Will Jackson

nextrad.io - the radio ideas conference

2011-09-18T16:28:00.006+01:00

Blogs and tweets about last Thursday's nextrad.io conference were requested - I felt I should oblige...

The £99 ticket price was a great start. I'd be hard pushed to attend the Radio Festival this year, even with their generous concessionary rates - a couple of rounds of drinks in the Holiday Inn Media City would be more than this alone. But while I know Matt and James aren't making much on the tickets - at least that's what they told me to avoid buying a round in the Bree Louise afterwards - this meant that attendance was within the reach of those without expense accounts, and so brought along a younger audience, with more "do-ers" than yer standard conference of suits.

The strictly-enforced 9 or 18 minute sessions meant that the day cracked along at a pace, and there was no chance of a snooze for any of the audience who'd set off at dawn to be there for 9am. Several sessions actually finished slightly short; I think Moz Dee won the prize for talking closest to the exact allotted time, and no-one required the shepherd's crook under my chair to be deployed for their removal from the stage. Like a hit-music format station, if you didn't like one of the wide-ranging topics, there was another one along in moments.

One of the most pleasing aspects of the format was the lack of panel sessions. I've chaired a few of these in my time, and always found them difficult to bring alive, particularly if you have to have every question answered by each panellist in turn. It takes some bravery to move away from the old-school format, and on this occasion, it paid off well with none of the sessions outstaying their welcome.

Of the sessions themselves, The Guardian's Francesca Panetta produced an understated but compelling plea for on-demand audio and podcasts to take the opportunity to create something beautifully crafted and treasurable. Some considered that's what ALL radio/audio should aspire to, but occasionally we all need to be reminded of that. Peter Gabriel-lookalike Dick Stone was entertaining as always, reminding us to internalise, and avoid reading out words written to be read on the page, not spoken aloud. And host Matt Deegan gave us words, including "shhh" - avoiding public industry infighting; and "hire" - setting out that the requirements and competition to find and retain the best people for your station will be different for an IT person, than for a journalist.

I found it an intense day - perhaps I just can't think that fast! It felt like several Max Headroom-style "blipverts" had been downloaded into my brain. (Kidz: it's an 80's reference, check it here.) The Magic Circle was a great venue, but somewhat under-exploited - and a magic trick or two, coupled with a little more interaction with the audience, could have offered a some light and shade to the day.

These are minor quibbles. One sponsor I spoke to told me they simply wanted to be associated with "intelligent discussion about radio", and on what I saw, they got their money's worth several times over. The Radio Festival has excelled itself with a very high-quality line-up of speakers this year, but Next has raised the bar for radio conferences, and demonstrated that there can be a different way of doing things. It'd be welcome as a regular fixture in the industry calendar, and perhaps not just in London.

More photos of the conference are here.

Remembering 9/11

2011-09-11T17:01:00.002+01:00

Fred Bradley blogged his experience of 9/11, including some fascinating audio of what was then News Direct, and it moved me to do the same.

I was visiting Gloucester with Trafficlink's Operations Director, Jag Ensor, to meet with GWR's head of news, Jo Littlehales, who was based at Severn Sound. We were having lunch somewhere in Eastgate Shopping Centre where they were based, when Jo's mobile rang - there was something going on in New York, and she needed to get back to the station. In no tearing hurry, we settled up the bill and went our separate ways. As Jag and I walked back through the shopping centre, wondering what all the fuss was about, we stopped briefly to look at the rolling news channels playing on the TVs in the shop windows, and it became clear. We drove back in silence, listening through the medium wave crackle to Simon Mayo on 5Live, doing his best to articulate what they were seeing on the television screens in the studio, the occasional moment of disbelief clearly audible.

If you're interested in a non-sensational retelling of journalists' stories from the day - including Metro Traffic Control's John Del Giorn o - I recommend the book "Covering Catastrophe: Broadcast Journalists Report September 11" by Allison Gilbert. I've also collected some audio from the day and beyond, which I've used in training courses - some initial coverage from George Weber on WABC, and a couple of clips from Radio 1's Newsbeat, including Chris Moyles who was still on afternoons at this stage. It's below, but even the passage of time doesn't make it any easier to listen to...

9/11 audio by will.jackson

Inspiration: once a Producer, always a Producer

2011-09-10T10:42:00.006+01:00

One of my first gigs in radio was the privilege of producing the breakfast show on Mercury FM, first with Jon Scragg and then with Steve Hyland. One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was to always keep a notepad with you, as you never know when inspiration for "a bit" for the next morning's show will strike.

Housemates would despair of finding papers with corners or whole pages torn out and stuffed in my pocket for the next day's show. I learned to pick up and read ANY magazine lying around on trains or in waiting rooms - the more obscure the better. My friends know that I still carry my Metropole Hotel waiter's pad from my days as a barman in Brighton and scribble stuff down.

Old habits die hard, but there are obviously better ways of doing this nowadays - I spend far too long reading Twitter and emailing myself intriguing tweets to read and consider later, and the brilliant Evernote app will let you collect notes in pretty much any form, including searchable photos of text. In short, if you're in radio, the chances are you're probably an ideas and content sponge (and if you're not - you should be!).

When starting at GTN, my colleague Paul Hutton told me about Roy Williams, the Wizard of Ads, and his emailed "Monday Morning Memo". This is described on its website as "a weekly contemplation prepared by New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling business author, Roy H. Williams. Whether the memo contains business advice or a philosophical muse, it’s guaranteed to be something you’ve never heard before. The Wizard of Ads has a strict policy: No Rehashed Pablum." I read the email every week. Sometime I get what he's on about, sometimes I really don't - but it's never a dull read. This week, he asked for his readers to mail in with the one email mailout (other than his own) that they always make the time to read.

The resulting emailed suggestions are a very long read - but I'll helpfully summarise for you. The one that came up time and time again was the blog and email newsletter from Seth Godin, who wears the most "meejah" yellow glasses I've seen in some time.

But one email stood out for me. It wasn't just another self-help, inspirational email newsletter, it was an actual practical idea, that takes the "magpie content sponge" idea one step further. I think it's brilliant, and I'll be doing it from now on. Credit to Kevin, and the Wizard of Ads - but also remember, it's only because of being a long-standing content sponge, and going through the emails to see if there was anything interesting and useful, that I found it in the first place...

From: Wolff, Kevin
Sent: Monday, August 29, 2011 9:38 AM
To: Jackie@WizardAcademy.org
Subject: Examination Day

My link: 'Do not deliver before:'

A few times each week, I come across an insightful piece of knowledge or experience that moves me. It might be a famous quote that inspires, an image I shouldn't forget, or a mistake I've made that doesn't deserve repeating. I often use these powerful tidbits of life until the next one comes along, and the former is forgotten. That's why a couple years ago I began to email myself this knowledge on the time-delay of 365 days. It's amazing how often I wind end up giving myself encouragement, advice, and reminders at the very moment I need them.

I open the email every single time because I know the author personally, and he knows exactly what I need to hear.

Kevin Wolff, Promotions Director/Marketing

Footnote: Serendipity - There was a knock at the door just now, and it was ACTUAL Jehovah's Witnesses. I didn't think that happened in real life! They handed over copies of The Watchtower. I'll read them - because you really don't know where you'll find that next bit.

Not goodbye, just au revoir

2011-09-03T12:19:00.010+01:00

My colleague Paul Hutton has written a very balanced and eloquent blog post entitled "Goodbye Traffic Radio". I'd prefer "au revoir". As Paul has noted, Trafficlink has already jumped in with its own station, and is certainly following his advice to shout about it! We'll also have to wait to see whether any new Highways Agency-licensed Traffic Radio service gets off the ground.

Similar developments are taking place elsewhere. In Montreal, this week sees the launch of Radio Circulation 730, a French-language traffic station now unexpectedly replacing CKAC sports, and a sister English-language station is likely to follow shortly. It follows AM730 Vancouver, which I visited last year - where you'll find three dedicated staff at any time, taking turns to be live on air for 20 minutes and then producing/information gathering for the remainder of the hour. We'd have loved that level of staffing at Traffic Radio.

However, those that argue about whether a traffic station should play music and be more entertaining (and we may return to that one at a later date), or be analogue or DAB - I'm looking at you, DigitalSpy - miss the point. As with any content, it's about making the required information available on whichever platform or format is easiest for the user at that particular time. At breakfast, yes, that might be the local radio station that they're listening to already. In the car, if they have a satnav, it could be through the traffic included in that package, or indeed from an a rolling-travel news radio station accessed via a popular iPhone app* such as the Highways Agency's.

I believe a really significant change in travel news has taken place in the last year, which hasn't yet been fully appreciated. It used to take rooms full of researchers to gather the data by phoning up Little Chefs and bored coppers, whereas now accurate and as-live flow data is freely available from multiple sources, whether government: Highways Agency/Traffic Scotland/Traffic Wales/Transport for London, or private: TomTom/Googlemaps/Trafficmaster/Inrix (who own Trafficlink). Each will obviously say their specific sources and algorhythmic magic is better, but my experience suggests they're all pretty similar. (TomTom has a slight edge for covering ALL roads, not just trunk routes - which could be useful if you're a smaller, rural station - and Inrix has a good app for BlackBerry users like me.)

So - if all that data is now out there, then the competition moves to become what you do with it. And here's where the steering wheel turns full-circle, as for radio once again, it comes back to making it sound great, and easy to access across multiple platforms. That means high-quality, trusted travel presenters, ideally with experience and tons of local knowledge. Being the station in your market that "owns" travel news, through sub-brands such as "Travel you can Trust" or "Traffic on the Ones" and delivering on that promise. And bringing it to platforms such as Twitter with a unique house style - for a great example, check @bbctravelalerts.

The announcements last week from TomTom (video below), and Ford, who'll be demonstrating a social networking concept car at the Frankfurt Motor Show, show the direction of travel, and the in-car competition. That's before crowd-sourced traffic apps, such as Waze. In all of this, we radio types also need to make sure we know where we're heading, otherwise we'll all just be listening to automated satnav voices us telling to take the next exit and leave the motorway. There's a lot for those new stations to consider...

(*Do not use your mobile phone while driving. Sorry, just can't get out of the habit of adding that!)

From the loft of Ol' Pa Jackson....

2011-07-31T12:44:00.005+01:00

The Radio Academy's excellent Summer Pub Quiz - won incidentally by the team I was on, Folder Media United - had a fun round for us anoraks, identifying radio station mugs.

(By the way, Bealey - this was the one you couldn't remember:

It's based the distinctive grille of a 1930's radio made by Pye - who were based in Cambridge. See what they did there?

Anyway, the round was to identify the mugs from the Radio Academy's fine collection, with the actual station name blurred out. It set me thinking about the ones I used to have - and a trip back to Seaford to see Ol' Pa Jackson gave me an opportunity to head up to his loft to see what I could find. While I didn't turn up any mugs, buried underneath three or four boxes of cassettes of 80's radio shows that I MUST get round to dubbing at some stage, I found a Lowenbrau ashtray (clearly stolen at some stage from a university bar) full of random radio station badges.

So, for your further anorak enjoyment, here's that collection in full. Bring back any anorak memories? I'm especially proud of the "I Beat Beadle" badge - his show on LBC is one of the reasons I'm in radio. And also just for the aforementioned Bealey, there's even a Radio Thamesmead badge!

PS: Did I mention - we WON the quiz?

Twinkle twinkle...

2011-07-31T10:22:00.003+01:00

There'll be a pub-related post along shortly, as there are some good newbies to write about, along with the annual outing on Thursday to the Great British Beer Festival. And possibly, for the anoraks, pictures of my newly rediscovered collection of 1980's radio badges.

First though, here's some music. Many have already commented on the irony of being able to pause and rewind the best bits of the Hackgate coverage thanks to Mr Murdoch's Sky+ box. This also means I don't see many ads. But one made my ears prick up, and I whipped out my Shazam app to find out what it was. To save you the hassle, it's Fredrika Stahl's "Twinkle twinkle little star (Data Remix)". But what does it remind me of? The closest I can get to is the Cocteau Twins meet Little Boots...

If you believe this blog...

2011-05-30T15:53:00.006+01:00

... then it's at least eighteen months since I last visited a pub. And that's definitely not correct - hence an update for this whole site is long overdue.

There'll still be pub-related bits on here, I'm sure. Indeed we're flying Julian Lorkin back from Sydney next week specially for a pub crawl of some new (to him) ones and old favourites from Euston down to Chancery Lane, and there'll be a report back from that, possibly even with (increasingly blurry) pictures.

But I'd now like to use this blog for other bits'n'pieces from The World of Will, so there's some new and updated links you might like, and a few of my recent photos, on the sidebar to the right. Over time, there might even be a new lick of paint, along with other pages as I think of them. In the meantime, as always, feel free to say hello here.

PS: I was right in my post from September 2009 re. Stone Horse Paper Cow near Liverpool Street - it didn't work, and has recently closed. Try the spectacular and classy Bathhouse instead... if you can find the entrance nestling in Bishopsgate Churchyard!

The Year In Pubs

2009-09-18T09:41:00.012+01:00

It's now traditional that I start a new post with an apology for it being so long since the last one (four months, in this case). I maintain my position that it's better to actually be supporting our Great British Pubs by being in one, than on the laptop at home with a bottle of cheap supermarket-bought (well Majestic, for £1.25 a bottle) beer.

So where have I been all this time? Here's a handful of favourites.
1) The Shashton Arms, Ganton Street. Twitter followers will already know this is my new London residence. The only bad point is that it is somewhat difficult to find, even for airborne traffic reporters who should know better (I mean you, Veglio!) in a maze of Soho backstreets off Carnaby Street. But that's it. It's just two minutes from Meejah Central (ie. Golden Square), yet is a countrified haven of Badger beers. It IS undeniably popular, but they have so many staff on that I've never had to wait to be served, and the landlady is friendly, and well, that's everything you can ask for.

2) The Tiger, East Dean. This is another countrified pub, but this one has the excuse of actually being in the beautiful Seven Sisters country park near Ol' Pa Jackson's place in East Sussex. Its own Beachy Head beers (including the fine Legless Rambler at 5%) and tables looking out on to the prettiest village green make this the perfect place to take three generations of Jacksons to meet my friend Carina.

3) Stone Horse Paper Cow. See previous post, for nothing had changed when I visited this week. Still a good basement bar just a stone (horse)'s throw from Liverpool Street station. Still cool with quirky mismatched fittings, probably bulk-purchased from quirkymismatchedpubfittings.com, and American-style booths, pool and table football. Still good because you can get a seat, but still lacking any atmosphere because it seems to always be empty. Still good because they have Black Sheep on tap, but still more new bar staff, who on this visit were confused by my asking for "bitter". I want this place to be great, I really do, but just can't see how it's going to work...

4) The White Hart, Margaretting Tye. This is oddly akin to the Stone Horse, in that it manages to be somehow less that the sum of its parts. Or at least the recent refurbishment here does. The odd thing is that they've not actually changed anything - the food is good, there's lots of well-kept real ales which they've rightly won CAMRA awards for, and there's a pets corner including some rapey ducks. And they've decided to give the place a lick of paint. But they've obviously been to an Ember/Vintage Inn, and thought "well if the gastropub standard makeover is good enough for them, we'll get our own heritage paint swatch, some velvet curtains and hang a couple of pheasants in the corner too..." I can't fault the actual elements of the makeover - it's still a nice place to spend an evening, and indeed it's probably still the best pub around - just somehow a little less individual...

5) And an honorable mention for the King's Head in Orford, Suffolk for just being a lovely village pub, with a mix of friendly locals, Adnams ales, up to five dogs of all sizes in the bar at any one time, and some excellent food. A model of how to do it right.

If you can remember any other pubs I've been to and should have written about at the time, then do let me know, via an electronic mail communication, as the Chelmsford post is on strike. And now that you've read this, go to this beery blog which puts mine to shame and just gets better and better: Stonch's Beer Blog.

A new City pub... and some old favourites

2009-05-10T17:30:00.006+01:00

Given our travels - well documented on these, er, pixels, it's now rare that I get to go to somewhere I haven't been before in central London - and rarer still that it's only a couple of minutes walk from Liverpool Street. So I was excited to read about Stone Horse and Paper Cow, owned by the same company as the well thought of Balham Bowls Club and also now the Tooting Tramshed. Although the address is Bishopsgate, it's tucked away down a side alley next to the Heron Tower building site - and either it's difficult to find or the credit crunch has hit those City boys REALLY hard, as it was pretty quiet on a Thursday evening. Anyway, there's a shop front, you walk down the stairs, through a net-curtained door, and there's a long bar in front of you, with the usual mis-matched salvaged furniture. What you're not expecting is that down the far end, there's a whole further room, with a couple of pool tables and some nice US-style booths. It's a big ol' place.

