I was in the great city of Stoke as a cheap base for my latest trip to the Etihad, watching City reserves play that Glasgow team supported by professional drinkers. These days, it’s more a case of watching the day-trippers taking selfies and continually standing up to let latecomers take their seats. Having already ticked off… Continue reading TOP PRE-MATCH PUBS No.1 – THE PICCADILLY TAP
PENKHULL – YOU’RE MY HONEYWALL
I could have lumped my walk round Penkhull in with the post on Newcastle-under-Lyme, but it’s quite parochial round here. And while I wouldn’t call N-u-L posh, it positively flaunts its wealth at the townships down the A52. Even their Travelodge feels like The Carlyle when you’ve spent a night at Stoke’s top railway hotel. Rarely will… Continue reading PENKHULL – YOU’RE MY HONEYWALL
DOWN CASTLE DUCK !
The first rule of pub blogging is that you must nick other people’s ideas, but put a little link to their latest blog as a thank-you. So here’s Matthew Lawrenson’s quite brilliant review of Newcastle-upon-Lyme, which comes complete with music matching tips and psychedelic photography of an Ember Inn. I can’t compete with Matthew’s… Continue reading DOWN CASTLE DUCK !
LOVELY LYMESTONE
A very quick post from the Piccadilly Tap (updated in the North Staffs Hotel) to reassure our US readers I haven’t been murdered by Stokies furious at my choosing London murk over their Plum Porter on Saturday. I’m staying in Stoke, which is fun. Good train connections for Manchester and Stone, which has a rare… Continue reading LOVELY LYMESTONE
SURVIVING SOUTH-WEST LONDON PART 2 – TOOTING TO CLAPHAM
The No.44 dropped off us off at Tooting Broadway, allowing us half a mile walk along one of London’s most calorific streets. Yet another place Mrs RM has worked (St Georges) though she claimed to have resisted the lure of the barfi in Nirala back then. Asian sweets and cake shops all the way up to… Continue reading SURVIVING SOUTH-WEST LONDON PART 2 – TOOTING TO CLAPHAM
TAKING SW LONDON BY THE HORNS PART 1 – WIMBLEDON
A lot of folk have been whining about 2016 (as if 2016 cares), but it’s a wonderful life when you can board a train crushed against folk in England “rugby” shirts singing “Hey Ho Sweet Chaaariot“. I bet they had reserved pub tables in Twickers. It’s always a bit of a mixed blessing when the lovely… Continue reading TAKING SW LONDON BY THE HORNS PART 1 – WIMBLEDON
SUTTON – PRIDE, ANTICS AND HALF & HALF SCARVES
I took Mrs RM for a day out pubbing in South West London yesterday. On Waterbeach station she met one of her mates who was off to shop in Liberty for pashminas or something. Some folk don’t know what they’re missing. The full, gory details will follow, but Sutton deserves it’s own post. Partly because it won’t then… Continue reading SUTTON – PRIDE, ANTICS AND HALF & HALF SCARVES
REVISITING TETLEY IN PARBOLD
I’ve really tried but I can’t make a great case for Skelmersdale. Even the legendary 2001 edition of “The Road to Wigan Beer” saw surveying the place as a chore, it seems. But as is so often the case (Harlow, Basingstoke, Watford), Skem is a fairly desperate town for pubs surrounded by some excellent ones.… Continue reading REVISITING TETLEY IN PARBOLD
MELTON MOWBRAY MICROS
Having had to do a post without any photographs yesterday, it was inevitable I’d find a forgotten cache of pictures from the summer while housekeeping today. So here’s a bonus post on the magic of Melton. We visited the town as it opened an impressive new skate park, in those nervy moments before the first burst… Continue reading MELTON MOWBRAY MICROS
POORLY PREPARED FOR THE SHOTLEY PENINSULA
Jeff Bell posted a gorgeous piece on a rural Suffolk pub the other day on Stonch. I’d forgotten that my own piece from January was less generous about the county, if not the Greyhound itself. In penance, we visited the Shotley peninsula just south of Ipswich to tick off a couple of GBG stragglers. Gloriously,… Continue reading POORLY PREPARED FOR THE SHOTLEY PENINSULA
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