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From today's Guardian, a review of this book: Public House: A Cultural and Social History of the London Pub. "Featuring more than 120 pubs across all 32 London boroughs (and the City of London), arranged chronologically – not from when the pub opened but from “when it had the most interesting story to tell” – the compendium is also dotted with 15 essays from a broad range of contributors."
I took a punt on this with a pre-order at a reduced price, and there are certainly plenty of interesting snippets and pictures of historical interest, but not a lot of detail in most cases (apart from the 15 featured pubs).Quote:
Originally Posted by sheffield hatter
Anyone with an interest in London's pubs wouldn't go far wrong if they get this book, given to me by a friend. It first came out in 1978 and I have what appears to be the current edition, from 1992.
Thanks for the suggestion. Although the link in your post contains the title and author of the book Discovering London's Inns and Taverns by John Wittich, when I clicked it I just got through to an Amazon portal. However, I found a copy at Awesome Books in Wallingford for the princely sum of £3.37. I wonder if it's an earlier edition than yours?Quote:
Originally Posted by Tris39
Mine is '92 and the weblink suggests the book on offer dates from '96; I doubt there's much difference between issues though. It's a good book with some photos, sadly in black and white as the production values aren't that high. It does include a few crawls too, though at £3.75, you can't really go wrong.Quote:
Originally Posted by sheffield hatter
Quote:
Originally Posted by sheffield hatter
I have one (book) on the way also.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tris39
Mine's been cancelled. The bookseller discovered that they'd already sold it to someone else! (Probably Tris.)Quote:
Originally Posted by Mobyduck
:eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by sheffield hatter
Nope. Mine came from a friend who bought it in a charity shop a couple of years ago for £1.99.Quote:
Originally Posted by sheffield hatter
Have a go with this link.
I've sourced another copy on Ebay for a (much better) bargain price of just £2.29 (free postage!). Fingers crossed this one actually turns up.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tris39
I think I might have been the one that inadvertently 'gazumped' you Will, as my copy arrived today from Amazon and I can see that it was fulfilled via Awesome Books, albeit I paid £2.80 for the privilege, so looks like you got a better deal than me in the end.
I'm glad that it seems to have gone to a good home!Quote:
Originally Posted by Komakino
I did my first crawl based on Discovering London's Inns and Taverns by John Wittich (4th edition, 1996). It's not really a pub crawler's guide - more of a historical list with a bit of a ramble. My route is taken from Chapter 2, Let's All Go Down the Strand. My preparatory work eliminated two out of 12 as not really pubs in the first place (the Savoy Hotel and Rule's on Maiden Lane), two that are just about drinking places but not my cup of tea (this cocktail bar (formerly a Hogshead) and this drag queen bar (formerly the George Adelphi)), and one that has become a burger joint (Gordon Ramsay Street Burger (formerly the Peacock)), leaving seven of which one, not surprisingly, turned out to have closed: Punch & Judy.
Here's the shortened crawl:
1. formerly St Martins Tavern, now Theodore Bullfrog
2. The Coal Hole
3. Lyceum Tavern
4. Nell of Old Drury
5. The Nags Head
6. The Lemon Tree
See the crawl route here.
I have the book but only half way through, seems like a half decent crawl going by your reviews, disappointed the Nell has fallen away, always quite liked that one.Quote:
Originally Posted by sheffield hatter
I've been to Rules a couple of times as a treat; I don't know if you'd like it as it's probably the country's most vegetarian-unfriendly eatery.Quote:
Originally Posted by sheffield hatter
Like Ray, I had a Richard Harris moment here with the ex around 2000. She asked for his autograph and his hand kept trying to wander up her short skirt; I don't think I've seen many people as drunk as him. We then went to a drinks party at the Savoy and I got rather drunk. I remember going to the loo and being greeted by a friendly cloakroom attendant in top hat and tails. I used the urinal and noted it had both a cold and hot flush: 'There's posh' I thought. I turned to leave and saw the attendant now glowering at me. It was only then I realised I'd pee'd in the wheelchair users' basin.
Other than that, I've not actually been to many of the above pubs.
Not to be confused with the Nell Gwynne..., though this rather rests on its laurels, imo, and its ginnel location...Quote:
Originally Posted by Mobyduck
I've documented the other London pub crawl I did last week: London's Beautiful Pubs.
I got the idea from a list that someone posted on the Yet Another List thread, and I made a note of the names of six of the pubs with the heading in quote marks, so I don't think I'll have made it up.
