The problem with Sheffield, if you’re a pub ticker, is that it’s easy to be distracted from The True Path (ONLY visit new GBG pubs, don’t get distracted by revisits and beer festivals and keg pubs). We’re getting a few visitors now from backwaters such as Cambridge and Dereham and Hook, and they all expect… Continue reading SHEFFIELD’S PUB HERITAGE
MATILDA MANN MANIA
Oh no, scary new music that’s not 50/70 year old blokes still playing their ’90s/’70s hits ! Don’t worry, there’ll be another pub post along in a minute. I finished an epic Wednesday in London, NOT in the Parcel Yard but just behind it at Lafayette, a new basement venue tucked into the flashy new… Continue reading MATILDA MANN MANIA
INTO ISLINGTON
On the home straight now, as I declare on five GBG ticks and try to think of things to do while waiting for my gig to open doors at 19:00 that doesn’t involve researching pubs. Here’s my “heat map”; bit of a midfield battle, isn’t it ? The walk through Finsbury takes us past some… Continue reading INTO ISLINGTON
CLOUDY IN STROUD(Y) GREEN
Oh no ! Pictures of beer ! What happened to the photos of London’s architectural wonders, cosmopolitan dining scene and hemp shops ? All present and correct on the walk from Finsbury Park to Stroud Green, from Arsenal to Tottenham if you like. I cannot lie, this bit of North London is a bit of… Continue reading CLOUDY IN STROUD(Y) GREEN
THE SHIP & SHOVELL – BUT WHICH ONE ?
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 ?
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
