Like A Boomerang (Fun with
Ed, Trev, Becki, Sadie, Anna and BHD in some of the best pubs in London)
Last Summer (what Summer?) my friend, Ed, travelled back to England
for a few weeks having emigrated to Australia a few years before. I like to
think he came back just to see me, and his family and friends, but there is a
distinct possibility that he returned because the craft beer scene here had
exploded into life since he had been gone and he knew he was missing out. So a
small group of us arranged to meet him in Camden and I would take them on a
tour around London to drink in some of the pubs that were now serving some of
the best beers available in the country.
After a breakfast in a friendly little café just around the corner
from Camden tube station we strolled down to the (then) new BrewDog Camden for a sample of some of
their finest. It was too early to dive into their stronger beers, although it
is always midnight somewhere, but between the seven of us we tried a good
number of the beers on the board. BrewDog don’t sell cask-beers in their pubs,
which is a pity as their Trashy Blonde
had helped to rewrite the rulebook some years before and is greatly missed, but
everyone was happy with their brew and matching t-shirts were purchased for us
lads to wear on the remainder of the day. The bar was nearly empty as we were
there just as it opened on a Sunday lunchtime which gives you a great view of
the fixtures and fittings to see what the place is really made of. It’s bare
and very wooden but not uncomfortable. The trend for stripped back decoration
is no doubt for ease of maintenance as much as for atmosphere as it can create
a sterile atmosphere but BrewDog seem to avoid this in their bars, fortunately.
A happy start. |
| Ale, cider, meat ... and tiles |
This crawl will utilise the good ol’ London bus for transport more than
anything else to get between the fairly widespread pubs so Oyster cards are
mandatory. A short hop took us up to Kentish Town where the bus dropped us
exactly outside our next destination, the Southampton
Arms. Now this pub takes minimalism to the extreme. Only serving
ale, cider and meat, as the sign says, I expected this place to polarise
opinion. Sure, the beer choice is exquisite and the beer, served in the
traditional dimpled mug – preferred by old men for tradition and anyone who is
sensible enough to not want to warm their beer up in their hand as happens with
straight glasses – is in top condition but there is no music, no gimmicks and
precious little furniture or decoration. It is as the beer gods intended.
People come here to drink great beer, talk and maybe have a pork pie. Again,
nobody dislikes this pub and, in fact, I am pleasantly surprised to find some
of our group will rate it as the best pub on the tour. Simplicity and quality
win out over over-thinking and obvious, ham-fisted attempts to woo customers
rather than just appeal to them.
The next pub is proper east so the plan was to use the secret train
line that not everybody seems to know about. The North London Link line, part
of the London Overground network, cuts across from Richmond or Clapham Junction
to Barking or Stratford negating the need to go through the congested city
centre or use busy tube lines. Unfortunately, it’s not running today so we have
to get a bus or two to get to Leyton. Trevor requested we return to King
William IV, the home of Brodie’s wonderful beers.
As always, there is a huge choice of their own beers here from the
amazing 3.1% Citra to the 7.8% Porter. Again, not too busy on this Sunday
afternoon so we played a few games of bar billiards – very rare for a London
pub. No dissenters here. It’s an old pub with a traditional feel with some
lovely Victorian touches in the architecture. I’m often surprised that the
bar-staff here don’t seem that familiar with the beers they are serving but
then this is not a ‘craft bar’ as such as its main customers are locals who
come here to eat and talk and drink. Most of them drink the beers brewed on the
premises, or lager, but they haven’t come here especially for them like we
have. Another success. And another bus across to Leytonstone where the next great pub
awaited us.
The Red Lion
has been a pub a long time, as had the previous pub,
but has been transformed into a gastro-pub by Antic (the pub company) who has
seen the value in bringing great food and beer to areas that were bereft of
them before to serve those local people who are prepared to pay a bit more for it.
Leytonstone is such a place. I never drank in the pubs in this area when I
lived nearby because they were terrible so it was interesting to see the pub
where Slade played their first London gig (over 40 years before) spruced up and
lively. It was a bit sanitised for my taste but the beer choice and quality was
excellent – many of the current wow breweries were here, such as Magic Rock and Dark Star and the new local breweries like Camden. The food, I’m told by those who ate here, was very good too
but some of us held out for the pizza from the takeaway around the corner by
the tube station which was very nice. We travelled in relative luxury on the
tube train, eating our pizza, towards our next destination.  |
| Praying for great beer or that Anna is at the bar getting another round in? |
The Craft Beer Company in
Clerkenwell was also new to the scene when we drank there. At the time, the
simple concept of shiny, new, uncluttered and exposed was fairly new to the pub
scene in England. Restaurants had been doing it for years but pubs always
relied on some designed quirk or gimmick to make a new place talked about They
invariably rose and fell and then had to be made-over to try and entice the
next generation of drinkers through the door. Now there was beer. Now what was
in the glass was as important as what was on the label of the bottle some years
before. The label had moved from the bottle to the handpump or keg dispenser.
