September 2026. Limehouse. East London.
A gorgeous hour* in east London, even if the new pub in Stepney deserted me.
“Walking round London is one of the greatest things on earth. And it’s free” I wrote when I was last here eight years ago, when the Clement Atlee was called Craft Beer Co (which confused me reading last year’s GBG, I can tell you).
Just wandering a random London road like Commercial Road E1 reveals baklava, immaculate gardens, and the Art Deco Troxy (next up : Death Cab for Cutie).
Art Deco brushes shoulders with brutalism,
and then as Stepney become Limehouse you get that glorious sight of blokes in suits sinking pints on London streets.
Except this is Saturday night, and the Clem has the upmarket dining market cornered.
So all these fancy pints in trendy (ugh) London cost eight quid, yeah ?
Nope, it’s £4.95 for an immaculate Kent house beer; cool, crisp and chewy. It’s EXCELLENT, as we have to say nowadays, and justify our beer scoring largesse.
The Clem remains a great little smart boozer, that could only be improved with one addition.
But I can’t for the life of me remember what that one thing is.
*Should have had longer, but I had reasons of “personal safety”, as we’ll see later
Great man, Clement Attlee, deserves a pub named after him. Was he the local MP, Wiki says Limehouse and then Walthamstow West. Is that near where you were? (Sorry, my geography of East London, barring the City, is sketchy to say the least.)
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That pub is outside Limehouse Station, E1, so very much his constituency 👍
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Clement Attlee once pissed on my shoes in the White Hart urinals in Folkestone.
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I was headbutted by Stafford Cripps in the Clarendon.
He thought I was looking at his John Smiths Smooth.
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That Herbert Morrison could get well lairy too.
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All politicians are the same.
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How did he know it was you?
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Lloyd George once kneed my grandfather in the bollocks in the Red Horse in Camden after a dispute involving a bag of dry roasted nuts.
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I was in this area some years ago for The Museum of the Book (excellent) but missed all this so thanks for highlighting stuff, especially the Roxy.
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That’s the Bible museum, isn’t it ? Should like to visit. So much to see in that part of London from Tower Bridge east.
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You have to book an appointment. I thought I would be there for about 40 minutes – 3 hours later…!
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