There's even a couple of proper ales on tap, including Pure Ubu. However, what let it down for me was the bar staff, who were so busy cleaning the bar when I arrived that I was left standing there until I shouted "hello" at one of them. They were then all called over for a chat with the manager, who gave them the standard "don't be generous with the measures, be careful when you pour a pint" message that bar-staff everywhere will recognise from the day after a stock-take's been done. And then on the second round, the barman wasn't aware of the work of "lager top" and couldn't find the orange juice button on the till. If they can get that sorted though, this will do a good job as a modern-day recreation of the sadly-missed Throgmortons.

Meanwhile, I've been back to Shunt a couple of times, and there's mixed news. I went there once on a Friday night, stayed later than expected, and was worried it had jumped the shark. It seemed to have lost its artistic quirkiness and have become a standard bar full of Shoxton types with asymmetrical haircuts talking about how cool it was to be there. And that's not cool. Couple that with rumours of its demise, and I was ready to take to the blogwaves and pronounce it as "so 2008". Then I went back, earlier on a Thursday evening, and normal service had been restored. There were tasty snacks on the bar, and thirties tunes on the PA, and all was well. I've even had a mailer to say that while there IS a new Shunt space in Bermondsey, the Lounge remains open until at least July, albeit with a slightly smaller space.

And in Chelmsford news, Garders and I decided to go townie and do a crawl of the High Street chains. No, I don't know why, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I'm pleased to confirm that Yates Wine Lodge is every bit as terrible as I expected. The barmaid appeared to have Swine Flu, and I think she even managed to cough in my pint of John Smiths Extra Cold - although the place is clearly set up more towards the Corky's Toffee Vodka Shots market. Edwards was marginally better, but only because the barmaid was fit (as in healthy, of course!) and there was a glitter ball, which made me feel like I was in the studios of Heart. Finally, The Ivory Peg from Wetherspoons is let down by being a nasty square box of a room next to a bus stop, but gets an honorable mention for (a) having a very nice smoked beer on draught as part of its real ale festival, and (b) being cheap.

Other bars are also available. Use them.

Will and Garders do Brentwood

2009-01-11T12:19:00.016Z

Well hello there... it's been a while! This is due to a greyhound and a digital radio station both being far more work than you'd think. But enough of the excuses and on to the pubs.

So last night I finally managed to prize myself away from the poopscoop and the Blackberry (there's a joke somewhere about both devices being full of something, but we'll leave that) for just long enough to join Big Garders for an evening of beer in the Jodie Marsh-land of Brentwood.

There's been many changes since I lived here ten years ago. The White Hart is now "Sugar Hut Village", and the legendary Sam's Nightclub is now a swanky bar called Eclipse, which claims to be "taking pleasure to another level". But the High Street still makes for a fine crawl, and it was time for Garders and I to inspect.

We'd planned to start in the pub closest to my arrival at the railway station - after all, why waste a minute of VDT - Valuable Drinking Time. But while on the train, I got a call from Garders to say he'd been in and it was "a bit lively" as "there's some sort of football thing on". He demonstrated a similar mastery of Association Football to mine I'm sure you'll agree - and given the pub in question was Murphy's Sports Bar, the "liveliness" was not entirely surprising. So next nearest up the hill from the station is The Brewery Tap.

As far as I could see, this was not actually a brewery tap - but was a nice, friendly traditional locals pub. It was busy, but not crowded and Stoke v. Liverpool was just finishing on the flat screen tellies that seemed to be on every wall. I think they'd got a bulk-buy discount at Currys. Anyway, it served its purpose - a nice warm-up pint of Spitfire before setting off for the High Street.

So to The Swan, which I think is a Greene King pub. It's a nice pubby place, with cheery staff and the usual GK real ales supplemented by beers from barrels behind the bar - I had a couple of fine pints of Olde Trip. Sadly however, no sign of a Wetherspoon-esque 99p pint here yet.

And it's by far the best of the High Street pubs, although that's not a particularly challenging task, particularly given it's next door to the hideous Litten Tree, known locally as the Litter Tray - which is precisely the polar opposite of The Swan, swilling out alcopops to hoodies who look barely old enough to drink legally.

The final stop was the good ol' Slug and Lettuce. Not normally my bar of choice, but it's always worth a visit when in the 'Wood. This is where the orange Jodie-alike girls and cashmere-sweater-clad Mark Ronson-wannabee boys come to warm up before Sugar Hut and is always worth seeing (and just staring).

You don't come here for the beer (John Smiths for me, Becks for Garders) - but amazingly for these supposed credit-crunch times, despite having plenty of hard-working bar staff, they just couldn't serve it up fast enough for the thirsty people of Essex, and the bar was crowded with people waving notes.

Then on the long walk of shame back to the station, here's a sight that I though best captured what it means to be English in 2009 - a mighty old oak tree next to a traditional red post box. With an empty Cobra bottle (which, I hasten to add, was not mine!) perched on top. Makes you proud.

To see all the photos from our Big Brentwood Bash, push the red button now.

The upside of the downturn...

2008-10-02T18:37:00.002+01:00

That nice Gavin Esler off of The Newsnight emailed me with this from his friend Lucy, which is worth repeating here:

If you had purchased £1000 of Northern Rock shares one year ago they would now be worth £4.95; with HBOS, earlier this week your £1000 would have been worth £16.50; £1000 invested in XL Leisure would now be worth less than £5; but if you bought £1000 worth of Tennents Lager one year ago, drank it all, then took the empty cans to an aluminium re-cycling plant, you would get £214. So based on the above statistics the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and re-cycle.

Will's Pub Guide has always maintained that Newsnight is the source for the finest economic analysis and heartily endorses their recommendation. But still prefers to get its news from The Colbert Report and The Daily Show...

There's only one way to find out...

2008-08-16T15:15:00.006+01:00

I wasn't previously aware of the Sainsbury's Beer Competition until chancing upon a shelf of it (miles from the other bottled beers) in the newly redeveloped Springfield Sainsburys with TCMJ yesterday.

I think its as simple as this: some judges picked 15 different bottled beers and they're all on sale now. The two best-sellers get permanently stocked in Sainsburys. This seems a little unfair as without buying them all you're somewhat going on the nice labels and the store's one-line description. I picked the St Peters Amarillo purely because I know and generally like St Peter's beer (and the flask bottle is a nice shape). TCMJ picked the Old Tom with Ginger because she likes ginger beer (and probably also because it has a picture of a pussy cat). So you rather think this is a marketing competition rather than a beer one. You can read more about the contest here:
Boys: Stonch
Girls: A Girl's Guide to Beer

But all of this is just warm-up for the most exciting discovery on the shelf. I like my darker beers so was naturally attracted to a stout. And it had a picture of a dog on it, for it was Crazy Dog Stout. I'm also always keen to support the local brewers, and this came from just neighbouring Suffolk. It would have gone in the basket at this point. But the icing on the cake: it is brewed by TONY HADLEY OUT OF THE SPANDAU BALLET.

A bit of googling reveals he's a real ale man - he's an investor in the Red Rat Craft Brewery which produces Crazy Dog, and he even opened the East Anglian Beer Festival. The EADT reports:
Hadley's picked up four awards from the Campaign for Real Ale in as many weeks, including two golds: champion bitter at Colchester Beer Festival and best beer under 5% at the East Anglian Beer Festival. In August the brewery is in Sainsbury's beer competition finals and Crazy Dog Stout will be on sale nationally in its main stores.
And the bottle comes complete with photo and signature:

Mr Hadley's beer goes under the Jackson taste test tonight.
When's the "Gold" golden ale out? And what next - Limahl's Lager?

As heard on...

2008-08-09T12:06:00.019+01:00

Well, after having been plugged on t'wireless, I suppose I should probably get my bottom off the barstool and post something new rather than lazily just putting photos on Facebook. Actually, if you want regular posts, go to see that nice Mr Stonch. If you want irregular ramblings, you've come to the right place.

For new readers, two of our irregular contributors, Nick Nobacon and Julian the Money Monkey somehow ended up on national BBC Radio together, and decided it would be a wizard wheeze to give the licence fee payers a review of some bottles of beer. And of course, this would involve mention of the pub guide. Trebles all round, as they say in the TVC Bar!

As I never tune my radio dial anywhere other than Brentwood and Billericay's Phoenix FM, I only heard about this when we met Julian at the annual Great British Beer Festival. Now, my excuse for the lack of updates is that I am actually having to do some work for once. I missed the Chelmsford Beer Festival through pressure of work, and was nervous that the GBBF would go the same way. But thankfully, things came together and I scraped along on the Friday afternoon.

And thereby hangs the conumdrum of GBBF (and indeed any good pub). I am REALLY honestly genuinely pleased that there are now so many people who appreciate a good pint that they want to pay £10 on the door (plus £1 for a programme and a refundable £3 for a pint glass) to come to the Festival. But I just wish they wouldn't all stand at the bar when I want to get a pint. I guess unsurprisingly for 6pm Friday, it was very, very busy.

As Julian was there to represent The Corporation, we decided to try some of the "don't you know who I am" on the nice CAMRA people in order to find the First Class lounge. We were directed through some sets of double doors, and in what obviously passes for real ale drinking humour, out of the beer festival into what appeared to be a multi-storey car park. We look surprisingly pleased about this...

Hahaha. Anyway, we had some nice beers. TCMJ had two Manchester beers: Chocolate Cherry Mild from Dunham Massey in Manchester, which tasted of Cherry Cola, and Ginger Marble, which was a very gingery beer! These came from the UnusuALE bar. See what they've done there? Meanwhile, I kept the Essex end up with a Stoneley Bitter from the new Shalford Brewery; and also had some of the third placed Champion Beer of Britain, Wickwar's Station Porter (which I'd coincidentally bought a bottle of from the real ale shop near Oxford Airport only the week before!). Julian and Kim did very well supporting the fine English tradition of ciders and perries.

An honorable mention should go to Alastair, for turning up for a second night of duty somewhat worse for wear and telling tales of having done a full evening session the night before and still being there at closing time. I wonder if any of those tell-tale piles of green sawdust were his fault? So here's Team WPG:

One of the other GBBF traditions is silly hats, with the organisers actually designating Thursday night as Hat night. Despite being a day late, and having always previously resisted, we (and others) decided to enter wholeheartedly and happily into the spirit of it (with varying degrees of enthusiasm and attractiveness...)

To save me having to do it...

2008-05-10T15:19:00.003+01:00

... here's the campaign to save Old Man's Pubs:
Save The Boozer

And here's what The Guardian said about it:
...The idea is to preserve the dying breed of old-men's pubs under threat and recommend those worthy of The Sticky Carpet Award. To qualify pubs must have at least some of the following: patterned carpets balding in random areas, scampi fries and pork scratchings, a photo of the Queen Mum pulling a pint, old Irish geezers chatting up the barmaids, a dartboard with at least one number missing, a back room that can be hired for wakes and a dodgy jukebox...

Keep up the good work, chaps!

From ridiculous to sublime and back again...

2008-04-28T16:20:00.024+01:00

It’s been a curious week in general. I didn't think at the start of it that I'd be dry-cleaning my suit as a result of cake decorating, for example.

It started last Monday, when some former colleagues from Chelmsford’s former number six hit music station - Chelmer FM - and I went to revisit some of The Birthplace Of Radio’s real ale pubs. We started in The Queens Head – I’ve blogged about this place before, but I read recently in the excellent Chelmsford fanzine The Edge (it’s a right riveting read, kids!) that the landlord had moved down the road and taken his regulars with him. We now know this to be true, as there were tumbleweed rolling through the bar where the punters used to be. Hospital Radio Volunteer Of The Year Matt (for that is his name), Big Rog and I sat in a corner, and the barmaid sat at the next table with a friend… it somewhat killed the atmosphere.

So we moved on to The Orange Tree, just down the road, the new home of the landlord. I opted for the Saloon Bar door and walked into what looked like a very serious championship darts match. We retreated and tried the Public Bar where it smelled of burgers, and had three football fans sat at the bar. We mentioned food, and one of the regulars said “we don’t do food” (despite the stench of fried onion). None of this hinted at a warm welcome, so we retreated again. This is a huge shame on both counts – The Queens Head used to be as good a local as you could hope for - and demonstrates the importance of a good landlord. Perhaps he’ll drag the Orange Tree up with him, but it didn’t yet show any signs of it on Monday – but I guess it’ll be worth another try as the summer rolls on.

So we headed over the road to The United Brethren, which Big Rog swore blind used to be a gay pub. As we approached, there was a lot of noise coming from it for a Monday night, and we saw a group of people in similar t-shirts. Stag? Hen? No, it turned out to be Writtle College's "Moulsham 11" pub crawl, and we got swept along in a whirlwind variously containing shots, pints-downed-in-one, lifeguards (pictured) and six-foot male nuns (not pictured) as the bemused locals looked on. So I think it’d be unfair to judge the Brethren on this occasion, other than to say the barstaff somehow managed to take it all in good humour. We made our excuses and left so that Big Rog didn't have share the toilet with the male nun (who was handcuffed to a woman by this stage...)

We volunteer Matt to order a drink

Onto the sublime then, and TCMJ and I went to visit Jamie Oliver’s parents at The Cricketers in Clavering in the corner of Essex where it meets Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire.

And it was lovely… a traditional country pub with just enough new bits to make it comfortable and attractive – and as you’d expect some excellent food: I had local pork with crackling and potatoes that tasted, well, really really potatoey.

TCMJ selects five desserts and no main course, please...

There was a wedding anniversary of 64 in the main restaurant, so we ate in the bar and I expected a delay as they struggled to cope – but nope, everything came just as we wanted it, and Pa Oliver took the time to come out to chat with some Swedish visitors at the next table. I heard him say they’d been at the pub 32 years – they moved there when Jamie was one year old apparently. Well, the 32 years of work has been worth it – if you’re flying off on holiday from Stansted, this is the place to stay beforehand. For his fans, although we didn't see him during our stay, TCMJ reckons we passed Oliver Jnr as we drove away from the pub.

And on the way back from Clavering, we popped into a place called Solopark, which is described as a "period homes supply centre". It was recommended to us by the bloke who did our floors as being a great place to pick up period decorations. But it actually appears to be a salvage yard for stately homes, full of stuff you’d never have realised people might own. Whole sets of wrought iron gates. Street signs. An entire mahogany curving staircase. I found it slightly creepy and we headed back to our plain 30s semi-detached - but look at what we could have won...

The graveyard of weather vanes... note box marked "flying pig".

Wondering where that cupola from Henry VII's chapel in Westminster Abbey had gone?

...well, it's in a yard just outside Cambridge and it's yours for £17k.

Stop sniggering! I'm not even going to bother with a caption competition...

Man seeks drinking pal for father

2008-04-03T17:00:00.002+01:00

Thank you to Alastair for drawing my attention to this job vacancy:

A man who is afraid his father could be lonely has advertised for a drinking companion for him - at £7 an hour - and there is no shortage of likely helpers... More from the BBC website

As Will's Dad is constantly reminding me, you can never do enough for a good Father (though more than minimum wage is pushing it a bit...)

A visit from the Easter bloggy...

2008-03-22T12:08:00.006Z

And here's a chance to catch up with some of my recent pub visits.

Al has already covered our last trip out to the wonderful Shunt. To mix my radio metaphors, like Radio 2, it really is different every time (ever played crazy golf in a bar? No? I did last Wednesday!) - but like all the good work I do for charidee, I don't like to talk about it. I worry that the commuting masses will find out about the secret door, and it'll turn into a Wetherspoons.

So here instead is an old favourite, the Princess Louise on High Holborn. This was already a great Victorian pub - so when it closed for refurbishment, I think everyone was a bit worried it'd be turned into a Wetherspoons (notice a theme emerging here?!). But the Sam Smiths people have done a good job. If anything, they've done too good a job - they've added back in the Victorian dividers, which means there are now several small rooms around the central island bar. If you enter the pub through the left had door, you walk into a corridor that isn't even obviously a pub! So it's really difficult to find your friends as you can't easily move between the rooms - and once you have done, there's only room for six of you (or as in our case, three of us and another very annoying group of four). But the bottom line is that they haven't screwed it up - the Gents toilets remain the finest in the land, the beer is usual Sam Smiths' dirt cheap, and therefore these are minor quibbles. If you have a tourist friend visiting London who wants to see where Sherlock Holmes tried to get Watson drunk, tell them it was here.

