Archive for the ‘tourism’ Category
Warmest regards to Fatty from Tucson for spotting this beer label (if anyone knows where to get Fat Tire in Swindon or Oxford please get in touch)
It has been a good run — one of nearly 6 years, nearly 1300 different pubs, a few marathons and a bunch of halves (and shorter races), good entertainment, fulfilling work, and a couple of laughs. But, it is over … at this address, anyway: I’ll continue on in much the same vein at the Endless British Pub Crawl (continues) but this site will just be an archive for the first 1292 pubs and memorial to itself and a lot of ill-advised fun that went into gathering the material herein.
I want to do a retrospective of this blog’s 6 years but it deserves better than what you have before you. Them’s the breaks…here it is in tedious detail.
In 2177 days, there have been 2537 posts. Of those, 1292 were specifically for 1st time pub visits, 367 were for last year’s Daily Tipple (with added Haiku), 210 have been for the Chippy Challenge and the Kebab Challenge, and 169 were for the 2012 Yellow Beer Challenge. The remaining 499 involved running, mocking the serious beliefs of others, laughing at the weak, bitching and moaning about one thing or another, obituaries, and other things that serve to strengthen my bona fides of Britishness. According to WordPress, these pages have been visited just over 350,000 times…get a life, losers.
Most frequent pub names so far (and how many of each):
43 Red Lions
24 Crowns
22 Ploughs
19 (tie) Bells, White Harts
15 Greyhounds
14 (tie) Black Horses, King’s Arms, Queen’s Heads
13 (tie) Rose and Crowns, Swans, White Horses
Best names: Five Mile From Anywhere No-Hurry Inn, Far From The Madding Crowd, Cafe Rene, Sally Pussey’s Inn, The Bee’s In The Wall, The Roaring Donkey, Who’d A Thought It
Fuck that place: The Angerstein Hotel, The Woodman Inn, The Black Horse
Personal favourite pub write ups: The Chequers in Cottenham, hangover after a night in the King’s Arms in Ely, handing the puzzle over to the Dog and Duck in Linton (Cambs), the Crown in Penzance (a low-key 25th anniversary), the Glue Pot in Swindon after my first Wildcats Hockey match, the Blackfriar in London (not so much the write up as the architectural details), and the Rose and Crown in Chippenham for the fantastic people watching. Certain there are other decent ones but this list contains the two or three I’m really pleased with.
Other pubs worthy of mention (good or bad):
The Red Lion in Southampton for architecture and Henry V connection
The Hop Inn for the locals’ alternative names
The five Red Lion Run back in 2010
The New Inn, Blists Hill (a historic museum town)
The Goldfinger (accidentally found Ian Fleming’s grave on run to this one)
The Blue Boar, Aldbourne (Dr. Who link)
The Blind Beggar, Whitechapel (Kray Brothers link)
The Red Lion, Aston (a town of ‘tards)
The Brass Monkey, Teignmouth (George W Bush on their sign)
Wernham Hogg’s, Slough (The Office tie-in)
The writing isn’t brilliant but it was never meant to be stunning. I have occasionally stumbled into something I’m happy enough with (to mention here) but never anything I would attach a real name to. Some of those are:
“What a Bunch of Dicks” (September 2011)
“Our Ex-Neighbours” (September 2011, with links to the whole saga)
“Risk Assessment: Proper Use of Bins” (October 2012)
“British Citizenship Exam” (November 2012)
“My Pet Leeches” (September 2013)
“Me and the Queen” (June 2012)
It wasn’t all drinking and knob jokes. Occasionally I ran, sometimes quite a lot (although usually whilst stopping regularly for drinks and to tell inappropriate knob jokes). I even race a bit with some of my favourite racing efforts here:
Grunty Fen 1/2 Marathon and general thoughts on the finisher’s medal (September 2009)
Snowdonia Marathon pub crawl (October 2009)
The River Run — Cantabrigiensis HHH (October 2009)
New Year’s Eve 10K Little Downham (January 2010)
Historical notes on the 30 Pack Marathon (April 2010)
Thame 10K and morning chunders (June 2010)
Florence Marathon (December 2010)
Bupa 10K plus bailout for the London Hash (May 2011)
Run For Heroes 5K or thereabouts (August 2011)
Chippenham Half with a sponsored pub stop (September 2011)
Swindon Half whilst hitting every pub within 1/2 mile (October 2011)
Cricklade Half + 8 mile warm-up (October 2011)
London Marathon pub crawl (April 2012)
Great British Beerathon Like the 30-Pack only smaller and including food (August 2012)
Great Bustard 5 or getting there’s half the fun (July 2013)
Beat the Bore at Night (September 2013)
Malmesbury Carnival 10K done twice to hit some pubs after (August 2014)
Isle of Wight Marathon pub crawl (October 2014)
11:58 My big head notwithstanding, this is the Joe Strummer Subway
In fact, I started the blog for people in the States that already knew about my running idiosyncrasies (i.e., running to get to a bar, drinking heavily there or at one or more other bars, then running home). So, for them the “racing” entries are no surprise nor are some of the other efforts, which I enjoy as much or more. These three Birthday runs are typical:
2010
2013
2014
I also used to ‘hash’ before I found the one true way; my life as a hasher came long after I started drink-running (and drug-running, for that matter) and that it has become just a passing fad baffles some of those folk although I still encourage hash virgins to go to a hash as a kick start to Hashlam. I would, indeed, encourage all of you to go hashing at some point.
