A DAY TRIP TO BECKENHAM

June 2025. Beckenham.

It’s not cheap getting to London from Waterbeach during the week, but it’s cheaper when you’re old.

£25.50 day return to Beckenham, with two (2) new GBG pubs as I bring London ticking to a crescendo.

A train to Beckenham isn’t as straightforward as a train to Kings Lynn. How many stations are there ?

I make a big mistake huge, buying a ticket while walking to the station and picking a return to New Beckenham rather than a Travelcard, a mistake I’ll pay for in the next post.

This must be one of the dullest, albeit neatly manicured, bits of the capital, and I’ve been to Havering.

Absolutely nothing to report on a 20 minute slog from station to Three Hounds, the ubiquitous craft micro in an inter-war arcade (see also : Bexley).

It’s the first pub I’ve seen, CAMRA “Experience” confirming the pub desert below New Beckenham.

So let’s celebrate the Three Hounds, a cheery place with folk of all ages settled in at ten to five and a young lad giving me time to choose from a scary array of taps, rather than uttering those most terrifying words,

“What sort of beer do you like ?”.

I admire the pumps,

and pick the local-ish Anspach & Hobday Ordinary, because any beer called Ordinary deserves a chance.

A chewy NBSS 3+ in a chunky glass is fine, and I love that inter-generational banter which seems to be largely taking the p*** out of Katy Perry.

I realise I have no idea how to get the 3 miles to my second pub, other than walking through Dullsville, and ask ChatGPT.

In 2025, typing in question for ChatGPT while crossing the A234 will get you run over, folks.

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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.

15 thoughts on “A DAY TRIP TO BECKENHAM”

  1. We lived in Beckenham for a year or so just after we married. It wasn’t Hoxton but we loved our time there.

    Best pub in the area is the Jolly Woodman. Good beer and welcoming hosts.

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  2. There are 8 railway stations in Beckenham not including the tram stops. The Jolly Woodman is a good pub. I had a nice pint of Boltmaker there.

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    1. Acton has its share of railway stations.
      As of course does Manchester, e.g. for M Airport stopping at M Victoria, M Oxford Road and M Piccadilly.

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  3. Until 1960, there were six railway stations with the prefix ‘Manchester’: Central, Exchange, London Road (now Piccadilly), Mayfield, Oxford Road, and Victoria. I can’t think of anywhere else outside London that can match that.

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    2. John,
      And London has not a couple of termini like most European capitals but a dozen because a Royal Commission of 1846 having reviewed railway termini in London recommended that lines north of the River Thames should be prevented from entering the central area. So unlike Charing Cross, lines to Paddington, Marylebone, Euston, St Pancras and Kings Cross stop over a mile short of the Harp.

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  4. Central was at the back of the Midland Hotel. The train shed (similar to the one at St Pancras but slightly smaller) is now an exhibition hall. Exchange was just to the west of Victoria (and attached to it by what was then the longest railway platform in the UK, which began as platform 11 at Victoria and became platform 3 at Exchange). Central and Exchange were closed in 1969; Mayfield (which was essentially a relief station for London Road) was closed in 1960.

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      2. But the time walking could have been an extra pint of Harveys in the Harp. Except that it’s already too busy a pub.
        That NIMBY Royal Commission of 1846 have probably caused up to twenty billion extra underground journeys. The modern equivalent is HS2 only running between the Woodman and Old Oak Common.

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