And here's a couple of new ones for you - first, The White Hart round the back of the Tate Modern, on Great Suffolk Street. This is a really cracking example of a neighbourhood boozer that's been tidied up just enough to make it decent for a mixed lunchtime crowd of suits and building site workers, but not enough to spoil it. So the beer is good, the sandwiches are doorstep and the ham egg and chips is mighty fine. And they've kept the original thirties features with some fine period doors and a lovely island bar. If you don't mind replacing a river view with a Sarf London railway bridge, this is a more authentic alternative to the Founders Arms.

Also good, in a bit more trendy sort of way is The Woolpack, round the back of London Bridge. This area is one of those new gentrified bits that you stumble across. You walk past some dodgy demolition sites/car parks, and suddenly come across a road full of boutiques and gastropubs. I really didn't think Bermondsey was like this! We visited The Woolpack for a leaving do (we seem to be having a lot of these at the moment...)

and it's now officially added to the "to do again" list, both for this pub and the one we didn't try immediately opposite (The Garrison). Here's some of the Woolpack, which don't include the surprisingly large and less surprisingly train-themed beer garden...

Meanwhile, in the Gents, this is who is staring at you while, ahem, you use the facilities...

And this is the door pattern. Cool or arty nonsense? (At least with Shunt Lounge you're certain of the answer!) In this case, you decide...

A post from Daily Mail island...

2008-03-22T11:40:00.012Z

Regular readers (hello Will's Dad!) have been complaining about the lack of posts here recently. I've probably been spending too much time inside pubs (and crazy underground bars, see previous post) and not time enough writing about them. So a wintery four-day bank holiday is probably the time to catch up with some recent observations, both pub and non-pub related.

As visitors to my Facebook page will be aware, I recently attended this year's excellent Student Radio Conference. Here I am, hard at work exploring the future of radio with key stakeholders in the vital 15-24 demographic.

Sorry, I mean this one:

As ever, it was a fine occasion, but I only remark on it to show you this gem from my stay at the Travelodge Bath Central. Here's my lovely fluffy towels on the heated towel rail.

But what's this? It doesn't seem very hot? Oh THIS might be why...

Thank you Travelodge Corporation, for always putting my safety ahead of heated towels. Oh God, Littlejohn's right, we are going to hell in a handcart.

Meantime, as only radio newsreaders who listen to too many American airchecks say, we turn to The Birthplace of Radio (TM). Even though our football club is called Chelmsford City, we missed out on city status in 2000 to Brightonandhove - and Wolverhampton, for goodness sake. But on my trip to the newsagents this morning, I think I found the problem. We might well have a cathedral, but they're not going to make us a city until we learn to spell correctly...

And finally, for anyone who hasn't found it yet, and with an advisory warning of extremely strong language, I salute the blogging genius of the anonymous Man In The Morning, who in a few dozen posts has pretty much taken apart the radio industry. Whether you agree or not, if only everyone showed this much passion for our industry. Read it now (ideally from the first post upwards so you know who's who).

It has come to my attention...

2007-12-07T17:09:00.001Z

...that, like Private Eye's "Curse of Gnome", there is now a "curse of WPG". No sooner do I recommend a watering hole than it closes. (Actually, I have a habit of doing that to radio stations, too...)
This is the case for Shunt at London Bridge, closed for refurbishment until mid-January. Yes, during the Xmas period - that's how cool they are. They don't want or need your office party antics.

And Throgmortons in the city, from where a capitalisation-free Pub Guide correspondent writes "as you may remember, it was owned by Mitchells & Butlers, the same people that own the eagle, hen and chickens, island queen, etc, not to mention o'neills and my favourite chain of soul-less, identikit, lady-friendly italian bars, al barone - he's quite a guy. and as they usefully point out:
Every year we sell 600 tonnes of custard and 1000 tonnes of ice-cream. That's one heck of a party! indeed it is. anyway, it's been sold to a new company. [the manager] said they were called throgmorton leisure, but did so in a way that made it sound like he'd just made it up."

So, to disprove this kiss of death, I've been back to a couple of old Trafficlink haunts that actually remain open, and unchanged from the good ol' days of Centrepoint. The Toucan on Soho Square and The Angel on St Giles High Street are still exactly as I remember them, minus the fog of tobacco smoke. And in the Angel's case, the staff are still the same too. And with Old Brewery at £1.82, even the prices mirror 10 years ago.

But on Tuesday I revisited the scene of many Metro after-hours crimes against decency, the Phoenix Artist Club on Phoenix Street. This is a members club with a late licence that dates from before the onset of alleged 24-hour drinking - but all are welcome before 8pm. And once you're in, you're in. Unsurprisingly, it's thespian-themed, and there are plenty of unusual characters in there. But its great fun, and rightly deserves what the Time Out Bar Guide says - "a classic late-night West End haunt. Priceless."

The Phoenix thinks of everything. If you need to step outside for a cigarette, you can secure your seat with a handy beer mat.

On the other side, should you wish to make new friends, or indeed find yourself lost, it's all set out for you.

So swiftly on to the Doric Arch at Euston station. Before you ask, I'm not a trainspotter, it was a convenient place to meet. This used to be the Head of Steam - which had a great reputation for real ale - before Fullers bought it and re-named it. But again, thankfully, again, it's exactly the same as before - alongside the Fullers London Porter there were two or three other ales, and a particularly good pint of Archers Best all the way from Swindon. And the toilets downstairs still require a secret code from the bar staff to get in. Classy.

Catch 'em before the curse of Jackson gets them!

Will: the student radio years - in colour

2007-10-20T11:33:00.000+01:00

The 40th anniversary of student radio - and a URE archive project being undertaken by Al and Julian - prompted my Dad to visit the loft and unearth these archive gems from 19-ahem to, well, three years after that.

My first year: a guy called Tim Wain who was way cooler than me and was Record Librarian. He hated my pop and oldies record collection.

And here's me in Studio 1 - note no telly at this point.

These next three must be second year - as here's Marc Settle, now at the BBC, and Helen Leadbetter.

This is the centre studio, supposedly for talk programmes, actually mostly for drinking.

Any idea who this is?

I reckon this is the Fresher's Week meeting of year three (note the "arrangement of driving tests on the agenda") in an LTB, there's Alastair and Dorian Wall. Behind Al is a german bloke who used to read philosophical texts out over Booker T and the MGs. I used to tech-op it without a clue of what was going on - but it sounded fantastic!

Pete Harris, then station manager (but went on to be Essex's first Green Union President) in Studio 1. By this point, we have a telly, but still the old cassette decks (it's like dating a tree by the rings...)

And here's a view of Studio 2. At this time, the studios were still in their original location at the top of the Union stairs.

Here's a speaker at the 18th birthday weekend - I think this is David Cox from SGR.

And this is third year, as we now have the new cassette machines in Studio 1.

Here's Brian the engineer and Dorian in Studio 2. Note an early Lorkin on the right!

And we couldn't go without Alastair Wilson: the Miami Vice Years - at Wivenhoe Quay, with Helen Leadbetter, Antony Whittall and Chris Mountain...

Camerons Brewery, Hartlepool

2007-09-23T10:21:00.000+01:00

As an added attraction for a trip oop t'north to see the in-laws, The Current Mrs Jackson had booked us on a tour of Hartlepool's fine independent brewery, Camerons. It's been in town since 1852 - and has had a big impact - even the current Quigley family residence was apparently originally built for the brewery [see below].

I've done a few brewery tours now and its interesting to compare them. This was pretty standard stuff, though it was a lot less sanitised than the PR spin you get at Guinness, for example - it actually felt like a real industrial brewery. And the lady taking us round really knew and cared about the place - and told good ghost stories of people drowning in vats of beer (yes, we know the joke...). We learned also that they brew Kronenburg under licence there, and that there is a Monkey Stout. But the highlight was the marble brewing hall...

... and more specifically, this control panel. When I grow up, I want to work one of these.

For the £5 tour, you get a free pint and a pint glass, which is good value for money; I took away eight bottles of their finest Strongarm Ruby Red for £10 (it's named after the brewer - Mr Armstrong, geddit?!) And while the Nice Lady showed us the well that means the brewery has to be where it is, this also means it occupies a prime chunk of real estate in the centre of town - eerily reminiscent of Youngs. I'd go while you can...

***Update*** Ma Quigley writes "Quigley house (and the one next door) was ONCE owned by the brewery. What about Helen's great-grandfather's house now IN it!"
It was explained on the tour that the brewery's expansion absorbed several streets. And here to prove it is a photo of Silver Street, now inside the brewery...

Michael Jackson

2007-09-20T10:37:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Giacomo for pointing out something I'd missed - the sad death of "Beer Hunter", Michael Jackson. Don't miss the tribute toast on 30th Sept.
Read more...
Telegraph obit
Beerhunter.com

Lorkin Beer Festival exploits press shocker

2007-08-17T14:59:00.000+01:00

Where Will's Pub Guide goes first, the BBC staff newspaper "Ariel" will follow...

(Click to enlarge)

BC Beer

2007-08-05T20:03:00.000+01:00

And here we are, live from the Mirabelle flat - sorry, apartment - on the 24th floor of a block in Yaletown, Vancouver, B.C. in the country of Canaidia. Isn't wireless interweb wonderful?

You may think Canadian beer starts and finishes with Molson, and you'd be right if you're in the UK. But here, where Molson seems to have been rebranded simply as "Canadian", there are other things to drink while admiring the range of animals dressed in mountie costumes available from the souvenir shops (husky, moose, and three different coloured bears, since you ask).

TCMJ's recommended domestic regular bottled beer of choice is Kokanee, for example; Sleemans Honey Beer, which is also available in a handful of places in the UK, is also in most bars.

There is also however a thriving microbrewery scene here - and it has of course been our duty to sample these. We've been to Granville Island - which is kind of the Borough Market of Vancouver, with the added attraction of a microbrewery. Here's the beer selection in the bar - you'll see their own honey lager and a pale ale - and The Current Mrs Jackson enjoying a glass.

And just to check, we also tried the Yaletown Brewery, in the middle of what can only be described as Covent Garden crossed with Docklands - boutique shops surrounded by high-rise apartment blocks (of which we're in one).

And while I'm pleased they're making the effort, my British palate has found all of the local brews really lacking in any flavour. It's not that they're not strong - most are 5% or more - but they just all end up tasting like Fosters. Sorry. The one honorable exception has been the beer I had at the Wickanninish Hotel, which was a Russell Brewery Lemon Ale, which is one of the best beers I've had, with a real fresh lemon flavour. But now, I might just have to go and check that again before we leave...

Chelmsford, birthplace of radio

2007-07-15T18:11:00.000+01:00

Good news everybody... we're back! But don't get too excited, as we're probably about to go away again on holiday. But do get excited, because we could well be about to embrace the technology of three years ago, and venture into podcasting! Mr Wilson has a new mp3 recordery thing, and I vaguely remember recording some ramblings outside a pub late last night. If we can record another bit at the ASRA student radio old farts event on Thursday, we might hack something together and put it out on the interweb.

In the meantime, Chelmsford has provided us with two rather fine drinking events recently. The first was the Cathedral Festival. Cathedrals and beer don't - to the best of my knowledge - generally go together. But these are enlightened times, and the refreshment marquee was open to all and stocked some fine ales, including one brewed specially for the occasion, called Celebrate Chelmsford (more of this later!).

The nice location, on the back of the Chapter House lawn, the marquee and the well-dressed people attending the events, made it feel liked you'd crashed someone's wedding. But nothing beats drinking outside on a summer's evening and this was a nice opportunity.

And then came the Chelmsford CAMRA beer festival. I was expecting one tent and a couple of trestle tables. But no, this was a big 'un, taking over a whole field, with long marquees on three sides and catering trucks and toilets on the fourth, forming a square in the middle for sitting in. If one of the bar staff is to be believed, they sold 10,000 pints on Friday - which given that only 60,000 people live in the town of Chelmsford, means some of them were very thirsty!

I got the impression they were a bit overwhelmed at times, which made me feel even more guilty about not having supported my local CAMRA branch and volunteered to do my bit behind the bars. But overall, it was a great day, with good weather, and what beers remained - many of the bars (and even the pickled egg stall) had sold out - were excellent. Particular mentions go to the Farmer's Ales (Maldon) A Drop of Nelson's Blood, which has brandy in it, and the very fruity Felstar Celebrate Chelmsford, while the Brentwood Chockwork Orange (6.5%) had lots of chocolate but not much orange.

Somehow afterwards, we ended up trying three Chelmsford pubs I hadn't been in before. The Rockin' Bay Tree on Moulsham Street, was, er, rocky. I wasn't really wearing enough black and/or eyeliner to be truly accepted in there. The Railway Tavern, which I'd never been in despite walking past it twice a day was nice, if quiet - but sadly the Black Sheep Bitter had just run out. And the White Horse on Townfield Street, which has a good reputation for ales, had a friendly enough welcome for what looks like quite a locals pub, but we ended up having a final pint of mild as there weren't any interesting ales left.

Next it's three beer festivals in one, as Clacton overlaps with both The Viper at Brentwood and the Queens Head, Burnham on Crouch. Hope it's sunny! Meanwhile, the alternative is the "Gentleman's Evening" at Chelmsford City FC, with not one, but two lovely girls!

Parsons Green revisited

2007-07-15T17:49:00.001+01:00

When we were young and foolish - before we realised that no self-respecting sloane would have any interest in the likes of us - Garders and I used to occasionally venture down the District line to Parsons Green. Not because the pubs were any good, or that they had an excellent range of real ale (I was a lager boy back then) but because it was rammed with posh totty. There was even a late bar, called Crocs, which had a dreadful covers band, including a man who played one of those keyboards that you blew into that were big in the late 80s (even though this was the early 90s!).

Nowadays, I venture to Parsons Green only when the Ofcom Summer Event (it's NOT a party, for tax reasons!) is held at the Hurlingham Club. And after making our excuses at the end of the staff X-Factor talent competition (I couldn't make this stuff up)

Jon and I ventured out in search of a further pint or two. Our first stop was Aragon House. I guess this is a proper public house, being er, like a country house - well, a country house with big screens showing sport. It's hidden behind a black door in a pretty anonymous but smart house.

I think it was probably because it was a Monday night, but this place wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped - it felt a bit empty and soul-less; and a bit caught half-way between the country house atmosphere, with nice leather chairs, and those big screens making it feel like a sports bar - and therefore not doing either terribly well.

So we wandered across the green to the Sloaney Pony, otherwise known as the White Horse. Even on a Monday night, it's popular, and deservedly so for its wide range of well kept real ale - which I must admit I didn't even realise they did when I was coming here before. Otherwise it's not changed at all, and neither has the clientele - alice bands and pearls never went out of fashion in SW6. Well worth the price of a ticket to Zone 2!

In da club

2007-05-04T09:00:00.000+01:00

Last night Al and I went a'Shunting. There's always something new to see there, and this visit was no exception - on the way in, there was a radio tuned to the sounds of the earth (pictured).

And we sat and drank beer on some antique chairs on the back of a converted milk float (not pictured!).

That alone should explain why I love the place. However, some of the art there could be straight out of Private Eye's "Pseud's Corner". From yesterday's short films: "Claustrophobia attempts to express a social/psychological maze. It also obliquely references the claustrophobic condition of art - the painting stuck in a frame or the performance trapped in a video."

So here's my own attempt at some art. This is called "The long journey home on the 2200 to Ipswich". Note the discarded fast food wrappers, and more importantly, the shoes oddly placed on his legs rather than the floor...

Meanwhile, this week I am mostly listening to the Mark Ronson's excellent "Version". The cover of "Stop Me" is now officially my favourite track of the year so far. Listen here.

Two things today...

2007-04-29T13:36:00.000+01:00

First, we should all support this:

... CAMRA's full pint initiative. You can sign the online petition here.

Second, I've been back to Waterloo's, er watering holes, a couple of times in the last few weeks. I know this is a regular topic, but the position is always changing. I have three regular haunts there:
1) The Hole in the Wall. Yes, it's a bit dingy, with a lino floor in the back bar, and the feeling of a 70s Swiss chalet in the front, but it usually has at least one interesting beer (from the Twickenham Brewery on my last visit), and there's a picture of a funny monkey too. But it's just always incredibly smokey. This could be a good bet after 2nd July.
2) The White Hart, Cornwall Road. My favourite of last summer: comfy sofas, good beers and - for my single friends - lovely barmaids. But now a contender for "when good pubs go bad"... the real ales are usually off, the service is terrible, and they've clearly fallen out with the neighbours, as you're now herded into a small roped-off standing area outside with a list of instructions on do's and don't's. The Anorak Stacey Harris commented that you don't need to be told how to drink. So off we went to:
3) The Kings Arms, Roupell Street. A good old favourite, that doesn't usually disappoint. The neighbours here are clearly more understanding as you can stand where you like, other than a sign on a windowledge opposite asking people not to put their pints there, which is fair enough really. SOMEONE ELSE told me that they recognised one or two of the bar staff as having come over from the White Hart, too. And we watched a Toyota Yaris advert being filmed at the end of the road.
Of note here is a new pump I noticed from East Angular's Adams brewery. When I found a bar person who spoke English and knew what it was, I was told it's "like an ale, but served cold". It was called Spindrift, and a bit more research shows it to be "a top-fermented, five per cent ABV, chilled and filtered beer, which will be targeted at premium pubs and bars." But without wishing to be old farty about this, if I want a cold beer, I have lager. If I want a beer beer, I have bitter. There's no need for anything in between. Despite this, a couple of pints went down rather well, and the Kings Arms regains its title as our favourite Waterloo local.