We saw some good shows and bad shows and some shows. I saw Springsteen in the Atlanta Fox Theatre in the 70’s but Jackie never had so we booked a trip to Maastricht to fix that…and it was awesome. We causght Neil Young in Hyde Park and Paul Simon there as well another year. Two of the best shows were Lloyd Cole in Stroud and George Thorogood in Cambridge, and you can’t go wrong with the BeatHoles.
Tourism ideas:
No trip to Wales is complete without a ride down this highway. (November 2009)
Find out why they refer to Oxford as the City of Dreaming Spires. (September 2010)
You can wait for English Heritage or the National Trust, but the loving family fits their own plaques (like this one to Arthur Stanley Eddington). (August 2011)
If you get to Germany, indulge in the local folklore like the Bremen Musicians. (June 2012)
Nothing is more fun than old buses. (June 2014)
Get out on the street furnishing trail, maybe starting with post boxes. (November 2014)
And, to be serious, here are a few ideas for London.
Recipes and food:
A friend that travels in China sent some delectable menu items to look for but I still haven’t found them in any Chinatown restaurants. On the other hand, you can find the most interesting spices in the Caribbean markets, here.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day so you shouldn’t shy away from complicated recipes like this one. Or, as an alternative you could start your day with one of these.
There were, of course, a lot of booze recipes, but these are worth the efforts involved and better than the pictures would suggest:
Lupini
Cassoulet (one of several versions blogged herein)
Rabbit
Finally, no look back wouldn’t include obits. Mostly, I obitted people I don’t know but knew of but on occasion I actually had a relationship with the deceased (Rest in Peace, y’all):
Vic Chesnutt (December 2009)
Bus Job (October 2010)
Andy Holden (whom I did not know but feel a special connection to, January 2014)
This blog (January 2015, which you are reading right now)
I left the Green Dragon and took a bit of a trundle into the next village on the off-chance the Churchill Arms was opening early (nope), and continued via Little Cheverell to the Owl which, on asking directions from an old guy, I found to be not only closed but converted to a private residence (doh!). Still, it wasn’t yet noon and I had a mile or more to go before reaching the Bell Inn in Great Cheverell and despite the heavier than expected traffic on the roads I had a pleasant little jog up to the hostelry.
As I reached the Bell and the old guy in the photo (above), the church bells pealed. “They must have known you were coming,” he said; “it was a logistical nightmare to arrange it, too,” I replied. He’d been out for a walk, as well, and we talked about my route and the unusual weather and, of course, if the pub was open yet. A woman appeared from the graveyard with a sack full of windfallen greenery; “first the bells, and now they’ve arranged a garland for you,” he suggested. “As it should be, sir, as it should be,” I left them with.
Inside, the publican and his assistant were nutty and nice each in their own way and I decided to sip the Doom Bar slowly and enjoy the show. A few lunchers arrived then a fellow came up to the bar and ordered a glass of wine. “A bottle, surely,” suggested the landlord. “Your hard sell belies flawless logic…go on, then,” returned the punter. I liked this place and its regulars immediately from that point.
I liked it even more after Mr. Noon-Bottle bought me another pint (a “Wiltshire half” was how he put it) and we continued the what-the-fuck-brought-you-to-Swindon conversation for a half hour longer. Very funny fellow, too. I owe him a beer now, but with so many other pubs to hit around here I hope I can make good on that, soon. Maybe a jog that starts later in the day should be scheduled.
Oh, the pub is great and I hear the ribs are absolutely sinful.
There have been days when meeting the 3 mile minimum for the Holiday Run Streak have been daunting (hangovers, bone idleness, actual injuries). Today was a joy, though.
I caught the 9 o’clock to Devizes and headed south into the slimy mud, down one steep ridge and up another and emerging, eventually, in Market Lavington. The timing was actually rubbish, though, as the only pub open before noon is the Green Dragon (no complaints, mind; it was a self-inflicted wound I would have avoided by taking the 10 o’clock bus instead).
9.4 miles out, with a beer break in Market Lavington
5.8 miles back after beer break in Great Cheverell
I thought I could kill a little time by inspecting the pubs on offer for another day and the Churchill in Littleton Panell looked worthy. The Owl in Little Cheverell was turned into a private residence a year or so ago to the dismay of the old fellow I spoke with there and the Bridge downhill from the Churchill got a recommendation from a kind gentleman I met at the Bell in Great Cheverell which I wandered up to just as it opened.
