February 2026. Letchworth Garden City.
Just for you, a map showing all the things in Letchworth, a town rather changed from our time there 35 years ago.
Notably, Sagar Tandoori where we ended our £40 Friday night splurge with a flaming sambuca is closed,
not that I’d have been able to see it in the drizzle.
Broadway leads to Arena Parade and the usual “town hall ruined by car park” scenario.
But the Arena Tavern stands unchanged in 35 years ago, one of the few pubs in the “The Worlds End” using the same venue outdoor and indoors.
I can’t believe the Tavern was brand new when I arrived in 1991; it always looked the sort of shopping centre sport/live music bar that had been there forever, a bit like Jono’s in Ilford.
That beer range is straight of the glory days of Boring Brown Bitter, too.
The young barman is, you guessed it, a gem; approving of my choice of the Rev James pulled from a beer engine that looks older than the pub.
Last time here, and that would have been BC (before craft) I’d had John Smiths Cask, and it wouldn’t have been as good as this cool, chewy pint (NBSS 3.5). The Rev is as indestuctable a pint as Black Sheep or Vault City Custard Tart Smoothie.
It’s a quiet Sunday afternoon in Letchworth, there’s more trade in the three Italian restaurants (all on Untappd), but the Arena is warm and cosy and mixes Elton John with Paramore (not at the same time, though Elton does so many duet it’s not impossible).
There’s a drip, drip into a dog bowl the barman has placed on my table to catch water from a leak above. It’s a metaphor for life. Or something.
retiredmartin 
I’m not sure I’ve seen Shepherd Neame beers on in a pub they didn’t own. Do you see that very often?
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I’ve checked my spreadsheets for the last three years, Dave. The only Sheps beers I had were in Sheps pubs. I may have seen their beers in pubs they don’t own, but if so that would have just made it easier to choose from among the other beers.
I was in the Elephant in Faversham a couple of weeks ago, and they are very keen to point out that they NEVER have any Shepherd Neame beers on!
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Our first encounter with deep seated anti-Shepherd Neame zealots was also in the Elephant. Ten years ago. For 30 minutes the devoted cask ale drinkers talked us into submission. We dared not say we were staying in The Railroad up the street. My brother is still scarred from the encounter and hasn’t touch an SN beer since. He drinks water in SN pubs and walks very quickly past the brewery.
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Will may correct me, but I distinctly recall Sheps being a much better experience 25 years ago, in fact Spitfire was often superb. I’d have put it alongside with Bombardier, 6X and Directors as reliable beers when Mrs RM first drove me to drink. Volume sales of all those must have plummeted in the 21st century (and I know what Old Mudgie would put that down to).
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Will beat me to it. While I drive down the A1 he checks spreadsheets, what a trooper (don’t see that as much these days).
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The Elephant is the sort of pub I’d like to see as National Pub of the Year. I assume the Southworths have never made it to the Tamworth Tap.
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The Fox And Goose in Hebden Bridge – before it was community whatever – used to be very keen to point out that it never sold French produce.
People should measure themselves firstly by what they do, not by what they don’t.
Unless that’s morris dancing…
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This question interested me so much I just did a search of my own blog and could only see one mention of Sheps in a non Sheps pub (Bredgar Sun). Spitfire and Bishops Finger used to pop up quite regularly in Spoons, less so now.
To be honest, you’re lucky to get what used to be the stock Sheps beers (Master Brew, Spitfire) in their own pubs these days, and there was no Bishops Finger in the actual Bishops Fingers in Smithfield.
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Yes, “a beer engine that looks older than the pub” from Masons of Birmingham who have been “expert suppliers of bar and cellar equipment” since 1803.
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Timelessness. Who could ask for more?
Non mortals I suppose.
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