The votes are in...

2007-04-09T10:50:00.000+01:00

And the mid-Essex branch of CAMRA have crowned a new champion: the White Hart at Margaretting Tye is this year's Pub of the Year. This spurred TCMJ and I to leave our sun-drenched back garden and head into the depths of the Essex countryside to check it out. And I'm pleased to report it was well worth the effort, and definitely deserving of the title. In a way, I'm glad its a four-mile drive from the house down a narrow country lane, otherwise I'd be here every night!
In summary:

It's animal friendly. This must be the only place where I've seen a Mum arrive with her small child on a Shetland pony. There is also a pets' corner, with a fed-up looking goat, lots of squeaking guinea pigs, several rabbits and an aviary. Oh, and a large duck pond with some randy ducks providing entertainment for the parents, who were busy answering the question of why the lady duck was giving the gentleman duck a piggy-back!

Here instead of some hot duck action is a picture of a sleeping cat and a guinea pig.

The location is almost impossibly English. This could only be a better place to bring an American tourist if a soldier wearing a bearskin was drinking Beefeater gin before being arrested by a policeman whistling and swinging a truncheon. Look, a village green with a waterpump and a red phone box! They don't make 'em like this any more.

Meanwhile, like an episode of Life on Mars, Helen reads a copy of The Taproom sat next to a vintage red post box and an R Whites litterbin from the 70s.

Oh, and the beer? Excellent - you don't get to be POTY for nothing - six real ales on at any one time. I had a pint of Nobbys Plum Porter from Northamptonshire which was very plum coloured, but not very plum tasting. But a good well-kept beer nevertheless; and as well as the usual local Crouch Vale there were several other interesting beers on offer. They hold popular beer festivals here too - the next in June - and a village fete and jazz day in August. I'll definitely be back!

One note of caution if you're thinking of trying this place - it's not in Margaretting itself... it's tucked away down a single track lane between Margaretting and Stock - check the website for a map... you'll need it, but it's well worth a bit map-reading to find it!

And now, back to the pubs...

2007-03-18T11:38:00.000Z

The last few weeks have passed in a bit of a blur, but in summary:

- I've been to Throgmorten's a lot, and everyone has been very impressed, although the real ale supply seems a bit dodgy. There's almost always one or two on, though it usually tends to be the less interesting ones left; one day there was none at all as "the beer lorry couldn't get down the street because of the building works..." which is either true, or at least an inventive excuse.

- I've taken lots of new people to my club, and they've mostly either been gobsmacked or freaked out, or both. As is usual with any evening out attended by Messrs Lorkin and Gardner, one visit descended into a messy end where were approached by a nice lady offering to take us on to a "new £8m nightclub in Knightsbridge". This may well have been true, but we think we actually narrowly escaped being recruited by a cult, or bundled into the back of van and murdered in Epping Forest, or both. On the other hand it might just have been a piece of performance art. It's that kind of place.

Garders recovered with some performance art himself (OK, the coin through the rubber magic track) for some nice ladies on the train back to Essex.

- As previously reported, I had the ManFlu and missed the Walton pub crawl, though I understand it was a rip-roaring success, with much ale drunk, and some of the resulting hangovers lasting into a second day. Good work fellas, as I believe they said in the 90s! However, I did manage a replacement night out with Mr Wallis. He liked The Throg, where their musical choice of Hendrix and Belle & Sebastian seemed somewhat out of place with the 20s ocean liner atmosphere. He was suitably freaked out by my club, which this time had a banjo player. And we ended up in The Rake at Borough Market - which unfortunately - given it was small to start with - has now become deservedly very popular and therefore crowded. When a city boy - who clearly wasn't used to drinking anything stronger than Carling - pushed Nick out of the way and he rightly objected, I thought it was going to kick off. Nick had also realised that I am (a little) taller than him, and he told me his plan was to hide behind me. It is in situations like this that you learn who your friends are!

- Giacomo and I planned a pub crawl of the City, to find some new pubs, none of which were much good. He brought his camera to record the occasion; here's some of the best.

We started in a new one - the Cock and Woolpack on Finch Lane (no, no idea why it's called this...) which is on a little back street. For some reason, Giacomo thought the glasses there were very small. It turned out that either the barmaid had big hands, or that the glasses were very far away.

Then on for another visit to the ever-popular Throgs.

And next door to Throgs, by way of contrast is a shockingly-awful place called The Phoenix, whose only redeeming feature is that it is no smoking throughout. While they use this to promote the pub with the slogan "a pub with atmosphere", on the night we visited this couldn't have been further from the truth. While I probably over-use the description "like an airport departure lounge", this one really was.

Pub named after broadcasting legend

2007-03-02T11:06:00.000Z

When I saw the headline above, I thought my work in the fields of radio and, er, pubs might have at last been recognised.
Reading on, while I was naturally disappointed that this wasn't actually the case, the accolade was clearly well deserved...

THE widow of the legendary broadcaster John Peel has given her seal of approval to a new pub named after her late husband.

Sheila Ravenscroft said she was “absolutely delighted” that The Ravenscroft has been opened up in the legendary Radio One DJ's birthplace of Heswall on the Wirral. More...

New (old) London pub!

2007-02-05T20:41:00.000Z

First, an apology. I woossed out of the Walton Pub Crawl because I had ManFlu (probably better than having BirdFlu at present). Actually, I think it was real flu, not just ManFlu - I did have a temperature and all the other symptoms, and TCMJ - who had to wait on me for several days as a result will testify to my snivelling, whimpering state.

Any other weekend I'd have been happy to spend the time in bed. But this one meant I missed not just the Crawl, but also the Chelmsford Winter Beer Festival. I hope they choked on all that lovely beer just yards from where I lay alternately sweating and shivering ... But am also genuinely sorry to have missed The Crawl.

My continued absence from work today (I'm nearly on the mend, thank you for asking) also meant my collegues kindly drew my attention to this news story: Employers braced for National Sickie Day which I consider to be "unhelpful" at best!

Anyway, time to report a new and spectacular find. What I love about London is that I've been there or nearby all my life, much of which has been dedicated to the pursuit of fine pubs, and yet an evening out with The Anorak Stacey Harris can still turn up a fine new place that I had no idea existed. This one is doubly galling as I walk past the door most days on the route between Liverpool Street and Regulator Towers. It's just off Old Broad Street, in Throgmorten Street (no 27a), and is called, er, Throgmorten's.

As with all good finds, there's an understated entrance - with a sheet of A4 stuck on the door saying "come in for a drink". There's a rickety looking lift of the type that old hotels have, with a gold tiled staircase curled round it, taking you down to the lower level and the main lounge bar.

This is a proper old bar - the last time I experienced anything like this was staying on The Queen Mary in Long Beach - a gold mosaic bar, chesterfield sofas, art deco lighting. I've read that this used to be the flagship of the J.Lyons empire, - the review also correctly noted that it now feels slightly bohemian, as some of the glamour is slightly faded, but its still an incredible piece of architecture. There are two other bars - the Long Room, which is jaw droppingly impressive - it wasn't serving, but you could go in there to view. There is another bar - The Oak Room - one level down, which I'm told is a Sports Bar, but that was firmly closed (I don't know if this is permanent, or just on the day I was there).

You'd think a place like this would be all cocktails, but not at all: both beers and lagers (I had Landlord, and I think there was Adnams Broadside too) on draft at sensible pub prices, served in glass tankards with a handle! I was there at just before six on a Wednesday and easily got a table.

It got busier later on, but what I can't understand is why this place isn't a huge tourist draw, on every single pub list and packed out? Am I missing something? Or perhaps like me, once you've been here, you don't want to tell anyone about it, in case it gets ruined... Sshh.

Rodney, you (plonk)er

2007-01-07T18:18:00.000Z

Since one of the reasons for moving to The Birthplace of Radio (TM) was to have much easier access to fine country pubs than London SW17 could offer, it's been a bit disappointing that we've spent so much time either working on getting the house in order, or just being plain too busy, to get out and visit a few.

So there's New Year's Resolution number one then. And it's not like we're short of them: the local branch of CAMRA's shortlist for pub of the year runs to the following:

The Vine, Black Notley
The Leather Bottle, Blackmore
The Cricketers, Moulsham St, Chelmsford
The Endeavour, Springfield Road, Chelmsford
The Original Plough, Duke St, Chelmsford
The Queen's Head, Lower Anchor St, Chelmsford
The White Horse, Townfield St, Chelmsford
The Woolpack, Mildmay Rd, Chelmsford
The Griffin, Danbury
The Rose & Crown, Gt Waltham
The Rodney, Little Baddow
The Flitch of Bacon, Little Dunmow
The White Hart, Margaretting Tye
The Viper, Mill Green
The Chequers, Roxwell
The Wheatsheaf, Writtle

So we decided to turn over the new leaf a couple of days early, and headed off in the rain to The Queens Head at Fyfield. Not in the CAMRA list, but a Good Pub Guide main entry. And deservedly so. When we first tried to go here, we just turned up at the bar only to be told that all the tables for Sunday lunch had been booked up several days in advance. Other than the fact that this is quite a small, cosy place, I'm pleased to report that this popularity is because it has great beers, wine, food, atmosphere and location - there's even a picturesque garden with a river running past the end of it. All in all, the real country pub deal, just 15 minutes along the A414 from Chelmsford.

Little Baddow is one of those places I used to talk about on the mighty Chelmer FM without ever actually having been to, so it was eye-opening to drive through on our way to the next pub. This place smells of money - click on the link to see - and picking up the Danbury, Bicknacre and Baddow Journal (sadly not yet online) with its note that Danbury Church tea towels make ideal Christmas gifts, confirmed my impressions. TCMJ commented that even the bungalows here were big enough to be better described as "ranches". North Hill here leads down from Danbury into L'il Baddow and the river, where you can get cream teas and boat trips.

Down here is the excellently named "Rodney" - every table has a menu with a little potted history on it, so I can tell you that the house dates from 1650, and it was owned by the Hodges family in the 18th century, who also founded the Chelmsford Brewery, so it would have sold their beer. What it doesn't say is how it got the name, other than a reference to "it took over the sign of the Rodney from the old Rodney further up the hill as that ceased to be the social centre of the village".

At 6.30pm between Xmas and New Year, it was dead. Perfectly nice, just no-one in there, in amongst the usual horse brasses and ships memorabilia (?!). We had some nice beer, and a packet of popadoms that even came with a portion of chutney inside them. What will they think of next? Then a group of six came in claiming to have a food booking that the pub didn't know anything about. There was plenty of space for them, but listening to their conversation, we learned why they were hungry - as one of them had only had three banana sandwiches since breakfast. This sounded like a local radio phone-in topic: "tell us what you've had to eat since breakfast..." There's at least an hour in that, including ten minutes each from a nutrition expert from the University of Surrey and a vegetarian cafe owner in Brighton. So The Rodney: nice enough, just a bit quiet. I think however that if you lived close-by and were in here on a Friday night, it'd be a good little local. We may be back to check.

On the way out, the car park had six cars in it: five were 4x4s, dwarfing my little Peugeot 206. As I said, it's that kind of place...

Things we have already learned in 2007...

2007-01-01T15:02:00.000Z

One of the shocks of what we are already calling last year was arriving at the Garderque to be presented with Sainsbury's Basics Lager (2% ABV). Ian claimed he "liked the taste" and wasn't just being tight (it's 22p/can, value fans...)

So, when he arrived last night clutching a can of this, we decided that in true Harry Hill style, there was only one way to settle this: a FIGHT! The can of Carling C2 that I was given at Liverpool Street by a goody girl at 8am one morning "great tasting, mid strength", versus Sainburys Basics: "light, refreshing, thirst rate!"...

Contenders... ready!

and a bottle of real lager, represented for this bout by Grolsch of Holland.

Gladiators... ready!

Ian and Shelley would pour into random glasses, while Al, Louise and I would taste test.

Interestingly, after appropriate amounts of sniffing and swooshing round the palate, we judges all agreed on which we believed to be which. But we only got one out of three right! All I can say is thank goodness that the one we did manage to correctly identify was the 5% Grolsch! And to maintain Ian's last remaining shred of dignity, we did actually prefer the Sainsbury's to the C2.

So already this year, I'm pleased to say we've proved that Ian is tight, and proper beer is better. It's shaping up to be a good year... Happy 2007!

The losing C2 "lager" is ceremonially fed to Chelmsford's worms...

Christmas Pudding

2006-12-31T13:54:00.000Z

When we went on one of the last Young's Brewery tours in Wandsworth, the guide mentioned their Christmas Pudding beer. This, he told us, would be one of a handful of casualties in their move to Bedford.

So when Al and I noticed some bottles (albeit a tad past their sell-by date) in the, er, mighty fine Only Fine Beer emporium in the Glamorous West End Of Chelmsford, we snapped them up. And I've exercised considerable will-power to leave the bottles in the cupboard all the way through to the festive season.

The label suggests its "warming, dark ruby character and the splendid luscious flavour of dried fruit... is an inspirational addition to any traditional Christmas feast or fireside gathering." More importantly, we were told that if you add it to the Youngs Chocolate beer (which is still available) it tastes of Bounty Bars. And on tasting, you could see why - TCMJ and I agreed that the main flavour was coconut - and I don't remember that being the key ingredient of my Xmas pud.
Anyway, here's a Christmas treat: ITV Digital Monkey (Retd.) and the last bottle in captivity of Youngs Xmas Pud Ale.

(Note: Actually, their website, suggests it may still be available...)

I'm in the club!

2006-12-23T16:46:00.000Z

I have previously thought lots about the merits of joining a members club. I rather see myself sitting in an elegant wood panelled lounge, sipping whiskey served by a waiter from a silver platter, while discussing the finer points of politics. Much of this fantasy was fuelled by a visit to the National Liberal Club for a wedding - it looked like this:

... and therefore fitted the bill perfectly. Unfortunately, the need to be nominated by an existing member and the £490 fee somewhat dampened my enthusiasm; plus it's at Charing Cross, which while not exactly far from Regulator Towers, is in the opposite direction to my journey home. Otherwise, there are trendy West End clubs - I've been to places like Milk and Honey which are very nice for a cool night out, but not really somewhere I feel I could sit and have a pint with a mate.

So I was very excited to learn of a comparatively new and somewhat secret bar at London Bridge, which came very highly recommended by those in the know. I popped along to investigate on its last day of free entry, and was so blown away I joined on the spot. Other than being an exceptionally impressive venue in its own right (albeit in completely the opposite way from either the NLC or mlkhny), it has its own garden shed:

And that was the point I knew it would be worth the money, despite what Groucho Marx said about not wanting to join any club that would have someone like me for a member. So I've splashed the cash for a three-month trial, and am able to bring one friend along for free (more will cost £5). I'm not going to go into any more detail about the place in the meantime, as you are hereby invited to join me at my club any Wednesday, Thursday or Friday from 1800 til late, when you can see it for yourself!

Eddie Large and a ten and a half ton pie

2006-11-26T15:26:00.000Z

Thursday was the Radio Academy's "Radio at the Edge" conference. I'm sure you'll be able to make your own gags about what radio might be at the edge of, but while you ponder that, you can read about the conference proceedings on John Plunkett's fine live blog of the occasion.

It was held at one of Mayfair's poshest hotels; so showbiz in fact that as well as the likes of myself and Giacomo Shimmings, Sarah Harding, out of the Girls Aloud (and the new face of Ultimo undies, so I'm told!) was at the hotel bar. Dragging ourselves away, we ended up in The Guinea, one of Mayfair's poshest pubs. But little did I know what awaited me in the toilets... Eddie Large and a ten and a half ton pie (click the pic to enlarge...)!

Will & Neil Go To Glasgae

2006-11-19T17:52:00.000Z

Work took Li'l Garders and I to Glasgow the week before last, and given the choice between getting up at 0400 to fly up on the day, or going up and spending the night, ahem, "familiarising ourselves with the town", we opted for the latter.

