As well as housing one of my 100 Top Pubs, Walsall is a very underrated place for a short break. We’ve stayed there many times since discovering it with a young family 10 or so years ago, when it provided excellent parks (the Arboretum), cheap Asian food in Pleck, and some family friendly museums, as well… Continue reading WALSALL
TOP 100 PUBS – BLACK COUNTRY ARMS, WALSALL
I regularly get asked what the best pub(s) are, generally be people who have no intention of ever going in a pub, let alone one outside Cambridge. I always reply “The Dead Poets Inn in Holbrook“, without qualification, so as to appear authoritative on the matter. The truth is, great pubs need to be revisited… Continue reading TOP 100 PUBS – BLACK COUNTRY ARMS, WALSALL
BRUNNING & PRICE(Y)
It’s hard to argue that eating out hasn’t become cheaper, relative to income, in the last 20 years or so, but harder to argue that food is better or more interesting. The homogenisation of pub menus continues apace, with the same ten or so “pub classics” on most menus in both chain and free houses. Some… Continue reading BRUNNING & PRICE(Y)
NO CHANGE IN ST ALBANS
It’s a while since I walked St Albans, a small Cathedral city generally characterised as both affluent and a hot-bed of late night rowdiness. In my experience, from having in the area, both are over simplifications. What is more true is that things change very slowly, if at all in St Albans. The best way… Continue reading NO CHANGE IN ST ALBANS
USE YOUR LEGS
I retired early so I could get out of a mainly office-based job and enjoy fresh air and exercise. Some of that exercise is taken walking from train stations to pubs and back again. I tend to regard a 5 mile round trip to a pub as an ideal – 5 brisk miles is about 90… Continue reading USE YOUR LEGS
OLD MUSICAL EXPRESS
I picked up my first copy of the NME in nearly 3 decades today; FOPP were virtually forcing the now free paper on people. I stopped reading it pretty much when Paul Morley left, and it is unrecognisable from the paper that, along with Peel, used to point me to new musical directions each week.… Continue reading OLD MUSICAL EXPRESS
E17
Walthamstow is a fairly unremarkable suburb of London, notable for it’s long-closed Racing Stadium and it’s highly regarded Labour MP. In recent years it has seen some impressive modernisation that made a repeat visit unmissable when I was in the area at the weekend. The main areas of interest are the vibrant High Street market, the… Continue reading E17
THE REINDEER, SAXON STREET – WORTH THE WAIT
One of Cambridgeshire’s few new entries in the just issued Good Beer Guide is a real curiosity. The Reindeer in Saxon Street is the only pub in a tiny village a few miles south of Newmarket, with very little population catchment. It was taken on in 2013 by a renowned figure in the world of… Continue reading THE REINDEER, SAXON STREET – WORTH THE WAIT
KINVER
One of my venues for catching up with ex-colleagues is the small Staffordshire town of Kinver. It’s only a few miles from the Black Country towns of Wolverhampton and Dudley, with the affluence of the many attractive villages leading out to the Shropshire hills. Kinver is worth a visit for its wonderful National Trust caves,… Continue reading KINVER
BACK TO BROWN
My trip down to Cranborne Chase last weekend gave me the chance to sample a few renowned “boring brown bitters” close to source, and see whether they really were better on home territory. Palmers, Ringwood, Otter and Butcombe are all beers of some heritage, but rarely now seen in the free trade, certainly north of the… Continue reading BACK TO BROWN
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