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S.P.B.W. |
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The
Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood |
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S.P.B.W. |
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The
Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood |
LONDON PUB OF THE YEAR 2010: ROGER’S BLOG
Wednesday, 18th
August
We start at the furthest flung
pub, in Carshalton deep in south east London. This gives me a thankfully
rare opportunity to join the commuter trail with the workers going home from
London Bridge. I have the pleasure of a 10 minute wait at Tulse Hill, where
I change trains, but the journey is painless enough. When I disembark at
Carshalton I notice Mike Hall down the platform looking shifty and John
Rooth further away looking confused. So we’re on our way! |
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Our destination is the Hope, 48 West Street, just a few minutes walk from the station (turn right and left at the main road). This is a mock tudor building named after a ship, judging from the pub sign. It’s very much a traditional inn with various drinking areas, one containing an antique bar billiards table (it only accepts florins!), and a small beer garden at the back. The young lady behind the bar was very friendly and efficient and we had a decent selection of ales to ask her for. | |||||||
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The Hope |
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The one regular beer is
Horsham Best from King & Co and there were also offerings from Welton,
Dark Star, Kelham Island and a couple from Wolf. Not so many months ago
the Hope was in danger of being closed as a pub and converted to a
restaurant. But the locals rallied round and 33 of them formed a
consortium to buy the place free of beer tie; it reopened in May and it
certainly appears to be thriving. It should soon be an even better
proposition when the kitchen is up and running – traditional pub food is
promised. The four of us (Bill English had joined us) were delighted to
see the legendary Rodger Molyneux-Roberts (one of the 33) who sat down
for a chat. RMR is a former NEC member who (rest of sentence deleted on
lawyers’ advice). |
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| The Hope (www.hopecarshalton.co.uk) was certainly a good start and I would definitely visit more often if it wasn’t so far from home. We retraced our steps to the station and the train back to Victoria arrived right on time. On arrival at Victoria I was in need of bladder relief so I made use of the facilities at the station Wetherspoons, telling the others that I’d catch them up. | |||||||
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Our second and last
destination was the Cask Pub & Kitchen, 6 Charlwood Street, SW1V 2EE (www.caskpubandkitchen.com).
This is in deepest Pimlico, very close to where I lived for a couple of
years in the late 80s. I therefore know the area quite well and made
good time to the pub to find no sign of my colleagues. They trooped in
shamefacedly a few minutes after I sat down with my pint, evidently
knowing the area less well than me. The Cask Bar was formerly known as the Pimlico Tram (and I’m sure that can’t have been the original name) and was reopened about a year ago. |
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The Cask Bar |
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It consists of one fairly
plain room furnished in modern style with a bar counter filling one side. There
was a good array of handpumps and Dark Star and Thornbridge breweries were well
represented. The beers were in fine condition but prices were definitely in the
premium bracket (£3.35 a pint). As well as the draught ales there is a small
range of quality lagers and other foreign beers and a large menu of bottled
beers. The pub was far from full but still nicely bustling, although the
background music was a trifle intrusive. Pimlico is not a great area for pubs
and the Cask seems to be a worthy addition to the scene. So that’s one session and two pubs out of the way. We’re back in action next week and finish in mid-October. Stay tuned! | |||||||
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| We leave JOC to his beer and make our way back to the station. Although John R leaves first he somehow manages to end up on the wrong side of the road and turns up on the wrong platform. Happily all is well in the end and the train to Charing Cross arrives on time. Our second pub of the night is the Harp (47 Chandos Place, WC2N 4HS) in Covent Garden, winner of this competition in 2008. In serious need of bladder relief I rush from the train to the pub, where I shove customers aside on my way to the stairs and the gents. On my return to the bar I discover that Mike and John are being treated to pints by Binnie, the estimable owner of the Harp. Being the generous lady she is, she adds me to the freebies and I plump for a pint of Sambrook’s Junction bitter. As ever, the pub is very busy, even more so when Bill arrives after a late shift at work. |
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The Harp |
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Alasdair scouted the upstairs
room and discovered that there were some free seats so we moved up. Here we got
talking to a couple, Geraldine and Peter, who Alasdair knew from Camra circles
but who are also friends of my good friend Derek Legg, known in Special Branch
as Catweazel. The Harp is very handy, not just for Charing Cross station, but
also several theatres and the London Coliseum, not to mention Trafalgar Square.
It’s of fairly modest dimensions so inevitable it gets very crowded but the
service here is second to none. The beer choice is also pretty useful as well:
on our visit there were two beers from Sambrooks of Battersea, three from Dark
Star (Hophead, American Pale Ale and an 8.5% Belgian style), Harvey’s Best and a
couple of others which I can’t remember. But they were all in very good nick and
most were £3.10 a pint, which in this part of London is not at all a bad price.
The Harp was formerly owned by Punch Taverns but, since winning our award,
Binnie bought the pub so it is now a genuine free house. I must admit, I like the Harp very much and recommend it highly if you’re in this part of town. If you prefer quiet pubs it may not suit you unless you visit ‘off peak’ as it were. But for the high quality of its beers and service, it’s hard to beat. I’m not sure what time they finished serving but it was well past 11 when I drained my last drink and headed for home. We now have a two and a half week break before the next session. |
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