The city has three CAMRA National Inventory listed pubs, one of which is in the City Centre, so we thought we should make this our first stop. CAMRA says The Horseshoe (Drury Street) is an 1885-87 interior with impressive mirrors; claims the longest continuous bar counter in the UK. (If I recall correctly, this may also be claimed by The Falcon at Clapham Junction.) And the description is spot on - its an incredibly impressive place, other than the incredible number of TVs they've felt it necessary to crowbar onto the walls.

The natives are friendly: Neil was detained by one at the bar; the ale is good: I had a pint of their guest Ossian golden ale from Inveralmond, which as it turns out is Champion Beer of Scotland. And best of all, being Scotland, it's all non-smoking! It did seem a bit odd, as this was precisely the sort of place you'd expect to be in a cloud of nicotene, and there were some yellow-fingered old men looking a bit twitchy - but it made a pleasant change from the smoke-filled bars of London.

We moved on to a nearby Weatherspoons for some solids. The Counting House (St Vincent Place) falls into their giant bank conversion category, and it's exactly what you expect: a large ornate room, big central bar and high decorative ceilings, in a prestigious city centre location. The only downside was the long single queue to order food, shunted to one side to allow the drinkers easy access to the main bar. But other than that, the food arrived quickly and went down well accompanied by another Ossian.

Finally, onto what looks like a small boozer, but is actually just as good as the other two: The Pot Still on Hope Street is a pretty straightforward pub - but with a vast library of whiskies (click here to see the full list of 483). While we stuck to the beer, its actually incredibly impressive just to see the range available, lined up on the shelves above the bar, and with one of those ladders on wheels to get the staff up to them. Anyway, three great pubs in a city that I previously hadn't been that impressed with. While it has been either wet and/or very cold every time I've been here, it does seem that its up-and-coming reputation is borne out by the pubs we visited...

No, this is not Neil and I...

Will and Al Do Docklands

2006-11-12T12:03:00.000Z

TCMJ is away at some sci-fi geekfest, so I am home alone for the weekend. This presents the opportunity for using what Al calls our Royster-doister cards, so I call him to see if he's allowed out to play. The next question therefore is what to do: we have the whole of The World's Greatest City and all its artistic offerings to choose from - perhaps the Velazquez exhibition at the National Gallery? Or the historic pomp and pagentry of the Lord Mayors Show?

Nope. We go to the pub. Pubs in a different part of London though...

I've only been to Docklands once before, to meet Garders Off The Telly at Canary Wharf - and that had the usual chain bars for the City Boys: Slug & Lettuce, Pitcher'n'Piano etc... so I wasn't that impressed. This time, I wanted to tick off a couple of Good Pub Guide main entries along the river, in Wapping and Limehouse.

So we started at the Prospect of Whitby. It's one million years old (FACTOID! England's first fuschia was exchanged for a noggin of rum here in 1780!), has a noose outside and is very touristy. That's all you need to know, really. There's nothing wrong with it - it just ain't all that, and you expect something a bit better from a GPG listing that you've travelled an hour to get to.

We moved on along the river - a nice bracing walk past converted warehouses that are now all loft apartments - to the Narrow Street Pub and Restaurant. And the problem is in the name: it's neither one nor the other. The Time Out Bar Guide said "We've never entirely warmed to the Narrow Street..." - and we agreed. You'll see the problem - it's all shiny chrome and clearly geared towards food - at one point they burned some food and had to open all the windows in the place to let the smoke out. But there were also plenty of relaxed drinkers there too - mostly Nathan Barleys that hadn't made the effort to go back to the country at the weekend. They've clearly spotted this though, as there signs all round shouting about a major refurbishment in January 2007.

We made our excuses and left, but were foiled by the opening of the swingbridge outside - this is the eastern end of the Regents Canal, and is still used - meaning this sign is outside the pub - perhaps they mean the clientele?

Next stop was the other GPG main entry - The Grapes also on Narrow Street. And this was the real deal. A proper authentic old (1720) pub, right on the river. All the awards on the door as you go in are deserved; this is something special, with a nice crowd, friendly staff and an over-excited pub dog looking for his dinner. There's a small terrace out the back of the bar that looks on to the river, and a restaurant (which was closed when we visited) upstairs. But it is just modern enough to have sign asking for mobiles to be switched off, and to have a no-smoking area at the back. I'd like to come back here in the summer.

At this point, the beer was kicking in, and we had the excellent idea: let's go to Greenwich! So back on to the Docklands Light Railway, and we headed off to see the Meantime Brewery's pub, The Greenwich Union, on Royal Hill. I think Al liked this one more than I did - but I will give them ten out of ten for service: Al asked for an IPA and the barman pointed out that it was unusually strong at 7.4%; then offered us tasters of a couple of the other beers. I think I was a bit put off by the uninspiring long rectangular room - Time Out nails it when it says "A similar venture in Clapham might have been unbearable; here... it works." But you can't fault the draught and bottled beers: I also had a rather good Australian Coopers Best Extra Stout.

And with that - after a look at the Cutty Sark (fenced off for repairs), the giant ships on the Thames and the twinkly lights of Docklands - it was back onto the DLR for home...

More of the last few weeks...

2006-11-05T11:52:00.000Z

And here's another pub catch-up. Like Al's trip to Berlin, there have been some fine and not-so-fine watering holes.

We'll start with a good 'un. It was "Dirty" Simon Thompson's birthday recently, so we hauled ourselves out to the end of the Northern line (because of engineering works) at East Finchley, where there is a fine sturdy old pub just under the railway bridge from the station. It's been given the usual mahogany and leather makeover but is none the worse for it, and we passed a very pleasant afternoon there. As well as fish finger sandwiches, they also have TCMJ's tipple de jour there on draught, Sleeman's Brown Honey Lager - you guessed it - from Canada. Not surprisingly, it's quite sweet, and it divided the people that took up my recommendation. Anyway, this one is worth knowing if you're stranded at the northern end of the Northern Line and Al made a new friend too...

Here's Al again, this time sampling one of many fine beers at Borough Market's latest pub, The Rake on Winchester Walk. This one remains recommended for its extensive (and expensive) beer list which runs to several pages, and is divided by style rather than name. So if you know you like a wheat beer, for example, you can see the others available to try... A cunning plan! Despite being *very* small, it doesn't seem to have become too crowded, at least on the occasions I've been there. And after our last visit there, sadly we didn't make it into the Time Out review...

While we're on the Borough area, a quick mention for the Lord Clyde on Clennam Street SE1. I first went to this gem probably ten years ago while working at what was then still called Metro Networks. Jag and Jim took me there for a legendary pub quiz - the trip down to SE1 was somewhat terrifying then; less so now. I went back there for the first time recently with The Anorak Stacey Harris in search of somewhere quiet to discuss jingles. I'm delighted to report it hasn't changed a bit. I used the word "gem" earlier, and I can't think of a better description - a beautiful tiled exterior, and an unspoiled inside that's a classy old man's boozer, if that's not a contradiction in terms. Better still, the gents was clearly refurbished around 1982 and also hasn't been touched since. I've not this mix of clean white and bright red angular patterns since a Nik Kershaw album cover.

Picture from www.london-se1.co.uk

It's deservedly listed in the CAMRA London inventory (pub interiors of special historic interest) which notes the "impressive ceramic work outside" and that "the 1913 has a simplicity which contrasts with the ornateness of pubs a decade or so before and gives a hint of what would come after the Great War." Er, OK. I'll stick with "gem".

Work took me down to Surrey to visit one of our licencees, which just *happened* to coincide with the Redhill beer festival. It's not actually in Redhill, instead using the Village Hall of one of my old haunts, Merstham. Once again, this gives it a curiously 1930s feel - like there should be union jack bunting round the walls, and the Womens Institute having a cake sale. Instead, it's full of thirsty old men (many with beards, of course) supping fine local ales. And eating pork scratchings instead of cake.

Actually, it was very friendly. We chatted to the organiser, and a local publican (who couldn't remember what beers he'd had!). I try at beer festivals (to at least narrow down the choice) to sample the local beers, so I had some Pilgrim's Progress from Reigate, a lighter Crane Sundancer from Twickenham, and finished with the classic Expresso Stout from Haywards Heath's Dark Star brewery: "real coffee beans and late hops combine to produce this rich dark stout. Coffee heaven." The train journey back to London just flew by...

The Priory Arms SW8 German Beer Festival

2006-10-08T18:39:00.000+01:00

I've been lucky with my local pubs. The Priory Arms was just round the corner when I lived in Stockwell - and it's great.

The pub has a great range of beers already - so add these barrels behind the bar, put Bratwurst on the menu, and you've got a German Beer Festival!

Al enjoys another beer... but what's that over his shoulder?

Zzzzz...
Oh dear, those German beers are strong, aren't they?!

One railway, several pints

2006-10-08T18:03:00.000+01:00

The few joys of the new commute are that (a) occasionally in the evening I can get a real InterCity type train with a nice buffet selling cans, and (b) if that fails, I can call Garders and meet him for a beer in Shenfield.

And (b) is what happened a couple of weeks ago. There are two bars and a kebab shop in Shenfield, which is essentially a row of shops, plus a mixture of bungalows for OAPs to retire to and HUGE houses for commuters who can afford to live there.
The kebab shop has recently been fined for what the local paper describes as a "cockroach shocker", so Garders had warned me to eat beforehand!

The first of the two bars is Lot 75. It's an odd one, as because there are only the two places to drink in town, they tend to have a wide clientele. I was sat between a very old lady drinking a sherry with her bar snack leftovers wrapped in silver foil to take home for her tea, and a city suit off the train necking an Asahi lager. Then the local vicar walked in, which was just wierd. This would be fine in a traditional pub in an Irish village, but felt somewhat incongrous in a trendy bar with premium lager at £3.30 a pint. (You did get free bowls of peanuts, which is always a bonus!).

Garders buying a drink, captured on film for the first time.
Vicar not pictured.

And so onto Hollands Wine Bar which is literally opposite the station. I'd been here once before - a very long time ago - and I recall this was owned by a former footballer. And true to form, the footy was on some big plasma screens, and the bar seemed to be populated by men in shiny grey suits who looked like football managers, and women who were probably once WAGs wearing more leopard-print (I know it's supposed to be trendy right now!) than was good for them.

The problem with these places is they are nothing more than shops with a bar stuck half way along one side; and while they've both made an effort (Lot 75 more so than Hollands) that's what you're stuck with, and a bit of chrome and mirrors won't hide it. But after a hard day's regulation, I'm really not that fussy...

And more recently, two former Chelmer FM colleagues and I met up in Chelmsford. On the way, I discovered Chelmsford has a giant Wetherspoons, which I didn't even know existed. My theory of Wetherspoons is that they are either fantastic bank conversions (e.g. The Knights Templar in Holborn or the one in Gracechurch Street) or really dangerous vertical drinking places inhabited by mad old men there for the cheap beer (Balham, Tooting). I suspect this is the latter, but we'll see!

Wetherpoon's, Chelmsford.
The no-entry signs are trying to tell me something...

I passed it by and headed for Baroosh, newly opened next to Chicago's. Again chrome and mirrors, but very well done, and more importantly, non-smoking. The point to note here is the toilets, which are very classy, and have THE MOST POWERFUL HAND-DRYERS KNOWN TO MAN. First, they actually get your hands dry, which I've never experienced before. Second, it is actually a struggle to keep your hands under them... I can only liken it to standing next to the propellor of a plane. Astonishing. Sadly, this overtook the evening and I can't remember whether the beer was any good...

Baroosh toilets, hand-dryers not pictured as someone came in at this point - and I really didn't want to have to try to explain that I was taking pictures in gents toilets for a blog I ran...

White Horse Beer Festival, Chelmsford

2006-10-07T11:32:00.000+01:00

I've been in the pub a lot in the last few weeks.
I guess this means two things:
1) That's why I haven't written on here in a while... time spent on the PC isn't time in the pub! Hence,
2) I owe you some updates. So here's the first in a series of catch-ups from London and The World Famous County of Essex.

I've written about the White Horse previously; Nick and I went here on our Route March Pub Crawl of Chelmsford. It's a good back street pub that takes its beer seriously, as you'd expect from a pub owned by the award-winning Crouch Vale. So the news that they were having a beer festival drew visitors all the way from, er, London SE19 - OK, Al and Louise were up for the weekend.

The festival was in a big marquee in the car park - and both that and pub itself were were busy; if we hadn't already barbequed, there was also a roast out on the patio. By the time we arrived at 5pm Saturday, many of the beers had gone - and it was obvious that many of the locals had been in there since lunchtime! - but there was still plenty left for us to try.

There was a good selection of bottled beers too, and we tried Burton Bridge Bramble Stout and Salopian Entire Butt English Porter: proof yet again that if a beer has a silly name, you'll try it!

I vaguely recall having a pint of Branscombe Vale Branoc and some Sharps too, I think. I must remember to write these in the programme next time...

It wasn't the Great British Beer Festival - a suburban car park with a few patio sets is not the most glamorous of locations (although neither is Earls Court to be fair!) - but this sort of event is precisely why The Queens Head wins awards and also why we're very lucky to have the White Horse a short stroll away from the house. Roll on the Chelmsford Winter Beer Festival in February!

If it's good enough for the Pope...

2006-09-11T11:40:00.000+01:00

Even the Pope loves beer!

The Times reports that "The papal beer is strong stuff at 5.4% proof and made by the local Weideneder brewery, which now prefers to be known simply as the “Papstbier Brewery”."

Read more here:
Catholic Bavaria gears up for Pope's homecoming

London latest

2006-09-02T13:14:00.000+01:00

I'm not very cool, and therefore don't often get to review a trendy new bar on the same night as Time Out. But that's what happened last week. And the catch is, it's so good that I'm not even sure I should write about it for fear of it becoming really popular and not being able to get a seat next time I go, which will probably be quite soon. But I suppose in the spirit of WPG, I should, and so, that's on the way, as they say on the radio.

First though, a couple of other recent visits. We've written about The Duke, on Roger Street, just off Grays Inn Road a few years ago, but TCMJ and I went recently as it was close to the solicitors where we had to sign house-related documents. It's a made-over back street local, but much cooler than your normal paint job. It updates many of the original fittings, giving the place an oddly retro feel - although I couldn't decide if it was 1930s or 1950s.

More recently, in perhaps one of my toughest "Challenge Will"s, I was tasked with finding somewhere halfway decent to drink in King's Cross. After some research, I plumped for the King Charles on Northdown Street - the turning for this is almost opposite the Thameslink station.

It's a good ol' boozer, with some seats outside and a bar billiards table inside. The locals might look like, well, locals - but they're a more intellectual lot than you might think, as they came over to our table not to mock the meejah types in their midst but to get to a dictionary on a shelf next to us, and later to get an encyclopedia to look up the date of the Battle of Nazeby!

And so to the new pub. This is The Rake, on Winchester Walk, at the back of Borough Market, and close to Brewharf and The Market Porter. It's owned by the guys behind the Utobeer stall at the market - and has one of the widest range of beers I've seen, from 24 different countries, I'm told. The English draught beer wasn't yet ready (it's only been open two weeks) but they had Liefmans Kriek, Maissels Weisse and Veltins pilsner on, and I had the Anchor Steam Beer which was lovely - and somewhat, er, moreish. There is even a 11% champagne beer at £29.95!

It's not a big place though - apparently it holds 44 people, plus the beer garden, so get there early. And the only (very minor) complaint is that there isn't a gents - you have to go through the garden to access the Market toilets! But this really is a quibble for having what I'm sure will be one of London's best bottled beer pubs on the doorstep of Regulator Towers.

And head to the newsagent now, as Time Out were taking pictures on the day that the WPG team were in, so expect to see our drunken faces leering out of a five-star bar review soon...

Hot press

2006-09-02T13:07:00.001+01:00

Worth mentioning that the underground press - yes, real "hard copy", old fashioned print journalism - is alive and well in Essex.
Some of you may already know of Chelmsford's own excellent fanzine The Edge. But while in the Queens Head, I picked up a copy of Essex's PUB fanzine, The Tap Room. For those of you that don't want to get inky fingers, you can read the latest edition here...

A first look at Chelmsford

2006-08-20T15:52:00.000+01:00

As some of you may already be aware, the Pub Guide has relocated to the jewel in the crown of The World Famous County of Essex (copyright: Essex FM), Chelmsford.

Top showbiz journalist, Nick Wallis, was in town for the V Festival, so we decided to explore the pubs of Old Chelmsford, south of The Parkway. A stroll through Central Park landed us at the Queens Head.

This is a former Chelmsford Pub of the Year, on Lower Anchor Street and close to the Cricket Ground, owned by Crouch Vale Brewery, so my hopes were high. And I wasn't disappointed - it's a drinkers pub, with several real ales including Beer of the Year: Brewers Gold (and I mistakenly ordered Brewers Gold EXTRA, at 5.2%!). It shouldn't really work, as it has what could be a nasty modern extension on the back, but somehow it all comes together in a fine local. I liked it - and brought TCMJ back here (as a special birthday treat!) a couple of days later.