To be honest, the 9.4 miles run up to then had been like forced labour but the longer than planned (and greater fluid volume than planned) stop at the Bell recharged me. Although I thought I had restarted the GPS I arrived back in Devizes with no additional miles. This was easy enough to manually map (5.8 miles) and the voice recorder — which I failed to turn off, as well, upon leaving — showed this last leg to be 40 minutes long. There was a bit of sunshine and mostly good surfaces to run and I made the most of the opportunity…plus, I was afraid the chippy in Devizes would close at 2 and I really hankered for a bit of cod.
Good run, pleasant company, fine ales, and a treat at the end. Not a bad way to start the longest night of the year.
After the E-VIII-R postbox, the Mug House was the other target of my day out in Worcester. 700 years ago, it was the alehouse for the Church of St John Baptist and the church cemetery has, in the interim, expanded around the joint. Today, it was rammed with customers dining and drinking and steaming up the place but I really could have spent weeks in the low ceilinged rooms I explored before escaping to the tables by the graveyard.
The landlady has the letters FBII after her name above the door, an honorary that may not be as prestigious as, say, Fellow of the Royal Society or Fellow of (insert science or engineering society of your choice, here), still serves to endorse the high standards of this busy house. Oh, and if you’re lucky the winner of the 2014 Grand National may join you for a drink (but may not get his round in, with those unwieldy hooves).
Right. So, this was the thing I came to Worcester for, the Holy Grail to post box enthusiasts — an Edward VIII postbox, one of only 161 left nationwide. I was deathly ill the day before the Isle of Wight Marathon so the run I did to loosen up ruined me with regard to seeking out the one in Sandown a few miles from my hotel.
So, that’s the last one. Sigh. I’ve really enjoyed the postbox search; what next…what next?
New pubs to the blog count, all on two day trip to IoW
At first glance, October seemed a month of two halves — the first healthy and spry, the last stinking of death and decay. Yet, closer examination reminds me that I’ve been ill more or less constantly since the 10th of the month despite making the Isle of Wight Marathon trip, another cancer surgery (and spillage from the same), and having a busier than usual month at work. The weather has been spectacular, I’m told.
I added 11 pubs to the count entirely on the two-day trip to the Isle of Wight Marathon. Two new ones appeared in Oxford (old ones but with major refurbishments and name changes) but they will have to wait until November. The best of the new additions has to be the Red Lion in Southampton, but you could do a lot worse than The Crab and Lobster Tap (Ventnor), The Traveller’s Joy (Northwood), or most-up-my-alley The Painter’s Arms (Cowes).
The Daily Tipple list accurately represents the beer consumption for the month with a little more than half favouring darker varieties like stout, porter, and mild. Choosing one per day was really the hard part as almost every new pub mentioned above supplied local brews that I have never tried before and the Swindon Beer Fest introduced 7 beers and 3 ciders new to me (and scores more I didn’t get around to):
The Fish and Chips Challenge was in a lull partly due to the ongoing medical problems and partly due to the remoteness of new venues and my ability to reach them. My spreadsheet updates my days-per-fish rate and the minimum number for the year (based on one every 7 days until year-end) after each fish. The average of these two appears to be converging on 124.9 for the year (let’s say 125). I’m going for a pub fish and chip lunch when I finish this post, so this looks like a fairly good prediction.
The G-Had has started to make an impact. In October, the site had more hits than in all months prior combined. It also led to paranoid behaviour by North Wilts HHH when they tried to pretend a run wasn’t going to happen and then came up with a clever (but easy to defeat) trail marking plan to foil the IntifadHHHa. With local attention piqued and health poor, the war became one more of propaganda than contact but a fresh scalp was added courtesy the Isle of Wight HHH.
Also, the subtleties of the Intifad-HHH-a versus a Calip-hhh-ate became a matter of record, over on the G-Had HHH site.
First, my thanks go out to the organisers and volunteers for allowing me to participate in their little pub crawl. The venue was great and the small field lent itself to social interaction throughout.
I arrived early from my hotel in Shanklin due to a scheduling anomaly and once I registered I walked back to Cowes quayside to find a pre-race pint. But, no one had a license to serve before 11 am so I walked back up to the Sport Club grounds and waited out their opening time. They were serving tea, coffee and snacks but I decided to leave it till 11 to ask for a beer. And, with that purchase, my esteem was either raised or dashed depending on the co-participant’s attitude. Strange: it was like I had gone much farther from England than the 20 minute ferry ride.
At the starting gate, I stripped off my disposable old clothes (sweats that have become threadbare) and cranked up the GPS in my phone a few minutes before the start, taking my place in the crowd. I didn’t do the excessive pre-scouting of pubs that I have in the past; rather, I planned on stopping at every licensed facility I came across, bar none.
