retiredmartin

October 2025. Covent Garden. London.

My first London ticking of the new GBG season, always a joy, and as I leave the corner pubs of Bloomsbury it’s time to “Do the culture“.

Five minutes from the Lady Ottoline to Sir John Soane’s house, immortalised by Maria McKee on my melancholy melodies post*.

Surely it’ll be quiet at 3:15 on a damp Wednesday afternoon ?

Oh. That queue reached back to a line saying “1 hour wait from here“.

I pressed on, admiring the way that a once popular UK pub chain pub has been skilfully converted into a gracious example of Edwardian Baroque.

Opposite All Bar One is a fine example of a “multi-cultural” Greggs, where after two rapid pints of Landlord I almost fall asleep over a £1.80 black Americano (cheaper than the one on our regular Grantham stop), and I realise I’d actually spend an hour in Greggs than the Sir John Soane’s or British museums.

Frankly, London comes alive on the streets, not indoors (apart from pubs, obvs), and I’m actually thrilled my third newbie is in Covent Garden,

even though I’m sure I’ve been in the Nag’s Head before.

McMullens are a weird brewery, aren’t they ? Founded in sleepy Hertford in 1827 with the specific objective of annoying CAMRA by using cask breathers, they seem to be enjoying a renaissance of late, with their pubs back in the GBG all over the capital.

The Nag’s is a great place to observe folk who haven’t used pubs before, like the chap standing aimlessly in the middle of the room with phone in outstretched arm, waiting for someone to knock it out his hand.

No-one, literally, is buying those cask beers, except me.

Which means your “AK is OK”, a slogan that can be yours for a small fee.

But I sort of love the Nag’s Head. It’s not a cask shrine like the Harp, it’s no dining pub, it’s not a bar for the glamorous set, it’s just a London corner pub where groups of folk go to get p****d and listen to Ed Sheeran.

I walk back to the station through Russell Square.

admire the exterior of the Kimpton**,

and pray the toilets on Great Northern are working today (it’s the coffee to blame not the beer).

*If you’d like more of my posts on modern music don’t forget to press the “More Music Martin” button below.

** Yours for £314 next Saturday night