London pubs

[scottdisco]

Ye Olde Cock is quite roomy, but I tend to find the lovely 17th (?) century exterior belies a rather 'generic old-ish trad London pub'-type interior. Unfavourable reviews of beer and service on beerintheevening.com - was there myself a few weeks ago, it was OK I guess (Scott, can you comment on this one?)

scratchings!!


what Tea said, in truth. bit dingy but seems friendly. head upstairs if you can. (in my very limited opinion.)

Of course it does, in Thai restaurants. Not in pubs. Fish and chips or a steak and kidney pie or a Sunday Roast.

The Cheshire Cheese is one of the most uncomfortable pubs I've drank in -- and try finding your seat after going for a piss having downed a few. In fact, try finding the loo. I'm sort of fond of it -- a big old Inns of Court relic, it would be tragic to change it.

Isn't Ye Olde Cock a sad ex-journalist's relic, now? A bit like the Pillars of Hercules in Soho -- that old literary racontuer's choice, then Foyles local, now a dark empty shell, not even attractive or atmospheric enough to retain its its old echoes.

Remember that old naval pub I took you to in Kensington, Scott? The Tea Clipper?

Oliver nails the Pillars i must say.

The Tea Clipper! beautiful that, beautiful. one of my favourites. (Ollie has taken me to a lot of lovely pubs. he took me to Brompton Oratory that day. that was amazing.)

moneyed clientele, good ale.

i continue to recommend the Harp on Chandos Place as a good central pub. good meeting point, near Charing X and Leics Sq stations, and you can move on anywhere. the portrait of James Mason has to be seen. very good real ale. plus the pavement outside is one of central London's best for smokers.

Mr Tea has taken me to the Jerusalem Tavern since i was last on-thread, and that blew my mind. (also a real pleasure to meet IdleRich and Danny L there that night.)
Tea, what - again - was the name of that bar you took me to, the time i had to leave temporarily to take my pal's phone call? expensive bottles of Nastro but i would go back again in a heartbeat.

 

[Mr. Tea]

That'll be the Troy Bar, Scott. There's a quirky Spanish bar in the basement of the same address - old ('50s, '60s I guess) bullfighting posters on the wall and jugs of sangria. Worth a visit, too.

(Remember, this is in the little street connecting TCR and Oxford Street, behind Virgin Megastore - there's also a Troy Bar in Hoxton, which may be fine for all I know; never been.)

 

[IdleRich]

"Mr Tea has taken me to the Jerusalem Tavern since i was last on-thread, and that blew my mind. (also a real pleasure to meet IdleRich and Danny L there that night.)"

Nice to meet you too Scott - I feel that I may well have been exhibiting the symptoms of the particularly foul mood that I was in on that evening so apologies for that. I'm normally much nicer I promise.

 

[nochexxx]

incidentally are there any places you can get a drink after 3am round kings cross? if not it makes pulling an all nighter way more
strenuous.

 

[IdleRich]

incidentally are there any places you can get a drink after 3am round kings cross? if not it makes pulling an all nighter way more strenuous.

You're gonnna hate me but I remembered on Sunday that Josie and loads of others were at a party that went on all night. Shoulda gone to that, sorry.

 

[mos dan]

That'll be the Troy Bar, Scott. There's a quirky Spanish bar in the basement of the same address - old ('50s, '60s I guess) bullfighting posters on the wall and jugs of sangria. Worth a visit, too.

(Remember, this is in the little street connecting TCR and Oxford Street, behind Virgin Megastore - there's also a Troy Bar in Hoxton, which may be fine for all I know; never been.)

bradley's? i went there a few times when i was 18, tiny but nice - if you have to be in that area, which isn't really ideal for drinking.

i spent about two nights a week in the cheshire cheese for a period last year - i don't work or live there, i just rather like it and its warrens, and it's not hard to get to or away from..

 

[Papercut]

incidentally are there any places you can get a drink after 3am round kings cross? if not it makes pulling an all nighter way more
strenuous.

I lived there for ages and i never found one. Only option would be going to a club i think at that time.

As for around there my i only used to drink in the Calthorphe Arms on Grays Inn. Its great, real smal, nice staff and crowd, always get a seat no matter what, open christmas day etc. Good, cheap food.