Suddenly, ale was the new thing that young people drank. Their dad drank lager or stood at the bar with
a bottle of something Mexican with a lime segment in the neck. Real beer had become … cool. Don’t tell CAMRA though as
they still refuse to see any beer keg dispensed as worthy and have chosen to
ignore it and hope it just goes away. This is not the enemy of good taste that
keg was in the sixties that made the originators of the Campaign For Real Ale
first voice their discontent. These new beers are passionately crafted using
only the best ingredients by brewers who live and breathe beer. They now choose
keg as a preferred dispense as the beer will be most like they intended as opposed
to relying on the vagaries of untrained bar-staff and pub companies trying to
serve a living product with little concern for keeping it at the right
temperature for the required amount of time before serving it through unclean beer-lines.
Keg has come back all grown up and sensible with an intoxicating charm and
dazzling charm. Don’t get me wrong, cask ale is still king but it is far more
variable and consistency WITH quality surely has to be worth pursuing. *Steps
down from soapbox*
Having said all that, I don’t like Craft Clerkenwell very much. The beer is fantastic but the venue is
soulless. When we were there it was packed alright but its location means it
attracts a desperately upwardly mobile crowd who seem to be there to be seen
rather than to just enjoy the conviviality of drinking alongside others who
want to try Mikkeller beers or Hawkshead’s new special stout, for
instance. But then the pub isn’t for me so it’s fine because there is so much
more great beer and great bar choice now than there has ever been in my
(drinking) lifetime.
The next venue was going to be the very new and ultra modern Holborn Whippet
which had only just started opening its doors at
weekends. But not today. It would open on a Sunday starting the following week
and not this, as advertised. We would have to come here again another time.
Meanwhile, a short stroll took us into the West End and on the edge of Covent
Garden is the very pretty, but small, Cross
Keys. We were lucky to get a table for us all here but it was not as busy
as it can get when there are as many people drinking outside the pub as in. The Brodie’s beers that were on were good.
There are always 2 or 3 of their beers on handpump here. The walls and ceiling are
festooned with an eclectic mix of prints of famous people and copperware which
is totally at odds to the lack of clutter at the new bars of Craft and BrewDog
but it gives the place a cosy feel. The foliage covering the front of the pub
lends a country pub look to what is an out and out city pub making it a refuge
from the noise of the city – that’s if the pub isn’t full to bursting so you
need to time it right to get the most from this charming place.
The best way of finishing any beer tour around London is to go to
the Euston Tap just outside the
station of the same name. So we did. It is a remarkable place all the more so
for appearing to be the size of an overgrown shed although it is actually a
very ornate, historic gate-house. Its sister bar is opposite which is the Cider
Tap. That sells, unsurprisingly, mostly cider but the one we were interested in
does beer, beer and more beer. It always has 8 cask ales and 20 kegs from all
over Britain and sometimes from some wonderful American breweries and,
occasionally, from Italy, Denmark or other exotic countries that are producing
world class beers now. In addition to that is fridges full of amazing bottled
beers from all over the world. Drinking here is a unique experience. It led the
way in putting great beer at the centre of everything in a bar. There are a few
stools dotted around the wall of the ground floor and a terrifyingly steep
spiral staircase with no room to pass takes you to the upper level where there
is a relaxed area full of tables and chairs. Its location lends itself to
passing trade – people on their way through Euston train, tube and bus stations
– but it has a locals feel to it as everyone is there for the same reason: the
quality and choice of the beers. It is one of those places where you are
constantly torn between trying an old favourite because you know how good it is
and trying a beer you haven’t heard of before because you know they never sell
average beers in here. A tequila-barrel-aged rye and rhubarb stout may not be
your usual choice but if you are going to try one this is the place to try it.
The knowledgeable and friendly staff are always keen to offer help and advice
and give samples to help you make an informed choice even when the bar is ultra
busy and it often is. Most people tend to only stop here for one or two drinks
but once you get a seat – and you will – it is difficult to leave unless you
have a seat reserved on a train at a particular time. The ‘Tap’ concept is beginning
to crop up in other locations too (York, Sheffield) and is invaluable when
travelling as there is no better way to begin or end a long journey this way.
Only it invariably isn’t the end as you still have to get home. Which is what we
had to do. So we did. Eventually. But like the proverbial aforementioned boomerang:
we will come back. 
London Pub Crawl I
1. BrewDog Bar, 113 Bayham Street,
Camden, NW1 0AG www.brewdog.com/bars/camden
2. Southampton Arms, 139 Highgate Road, NW5 1LE - Tube: Kentish Town /
Train: Gospel Oak www.thesouthamptonarms.co.uk
3. King William IV, 816A High Road Leyton, E10 6AE - Train:
Leyton Midland Road www.williamthefourth.net
4. The Red Lion, High Rd, Leytonstone, E11 3AA - Train: Leytonstone High
Road www.theredlionleytonstone.com
5. Craft Beer Company, 82 Leather La,
Clerkenwell, EC1N 7TR www.thecraftbeerco.com
6. Cross Keys, 31, Endell St, Covent
Garden, WC2H 9BA
7. Euston Tap, 109 Euston Rd, Euston
NW1 2EF www.eustontap.com
Nearest
tube/train as location unless stated
