Time is ticking and having had a few quieter months July was going to have to be the time to pick things back up again. My friend John, a rugby player not unfamiliar with all day drinking sessions piped up and declared he was free all day on Saturday. Having not been to any of the pubs on my list so far I felt I better show him what he had been missing out on. What better way to do that than embark on a pub crawl.
I had originally decided that the maximum number of pubs on my list I would review in a day would be two because things can get a bit hazy after my minimum quota of two pints in each pub. However with the pubs on my list now being spread further apart as I’ve ticked them off and with the plan of a pub crawl in mind I scratched my rule and planned three pubs on my list for the day. Also with time slipping away I thought I better get on with it.
We decided to go for an early afternoon meet up to make the most of pub hours and with a vague plan of getting back to central London to either make our way home on the last train or carry on drinking into the night. John is very much of the ‘go big or go home’ school of drinking so I knew it could get messy.
We started the day at the Fox and Hounds pub in Battersea. It was a really sunny day so we sat in the pub garden. Pub gardens in London are always a huge bonus when you find one and also if you can get a seat outside if its nice out. The pub was pleasantly busy with couples and friends finishing lunch and chatting and a few blokes at the bar having a pint and chatting to the staff. Outside were some families and two black cats which seemed to live there. My opinion of families in pubs is still mixed but the kids were well behaved so it was fine. It’s a nice pub inside with a medium sized square bar. They had four ales on tap, two from the Sambrooks Brewery, Tribute and Summer Runner by Trumans. John is a lager drinker and enjoyed some Italian beers in there. The Fox and Hounds is definitely cashing in on the prosperity of the locals as the beer wasn’t cheap. I liked the pub though, it had a good atmosphere and it looked like a good pub to have a few pints in with some mates or the girlfriend. I wouldn’t think it would be great for a big drinking session as I think being loud and raucous in there might be frowned upon. Not that I should be encouraging that of course drink aware and all that. The food in there looked good too, gastro pub food at gastro pub food prices. Who ever invented the phrase gastro pub food must be gutted he or she didn’t own it because the trade in gastro pub food had certainly kicked off big time in the last few years. I for one am all for it as long as its good quality and not massively over priced.
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| The Fox and Hounds Battersea |
Having had a few looseners in the Fox it was time to move on. The next destination on the list was The Cross Keys in Chelsea. We got the bus over the river (although it would have been just as quick to walk) and found our way to the pub. The outside of the pub looked interesting and inviting. There was a huge 8 foot high statue on the façade. Once inside the pub was pretty quite but it was about 3-4 in the afternoon, between the lunchtime drinkers and the evening crowd. The bar was also, for me, a bit disappointing with only Doombar on tap. They did have one interesting feature which was a large table with pour your own beer taps which I can imagine would be a popular choice for the rich young professionals of Chelsea. Unfortunately they were not able to use it when we were there due to some licensing issues. Still its good to see some initiative and thought being put into pubs. The main bar is in an atrium area with a restaurant upstairs and out the back. The pub was clearly looking to make the most of the opulent surroundings in Chelsea and was pretty much glamming up to attract attention. There was even a leopard print sofa upstairs! Being a fan of the more traditional style pub I wasn’t overly keen on the decor or what they were trying to do with the pub. The owner was clearly more interested in trying to be popular and have a Michelin star than run a good pub. Overall I’m not entirely sure why the pub is in the guide.
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| The Cross Keys |
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| The manager (middle) |
Having said that about the Cross Keys however the bar man was excellent and when we mentioned about my blog and my plan to visit all the pubs in the year he introduced us to the gentleman at the bar. We got chatting to these chaps one who was a former publican and had run several pubs in the Chelsea area and one who was the manager of the Cross Keys and had been a publican at a number of pubs in the area previously. We had a long discussion about pubs and what makes a good pub. Also about how to make money from pubs and how to keep the police happy! These two chaps and seen it all and done it all before. It was great chatting to them and listening to their stories about being a publican. Eventually we told them where we were headed next, the Star Tavern in Belgravia. They said well if you want to visit some good pubs on the way let us write a list for you. Well we couldn’t turn that down so they obliged and we went on our way with list in hand.
The list was six pubs long!! Being several pints down already this seemed like a good idea. The first pub was the The Phene. On entering we noticed something strange… The whole pub was full of women. Not one bloke was there in the whole place. I went to the bar and noticed all the beer taps had glasses on them indicating they were empty. I asked for a beer, ‘Corona, Becks or wine is all we have’ the bar man said. John came back from the bathroom and I said ‘We’re leaving’. Not the best start to the list.