The first was the Sportsman’s Rest, a nice little pub with a rude and completely incompetent bartender (hence my long layover–more than ten minutes here). Next up, we passed (or, THEY passed) the New Inn which was much more efficient and completely nonplussed by my stop. Not much farther along the way the Horse and Groom loomed and after service I stepped out to heckle my compatriots for the first time.
We turned onto an old rail bed and soon we came up on the old station for Yarmouth, or part of Yarmouth, which is now the Off The Rails bar and restaurant. I yelled up to some diners on the platform, “is this place licensed?” then, to drown out their laughter, I repeated, “no, really, do they serve adult beverages?” Served by bemused staff, once again, I went back out and heckled the other runners while I enjoyed my bottle on the platform.
There was a long stretch after that along the riverside and through quiet lanes back almost all the way to Cowes (with no new pubs, although we passed the Sportsman’s and the New Inn again) then the path split off and we started up a long and (at that stage in the game) steep incline that housed, off to the right and nearly at the top, the Traveler’s Joy. It was a truly welcome respite, indeed.
With something less than 2 miles left, I eschewed further interaction with my compatriots (for the most part) and focused on finishing in under four hours. Which I did (just barely). It was then I realised how nackered I actually was. I’ve had worse leg cramps, mind, but these came all at once despite my aforementioned carb, nutrient and fluid regimen.
Spectacular organisation in this race, really, and the small and friendly field and the lovely refreshments I found along the way were just a bonus. If I were going to repeat a marathon, this would be one of my top choices. But, now I am qualified for the Ultramarathons I have planned for next year.
Heh -heh…special drinks, indeed
Only about 3/4 mile into the G-Had run for today, the Chequers loomed and I felt compelled to enter. The conversation stopped dead as I ordered a Ramsbury ale (there were four Ramsbury’s on tap), but once I plopped into a plush chair near the cold wood stove the chat resumed.
Run route, 4.3 miles of misery with the exception of this pub stop
I was sweating profusely, again, and my brow felt like it was on fire while the rest of me shook from chills…I guess I was still sick, too sick to attend the wedding everyone kept banging on about. I was not very impressed, overall, but I was in no condition to judge.
Most of you know this scene from Henry V wherein a plot to murder our dear King Harry is uncovered nearly on the eve of the invasion of France and the villains brought swiftly to justice. Let me quote the words of Exeter, as the Bard would have them:
—I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Richard, Earl of Cambridge.
—I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry, Lord Scroop of Masham.
—I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland.
When I say justice was swift, think of this…the plot was revealed to our Hal on 31 July, the trial held, and the condemned were beheaded on the 2nd of August (Grey) and 5th of August (the other two). And, today I am drinking a pint of Flack’s Double Drop in the Red Lion in the same room the trial of these would be assassins took place.
I awoke this morning remarkably ill having developed an upper respiratory infection that left me with no equilibrium, nausea, a raging fever and a headache just this side of a migraine. A handful of codeine before the train journey (too late to back out of the trip now) helped me suffer the walk to the pub and I took a few pictures along the route which included the Bargate outside of which the executions took place. Here is the city-side of the gate:
and the Quay-side:
Originally, while I was scouting a route from the train to the Town Quay, I spotted the pub on Google maps and thought it looked like a better than average (albeit touristy) mock Tudor house only to find that it isn’t mock at all.
The publican was a real gent, serving me even though I was early and made him repeat everything he said because my ears were still suffering as my sinuses slowly equilibrated. The music was a mix of the Ramones and Sly and the Family Stone and very suitable to my state of mind.
But, soon enough the tourism side trip was over and I had to head off to my boat. Once more unto the breach, I reckon.
Beautiful Sunday
With a wee run and a beer
And Asian pulled pork.
Name: Topaz IPA
Type: IPA
Venue: Carter’s Rest, Wroughton.
Review/notes: Great little run today (19.67 miles). Hit a hash in Chiseldon and then headed toward the Ogbournes before turning up the Ridgeway where I spotted a weird memorial to Alfred Williams (a workingman poet) isolated on a hill. Thinking I had run farther I stopped at the Carter’s Rest which, as usual, had a challenging roster of beers and ciders to choose from. The Topaz was like the thinner in shoe polish which is to say: quite good.
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
Monthly consolidations/compilations: January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
Here’s to the Brewers.
A pleasant time had by all
Except, maybe, them.
Name: Weighbridge Brinkworth Village
Type: bitter
Venue: Christ Church, Swindon
Review/notes: I stopped by the Autumn Fayre at Christ Church because my neighbour was working a display there (along with the vicar’s wife). The church is grand inside and well worth a visit but there were crowds within and a beer tent just outside. I fetched a Weighbridge Brewhouse Brinkworth Village and retired to the cemetery whereupon I found a monument to Brewers almost immediately.