The trouble is, I can't remember why I chose those six specifically and why I left out the remainder (there are always more than six, aren't there) and I don't know when the list was posted, though I reckon within the last year, and quite likely during the long lockdown. I've tried Googling, of course, but the nearest I got was this, which is ten different pubs altogether.
Anyone know or got any ideas?
That's spot on, Luke. Really appreciate it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Luke H
At the time that list was quoted I had done all the London pubs but five, and quite a lot of the others - in fact all except Ty Coch Inn, Porthdinllaen, Morfa Nefyn, Gwynedd, LL53 6DB . And then I added the suggestion from Tris @1695 for the very superb Salisbury Hotel which gave me six to do last week. But somehow I missed the addition of The Queens @1698, not to mention the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish lists which he added @1699. I'll go through those when I have a minute, to see what I'm missing.
For future reference:
The UK's most beautiful pubs
The Windsor Castle, 114 Campden Hill Road W8 7AR Done 30/09/21
Whitelock’s Ale House, Turks Head Yard, LS1 6HB Done pre-30/09/21
The Prince Alfred, 5A Formosa Street W9 1EE Done pre-30/09/21
The Viaduct Tavern, 126 Newgate Street EC1A 7AA Done 30/09/21
The Canny Man’s, 237 Morningside Road, EH10 4QU Done pre-30/09/21
The Red Lion, 2 Duke of York Street SW1Y 6JP Done pre-30/09/21
Bartons Arms, 144 High Street, B6 4UP Done pre-30/09/21
The Tabard, 2 Bath Road W4 1LW Done 30/09/21
The Warrington Hotel, 93 Warrington Crescent W9 1EH Done pre-30/09/21
The Victoria, 10A Strathearn Place W2 2NH Done 30/09/21
Philharmonic Dining Rooms, 36 Hope Street, L1 9BX Done pre-30/09/21
The Princess Louise, 208 High Holborn, WC1V 7EP Done pre-30/09/21
The Marble Arch, 73 Rochdale Road M4 4HY Done pre-30/09/21
Ty Coch Inn, Porthdinllaen, Morfa Nefyn, Gwynedd, LL53 6DB Add to to-do list
The Salisbury, 90 St Martin’s Lane WC2N 4AP Done 30/09/21
The Blackfriar, 174 Queen Victoria Street EC4V 4EG Done pre-30/09/21
Crown Posada, 31 The Side, NE1 3JE Done pre-30/09/21
Plus:
The Salisbury Hotel Done 30/09/21
The Queens Hotel Add to to-do list
https://www.mapquest.com/travel/top-...s-in-scotland/
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-...wales-11660958
https://www.irelandbeforeyoudie.com/...thern-ireland/
Interesting to see the reactions of Tris and John to this one's inclusion:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tris39
I was lucky (if you read my review) in that the service was really good - I didn't mention that one of the funeral party went up to the bar for a second time and was told he didn't have to pay if he was with the funeral. "Oh", quoth he, "I was charged for my first pint." The bar manager, in the face of protestations that the customer wasn't that bothered, went onto the till and did a refund for the price of his beer and recharged it to the funeral account. Wow!Quote:
Originally Posted by london calling
More to the point, I really liked the Arts & Crafts interior, and was interested to find out, from the Camra heritage link, that the tiles were by a close friend of William Morris. (One of my photos is of a "two-part tiled painting, damaged, with the description 'Little Bo-Peep fell fast asleep’ ... most probably designed by Walter Crane and decorated in the Morris & Co. workshops". )
Dull, maybe, but it is possible to have too much of snazzy mirrors, you know. :)
The place was chosen for a friend's surprise sixtieth, the other choice being the Express (he lives between the two, which I've now done). I liked the pub a lot but not the service - which was dead slow - but not the flashing machines; the AstroTurf garden didn't really bother me that much as I was indoors. And no, you can't have too many snazzy mirrors!;)Quote:
Originally Posted by sheffield hatter
I'd have a look at CAMRA's National Inventory for London. I've recently been to the Queens, Boleyn, which is best viewed on the pub's website (the nearby Denmark is no slouch, though 'only' of Regional Importance) Dolphin (stunning tilework), the Falcon last night, with the Regionally Important Fox & Pheasant and Atlas a few nights ago. The only problem is that Beautiful Pub by no means equates to Beautiful Experience, the Falcon being an example of this.Quote:
Originally Posted by sheffield hatter