133. Quireboys pub crawl, Thursday 8th to Saturday 10th December 2011

Avril's birthday presented an opportunity to do some pubs and see a band in an area that we might not otherwise have visited. We booked in at the Hotel Indigo at Tower Hill/Aldgate which we used as a base for a couple of nights. We met Richard Bradshaw at Sutton station and travelled up to Tower Hill en masse. Richard settled himself into a pub whilst Avril and I checked in, and then we quickly joined him.

The first pub was the Peacock on Minories. It was a pretty quiet and spartan pub, but had a friendly landlord and some superbly kept and varied ales in the shape of Redemption IPA, Foundation Bitter and Doom Bar. A beer festival was advertised but we reluctantly had to drag ourselves away, and walked the 5 or so minutes around the corner to Fenchurch Street where we found the excellent Crutched Friar. This is a pub that we had seen a number of times but had never actually visited. This is quite a distinctive pub with a central doorway leading past some side rooms to a very spacious, light and airy bar, with a conservatory on one side. The pleasing thing about this was that there was ample room to see the splendid selections of ales on offer: Ringwood Best, Landlord, Pontypridd Colombo, Red Tail, London Pride, Doom Bar and, for Richard, Kozel. We had a nice seat at a round table.

Another walk followed, to the majestic Counting House at Bank. This is a Fuller's pub in an old bank building with an extremely grand interior and a central island bar. Pleasingly, they had a guest in the form of Black Cab Stout, as well as old favourites London Pride, ESB, Discovery, Bengal Lancer and Chiswick on draught. Honeydew was also available on keg, but was not served in its proper glass. At this point it was time to go north on the Northern Line, and we duly alighted at the Angel where everyone needed the toilet and a pub was sought quickly. It was most fortunate that the nearest pub was the Angelic which we had researched as being one in the area to visit. This is a grand old pub, typical North London, with high ceilings and tall windows. In the evening darkness, all their fairy lights added to a dramatic effect. We got a seat with a table and some rickety chairs near to the steps down to the toilets which were notable for their lighting. Back to the beer, and the selection was pretty good, with Greene King IPA, Doom Bar and Sharps Own Bitter.

There was still time for a couple more before the show and so we went to another recommended pub, The Albion in Islington. This was more gastro to the point of having reserved signs for diners on tables in the back room, and so we had to make do with perching at the bar which wasn't too bad as there was plenty of room. The beer selection was acceptable and well kept, Deuchars IPA and Ringwood Best. Noteworthy was a splendid beer garden which may well be worth a visit during the Summer months. Not that far away is the much more traditional Barnsbury, a drinker's pub, with a wonderful array of beer - Butts Organic Jester, Skinners Cornish Knocker, FFF Old Drag and Moorhouse Lap Prancer - which were also wonderfully kept and served from a number of pumps placed on A U-shaped bar. The pub extends on one side of the U and we sat at a table there and enjoyed some chips served in a miniature bucket, so there was a slight gastro influence after all!

It was now time to go to the Garage to watch the Quireboys, a rather cosy venue, but one with a pretty poor selection of beer as in no bitter and after a while, not even any lager. Cider had to be consumed as a result. What made up for it though was the Quireboys' show which was very good indeed and some video snippets of their hit songs 'Hey You' and '7 O'Clock' are below. They were filmed on a Blackberry in 3GP format whatever that is so if you get nonsense or a gap below, try clicking Hey You and 7 O'clock.

And some conventional still photography too.
Quireboys Quireboys
Quireboys Quireboys

A splendid show though, and despite the cider and rough toilets, we all left very happy.

There was however still time to squeeze one more in and we did just that a little way down the road at the Hope and Anchor, which had Abbot, Greene King IPA and Abbot Reserve. Foolishly we opted for the last of these choices and found it to be nice but extremely strong and not at all suitable for our purposes seeing as we had consumed a lot already. However it would have been a shame to waste good beer and so we finished it, albeit in somewhat of a drunken haze, although I do recall admiring a 10 inch single, perhaps a New Order one, displayed on the wall. After this point however common sense did prevail and we dispersed home.

Despite this perceived piece of sensibility, we still felt the need to meet up the following day so, with Richard on his way to a gig on the south coast, we had a couple at the Nell Gwyn, one of our favourite haunts in an alleyway off the Strand. On this particular occasion they had Rosey Nosey and Deuchars IPA, and being the middle of the day we had the run of the juke box. By the evening, Richard had long gone and it was time to meet Avril's friend Cara, and we dined in the hotel restaurant, the Square Mile, which was fine for food and counted as a bar although I would not go there for beers.

There was still time for yet more, and on the Saturday we had a bit of an explore of the Sloane Square area, which included an hour or so in the Phoenix, Chelsea, which may have featured in Made in Chelsea at some point. They seem to have successfully traded on this because the pub was packed with toffs, but they did at least have a pretty good beer selection in Cornish Coaster, Young's London Gold and Bombardier. They also did some high class and tasty food although a problem with the kitchen meant that there was a gap of about 90 minutes between savoury and sweet courses!


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Dan Lovegrove
dan@doctor-lovegrove.com

Last updated 7th October 2012.