Frank, who was noted at the top, had a bunch of letters after his name. I knew O.B.E. but was curious about C.M.G. and looked them up when I returned home. It is an honour known as “Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George,” for non-military exemplary service to the Crown whilst overseas. Turns out, our Frank was a high-ranking civil servant in the China and Malaya offices (as well as serving in the Special Forces in WW2 and being held POW in Sumatra). Nice find. Cheers, Frank.
The CMG, for those others that had not a clue and need some juvenile way of assessing its importance, was fictionally awarded to James Bond as well as the Brigadier (in Doctor Who).
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
Monthly consolidations/compilations: January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
============================
The Who’d A Thought It was doing a splendid lunch trade when I came in and ordered my fish and chips. I paid up and took my Corvus Stout to the garden where I was stared down by a tree wearing a flat cap:
It was the farthest point on my run and I couldn’t yet decide if I was going to go to Marlborough or back to Avebury (run map in this other post shows Avebury, indeed). The garden is huge, the house lovely, the staff pleasant — even charming — and professional. No wonder this outpost was packed.
What’s in here, Doris?
It’s hard to see through this glass,
Or this ignorance.
Name: Shotover Scholar
Type: bitter
Venue: The Bear, Oxford
Review/notes: Scholar is usually a good choice. Had it with a minimally apportioned but maximally priced order of fish and chips (see that post for two shots of about 60 I could have posted of zombie tourists peeking in a window not 3 feet from a door they could have walked in…idiots).
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
Monthly consolidations/compilations: January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
[The Chippy Challenge: to eat more fish and chips in 2014; see original post for details.]
Fish: cod
Sides: none
Evaluation: Recommended by one of the professors at our group meeting today, it was worth visiting just to see the old Citroën van they use as a chippy. And, really, only for that. Still hungry after getting mugged by The Bear, I went by the van and ordered a batch of goujons which were light and perfectly cooked, granted, but entirely without flavour.
Days since last: 0 (The Bear, Oxford)
Map link.
Monthly consolidations/compilations: January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
[The Chippy Challenge: to eat more fish and chips in 2014; see original post for details.]
Fish: cod
Sides: chips
Evaluation: The whole ‘meal’ was overpriced, the fish was bland but the chips were passable albeit both were served in stingy proportions. The Bear is worth going to in the dead of winter in the dead of night, but when the tourists are around it is dreadful. At least when crowded with locals the high prices don’t seem such a hardship.
Days since last: 4 (St Giles Fair Fish and Chip Stand, Oxford)
Map link.
Monthly consolidations/compilations: January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
There is a Twitter project called “People of Swindon” that gives control of their account to a new local tweeter for one week every week. They were recruiting new voices and I applied as I am going to be mostly anchored in Swindon for the next couple of weeks (burning off residual vacation time before the end-of-month deadline).
Yeah, we want people from Swindon to talk up the town…just not YOU.
By way of a vetting process, they must have read my Twitter account or this blog because they never even bothered to reply to my email, despite giving some previous “[name] of Swindon” tweeters a second go.
No matter…for those of you that enjoy Twitter (and who doesn’t?), I shall do the job in spite of their misgivings starting when I leave work Friday (12 September 2014). Do tune in.
A little out-of-the-way on this run, I couldn’t resist the name “Cat and Custard Pot.” As it turned out, the pub was worthy of the extra mileage without the moniker which has something to do with a fictional pub used as a meeting place in an old novel, an illustration from which appears on the south face of the pub sign (above).
Spoilt for choice on the range of beers, I still wasn’t sure which I was going to use for the Daily Tipple and as I was drawn to the Elmers pump clip I went with that one (Elmer was the Flying Monk for which the brewery was named, a truly mad 12th century friar). It was not at all a bad choice, either, brewed just down the road and yet a very American styled (floral hops and lots of ’em) beer.
Sitting around outside with the sweat drying in the cool breeze, I listened to the family conversations nearby (“more pooh, please,” requested a kid that had been escorted to the loo a couple of times already) and noticed the north side of the pub sign was much more modern:
Spotting the sign to the church where I would pick up the next segment of my trek, I finished my drink and headed out. This, however, is definitely worth another stop when I’m out this way next.
I forgot that I signed up for the Malmesbury Carnival 10K until I received an email reminder last week. I also forgot that upon registration for the event I was given the option of personalizing my bib number. When I went to pick it up, the guy ahead of me had put down “Mel Gibson,” prompting me to mutter, ‘jackass,’ under my breath. I gave my name and the volunteer retrieved my number whilst reading back “Pub Crawl.” Jackass, indeed.
We started beneath the Abbey but you really couldn’t see it from the start and it was at your back or obscured by houses after the horn blew. The race I ran was pretty disappointing on its own merits: I didn’t even break 45 minutes, the race was chip timed, and the field was small so I cannot blame starting at the back of the pack (maybe I lost 30 seconds filtering through the crowd in the first kilometer but no excuses…I was capable of sub-40 but really couldn’t ask myself to try that hard).
