25. Bank Holiday, post football match beers in Marylebone, Monday 21st April 2003

A re-union and gentle crawl was held on Easter Monday where I was joined by Mark Giles and Richard Bradshaw after they had attended football matches at QPR and Birmingham respectively. I arrived at Marylebone in customarily late fashion and was greeted by a closed Victoria and Albert. Fortunately, Mark had a contingency plan and so I pegged it down to the Globe at Baker Street and met him there.

This was a reasonably good pub - described by Richard as one of London's top 3 most famous pubs - and contained a pleasingly large array of ales: Bombardier, two Courages, Brains SA, Young's and something called Frolic made by some yokels. Salt-of-the-earth barmaids pulled the pints. The Marylebone Tup was our next stop and when we ventured here we again found a blonde barmaid pulling pints which again were quite good, four sorts in all: Bombardier, Pedigree, 'Tup' own beer [hmm] and something which I haven't recorded, whoops.

Just round the corner was the quiet King's Head where a French lady pulled us some good beers from the lager, bitter and stout ranges. I had elected to have IPA in preference to Abbot. Bar snacks were an improvement on what we had seen thus-far and the crowning glory was when she actually came over and asked whether we would like refills. Magnificent! Another quiet pub was next on the agenda, the morgue-like Duke of York on Westmorland Street which was doing Sam Smiths products. Cheap but not to everyone's tastes. The bar man even beckoned us in and the plush leather 'banquette' chairs and highly polished tables made up for lack of atmosphere.

An expensive table football table greeted us at the Horse and Groom a bit further up the road as we passed a couple of closed establishments. Unfortunately, the beer was restricted to John Smiths and in general the place was uninspired, but the presence of Helen Seyler from the geology department [with her bloke] was a point of interest.

The Seyler pair seemed to think that the pubs were going to shut at 10.30, but we thought we knew better so pressed on. As it happens they were right, but after a few aborted attempts, we managed to get into Bradley's on Hanway Street, just off Oxford Street. This is indeed a splendid establishment on two floors and modelling itself as a Spanish bar. Choice lagers were available - San Miguel, Cruzcampo, Bitburger and Budvar. We went downstairs and failed to get last orders as the clocks were fast, but fortunately a trip upstairs allowed one more. The vinyl jukebox played the original Tainted Love by Gloria Jones too. A bonus. Mark had wisely spurned the last round, so Rich and me had a tense trip back to Morden on the tube which is just that little bit too far for comfort with a full bladder, though a handy alleyway has been noted seconds from the station forecourt.


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Dan Lovegrove
dan@doctor-lovegrove.com

Last updated 26th April 2003.