The next pub was The Surprise. We took a place at the bar and ordered some pints I had Knight of the Garter a well kept pint of bitter. The bar man with his corn row hair cut looked like a football player. The manager came in and she wasn’t remotely interested in talking to us. The pub was really nice though. Some nice touches like a jug of virgin mary on the bar and a selection of cheese and pickles were on offer. The locals seemed to be very rah. They were proper Chelsea types talking about the latest shoot and the new carpets at ‘the Club’. Some old bloke walked in with a younger looking lady. John leaned over to me and said quietly ‘Is that the lead singer of ACDC?’. I had no idea so we did a quick google search and it turned out it was. Being a bit drunk now confidence was high and John asked for a photo. Brian Johnson was good sport and had a quick chat with us. He started by saying ‘Can I give you lads some advice? Never trust anything that bleeds longer than a week’. This is possibly one of the strangest things anyone I didn’t know had ever said to me but he was a member of rock royalty so it was cool. Meeting Brian Johnson certainly made Johns day.
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| The Surprise |
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| Brian Johnson (lead singer of ACDC) and John |
We skipped The Coopers as we were still aiming to get some beers in at the Star and we wanted to keep moving. Plus I think we needed the walk. Then we were at the second pub of the day called the Fox and Hounds. This pub was a lovely small pub owned by Youngs. The inside was covered in framed pictures mainly of hunting scenes. It was a quality small pub with a good barman behind the tiny bar. There was a really good atmosphere in there and similarly to the previous pub I’m surprised it was not in the Guide. I’d like to find my way back here sometime.
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| Fox and Hounds |
Recollection of my day out begins to get hazy at this point. I have photos from The Antelope where we sat at the bar and had a beer. I liked the quote on the bar area saying ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder’. I’ve got to be honest I don’t remember much else from that pub other than they were cleaning up while we were there and decided it would be a good idea to spray cleaning up liquid on the bar where we were sitting which pretty much gassed us out of the pub. Not impressed with that.
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| The Antelope |
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| Beauty is the eye of the Beer holder |
We did then go to the Duke of Wellington and I’ve got no idea where it was from the top of my head or what it looked like really. I do remember all the bar staff were French which seemed odd. Even the manager was French and he seemed a bit of a nob. He kept yelling at the other staff in French. John who can speak French fluently was translating for me. The two younger bar staff were nice though and chatted to us while we sat at the bar (probably trying not to fall off our stools). The only note I have on the pub was that it smelled like gravy. This pungent smell of gravy is not one I think does any pub favours and is one I usually associate with the lower end scale Weatherspoons.
Finally we made it to the Star Tavern we’d drunk a hell of a lot of pints by this point into double digits for sure. The Star was a beautiful looking pub down a cobbled street with hanging baskets brimming with flowers. The well presented exterior was matched by the well presented drinkers outside the pub in their chinos and boat shoes. Belgravia is a particularly well to do part of London and you could tell by the locals. The bar inside was well divided up into rooms with high ceilings. It is a fullers pub, not the first of the day. We ordered some pints and some pork scratchings. The pork scratchings were rough. We got the dregs of the jar along with all the pig dust, John didn’t mind them but I thought they were disgusting. I don’t feel like I can give the most objective report of this pub as I was absolutely smashed by this point. I remember only a few things from this pub it is quite big, has lots of wood, it has the usual range of fullers beers. I remember also that we chatted to two blokes who were there playing chess as some part of a local pub chess league. John had the idea after meeting Brian Johnson earlier in the day that everyone could have been a former rockstar so he proceeded to ask the chess players if they had been in a band. I think the room was spinning too much at that point for me to contribute much to the conversation. I also remember we were talking about the Michel MacIntyre joke about posh people saying they were drunk and how you can use almost anything. So rather than saying ‘I was absolutely smashed’ you may say ‘I was absolutely trousered’. We went through a number of these.
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| The Star Tavern |
Before leaving we noticed a sign by the door that said ‘NO DRINKS BEYOND THIS POINT’. It is a note I wish we had listened to. End evaluation of the Star is that it is probably a good pub and seemed nice of the day we were there. I think I’ll have to go back to this one but for now it’s going to get crossed off my list.
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