August 2026. Coventry.
Right, let’s leave inner Coventry and head to the underpass,
follow those scooters.
Spon End is the heart of the light manufacturing quarter west of town, watchmaking mainly, a place few tourists tread.
Of course, most tourists tick the cathedral(s) and the music museum that Lana just found, while all I had today was Kev’s Chop Shop,
and Kung Fu weapons.
The area looked unchanged since a morning pub crawl I did in 1996 while Mrs RM was turning computers on and off at the University.
30 years ago, the Hearsall Tavern is lovably unchanged.
Irish scarves, horse racing,
the hits of 1979,
(the year of Two Tone). Someone made a Ghost Town reference here, because it’s the law.
It’s 3pm and there’s a general sense of community and crackling conversation, and we realise how great it is when pubs don’t bother spending £375k on a pointless refurbishment so they can get CAMRA members to stand outside the pub holding a glass and going “Cheers !“.
A procession of Bass that afternoon,
all of it the decent side of GOOD,
but some of our half dozen were wilting by now.
Not me, though.
retiredmartin 