Each year’s Beer Guide quest throws up one pub that becomes the Holy Grail, the Kilimanjaro*, the Cloudwater cask of pub ticking. It used to be the Old Forge and the Sixpenny Tap; this year’s it’s Platform 3 at Claygate. It should be a doddle; a platform bar at a busy railway station just outside Zone 6 (and… Continue reading FOLLOWING THE PUBMEISTER TO CLAYGATE
Tag: Surrey
STUCK INSIDE OF WHYTELEAFE WITH THOSE MICRO BLUES AGAIN
There is one thing to be said in favour of Whyteleafe. No, two. At least. There’s a decent Travelodge there for £39, and more railway stations than pubs. That’s actually true; apart from the new micro, the sole tavern offers Pride or Bombardier. So don’t go complaining about your own drinking scene. It’s pleasantly hilly, and… Continue reading STUCK INSIDE OF WHYTELEAFE WITH THOSE MICRO BLUES AGAIN
JOY UNCONFINED AT CAMBERLEY’S EMBER INN
If ever there was a post produced without enthusiasm, this is it. Blame Tom Irvin. You’re not even getting a map extract. This is the “Contractual Obligation” of blogging, and anyone who knows their Python will know that LP contains the underrated “All Things Dull and Ugly“, which sums up the subject of this piece. Ember… Continue reading JOY UNCONFINED AT CAMBERLEY’S EMBER INN
IN FAIRNESS TO BRUNNING & PRICE…
This blog is guilty of inverse snobbery and proud of it. However, Mrs RM is a fine lady with great appreciation of the real ale, but will always prefer the shiny craft bar to the scruffy “old men’s pub”, which is why I’ve never taken her in the Olde Vic (her loss). But then she is… Continue reading IN FAIRNESS TO BRUNNING & PRICE…
OPEN ALL HOURS – KNAPHILL’S ROYAL OAK DOES A PROPER JOB
Just 17 minutes on the train from Aldershot, central Woking feels a different world. Not always a world I’d want to inhabit, with an athletics centre of a football ground and only a Spoons and a Social Club for Beer Guide company. Type “Woking” into WhatPub and the first places you see are an O’Neill’s, a Slug, a… Continue reading OPEN ALL HOURS – KNAPHILL’S ROYAL OAK DOES A PROPER JOB
SURPRISES IN THE SURREY HILLS
I completed Surrey‘s cohort of Beer Guide entries in Guildford, as is traditional. It’s a place I warm to more each year, though rarely because of the pubs. There’s some unwelcome digging up of the High Street at the moment, but that doesn’t attract from some impressive buildings, and the castle is, like Shrewsbury’s, underrated.… Continue reading SURPRISES IN THE SURREY HILLS
A RARE TRIP TO REIGATE
Approaching the end of Surrey‘s Beer Guide entries now, and still no sign of a great wave of craft flooding down from Bermondsey (or up from Brighton). Instead, the new entries are nearly all your typical eateries with lots of handpumps, rather like Oxfordshire in fact. I like the county a lot though. Box Hill apart,… Continue reading A RARE TRIP TO REIGATE
CONTRASTS IN EAST MOLESEY
As I come towards the end of this years new Beer Guide entries for “Greater” London, I’m starting to get full value out my Travelcard by crossing the dangerous border into Surrey when I can. On Tuesday that meant the train to the furthest extremity of Zone 6 at Hampton Court, crossing the road to… Continue reading CONTRASTS IN EAST MOLESEY
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