The Queens Head, Chelmsford, yesterday

Walking along Lower Anchor Street, Nick and I chose not to try the Orange Tree, and headed instead for the CAMRA recommended Cricketers on Moulsham Street. Now, it's an OK pub with some nice beers. But at 10pm on a Friday night, the only women in there were the bar staff. I also thought two pints of beer were £5.50, when it was actually only £4.50, and thereby marked myself to the locals as a London Arse - I only just managed to stop myself saying "Really? That's cheap!" which probably would have got me a (deserved) kicking. We drunk up and moved on again to try to find somewhere more lively.

Perhaps it was the V Festival, or summer holidays, or both, but town was comparatively quiet too. Even Dukes Nightclub was lacking the usual crowd outside. However as we walked back past what's probably my closest pub, The Ship on Broomfield Road, we noticed there were still bouncers outside, and after some teasing about having asked whether they were open, we were inside a good, lively local pub, still going strong after 11pm. We were particularly impressed that the landlord wouldn't let us have the pints of St Austell Tribute that he'd poured, as he didn't think they were up to standard.

Picture from Beerintheevening.com

So my new local had saved the day. With all this and the Only Fine Beer shop opposite, what more could anyone ask from a new home?

Plenty more pubs to try too... as soon as we find time!

Northumbria in pub pictures...

2006-08-20T15:13:00.000+01:00

The Current Mrs Jackson and I recently spent a week in Northumbria. Not only is this rightly labelled as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, but the beer is cheap and there are some fine ales to be had.

First up, the excellent Ship at Seahouses. Not only is there a top fish'n'chip shop nearby, but this hotel bar next to the harbour carries off the nautical theme really well with all sorts of ship-related paraphenalia:

Towards the end of the week we went down to the tiny hamlet of Low Newton by the Sea. As you can see, the beautiful beaches get really crowded in August! In the corner of a square of National Trust properties is a small pub that looks like it should be full of jolly fishermen trading their catch for pints. Instead, it's actually got quite a trendy "gastro-pub" look, and a reputation for good food. Now the GPG said "booking essential", so we asked whether it would be possible to come back for a meal the next evening. They were full until next Tuesday; sadly it was Thursday, and we went home on Saturday. So us mere drinkers were relegated to the tables outside - not that this was a hardship given the fine sea views. But if we go back, this will definitely be our first stop, to try to book a table...

We had two locals in the village of Beadnell where we were staying. The first was the Craster Arms: I walked in and walked straight out again. I couldn't put my finger on why I didn't like it - but Helen said "this is what you imagine a pub in a holiday camp would be like"... and she was spot on.

So we spent our drinking time in the New Beadnell Towers Hotel, which came recommended by the owner of the B&B.

This was an odd mix of local pub and hotel - which I guess it needs to be - but to the extent that we didn't know whether we were mistakenly sitting in the dining room when drinking, or whether we were looking at the right menu when eating. And here's the problem - £9.95 for scampi and chips, when all we wanted was a bar snack. And this is the cheap North East? But a couple of pints of splendid Farne Islands beer did go some way to making it better.

But this problem was not confined to Beadnell. We stopped at the GPG recommended Tankerville Arms in Eglingham. Now don't get me wrong - the welcome that we got, the beer and the food were all excellent. I couldn't fault a thing with what we did have. But what they didn't have was any food (other than bagettes) for much less than a tenner, when all we wanted was sausage, beans and chips for a fiver. While the improvement in the standard of pub food can only be a good thing, you can't help feeling they're cashing in. The campaign to Bring Back Bar Snax starts here...

Like smurfs...

2006-08-04T19:08:00.000+01:00

...where are these all coming from?
And like Big Brother... Will's Dad will get back to you.

Date: Aug 4, 2006 1:59 PM
Subject: Question
To: dad@willjackson.net

Will’s Dad,

I am a keen Guinness drinker, but I am starting to worry about the etiquette regarding the shamrock drawn on the top of the pint. I would like to see it on every pint if it were a good impression of a shamrock, but generally you can’t tell what it is and it just looks untidy. I really don’t know whether to just say no to the shamrock all together or risk it and end up with a squiggle which I can only describe as bad impression of a pair of bollox. Would like to know if you have any advice because I think I am letting it stress me out!

Mark E Owen

The Great British Beer Festival 2006...

2006-08-02T20:53:00.000+01:00

...IN PICTURES!

This year, bigger, and well, much the same at Earl's Court.

Beer? Pie? Beer?

"Hello Earl's Court!" A classical quartet whip the drinkers into a frenzy...

Blogistan will eat itself. Lorkin takes a picture, yesterday.

The Southern Bar, home to Alton's award-winning Fff Moondance beer.
(Congratulations also to Chelmsford's own Crouch Vale, and to Will's Dad's tipple of choice (as long as the tide's in) Harvey's Sussex Best on their Champion Beer awards)

Someone nicked a bus and drove it into the hall. Wasn't me...

One of these barmen is not the same as the others. His name's Nick. He has to be the boss, doesn't he?

The sad fate of Ramrod D'Arcy's offspring.

Ju and Al buy bottled beer. And try saying that after a few...

It was dark and I was trying not to look like I was taking a picture.
I think you get the idea though... makes Al look like a beardy amateur.

Spillage!

A beermat from the hall. They know what their audience want!

I picked up a copy of the Morning Advertiser to read on the long journey home.
It had this very useful map (even if some of the regions are a bit wrong!). I'm off to Tyne Tees for a week. Can you see why?!

A new "Ask Will's Dad" challenge...

2006-08-02T10:43:00.000+01:00

arrived in the inbox this morning. It's an issue that concerns us all:

Date: Aug 2, 2006 9:54 AM
Subject: Question for Wills Dad

Good morning Mr Jackson

I hope you can help with the correct etiquette in dealing with a "welbow" this is the word my chums and i use when approaching the bar and ordering a drink. Upon leaning on the bar in order to attract the barmaid/mans attention sloppy individuals have left unnecessary rings of drink and water on the bars surface resulting in a wet elbow. During this hot period the condesation falling from the glass is making a mess of my nice new clothes. How would you deal with this problem.

Kindest Regards

The Reverend Green, Bicton, Shropshire.

A punter writes...

2006-07-24T18:52:00.005+01:00

Hello all... I'm in the process of moving house.

This means:
1) WPG is taking a bit of a Summer break. The length of this break is likely to depend upon BT's ability to install broadband in the new place, so could be some time.
2) A pub guide to Chelmsford will then probably follow shortly - and the good news is there are lots of nice places for me (and any willing volunteers!) to try!
3) If anyone's going to V Festival, we are nearby and (hopefully) will have hot showers etc.

In the meantime, a nice man called Ed wrote to me today. As you can see, he says nice things about the Pub Guide in the hope that I'll plug his new website. That's the sort of grovelling yet entrepreneurial approach I approve of. So here's the email, and I'm sure you'll feel free to add your own comments to this post...

Date: Jul 24, 2006 1:28 PM
Subject: property site that shows local pubs

Hi Will,

I found your pub blog today. Nice work, I like your strong opinions.

We've just launched a new property website (only London right now, but
expanding to all of the UK soon) that allows the user to see nearby
pubs on a map. Attached is a screenshot.

http://www.nestoria.co.uk

If you have a few moments we'd love to get your opinion, and if you
think it's a useful service have you present it to your readers.

it's only a first version, we know there are many areas to improve, so
don't hesitate to tell us what we could do better. As you'll see the
database of pubs comes from beerinthevening.

cheers,
Ed

Yes, we know.

2006-06-26T09:27:00.000+01:00

The Pub Guide is long-overdue a lick of cyberpaint, to drag it kicking and screaming out of the graphical world of 2002. So things might look a bit odd for a few days (actually, several months at the pace I work).
The main blog part should continue to operate as normal - so post away! - but some things may not be where you expect them to be for a while.
And we've already used the engineers' favourite expression "well it's fine leaving us" (ie. on a Mac at home) once - expect to hear it several times more before we're done!
Please do not adjust your set...

Norrebro Bryghus, Ryesgade 3, Kobenhavn N

2006-06-24T11:50:00.000+01:00

So there we were in Copehagen (Kobenhavn to the locals) on our way to a 40th birthday party in Sweden here...

Where we ended up very drunk being entertained by some men pretending to be ladies here...

Anyway, back in Denmark, after a day wandering about we had a rare opportunity to go out and get bladdered, so we thought we'd try and find somewhere nice to do it. A look at the guide book, a bus ride and very long walk later we came across this place.

Which was a nice surprise, as we had been walking through a built-up residential area (the equivalent of let's say, Camden in relation to central London) on a Friday night and slowly coming to the conclusion that Scandanavia is spookily empty, even in the cities.

However, once inside we found a huge, bustling low-lit restaurant and bar, very reminiscent of that brewery/bar/restaurant we all seem to have been to just off Borough Market.

They brew 8 different beers on site. The weakest being 5%, the strongest, and my personal favourite being 8%.

We had fun finding out which ones we liked: The Czech-style lager (top left), The New York-style lager (one along to the right), The Ravensborg Red beer (one along to the right of that - very much like the St. Peters red ale over here), the Bombay Pale Ale (bottom left - again as you'd expect), and the St. Hans Dubbel (bottom right - the strong feller - cloudy and lethal).

In fact the only one we weren't keen on was the Graupner Schwarz, which is brewed with coffee (bottom row second from right).

The staff were fab, explaining how each beer was brewed and even offered an a la carte menu which tailored specific beers to each dish. Given the tasting menu of 4 x 10cl of beer ie 400/586ths of a pint cost the equivalent of £5.50, we demurred and instead let one further pint each see us through some excellent modern danish cuisine (plaice for Nic, venison for me, all beautifully presented).

If you ever happen to be in Copenhagen, this place is definitely worth seeking out. Dinner for 2 (including drinks and a shared pudding) camed to 700kr which appeared on my statement as a reasonably reasonable £66. And we were quite pissed.

Note: Ryesgade is a very long street, though, so make sure you head for the Western end of it where the Bryghus is situated.

The Kirkstone Pass Inn, Kirkstone Pass, Cumbria

2006-06-20T11:12:00.000+01:00

Kirkstone Pass is one of Cumbria's most notorious roads. It forms part of the A592 going from Windermere to Ullswater, has gradients of upto 1:20 and rises to around 1500ft above sea level. When the weather gets bad, the road is impassable.

Seems only sensible then, that someone should stick a pub at it's highest point.

The Kirkstone Pass Inn is the highest pub in Cumbria and the third highest in England, and has been a haven for weary travellers since 1496.

The interior reflects the age of the pub, all oak beams, flagstone floors and wooden trim. It is cosy and the staff were very welcoming and exceedingly friendly. The bar had three real ales, two from local breweries, as well as lagers and Guinness. Father-In-Law and myself sampled a half each of Hawkshead Bitter, which was very good. They also do food, but we'd just stopped in for Lady Pie to use the toilet on her way home. Maybe we'll eat next time.

Like any good pub, they also have a Pub Dog, Stanley and their very own ghost, (I didn't manage to get a picture of either of them). Possibly the best thing about this pub though is the view from the beer garden.

This is the perfect local. Quiet, friendly, good beer, nice ambiance with some stunning views and scenery. It's just a shame it's a bugger to get to as one of you has to be the designated driver. Having said that, there is a bus stop outside the pub, but I think the service is what some would describe as 'limited'.

We plan to go back when Sister-in-law comes to stay.

PL

The Surbiton Flyer, Surbiton Station, Surbiton, Surrey

2006-06-18T22:47:00.000+01:00

I was meant to be going up to London on Tuesday 13th for a meeting, but there was a fire at Raynes Park so all the trains were cancelled in both directions. We were being held at Surbiton (which from the outside is a mighty fine example of art deco design. From the outside, at least).

This was the hottest day of the year so far and so rather than try and fight my way up through some torturous route I cancelled and asked if my father-in-law could be persuaded to come and pick me up. He could, so whilst I was waiting I went for a pint in the Surbiton Flyer right by the station.

It's a nice enough pub - recently renovated to look like a normal, non-gastro enterprise rather than anything more pretensious. World Cup on telly. Black and white tiles on the floor round the bar. Fullers and all the usual on hand pump.

The thing that set it apart was the bar staff. Both bloke and lady manager were lovely and friendly and went out of their way to make me feel welcome. Given I was quite clearly a stranded solo one-pinter, their attitude was, I thought, very genuine, and it made me happy. So if you ever have the misfortune to be stranded in Surbiton - have no hesiation in making the Surbiton Flyer your first port of call.

North of the river in "nearly nice" shocker...

2006-06-15T08:22:00.000+01:00

As regular readers will know, there is nothing worth seeing north of the congestion charge zone or Circle line. On my previous visits there, most residents of this area have sported odd haircuts and will try to sell you skunkenweed.

But you'll do anything for a good friend and/or The Anorak Stacey Harris. So when he invited me to the glamorous Jurys Inn, Pentonville Road, close to The Angel Islington, for a drink after a BT-related meeting, I agreed against my better judgement.

It wasn't a good start when I was charged £3.20 for a pint of Carling in a mock-Tudor hotel bar, that was showing a World Cup match between two teams that I couldn't even work out what the three-letter abbreviations on the scoreline stood for. But once outside, things improved, and we found three good pubs. Next to Jury's is The Castle.

Now this is tricky. It's a good pub, with decent beers, but I fear we were seduced by the roof terrace. It was a nice sunny day, and we enjoyed sitting out here. But I worry that we are thinking like Londoners here - because while we were saying how nice it all was, at the end of the day, we were sitting on a shop roof, overlooking a red route with roadworks on it, and a view of a tree.

The Lake District it is not. But in London, you should be thankful for this, I guess.

We walked from there through some rather nice upmarket squares to The Harlequin in Arlington Way, round the back of Sadlers Wells. It was empty. There were two people sat round a corner, possibly conducting an affair. Plus the landlady who looked scary but actually wasn't, Lord Harris of Jingle-shire and I.

The not-scary-landlady explained this was like The Pit Bar in the Old Vic: very busy before and after performances at the theatre, but empty during. Anyway, we listened to some dodgy eighties tracks and enjoyed having the place to ourselves. Overall, it didn't seem to have changed in years, with lots of sixties/seventies woodwork. If you're in the area at the right time, and want an old-fashioned small pub, it's a great find!

Then a walk back towards the Angel and off east took us to The Charles Lamb on Elia Street. This seems to be comparatively new, after a refurbishment in February. There were some good beers, and the food looked good; but the star of the show is the pub dog, Mascha and her fetching bandana. We tried to photograph her for the guide, but all we got were blurs - we later found out she was over-excited as her owner had been locked in the cellar earlier in the day, and Mascha had howled until someone came and rescued her.

As we sat at one of the tables and Mascha ran around, we realised we really liked this place. Despite accusations of it being full of Islington yuppies, we thought it was a nice friendly local, and one of those pubs that you wouldn't mind having at the end of your road. If there's another BT course that means Stacey has to go north of the river, we'll probably come here again. I guess it ain't all bad up Norf London.

Picture stolen from The Charles Lamb website, as you really do have to see Mascha's bandana...

The Anglers Arms, On the River, Walton on Thames

2006-06-09T21:05:00.000+01:00

I had lunch there today with Nic, Amy and a friend, and I spent most of the time in stupified disbelief that this is going to be my local.

It was gorgeous. We sat outside right by the river underneath a huge canopy with a busy Friday lunchtime crowd. We were able to book, which pubs don't often do for outside tables.

Amy sat in a high chair and just stared in amazement at the swans and boats gliding by. There wasn't a bit of traffic noise, despite being reasonably close to the town. The river and posh houses over the water (the Thames is about 50m wide at this point) just looked glorious in the sunshine. Inside is refurbed to a good standard, no smoking upstairs and typical gastropub menu. It is on the expensive side - £7.25 for a Neal's Yard cheese ploughmans which was frankly stingy on the cheese and butter front and came with stale bread.

I didn't have a pint, being a responsible pro (don't splutter into your tea!), but they do serve various Fullers plus a guest ale. I had a v enjoyable London Pride last time I went and I think it was only £2.50.

The upstairs bar is screening the football with bookable and waited tables for the duration of the world cup.

After this experience the house sale is almost guaranteed not to go through. Still if it does, I reckon we deserve a place like the Anglers after doing 5 years penance in the pub wastelands around Kilburn and Willesden.

If any of you fancy an early recce to the environs of Walton on Thames to see if this place really is that good, give us a shout - it would be my pleasure.

