs this Sunday lunchtime I was in one for less than a minute. An employee looked puzzled at me walking straight out and I explained that the smell of overcooked cabbage had put me off. I could have added that two “uninspiring” beers and loud music didn’t help. You’ve now got me wondering whether I can distinguish overcooked cabbage from cat piss.
        Poorly kept beer in two of the other pubs added to my disappointment.

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      3. I might have had in mind the “Bland, uninspiring beers score a 2” instruction for the NBSS.
        I wasn’t inspired yesterday lunchtime by one with “Lemon” in its name and the other that’s intentionally “hazy”.

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      4. I’m a big fan of “Hazy Lemon” by Boring Brewing. Not uninspiring to me at all.

        The only beers I’ve put in that category over the years were from South-eastern brewers like Andwell and Langham, and even then I suspect it’s low turnover in country dining pubs rather than the beer itself.

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      5. Having never expected a beer to be “inspiring” and considering session beers to be “subtle” rather than “bland”, I regret having used the wrong words here.
        I have nothing against “lemon” or “hazy” beers, or “fizz”, but they are not for me except perhaps as a distress purchase.

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      6. I agree with you, Paul, I expect a beer only to be enjoyable, so that I drink it and want another one, whether that beer is Banks’s Original or a murky Two by Two pale.

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