So, I cleared the finishing mat and was confronted by the mayor, herself, hanging the finishing medals on all comers. It was mortifying but it would have been rude to decline and I was able to remove it once out of the tent and moving on toward my fish lunch.
The next step was to live up to the Pub Crawl label and to extend the daily mileage by hitting all the pubs within a short detour of the race path (linked here). This resulted in a net 15 miles with stops at the Red Bull, the Cat and Custard Pot, and the Horse Guards before a valedictory beverage at the Three Cups. There were still a few stragglers coming in on the B4040 as I headed out and an intermittent-to-steady stream of cyclists but, largely, I had the quiet roads to myself.
Whilst sitting in the tub this morning loosening muscles and easing the pre-race hangover, I listened to a programme on Radio 4 about permissive footpaths and bridleways. Repeatedly, the speakers used the phrase “amount of people” using a path when I THINK they meant “number of people.” I could be wrong, as most of the landowners probably have a wood chipper (the number of people go in the left side of the photo and an amount of people exit the right side):
An old acquaintance has secured Kate Bush tickets (first of 22 shows — which all sold out in 15 minutes — is tomorrow), one of the more heavily hyped items of late with several pages of bits in yesterday’s Observer and a documentary on BBC4 last Friday. Since she and partner are travelling from Los Angeles, I feel compelled to give some wholly unsolicited tourism options for any down time they have on the trip. Most of these are from the blog, so almost all of them require no extravagant expense (depending on what and how much you decide to eat and drink along the way). Not at all comprehensive, please add your own suggestions for my next trip down the Big Smoke.
Pubs: The map above is my London pub tally through 24 August 2014 and if you click on the picture it should take you to the UK-wide map from which this was gleaned. The pushpins are more accurately located than Google has them but some of the pubs are now gone. If you see one you are likely to want to visit, I have an entry for it on this site now linked to the pushpin on the map but haven’t bothered to include links on the map (so you would have to come back here to search for them). Some of my favourites are:
The Bree Louise: great selection of beer and cider near Euston Station
The Lyric is pleasant enough and you can peer out at the former Red Lion where the Communist Manifesto was mostly written.
I owe the Lord Nelson another visit after their hospitality during the London Marathon. Likewise the Rose of Denmark. The night before the race, we were also thoroughly entertained at the Flowers of the Forest.
Ladbroke Grove is the part of West Kensington where the Clash were holed up in the early years and you’ll find the Kensington Park a fabulous watering hole in the neighbourhood. Another pub with a bit of a punk history to it (and great Thai food on the menu) is the World’s End in Camden.
One of the most beautiful pubs I’ve seen in town is the Blackfriar. If you want to go to just one for atmosphere, this is it.
The East End has a few worthy boozers, too. I really like the White Hart with it’s Jack the Ripper connections and proximity to the London Hospital where John Merrick (the Elephant Man) lived out his days. Just up the road you’ll also find the Blind Beggar where Ronnie Kray shot George Cornell (Kray Brothers, Piranha Brothers, and Kemp Brothers fans should make time for a beverage here). Dinsdale.
Cemeteries: These are a particular favourite of mine and Jackie’s and we’ve done the Highgate tour several times. London has a bunch of good ones sprinkled around, and you could do worse than to stumble upon the Bunhill Fields (wiki here) and leave a penny at Blake’s site for the ferryman. Highgate East is free and very good, but Highgate West requires a tour guide although the hassle is well worth the cheap fee and the advanced planning. Closer into town, Kensal Green is also truly awesome and a good way to kill a few hours.
Farther afield but still in the London confines, the Necropolis Station is worth trying to find. Near the Waterloo Rail Station, this was a dedicated rail stop that shipped 10’s of thousands of small pox corpses out to the suburban cemeteries. Also, if you find yourself at Chelsea Bridge (see the music entry, below), there is another Victorian cemetery nearby we haven’t visited yet but have shortlisted.
Food: Okay, you can probably find more palatable things to eat, but nothing will be more quintessentially London than a bowl of jellied eels soaked in as much chilli vinegar as you can stand…and it comes with a little plate on which to spit the wee bones. Trust me on this one. Go to the Borough Market because if you chicken out there is a ridiculous spread of other food to go for, as fresh as you might ever hope for and reasonably priced (considering the floor show that goes with it).
English food is generally dreadful although I am really fond of blood pudding and fish and chips. If you are from the southeastern U.S., as the catalyst for this note is, you might find yourself more at home dining in the Brixton Market where people know what pimento cheese is and the greens and black-eyed peas are cooked in artery clogging levels of salt pork. Just pick a street stand and start eating; don’t worry, the contact high you get from the pot smoke everywhere will keep you munchy enough to try everything (wear loose clothing for the trip).
Music sites: More than any music site in London I am ashamed of NOT going to is the house where Joe Meek had his weird studio and eventually killed his landlady before committing suicide.