 

[baboon2004]

I have a feeling the one on York Way they turned into a gastropub was open very late...that seems to be the problem in King's X nowadays.

 

[craner]

Aaah, the Spanish Bar! Down a dingey corridor into a tiny, packed, sweat inferno. I used to go here back before I discovered The Italian Bar (aka Trisha's) - which is equally packed and dingey, yet somehow infinitely superior. I took Luka to The Spanish Bar once, after we'd been to watch a mad old Chinese martial arts movie called Killer Clans. Luka loathes the West End and Soho at the best of times, but watching him sip rank Torres brandy while this short and lumpy gypsy senorita hollered flamenco pain into his earhole was superb fun. I wish I could properly describe the migraine-wince, the gawp of disgust and disbelief.

I love Hanway Street, in a way. Snug and grubby, stuck behind the now-extinct Virgin megalith (the smoking employees milling around the back doors always a poignant sight).

Bradley's is beautiful - but only when half empty, otherwise it's just an evening standing on the pavement between 40 minute scrums to get to the bar. Troy's, same, but with very limited bar and no pavement. But I loved the fact you could look down on the street while hanging out there - gave off a mysterious mix of metropolitan and melancholic. Is it still open?

The record shops are two of the worst I've ever been to in my entire life.

There's a Korean restaurant I went to with some Korean friends a number of times - once at 2am in the morning after a group craving for Soju and Kimchi - that I can whole-heartedly recommend.

There's another huge Spanish club on the Virgin-side of the road, next to a Spanish restuarant (if I remember correctly). I once ended up in there with some colleagues - I think because it was Sunday evening and everything else was closed - and it was quite peculiar: a big empty hi-tech barn pumping turbo-folk, or some other weird Balkan or Malagan crap. No one was in there apart from us and the bar staff and they were cranking this stuff out full volume, with disco lights going off and everything. That was an odd, creepy night, looking back.

I think that's about it for Hanway Street.

 

[baboon2004]

Which is the Korean you recommend (if you can remember the name)? I never know which one to try, being pretty much a beginner in that area.

 

[craner]

Han Kang

 

[baboon2004]

thanks, will give that a go when i'm next in the centre.

Wrt your previous post, turbo-folk is pretty awful most of the time. Had several hours of the stuff at this place in Belrin once, and I was moved to hate it by the end.

Back to the pubs - King's Cross Social Club is actually quite nice despite not sounding it - they were playing straight Gil Scott Heron the other week, and not many places do that...

Not a fan of the Jerusalem Tavern myself, but i guess if ale's your thing, it's quite a different experience.

 

[Mr. Tea]

I've never heard of "turbo-folk" before, but I'm pretty sure I hate it.

 

[baboon2004]

It's that hyper-charged (er, turbo,charged) Balkan stuff. Drives you mad after half an hour.

"The mix of scantily clad young women, lascivious stage movements and innocuous, accessible lyrics proved to be the winning combination that launched many performing careers and ensured high ratings for plenty of television stations across Serbia." says Wikipedia.

 

[craner]

Arkan's wife was a big star of the scene, and one of its main anthems is an open celebration of cocaine that was a chart topper during the Milosevic years.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Arkan's missis, fucking hell. This sounds almost too Eurotrash to be true.

 

[craner]

It was. Turbo-folk is a fascinating secret pop history yet to be written: it was pretty much an official cultural extension of the Milsovic regime.

 

[craner]

Did I take you to The Harp, Scott? If not, it's remarkable you mentioned it. I spent more time in that one than any West End pub. I loved it. A funny altercation took place in there between Sean Shapiro and some silly Labour left winger about Israel -- refereed, weirdly enough, by Luka. I wonder if he remembers that? He was quite drunk at the time...

Lovely back entrance/smoking area to that pub -- down an extremely narrow alley. I read half of Roth's The Ghostwriter down that alley one night, drinking endless Grolsch and chain smoking. It was a good place for privacy, at times. A fine evening, a fine pub.

 

[luka]

i do remember yes, he had a badge on, declaring his support for something or other, its a good pub

 

[craner]

It is = It's