Arthur's Column

Last Week in London

Summer is back.

I think.

At least it's warmer. Monday saw T and I visit Messrs H & M and follow it up with a few in some pubs around Mayfair due to the visit of some Kuwaiti gentlefolk neccesitating many gun salutes and resultant traffic jams. Now Traffic Jams are part of life in London, but at least the traffic moves a little, normally (7mph average speed). Not so at lunch time on Monday.

Great pub called Ye Grapes. Interesting part of town Mayfair. Situated just north of Picadilly (a road running from Hyde Park Corner to the circus {cross roads} of the same name) with the western side bordering Hyde Park this is one of London's most exclusive (ie. expensive) areas. Now if you go down close to Piccadilly near Trumper's (the royal barber) you will find a series of very narrow streets with restaurants and pubs and no cars. This is Shepherd's Market, where we found ourselves.

Ye Grapes was followed by a brief sojourn into The King's Arms. Very average sort of place - won't bother to visit there again. Then there was just time for a quick one at The Samuel Pepys in Clarges Street before heading back to the office for an afternoon's solid work (really!). The Samuel Pepys has a bar billiards table which immediately gives it a rating, and serves this Hungarian beer Staropramen which is very good. Well worth a visit.

Brodie's Bar and Restaurant opened on Wednesday in New Bridge Street (just between Ludgate Circus and the Blackfriar's bridge. This is a pub which could turn into a popular haunt. Modern and quite clean in appearance it is carved out of the basement of 100 New Bridge street which is a new office block. Had a pleasant lunch there on Wednesday (it was quite full) and decided to go there on Friday afternoon thinking it would be rocking. Unfortunately not to be, but we did have a drink there anyway and watch the Kiwis showing the Irish how to play the non-round ball game. Full marks to Guinness who made an advert punning the All Black content of their drink! I guess that advert had a short shelf life (one game!).

The Pigeon Post is a moderately pleasant local's watering hole in the tourist town of Winchester. Winchester is about 2 hours West of London, and is where we found ourselves over the weekend. Don't go there for excitement! Very relaxing. I did have a chance to go and look at the round table of King Arthur and the knights fame. A bit disappointing on the whole - the table (weighing over a ton) hangs on the wall of the Great Hall. Unfortunately it seems that carbon dating finds the table to date to about 1100 AD. Now Arthur reigned around about 500 AD, which would have made him about 600 years old if he sat at the table! I am told by the local souvenir saleslady (who was very friendly and knowlegeable) that the table is probably a replica! And I thought replicas were a recent innovation. Here we are with a 700 year old replica - does that make it an antique replica rather than a replica of an antique?!?

There is a pub guide in the UCL web server which is always worth a visit. I mention this because of an interesting letter I received on behalf of my brother's girlfriend the other day. I placed an article on the guide about the Star and Garter - one of my brother's locals. The letter - reprinted below with permission - is from a chap in Canada who read the posting.

  Greetings !  -  I saw your review of the Star and Garter pub 
  somewhere on the net.  I was immediately overcome with emotion.  Not 
  because of your review, but because of the happy memories that I have 
  of that pub.  In 1989 I traded flats with an english girl (now a 
  woman), not realizing that for my freestanding house, I would be 
  getting only a room in a flat.  It was an education for me, learning 
  to live with english young people who have come to London to begin 
  their professional lives.  After getting sorted out we became great 
  friends and I look fondly back on the days when we cycled from the 
  flat in Brixton, to the Star and Garter for the evening pint on the 
  rivers edge.  Now I only wish that I lived in London, and had the 
  chance to meet old friends for a pint by rivers edge.  Now I am 
  compelled to live in North America and drink bad beer.  Life is full 
  of twists and turns.  Yours, Josh Denton, Vancouver, British 
  Columbia, Canada

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Last Week

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