Look out, kid, there are sites I have been to that are pretty good such as Savoy Street in front of the Savoy Chapel where Dylan dropped cards while Subterranean Homesick Blues played in the background. You might also want to pop by number 3 Savile Road, the Apple offices where the last Beatles performance occurred, but under no circumstances should you do the Abbey Road walk of shame (better to just leave some graffiti on the walls outside the studios where, keeping with the Kate Bush theme, Man With the Child in His Eyes was recorded). Also, here’s a Werewolves of London location near the Kensal Green cemetery and not far from Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten’s squat.
Not London, just my Christmas card pic a couple of years ago, but musical
Clapham is an easy tube stop and the Clapham Common is a great and very large park to kill an afternoon around. Squeeze fans might go to the Clapham Junction station and get Up the Junction stuck in their heads. It’s not a long hike from there to Chelsea Bridge where you can look out over the Thames toward Battersea Power Station (The Pink Floyd’s Animals should come to mind) and settle into a brilliant Waterloo Sunset. Classical music fans can find Jimi Hendrix’s place (which had previously been Handel’s place) at 23 Brook Street while you can find the scene of one of the more annoying brain worms, Come On Eileen, at Brook Drive on the opposite side of the Thames.
Here are two websites that give pretty good music tour ideas. First, Music Like Dirt has a map if you just want to find something near you. The Shady Old Lady has a much more comprehensive site and a lot of other categories to choose from but you are on your own for mapping.
Dr. Who just started again, and I do try to hit Who sites out here in the provinces. Below, you’ll find a screen shot of the Google Earth map of Dr. Who scene sites in central London taken from http://www.doctorwholocations.net/ (download the file DrWhoLocations.kml to load into G-Earth and maybe a more useful map overlay — I’m using OpenStreetMap for mine).
For movie sites in London, try the map at https://moviemaps.org/cities/4 which, though far from comprehensive it does give you some touristy ideas, and a map.
Other recreation: I do not recommend Boris Bikes except maybe in the Square Mile on the weekends (the City is abandoned by 6pm Friday). They are cheap, sturdy, and fun but you can get yourself killed on them as well.
Depending on your interests overlapping a bit, I would highly recommend hashing in the city. London hashers are a friendly lot, take you to the most interesting pubs around, and if you aren’t careful you might even get a little exercise while trotting around the back alleys and through tunnels and up and down streets you might never otherwise venture. They have a centralised calendar of events here but sometimes it is irregularly updated; I have never been disappointed by a London based hash…here are some of the individual kennels’ pages:
London HHH
City HHH
West London HHH
South London HHH (SLASH) … say, ‘hi,’ to Testiculator if you go here or, for that matter, any of the others as he seems to hash a lot.
The Endless British Pub Crawl 
Warmest regards to Fatty from Tucson for spotting this beer label (if anyone knows where to get Fat Tire in Swindon or Oxford please get in touch)
It has been a good run — one of nearly 6 years, nearly 1300 different pubs, a few marathons and a bunch of halves (and shorter races), good entertainment, fulfilling work, and a couple of laughs. But, it is over … at this address, anyway: I’ll continue on in much the same vein at the Endless British Pub Crawl (continues) but this site will just be an archive for the first 1292 pubs and memorial to itself and a lot of ill-advised fun that went into gathering the material herein.
I want to do a retrospective of this blog’s 6 years but it deserves better than what you have before you. Them’s the breaks…here it is in tedious detail.
In 2177 days, there have been 2537 posts. Of those, 1292 were specifically for 1st time pub visits, 367 were for last year’s Daily Tipple (with added Haiku), 210 have been for the Chippy Challenge and the Kebab Challenge, and 169 were for the 2012 Yellow Beer Challenge. The remaining 499 involved running, mocking the serious beliefs of others, laughing at the weak, bitching and moaning about one thing or another, obituaries, and other things that serve to strengthen my bona fides of Britishness. According to WordPress, these pages have been visited just over 350,000 times…get a life, losers.
Most frequent pub names so far (and how many of each):
43 Red Lions
24 Crowns
22 Ploughs
19 (tie) Bells, White Harts
15 Greyhounds
14 (tie) Black Horses, King’s Arms, Queen’s Heads
13 (tie) Rose and Crowns, Swans, White Horses
Best names: Five Mile From Anywhere No-Hurry Inn, Far From The Madding Crowd, Cafe Rene, Sally Pussey’s Inn, The Bee’s In The Wall, The Roaring Donkey, Who’d A Thought It
Fuck that place: The Angerstein Hotel, The Woodman Inn, The Black Horse
Personal favourite pub write ups: The Chequers in Cottenham, hangover after a night in the King’s Arms in Ely, handing the puzzle over to the Dog and Duck in Linton (Cambs), the Crown in Penzance (a low-key 25th anniversary), the Glue Pot in Swindon after my first Wildcats Hockey match, the Blackfriar in London (not so much the write up as the architectural details), and the Rose and Crown in Chippenham for the fantastic people watching. Certain there are other decent ones but this list contains the two or three I’m really pleased with.
