Brilliant!!!
I shall save that link for when I am old and shall wear purple.
Many thanks.
Brilliant!!!
I shall save that link for when I am old and shall wear purple.
Many thanks.
Cross Keys was a lovely traditional 'village' pub when I was a regular in the late '80s. Small, oak settles, an island bar with gantry, log fire and plenty of knick-knacks. It seems to have changed beyond all recognition even since the first review and apparently has a gallery along with a much larger interior; God knows where they got the extra space.
Now look at it: https://www.thecrosskeyschelsea.co.uk/pub/
I remember finding the Bat & Ball but little else other than a wide choice of beers!
I remember going to the Little Gem with my boss who lived in Maidstone.
I went to around a third of the Gales estate back in the day but don't recall Braishfield being one.
I love a good graph, so the table in today's 'Shut up about Barclay Perkins' blog posting about Ownership of UK pubs 1990-2017 was calling out for one to illustrate the changes to the pattern of UK pub ownership over the last 26 years.
So two huge trends going in completely opposite directions between 1991 and the mid-2000s and then back again to the present day, all within the context of a market declining at an ever-increasing rate (in terms of numbers, although - notwithstanding the the micropub sector really taking off - the average pub size is going in the opposite direction).
That picture is muddied by Heineken (Star Pubs and Bars) who are effectively another pubco that happens to be part of a global brewing abomination. I was in Margate yesterday, a place I had never visited before going there to do the JDW. I went to two proper micropubs, a bar that is barley bigger than the average micro, a place that is essentially a keg micropub, the JDW and one proper pub. The proper pub had two Gadds' beers the one which I tried being excellent. I didn't see any mainstream cask dross apart from in the JDW where you would expect it. I assume that I had never been to Margate before this decade as it was rubbish. I'd go back there anytime if only to have another go at finding the Little Prince (I couldn't even find the shopping area where it's situated!). I think things are looking up but slowly. As far as I'm concerned Marston's are one of the villains as they seem to think that having half a dozen breweries gives them the right to not stock any genuine guest ales. At least Greene King do have some pubs with proper guests.
On leaving the bar, I felt a strong blow to the back of my head. Turning round, I discovered it was the pavement