Read the headline.
See who sponsors it.
Don't say you weren't warned.
http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/P...s-the-top-spot
List here
Not sure the name of the third placed pub is entirely appropriate...on the other hand it may be
(I've actually been in three of them )
I've been to two-both pre gastro, and in the case of the Compasses, pre-Sheps.
http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/15641/ and http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/15465/
"At that moment I would have given a kingdom, not for champagne or hock and soda, or hot coffee but for a glass of beer" Marquess Curzon of Kedlestone, Viceroy of India.
4 all local to me and for no other reason than they needed to be done.
Just The Alma ,it wasn't gastro back then.
"Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
-W.C.Fields
I'm sure there's been a similar list to this before! I've definitely been to five and possibly the Highgate one all when the talk of a gastro-pub would get the response "Wot Dat?".
The Beehive at White Waltham was an ordinary village pub that made for a good GBG listed stop on the way back from a Brakspear foray.
The Anchor & Hope in SE1 I believe was the first Well's pub in London. I've played darts in there and eaten the gastro sarnies (NOT!).
The Flitch of Bacon in Little Dunmow was a very plain Bass Charrington village pub.
The Alma in Wandsworth was arguably the roughest Young's pub in Wandsworth before the brewery started ruining them and then selling out.
The Marksman in East London was a rough old East End pub that went onto the Real Ale bandwagon and got a GBG listing.
I'm not sure I've ever been to a gastro-pub.
9 out of 50 and surprisingly, 3 out of the Top 10. I'm obviously a bigger and posher sod than I thought.
I remember going into The Coach before Kerridge got his mitts on it when it was the Coach & Horses - a run-down town boozer-cum-Chinese. Not sure which incarnation I preferred better...
"Breakneck speed we drown ten pints of bitter"
I did go into The Anchor and Hope last year,about 20 minutes before advertised closing but the chair's were already upside down on the table's and they wouldn't serve me. Their loss not mine.
I'm putting my hands up to just two on this list, Newbury and Guildford.
"Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
-W.C.Fields