PuG Summer meet - St Albans: Friday 17th July 2015

[Bucking Fastard]

Their crawl is very like my first thoughts - albeit theirs goes anticlockwise round the city!

I tend to agree with John that the Farmers Boy is not worth bothering with (see my review of 26th February 2015 and his of a couple of days later). I think the Fighting Cocks and the walk through the park to the Six Bells are worth doing, though. Perhaps we need to separate out the "must does" from the "wild cards".

How about this:

Meet at Wetherspoon - Waterend Barn

Boot [wild card: Kings Arms ]

Peahen [wild card: White Hart]

White Hart Tap [wild card: Beehive]

Garibaldi [wild card: White Lion]

Hare & Hounds [wild card: Goat]

Fighting Cocks

Six Bells [wild card: Rose & Crown]

Lower Red Lion [wild card: Verulum Arms]

Farriers Arms [off piste: Craft & Cleaver ]

Blacksmiths [wild card: Cock]

Mermaid

That's 12 pubs on the central crawl, plus eight wild cards and one which I've designated "off piste". (This would have qualified as a "Full Alan Winfield", but he took me to task about that after York, because he now aims to do 22 pubs in a day, not 21.)

Anyone who doesn't fancy the walk through the park to the Six Bells can go direct from the Fighting Cocks to the Lower Red Lion, past the abbey.

I haven't checked the opening times for any of these, by the way - I know the Hare & Hounds is a late opener in the early part of the week but is OK Fridays. The Mermaid is about 8 to 10 minutes from the station, according to Google maps, so seems a suitable last pub.

Will,that's a great plan.We should be past The White Hart Tap before their 2.30pm afternoon closure time {My mistake that's the food serving time its open ALL DAY from 11am} and be close to the Verulam Arms for their 5pm opening time,as well as the 5.30pm reopening at The Farriers. (Times gathered from What Pub)

For the early birds ,I couldnt find too many pubs open before noon,apart from the Waterend Barn JDW( of course) and The Blacksmiths (11am) so that just begs the question of when folk intend to arrive in St Albans . I can get there at any time without problems,although I'm not hitting the Waterend Barn at 8am