Other pubs worthy of mention (good or bad):
The Red Lion in Southampton for architecture and Henry V connection
The Hop Inn for the locals’ alternative names
The five Red Lion Run back in 2010
The New Inn, Blists Hill (a historic museum town)
The Goldfinger (accidentally found Ian Fleming’s grave on run to this one)
The Blue Boar, Aldbourne (Dr. Who link)
The Blind Beggar, Whitechapel (Kray Brothers link)
The Red Lion, Aston (a town of ‘tards)
The Brass Monkey, Teignmouth (George W Bush on their sign)
Wernham Hogg’s, Slough (The Office tie-in)
The writing isn’t brilliant but it was never meant to be stunning. I have occasionally stumbled into something I’m happy enough with (to mention here) but never anything I would attach a real name to. Some of those are:
“What a Bunch of Dicks” (September 2011)
“Our Ex-Neighbours” (September 2011, with links to the whole saga)
“Risk Assessment: Proper Use of Bins” (October 2012)
“British Citizenship Exam” (November 2012)
“My Pet Leeches” (September 2013)
“Me and the Queen” (June 2012)
It wasn’t all drinking and knob jokes. Occasionally I ran, sometimes quite a lot (although usually whilst stopping regularly for drinks and to tell inappropriate knob jokes). I even race a bit with some of my favourite racing efforts here:
Grunty Fen 1/2 Marathon and general thoughts on the finisher’s medal (September 2009)
Snowdonia Marathon pub crawl (October 2009)
The River Run — Cantabrigiensis HHH (October 2009)
New Year’s Eve 10K Little Downham (January 2010)
Historical notes on the 30 Pack Marathon (April 2010)
Thame 10K and morning chunders (June 2010)
Florence Marathon (December 2010)
Bupa 10K plus bailout for the London Hash (May 2011)
Run For Heroes 5K or thereabouts (August 2011)
Chippenham Half with a sponsored pub stop (September 2011)
Swindon Half whilst hitting every pub within 1/2 mile (October 2011)
Cricklade Half + 8 mile warm-up (October 2011)
London Marathon pub crawl (April 2012)
Great British Beerathon Like the 30-Pack only smaller and including food (August 2012)
Great Bustard 5 or getting there’s half the fun (July 2013)
Beat the Bore at Night (September 2013)
Malmesbury Carnival 10K done twice to hit some pubs after (August 2014)
Isle of Wight Marathon pub crawl (October 2014)
11:58 My big head notwithstanding, this is the Joe Strummer Subway
In fact, I started the blog for people in the States that already knew about my running idiosyncrasies (i.e., running to get to a bar, drinking heavily there or at one or more other bars, then running home). So, for them the “racing” entries are no surprise nor are some of the other efforts, which I enjoy as much or more. These three Birthday runs are typical:
2010
2013
2014
I also used to ‘hash’ before I found the one true way; my life as a hasher came long after I started drink-running (and drug-running, for that matter) and that it has become just a passing fad baffles some of those folk although I still encourage hash virgins to go to a hash as a kick start to Hashlam. I would, indeed, encourage all of you to go hashing at some point.
We saw some good shows and bad shows and some shows. I saw Springsteen in the Atlanta Fox Theatre in the 70’s but Jackie never had so we booked a trip to Maastricht to fix that…and it was awesome. We causght Neil Young in Hyde Park and Paul Simon there as well another year. Two of the best shows were Lloyd Cole in Stroud and George Thorogood in Cambridge, and you can’t go wrong with the BeatHoles.
Tourism ideas:
No trip to Wales is complete without a ride down this highway. (November 2009)
Find out why they refer to Oxford as the City of Dreaming Spires. (September 2010)
You can wait for English Heritage or the National Trust, but the loving family fits their own plaques (like this one to Arthur Stanley Eddington). (August 2011)
If you get to Germany, indulge in the local folklore like the Bremen Musicians. (June 2012)
Nothing is more fun than old buses. (June 2014)
Get out on the street furnishing trail, maybe starting with post boxes. (November 2014)
And, to be serious, here are a few ideas for London.
Recipes and food:
A friend that travels in China sent some delectable menu items to look for but I still haven’t found them in any Chinatown restaurants. On the other hand, you can find the most interesting spices in the Caribbean markets, here.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day so you shouldn’t shy away from complicated recipes like this one. Or, as an alternative you could start your day with one of these.
There were, of course, a lot of booze recipes, but these are worth the efforts involved and better than the pictures would suggest:
Lupini
Cassoulet (one of several versions blogged herein)
Rabbit
Finally, no look back wouldn’t include obits. Mostly, I obitted people I don’t know but knew of but on occasion I actually had a relationship with the deceased (Rest in Peace, y’all):
Vic Chesnutt (December 2009)
Bus Job (October 2010)
Andy Holden (whom I did not know but feel a special connection to, January 2014)
This blog (January 2015, which you are reading right now)
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