You rejoin me at Battersea Power Station tube, where I’ve ticked four Good Beer Guide pubs in two hours* and completed a lovely section of GBG pinking. My next tick would involve either a long and complex set of journeys to Hanwell, or to Bexleyheath, neither of which appealed. I’d peaked too soon, and had… Continue reading THE SHIP & SHOVELL – BUT WHICH ONE ?
Author: 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.
TUBE TICKING AT BATTERSEA POWER STATION
BRAPA would have come up with a witty title, something involving “Some Like It Hot” (the song, duh) and rhyming Battersea with “I need a pee” and oh, how we’d laugh. But I’ve overwritten my notes from this one and I’m not in the mood for frivolities. Besides, I was tense as the Battersea Brewery… Continue reading TUBE TICKING AT BATTERSEA POWER STATION
DOING THE LAMBETH TICK
Slight problem as my earliest extensive notes, somewhat akin to Pepys but with more typos, have just been overwritten by my sitting on my phone and now look like this; A third South-West London tick in an hour, as I take the Northern Line from Clapham Common to the Oval, and then a hop through… Continue reading DOING THE LAMBETH TICK
SALT AND PEPPER SQUID
I’d arrived in London at 11:40, was rating that Harvey’s in Balham at 12:10, and at 12:30 was heading off to Tick 2, the Abbeville in Clapham. Now, your heart always sinks a bit when you see a new Guide pub in Clapham, home to atrocities like this one with its £10.45 G & T… Continue reading SALT AND PEPPER SQUID
BALHAM – GATEWAY TO THE SOUTH, AND MY LONDON GBG COMPLETION
Another benefit of “going home” is it gives me those shorter trips into London that made Waterbeach bearable. On the Wednesday, possibly in 1997 I’m so far behind, Mrs RM drove the campervan back to Sheffield and I took the 10:10 to King’s Cross. I know I mercilessly take the mick out of West London,… Continue reading BALHAM – GATEWAY TO THE SOUTH, AND MY LONDON GBG COMPLETION
A PLACE IN THE SUN
I’ve been travelling back “home” to Waterbeach once a week to check up on Mum and Dad, each time seemingly an attempt to avoid being force fed baked potato and cake. They seem OK, considering, and my main task is taking Dad out to a new garden centre to but plants. If he’d started ticking… Continue reading A PLACE IN THE SUN
A St. Albans Sunday Saunter
Just some nice photos of pubs for you this morning, to remind you of your duty to get out and save pubs today. Shamefully, we only stopped in Gail’s posh cafe for a flat white and this cake which we’ve become quite addicted to lately. We almost walked off the 477 calories walking from Verulamium… Continue reading A St. Albans Sunday Saunter
A DAY AT THE RACES
A real corker of a Home Counties neighbourhood pub to finish our weekend in Windsor. Hard to describe the Trooper, whose beer range is rather wider than Adnams but I cut out the other beers to fit in the Bass mirror. A bit like a less beery Cambridge Blue or (Stockport) Magnet, perhaps. The front… Continue reading A DAY AT THE RACES
A RAINY NIGHT IN WINDSOR
After two nights happy camping it was time for a hotel with a shower and posh biscuits. I surveyed the options on Booking.com. Only £38 for a night in Slough. And “very poor” isn’t THAT bad, is it ? In truth, nothing appealed, so we stuck the van in the riverside car park overnight and… Continue reading A RAINY NIGHT IN WINDSOR
SO, DOES BOVINGDON’S BELL REDEEM HERTS ? I’M TORN.
I love that photo. Hard to describe why, but it just says “Proper Pub” to me. Bloke in suit drinking a pint while watching Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” ins a classic upmarket Hertfordshire boozer. “But what’s he drinking ?” you ask, missing the point. My last tick for Herts is the Bell in Bovingdon, one of… Continue reading SO, DOES BOVINGDON’S BELL REDEEM HERTS ? I’M TORN.
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