The Albany, Gt Portland St, W1

2006-06-09T20:32:00.000+01:00

Never usually know what to think about this pub, but last night's foray with Willum has convinced me that they've finally got it right. Sorry about the lack of photos. We forgot. And my handy phone-cam is bust.

They've softed the previously sparse gastropub decor with a few drapes, and the overall effect - dark walls, arty things and nice thick chairs and tables is cocoonishly comfortable. This is despite the huge windows which look out onto Great Portland Street tube station, advertising giants Grey's HQ and the relentless traffic of the Euston Road.

We were joined by Matt Densham (known to Will and Alastair from certain adventures on the south coast), ostensibly for a quick drink and so I could hand over a signed reference supporting his application to become a physics teacher. But one turned into, er, well, quite a few...

First surprise was being served a cool, lovely pint of Spitfire (4.5%, £2.60) in a jug. Hurray!! That's twice in two pubs (first being the Eagle, see below). I think we're spotting a trend here and long may it continue. The other ale was Timothy Taylor (4.3%, can't remember how much it cost, but I had it as the last pint of the night and it was just as good).

Second surprise was how quiet it was. Busy, certainly, but not rammed, despite being prime swifty-after-work time. I guess everyone else was looking for a pub with a few outside tables/drinking space. It was great as it meant we got a prime seat and the aircon did its job perfectly.

At 7.30pm Will turned up (after being bored to the teats by Vanessa Shimmeringlumpofnoisejelly Feltz) and we went downstairs to watch the final heat of Funny Women 2006, which culminates in a final at the Comedy Store in July.

19 women, 5 minutes each. Will's friend Viv was performing, as was my friend Jen. Both acquitted themselves very well. As the only table of all blokes watching blink and you miss it turns from so many different people (the standard varying from unbelievably funny to er, very nervous) the evening took on quite a surreal turn as we steadily made our way through the beers. My pick of the bunch was the blonde, studenty one (Will can you help here?) whose wordplay and bewildered delivery was first class. She was a bit rough round the edges though and I think some of the more polished performers (the third and fourth ones on - Will?) will probably go through.

I was delighted to note that our last, one-for-the-road, round actually finished off the Spitfire barrel. Hurray. I think we may have taken 20-odd pints out of it between the three of us. Erk.

Unfortunately the time spent consuming that last pint led to a certain nervousness on my part about making the last train so I ended up taking a cab to Waterloo, making the journey home cost a total of £22.50 (taxi at Weybridge end too). Ouch.

So, a cracking night out. Good to catch up wiv Will and Matt, lots of very bizarre laughs and an excellent pub to boot. Double Hurray.

A reader writes...

2006-06-04T18:01:00.000+01:00

Sir,

I attach my entry for this years 'A Big-Pint for Europe' competition - the qualifying competition for "Internationale Groot kan" (International Big Can).*

Clearly the choice of drinking vessel was made in accordance with the recent Europe-wide directive, which stated that the 'pint', as an imperial measure, could no longer be used for international competition.

Kind regards,

Neil 'Little Gardner' Garders

* As you will be aware, the Caribbean island of Curacao qualifies for entry into the European heats, on grounds of it being a dependency of the Netherlands (c.f. the Jagermeister Directive, 1923).

Think you can do better? Mail me your entries!

Old and new...

2006-06-04T16:13:00.000+01:00

This week's pub-related adventures have seen another good new find and a return to an old favourite.

Thursday and Friday saw me sitting in a windowless room on the 3rd floor of the Olympia Conference Centre, learning about the bright shiny new future of wireless at the Digital Radio Show. The previous time I'd been at Olympia was for the Great British Beer Festival (this year moving to Earl's Court, so keep the first week of August free!), which prompted thoughts of a pint afterwards. So, a check on the Good Pub Guide sent us to the Havelock Arms, about five minutes walk from the centre in a rather upmarket villagey area of W14.

You can't miss the place, with the stunning royal blue tiles outside:

Inside, it's what's now becoming the standard upmarket pub formula of a big open-plan room with big tables and school style chairs, good food chalked-up on a blackboard, and two or three decent beers on handpub.

Here's m'learned colleague Lawrie Hallett enjoing a pint of Flowers:

It's worth the short walk from the Conference Centre if you're in the area.
Then on Saturday, a crowd of Essex University's finest alumni descended on the student radio station, now called Red, to try to help restore the place to its former glory. Obviously this was all just a front to drink cheap beer for an evening, and cheap (for the South) it was too, with Grolsch at £1.95 and Carling at a bonkers £1.65! Even in the allegedly more upmarket Top Bar, Big Garders bought five pints of premium lager (not all for himself) and got change from a tenner!

As previously reported, the Students Union has changed considerably, with a large island bar in the centre of the room, yet curiously manages to retain that feel of an airport departure lounge. And they've licensed the Squares, so you can drink outside officially too. But the Top Bar pretty much remains the same - same big square room, round tables and bar. I'm told the legendary barman Merv The Serve still works there, albeit in the cafe section. And last night we even sat on the same old bar stools in the same corner of the bar as (whisper it quietly) almost twenty years ago...

I don't think we've changed a bit, have we? Could pass for 21...

All new pub! The Charles Dickens, SE1

2006-05-29T19:14:00.000+01:00

Never off-duty, Li'l Garders and I went in search of new and exciting drinking experiences last week - and crossed another place off my to-do list.

This was The Charles Dickens, on Union Street, round the back of The Borough. And the news is that it was actually rather good. It's a very unpromising walk from Regulator Towers that takes you through some scaffolding hiding the road, and along a back street behind Tate Modern. But once inside, they've made a reasonable attempt at a makeover - you know the sort of thing: open up the windows, stick some sofas in... While they haven't followed it through 100% - the food is still sausage, chips and beans - this wasn't a bad place for a couple of cheeky ones after work. There are four or five interesting real ales on tap, and the food area at the back of the pub is no smoking; plus, as this is tucked away, there were plenty of seats free for an old man like me!
The pub even has its own, somewhat over-written website, where you can read about the history of the place, including that The 'J.P. Price' was renamed 'The Charles Dickens' at around 1911, when also 'Lant Street School' changed its name to 'Charles Dickens School'. Charles Dickens lived in neighbouring Lant Street as a boy at the age of 12, when in 1824 his father was in Marshalsea Prison for debt.

All in all, it was a good find in an otherwise not-great area - I think we'll be back here again...

The Eagle and the Northcote

2006-05-28T20:42:00.000+01:00

I know Will has posted about these two already (and the Falcon), but I've been meaning to get the photos up for some time, and now I've got a couple of moments whereby I can.
Here's Will outside the Northcote:

And here he is inside.

I think Will said the Northcote was okay. I thought it was depressingly average. Which is probably the same thing.

But then we found The Eagle.

Much as I hate the good pub guide (largely because the sort of people who contribute are called themselves things like "Dr. and Mrs. Welling" "Group Captain Richard Quim" and, hilariously, "The Diddler"), it is responsible for pointing us in the Eagle's direction, and for that I will be very grateful. It was a perfect fogey pub for young sorts, full of ambitious Sunday afternoon drinkers, strange architect couples wearing black roll neck jumpers, Swedish-style glasses and completely ignoring each other for the duration of their visit, and the usual panoply of geezers, gimmers and girls. The pub is all big hearths, leather sofas and newspapers, kept with a certain amount of pride by the staff. It knows it has tapped into that indefineable but widely hankered-after essence of pubness and is fighting to keep it that way. I think in that respect we were their ideal customers and so they were quite nice to us. This is what the barmaid did when I asked if I could take a photo:

And, of course they have handle glasses:

And they keep their beer very well too. London Pride, and two other strange ones which I'd never seen before which went down very well. A very good evening.

Young's Brewery to close!

2006-05-23T19:49:00.000+01:00

Not a dream, not a hoax, not an imaginary tale. Apparently they are moving in with Charles Wells Brewery in Bedford. Bedford! It's Wimbledon/MK Dons all over again.

They say it won't affect the beer but they always say that. Beer has been brewed at the Ram Brewery on the River Wandle since 1581, making it the oldest site in Britain for continuous beer production.

I'm too upset to post more, except to link to the announcement and to hopeful news from The Publican that CAMRA are on the case.

Wells & Young's...can I hear the four horsemen of the apocalypse heading this way? "Vertically integrated" my arse.

My plan for this week...

2006-05-22T10:37:00.000+01:00

From Private Eye...

This month, I have also been drinking in...

2006-05-14T14:57:00.000+01:00

The Angel, St Giles High Street
Returned here after several years absence (well, since Trafficlink moved out of Centrepoint) to find that the garden now closes at 5.15pm, but other than that, nothing whatsoever has changed: it's even still the same two somewhat grumpy barmen. BITE hits it when it describes the "folorn appeal" of the inside...

The Old Kings Head, off Borough High Street
This is NOT the Kings Arms, or even the Lord Clyde or Duke of Clarence, York, or Wellington, all of which are nearby. This is a proper smokey boozer down a side street, but not without charm and some impressive stained glass windows. A good alternative to the Borough Market regulars. Speaking of which...

The Wheatsheaf, Stoney Street, Borough Market
Neil G and I spent an evening sat in their "beer garden". It's like sitting in a doctor's waiting room, as the garden is actually the passageway round the toilet extension, so you're sat in a row next to each other rather than around a table. And the trains rumble overhead on their way from London Bridge to Waterloo East. But in an area where it's this, or standing out on a pavement, this is what you settle for.

The Hole in the Wall, Mepham Street, Waterloo Station
But if you like the trains going overhead, this really is the daddy, as it's in the arches between Waterloo East and Charing Cross. Everytime I come here, I can never make my mind up whether it's brilliant or terrible. And I think the answer may be both. The front bar has a curiously chalet feel about it. But this time we were in the larger back bar, which reminds me of the Essex SU bar of the mid-80s, with a long bar down the side, and slightly sticky lino/carpet. There's a big screen showing the footy and some Japanese tourists sat next to us eating a salami. Odd. But the beer ain't bad, it's next to the station and I'd prefer this to some of the other places round here. Plus how could you knock anywhere with a poster like this next to the fruit machine...

The Eagle, Chatham Street

2006-05-14T14:16:00.000+01:00

Mr Wallis and I agreed to meet for a long-overdue catch-up in Clapham Junction. Not the most promising of areas, but a good halfway house between the Wallis in-laws and London's Murder Mile of SW17.

We started as always in The Falcon, which lived up to its previous reputation of being a nice boozer full of commuters and crazies. We decided to head up the Northcote Road, as this promised the best selection of bars and restaurants. Not being ones to go further than necessary, the first you come to is the, er, Northcote. I'm sure this is packed on a Saturday night, but on a wet Sunday afternoon, it had the football on a big screen and was otherwise unremarkable. But then we struck gold. We carried on up the Northcote Road, opting out of the Holy Drinker, and turned into Chatham Road.

There are two pubs here. Choose carefully. On the left is the Gardners Arms, looking every bit the 70s estate pub. Wallis seemed keen to visit for the sake of completeness, but when the sounds of karaoke drifted out of the window, even Nick's usual bravado deserted him (I didn't have any to start with) and we opted for The Eagle opposite.

From Fancyapint.com

Nick got the attraction of The Eagle spot-on when he said it was "an old man's pub for young people". Nice beers, just dark enough to be cosy, comfy sofas, friendly staff. Yep, just about everything you could want. We'd rolled up about 4pm, and there was even a (young) couple asleep in a corner with some alcopops in front of them. Good work!

It's a shame this place isn't just a little bit closer to the station, as it would be a great stop-off point, and infinitely preferable to The Falcon. As it is, it's worth the ten minute or so walk from the station if you're planning to stop for more than one... and I would do!

SE19 revisited

2006-04-17T15:52:00.000+01:00

To fully celebrate the joyous tidings of Easter in the manner you'd expect, I headed to Crystal Palace. Until Christmas, the only "trendy" bar in the Upper Norwood Triangle was the Black Sheep (www.barbarblacksheep.com, geddit?!) - but then, just in time for Christmas, the faux-Oirish O'Neill's was refurbished, and now looks like this:

And it's not bad, not bad at all. The beer is excellent - a big selection of both lagers and guest bitters on draught: Al had a Staropramen Granite (a dark version), while I drank a Shepherd Neame Kentish Ale - and mine came served in a proper pint pot, as favoured by Will's Dad. The food is your standard gastropub fare, including the usual posh burger and wedges. You could pick at a few things - why the 70s wicker bucket seats hanging from the ceiling, especially when you could sit at a table that looks like this:

And the siting of the bar very close to the window seats means that it's difficult to get from one side of the room to the other, even when it's quiet like it was on Good Friday. But these are minor quibbles, and in an area where there's not much else on offer, (and just 25 minutes from Tooting Bec on the 249!) this is a welcome addition. Now they're just waiting for a Sainsbury's!

Will & Al do London's trendy Wandsworth

2006-04-17T14:01:00.000+01:00

OK, so it was probably trendy a few years back, and is now the home of yummy mummies with triple Land Rover buggies. But Al and I went there anyway. I had been to visit a radio station in Twickenham (yes, it does have one, though it's probably not what you're expecting) and Al was travelling from his workplace xxxxxx in Victoria, so The Falcon, next to Clapham Junction railway station (not in Clapham, fact fans) was a convenient starting place.

This is an odd one. It's a nice, big, old pub. A giant island bar, reckoned to be the biggest in London/The UK/The World (delete depending on how many pints you've had) and several distinct bar areas, some still actually separated by screens, including a no-smoking area for food during the day. But it does get very smokey, and has more than its fair share of mad old men than you'd expect for a comparatively upmarket area. Add in some commuters having a secret swifty before going home to the wife, and you have what could be charitably described as a "mixed clientele".

So Al and I decided to take the train one stop on to a pub I'd wanted to try for some time - The Alma, next to Wandsworth Town station. I'd heard different opinions of this place - it was one of the first boozers to have a yuppie make-over, and is a GPG main entry - but had also seen reviews that said it was now over-run with suits, rugby-shirts with upturned collars, and all that that entails.

The good news is that when we were there - admittedly a Monday night - it was reasonably quiet, we got stools at the bar, and enjoyed a good pint in civilised surroundings. Our only comment was that there was something missing from the centre of the room - as there was a big square bar in the middle, but nothing else to give a large room any focus. Perhaps when the rugby is on, everyone needs a view of the telly! Overall, very good, but not great. If you're in Wandsworth, it's a good bet, and I wouldn't mind this as my local, but I wouldn't say it's worth going out of your way for.

We found a second boozer - The Royal Standard (Ballantine Street, SW18) - next door, that perhaps looked better from the outside than it did once inside. A perfectly good little local in complete contrast to the Alma, with Aussie beers, a dartboard and a telly showing the match. It showed evidence of once having been a Tup (I think), but it now needed a bit of love and attention, and money spending on it. Although commendably, they had takeaway delivery menus on display, and let you order food in, even providing condiments etc. An excellent idea that more pubs without their own kitchen should adopt!

The Pelican and The Minnow

2006-04-01T01:13:00.000+01:00

A fine English traditional wrist-slitting hole.

The Pelican is a standard Fosters pub with a loud line in musak (Tina Turner's Simply the Best, Bon Jovi's Keep the Faith), a silent telly showing the football and a conservatory out the back, for "dining".

It's slap bang in the middle of the most inappropriate and seriously ugly (even taking into account the milieu's depressing standards) industrial estate evah, on the banks of the Wey Navigation halfway between Weybridge and Addlestone.

The Pelican, yesterday. Canal to the right - frighteningly horrible industrial estate to the left.

The pub will always make money because of its location (it gets weekday lunch trade because of the estate, weekend lunch trade because of its proximity to the water and it's the only pub for miles around), so it doesn't have to try.

Here's the only quote from anything I could find on the net about it, from a punter on beerintheevening:

"We tried to order food in this establishment at 8:30 last night and were told that the kitchen had already closed (despite a statement on the menu that food is served from 3pm until 9pm). However, the bar did wait until we had purchased our drinks before telling us this."

With a pitiful selection of bitters and offers of a Sunday roast from £5.25 (mmm! that's going to taste nice!), the whole place smacked of rank amateurism and provincial pointlessness.

I liked it. It felt like a proper boozer, dark without being poky, smoky without being too choking, busy without being full and both comforting and threatening at exactly the same time. The pub garden holds a good 20 picnic tables which I imagine are packed during the summer as the lawn goes right up to the canal edge, and it seems exactly like the sort of place to wile away a few hours with a couple of good friends who are more interested in the company than the environment. Being near a towpath, it's on a good walk network too. And despite the money they must bring in from the food, it's still secondary to the boozing space.

If the place smartened itself up (which would require someone with a bit of vision, and anyone with any vision is going to be put off by the industrial estate), the pub would become packed, over-priced and annoying.

