April 2025. Braintree. Essex.
Yes, that medieval Flemish influenced town was Braintree, yet another reason to visit Essex for you summer holidays now Florida is ruled out.
20 minutes from Stansted, written off by me as one of those dull Essex towns.
Unfairly.
I mean, you’ll still know you’re in London overflow lane,
but the pedestrianisation of the high street is a boon, the old coaching inns look lively,
and the first new Guide entry here for a decade is beguiling.
I mean, who calls a pub “The Pub” ?
It’s a half mile out of town, sort of estate pub, catering to all.
West Ham on the telly, Robbie Williams on the stereo, unfathomable machine in the gents,
a chicken pop up in the car park.
It’s no heritage pub,
but in it’s way it’s classic Essex.
Hidden barrels of Wibblers,
as always a cool 3.5.
Should have eaten there, but Mrs RM swears by the Spoons ramen bowl, and the Picture Palace is an essential stop on your Braintree tour,
all human life is here.
retiredmartin 
Why is there a shadow of a moderately large bomb outside the pie ‘n’ mash caff?
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A mix up with the friendly bomb that was supposed to fall on Slough
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The sun’s coming slanting from the right. It’s the shadow of the clock hanging on the wall of the charity shop to the right, disappointingly.
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There’s some clever people about.
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My parents lived there for a long time. I went to High School there. The Boars Head was my local when I lived with them and during uni holidays. And I remember when the Picture Palace was the Odeon!
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Anonymous, if things hadn’t worked out differently, I may well have ended up living in Braintree. Back in the late 1950’s, when my father worked for the Royal Mail, and was looking to move the family out from our over-crowded accommodation in London, he was given the options of relocating either to Braintree or Ashford (Kent).
He chose Ashford, probably because of its better rail links to the capital (my mother was rather homesick, following the move), and the rest is history. I occasionally wonder how different our lives might have been, if he’d chosen Braintree.
Note to self, must visit the town, following Martin’s post, and see what might have been.
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I would have compared Ashford with Braintree before our revisit last week, when it surprised me with those lovely statues and some good looking coaching inns. It’s definitely not a destination pub town, but you could certainly make a night of it.
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There’s a lot of memories of the Odeon left, of course. Spoons do those cinema conversions well.
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