Greene King

I visited a Greene King pub for a change, meeting up with a whole lot of friends from my youth at the Old Garage, Replingham Road, Southfields, London SW18; unsurprisingly, this used to be a garage. 

The food wasn't bad, and they didn't have their IPA on, but the 3 ales that were on included Greene King Abbot Ale (5%), not bad, Morland Old Speckled Hen (4.5%), OK, and Ruddles County (4.3%)... None of these ales are like what I remember them from years past, and all brewed by Greene King now, sadly. Memories of drinking very good Ruddles County at the Crooked Billet come to mind, and much stronger too, like the Old Speckled Hen of the not so distant past, oh well...

Fings change, and not always for the best, but the craic amongst our quite large group was very good, cheers!

2 new pubs in the High Weald.

The Routemeister and I decided a shorter walk was required after the 'marathon' yesterday (Rye Figure of 8, last Tuesday), so we didn't add on to the already reasonably challenging walk planned in the High Weald, but we did get in hop fields, and 2 new pubs for us...

Our lunchtime destination was Burwash, where we visited The Bear Inn (website), which had a very interesting looking menu, and the food we saw being dished up to others appeared of good quality and measure.  They also have a good view from their garden, and we had a wee watch of the Ashes cricket match...

Ale-wise, there were 2 regulars, Sharp's Doom Bar (4%) and Harveys Sussex Best (4%).  There was only 1 guest ale this day, but they often have 2 guest ales. We went for the guest, Cottage M.G.A. (4%); they seem to like the 4% strength, probably related to drivers visiting the pub/hotel for food, which did seem to be being devoured by most customers there, other than us, we had a packed-lunch, of course.  I recounted the story of a lad I used to know who had built an MGA from scratch, following finding a chassis and body in decent nick, then scrounging around all over the place for parts; it was an impressive car when he'd finished building it.  The beer itself, described as "a golden cask ale", had a slight nuttiness in the flavour, and was quite refreshing, but lacked hops for a hoppy lad like me; and Dan is becoming a bit of a hop freak too! 

We carried on for a bit of a walk, passing by Rudyard Kipling's old home, Bateman's (named after a brewer, obviously, not), and our second 'tick' pub of the day, The Wheel Inn, Burwashweald (facebook), which is just down the road from Burwash, if driving, but we did our usual circuitous route through fields, to avoid roads as much as possible, and following the established walk from Dan's book.

The Wheel Inn had 3 ales on, 1 regular, the ubiquitous Harveys Sussex Best (4%), and 2 regularly changing guest ales, which, on our visit, were Sharp's Doom Bar (4%) and Morland Old Speckled Hen (4.5%).  We had the Old Speckled Hen, which I hadn't drunk for quite a while, it still remains an enjoyable dark bitter with plenty of flavour. The young barmaid was friendly, as was another customer, sitting at the bar as I asked questions, quite chatty and good to meet, cheers!



Wimbledon Park and back, via the Wandle...

Wimbledon park and back, via the Wandle, Thames, Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common... we walked not far off 20 miles...

The Dove in Hammersmith, on the River Thames, is one of my favourite Fullers pubs, indeed, it's one of my favourite pubs... Great history, great view of the Thames from the back, decent food and ales from Fullers, nowt to dislike about the Dove, but you may well have seen me write about it elsewhere, so no surprise I love this pub...

The City Barge, past the Fullers Brewery in Chiswick, was the pub in 'Help!' The Beatles film, where Ringo fell through a trapdoor in the floor. Locals just call it "The Barge", and it's made up of an older lower bar and a more modern addition. The ales here were Green King IPA, which you'll know I'd ignore, Old Speckled Hen (preferable), and Hardy's and Hanson's Olde Trip (now owned by Green King), which we did drink, not as impressive as I remember, but not bad.

Our real lunchtime destination was the London Apprentice, a Nicholsons pub, I believe; a very nice building, and named after the defence of London from Royalist troops in the English Civil War, ie by the London Apprentices, as well as other Parliamentary troops, of course.

Decent food here, and good ales, some of the usuals, Doom Bar, Pride, TEA and Bombardier, but 2 nice ones for me (though I do like Pride++ too), that is, the excellent Hop Back Summer Lightning, and a new one for me, Gales (OK, Fullers ;-) Spring Sprinter, a 4% pale, light refreshing ale.

We sat outside, watching the swans, ducks, geese and gulls, and the rising Thames, as the tide came in (we escaped before our feet got wet).

OK, our walk included Richmond, Richmond Hill and Richmond Park, and Wimbledon Common, but our later drinking pubs are covered elsewhere, as we visited them on more than one trip... Cheers!