In fact, it would become like The Minnow, in Weybridge. This, again, is not a bad place, we had a very nice meal there, and they do a decent pint of Timothy Taylor (Madonna's favourite tipple, Fact Fans) but it's been refurbished in a kind of Essex money way, and any soul it had has been forcibly removed. Unfortunately everything about this pub gives off an aura of being exceptionally pleased with itself. This attitude is all-too-common in the home counties and tends to filter down from the owners, usually a smug, 4x4-driving couple whose naked desire to screw as much money from their customers as possible contaminates everything they're involved with.

When a pub makes such a self-satisfied song and dance about what it does (rather than quietly gets on with it), your expectations increase commensurately, so when one member of our party failed to get his meal before we'd virtually finished ours (on a fairly quiet Monday lunchtime), we were more than a little pissed off. No apology, of course.

PS Those "stylish" black and white photos on the website of the young, trendy staff sharing a private joke about your dress sense whilst you're waiting for some service can also be found on poster-sized sandwich boards outside the pub.

Festivals, big and small

2006-03-26T14:05:00.000+01:00

The intrepid Mr Wilson and I have been to a couple of beer festivals recently.

The first, to coincide with St Patricks Day, was The Porterhouse's Stout Festival. There are three key points to be made here:
1) St Patricks Day. This means anywhere with any sort of Irish connection (landlord's brother once went to Dublin, etc) - let alone somewhere actually half-decent like The Toucan in Soho - will paint itself shamrock green for the day and become unpleasantly full of City lads who are even less Irish than the pub landlord's brother. Hence Al and I chose to have our own small celebration one day early.
2) The Porterhouse: Moderately Irish, usually completely packed with City lads, but sometimes still worth it as it has nice beers which it brews itself. Great glossy beer menu, that's beautifully colour printed, yet doesn't appear to have ever been proof-read to avoid mistakes like "This was Michael Collin's favourite tipple". Ouch.
3) As we now realise, the "Stout Festival" consisted of four stouts. Fine, I guess, in itself, but three of these are always available. So the "Festival" was one extra stout. Woohoo! Anyway, it was a very nice Chocolate Truffle stout, and for the first time, I could actually taste the chocolate in the stout. The regular 4.8% Oyster Stout - apparently brewed with fresh Oysters, and therefore not suitable for vegetarians - was also top notch.

The second, last Thursday, was the London Drinker Beer and Cider Festival 2006, at the Camden Centre opposite St Pancras station. Because these sort of events take place in civic halls, it always reminds me of my prep school prizegiving at Wallington Town Hall, which makes it all rather surreal. Anyway, the event presented Al and I with a bit of a quandary. It's a good thing that the excellent work done by Camra means that real ale is popular. But it's a bad thing that this means these events are now bloody packed!

And the large number of people milling around meant it was difficult to get back from the bars without spilling your point, and the queue for food was long (though the O'Hagan's sausages from Chichester were well worth the wait).

After three pints - all very good: Grand Union Gold, from Hayes in West London; Pucks Folly from Maldon, Essex; and Crouch Vale Brewer's Gold, the Champion Beer of Britain 2005) - we retired to the nearby Shepherd Neame pub, called Mabel's Tavern. I suspect the name is more about being in Mabeldon Place, rather than the Mabel, the alleged former-landlady who now haunts the place, as they'll have you believe!

While in Mabel's Tavern, we looked in more detail at my purchase of the latest Camra publication: London Pub Walks. What neither of us had expected (though I guess we should have known better!) was the emphasis that Camra has placed on "PUB" over "WALK". You'll never lose that beer belly with these:
Fleet Street: 5 pubs, 3/8 mile
The Heart of The City: 7 pubs, 1/2 mile
Wandsworth Town: 7 pubs, 1.25 miles - phew!

Al needs a pint just to read about doing a pub walk, yesterday

We did consider moving on to the Head of Steam at Euston station, although this has now been sold to Fullers and is being refurbished and renamed as the Doric Arch, although they *claim* the beer selection will remain. We'll have to investigate another time...

Oop t'north

2006-03-19T16:40:00.000Z

Made it to a couple of nice pubs last weekend whilst on a grand tour of the North, which included a trip to see Lord and Lady Pie.

Friday night was spent in Carlisle, and as we were staying in the Premier Travel Tavern, sorry Inn, we eat and drank in the neighbouring Lakeland Gate Brewers Fayre. Even allowing for the fact that apparently this place was under several feet of water last year, if we hadn't had such fine company, this would have been pretty miserable. The bar staff seemed more interested in chatting to their mates, who made up most of the clientele in the place on a Friday night. They scored Brownie Points for taking a drinks at the table, then lost them all in the space of walking back from the table to the bar, by forgetting to, er, get the drinks. D'oh.

We used the opportunity to explore the Lake District, and on our way to sample the Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding, we stopped off at the Kings Arms in Cartmel. The Good Pub Guide recommends this, and whilst we only stopped off for a swift half of Hawkshead Bitter from the Lakes, this seemed like a nice village pub doing good food.

That night, we stayed in another GPG-recommended pub, The Sandford Arms, in Sandford, a small village just off the A66. Other than some unexplained hammering from above our bed in the middle of the night (Derek Acorah? We were on the top floor...), it was very nice - a couple of real ales on tap, plus some nice food and comfy bedrooms.

The only disappointment was that the forecast snow came just too late for us to be snowed in the pub - this has long been my life's ambition. Here however is what the A66 was like on the way to Hartlepool - up on the Moors between Brough and Barnard Castle:

All new pub! The Bell, Bush Lane, EC4

2006-03-13T20:11:00.000Z

It's becoming increasingly difficult to find new pubs, especially new old pubs, in Central London to try for the first time. But Neil Gardner and I managed last week - and it's a great find!

Just next to Cannon Street station is The Bell. It's not a new pub by any means, having allegedly been one of the few pubs to survive the Great Fire Of London. And it's also supposed to be where the phrase "needle in a haystack" orginated, as Bush Street was apparantly the home of London's needle-making industry. No, I'm not making this up.

Anyway, it has a really nice country pub feel, with a proper old fashioned bar - and was reasonably quiet, although it was a Monday night. Beer isn't cheap at £2.90 for a pint of real ale - if I recall correctly a guest beer and a couple of yer standard offerings - but then this is the Square Mile. The beer was good quality too - I believe this is the sister pub of The Wheatsheaf in Borough Market, so comes with good credentials.

Neil and I sat on bar-stools and put the world to rights. The regulars and landlord seemed friendly too, although a couple of back-packers stuck their heads round the door and disappeared again pretty sharpish - they were probably looking for a
"Walkabout Bar". A great find - and definitely one that will be added to the regular circuit!

Now I've been dragged into 2004 and got a camera on my mobile phone, expect more surreptitious taking of low-res pictures in pubs, like this one:

The Bell, Bush Lane, London's needle-making quarter, yesterday

Good and bad

2006-02-11T12:58:00.000Z

A mixed night on Friday - TCMJ and I went back to Smithfield, for a Trafficlink leaving do, at the Rising Sun, on Cloth Fair. This is a good, back to basics, no-nonsense boozer - and it's a Sam Smiths pub too, so the bitter is good and although the lagers may be a bit chemically, at these prices, who cares!

There's darts there too, which The American Eric Pradel and I have been known to participate in from time to time, usually with disasterous results. Other than our feeble attempts, the darts there appears to be pretty serious, as a poster proclaimed that a man I now know to be Andy "The Viking" Fordham, the 2004 World Darts Champion, is appearing there soon.

"The Viking", appearing at a pub near you soon.

Pradel remarked he had fingers like sausages in the publicity photo above the bar - I couldn't decide whether this would make holding the small darts easier or more difficult...

Anyway, around the middle of the evening, we noticed that a man in a kilt was at the bar. This being London, nobody raised an eyebrow except for the obvious comment of "man in a skirt!" (albeit not too loudly, as he looked quite tough) and we carried on drinking. Then suddenly there were five others, and a full sword-dance broke out, in a space not much bigger than a pub table. Three minutes of whirling and waving, a collection - I think the man mentioned when he came round that it was an English rather than scottish traditional version - and it was all over. Has anyone else seen these men?

The Rising Sun, London - not The Mishnish, Tobermory, yesterday...

TCMJ remarked afterwards that this was why she liked London pubs - you never know quite what's going to happen. Sadly, this was as we walked past the Olde Red Cow, which is now "dark", as I believe the theatre term goes. This was possibly my favourite of the Smithfield circuit; the most civilised and least crowded (perhaps why it's closed!) of the bunch, and better for those reasons than the other Shepherd Neame pub nearby, the Bishop's Finger. If I still worked round there, I'd miss it.

The late Olde Red Cow, Smithfield, yesterday

Beer for dogs...

2006-02-06T10:24:00.000Z

CBS News last night covered the big news first...
Happy Tail Beer
It's non-alcoholic, and has extra beef flavouring. As TCMJ pointed out, surely that makes it my No 1 enemy... GRAVY! (Boo hiss...)

New pubs-a-go-go!

2006-02-05T16:17:00.000Z

For the first time in nearly 100 years, I'm posting some new pubs.

First up, as we say on the radio, Al and I tried to do a Northern line pub crawl. Except the Northern line wasn't working. We had grand plans to visit a new pub (well, new to us) in London's glamorous SW17, then move on to South Wimbledon, and ended up getting as far as our first pub in Kennington before being diverted to Stockwell.

So here goes. Our first pub was known to Al but not to me - he used to walk past it to get to Lambeth County Court - not, I hasten to add, to appear, but in work-related duties of course. Cast aside your drive-by shooting led preconceptions of Kennington... this is a gentrified square within the sound of the Division Bell and is therefore home to MPs and Kevin Spacey (this is where he really lives, not the Penthouse above the Old Vic that I described to an old lady in a Stella-fuelled Pit Bar incident). The Prince of Wales is a perfectly nice, upmarket local pub - with a mix of toffs, Sarf Londoners and students from Lambeth Art College. It sells Shepherd Neame beer and its location is great, but that's it really - and again, it was very smokey. When I took a flash photo outside, the curtains twitched... it's that sort of place.

So we moved on, aiming for the Little House, Tooting. For some reason, despite having lived in the area for five years, I had shoddily overlooked this place, allegedly a nice local boozer. But then someone was "taken ill on a train at Balham" and the tube ground to a halt. Bang goes the Little House, and the Sultan in South Wimbledon then. So we got off the train and headed to an old favourite, the Priory Arms on Lansdowne Way in Stockwell.

When I lived in SW8, this was my local. I thought I was lucky then, and nothing's changed. Great beers (keen to support local brewers, I had a pint of Seaforth Ale, from the Hebridean Brewing Company and Al had some smoked bottled beer), friendly clientele and they sell proper pork scratchings from the West Midlands. Who could ask for more? And I guess that's why it's been the local CAMRA branch pub of the year many times. So a good outcome to the evening despite the tube problems. We'll just have to try again another day!

And Wallis and I went to Soho on Thursday... no, it's not what you're thinking. Nick's already done The Ship, but an honorable mention should go to The Blue Posts on Berwick Street as well. Nick and I rolled up there in search of a pub to sit and talk in - and found two prime bar stools. Now, depending on your opinion, this could be because it was a horrid old man's pub in desparate need of a make-over; or because it's an oasis of traditional boozer in a sea of All Bar Ones. Regardless, it was the right pub, right now and I loved it. When they didn't call time at 2300, we thought we'd also found one of those new-fangled late licences, which would have made the place pefect. But it turns out that they, er, just hadn't called time, and it still closed at 11pm. The landlady said they'd applied for an extension, but Westminster council rejected almost all of them as "there were plenty of places to drink late already"... Sadly, my barstool wasn't one of them.

Pub review: in Mobile-phone-O-vision!!

2006-02-05T00:32:00.000Z

The Ship, Wardour St, W1

This is a somewhat legendary pub. In fact, a review of it already exists somewhere on this pub guide, so I'm inclined to think it therefore makes history as the only pub to be reviewed twice on WPG. Good.

It's a pub run and staffed by people who like music. In every other regard it's exactly the same as every other Soho gin palace. So, you go and you stand on your own, you leave on your own, you go home and you think - "Well, things can't be that bad, then."

There's no juke box, the bar staff are in control. In 99.9% of cases this would be a terrible thing. Here, good taste is part of the job description. The only downside is that it is very smoky, but according to my colleague, Radio 1's political correspondant, Robin Brant, a smoking ban will be here in early 2007. Bring it on.

Overtired as a newt

2006-01-17T02:53:00.000Z

As strangers to this part of the Internet have been known to be partial to the odd drink, I thought it might be worthwhile to consider the odd stiff one in the Palace of Westminster.

Charles Kennedy may be the first politician to admit publicly that he has a drink problem, but it is no secret that for centuries the Palace of Westminster has been awash with premiership-class imbibers. The late Ray Gunter, a Cabinet Minister in Harold Wilson's day, who used to queue up most mornings for the well-concealed Lords' staff bar to open at 9am, once said "Drinking goes on here only three times a day: morning, noon and night".

And in the nearby Annie's Bar, a small, disreputable and unselect group was formed, rejoicing in the name of Alcoholics Unanimous, now, alas, disbanded. As the veteran Tory peer, Lord Deedes (an ex-MP) observed only this week: "I forget how many bars there are in Parliament, but they are not just ornamental. They meet a need".

One "regular" was Harold Wilson's Foreign Secretary, George Brown, whose intake was awe-inspiring and prodigious. Wilson used to say of him: "He was a brilliant Foreign Secretary until four o'clock in the afternoon". Brown himself once said: "Many British statesmen have either drunk too much or womanised too much. I never fell into the second category". Once, as Foreign Secretary, in 1967 he attended an Embassy reception in Peru, when he espied a remarkable creature in a flowing scarlet gown and asked for a dance while music was being played. The reply came: "You are drunk. That is not the cha-cha-cha, it is the Peruvian national anthem. And I am not a delectable young thing in red, I am the Cardinal Archbishop of Lima".

Once when I was drinking with him in a Middlesbrough bar, Brown - who was supposed to be on a period of abstinence - was also the unwitting source of the expression "tired and emotional" used by a BBC press officer to describe Brown's overwrought condition on TV immediately after President Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

Winston Churchill also had a considerable capacity, with brandy being his favourite tipple. He once said: "I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me". And once when he was upbraided by a woman Labour MP who told him: "you're drunk!" He replied: "Madam. You're ugly. I'll be sober in the morning."

Churchill once vowed that he would never take strong drink before lunch, later amending that to: "It is now my rule never to do so before breakfast," at which meal he occasionally enjoyed a glass of hock with a clear conscience. When delivering a Budget, Churchill would drink whisky and soda or brandy, euphemistically described as "an amber-coloured fluid". As he gulped it down, he paused briefly in his speech to proclaim: "I shall now fortify the revenue".

The only Minister to be accused of being drunk at the Despatch Box was the late Alan Clark, after an over-exuberant wine-tasting. The accusation was made by Labour MP Clare Short and Clark admitted that she was right. Later, Labour MP Paul Flynn described Mr Clark as being "overtired as a newt" and suggested that all MPs should be breathalysed before entering the Chamber.

The righteous Labour MP Dennis Skinner once tried to stop drinking in the Commons. It was always a losing battle. He said: "There's people going into the chamber to vote and legislate for the whole country when they've been in the bar suppin' ale half the day. Well, not me. If a miner can't drink and work, nor should an MP." Herbert Asquith, Prime Minister at the start of the First World War, was also said to be frequently "manifestly the worse for wear" at the Despatch Box. He was the subject of a ditty regularly sung in London music halls: "Mr Asquith says in a manner sweet and calm, another little drink won't do us any harm". No wonder he was known as "Squiffy" Asquith. His wife Margot reputedly tried to cut down his intake by diluting his brandy when he wasn't looking. One recent Serjeant-at-Arms who used to visit the nearby Red Lion in full regalia to quaff gin in great quantities, was ordered by his wife to stop this habit. So what he did was to leave his overcoat on a peg with the money for a bottle of gin in the pocket. One of his minions collected the money, bought the gin and replaced the bottle (and change) in the pocket, leaving his wife unaware of his brilliant subterfuge.

William Hague recently admitted (Ed: boasted?) that he drank 14 pints a day as a lad on a dray. But now the serious drinking culture, partly because of the new daytime hours and the tut-tut-tutting of some of the Blair Babes, has markedly abated. No more rough-and-tumbles in the Strangers' Bar. No more wild scenes in Annie's. And no more incidents like the former press gallery member who was thought to be dead and was taken away in a vehicle, only to shock the other occupants by raising the blanket from his head and demanding: "A large whisky please..."

Well done everyone.