Wait until next year

I’m not sure I have enough to say on one pubby subject to justify a whole post, but thought maybe I could instead cobble a few things together – so this is either the first of a long-running series of disparate pub thoughts or a one-off experiment I will never speak of again. If it helps, just imagine me in the corner of an old boozer, rambling these thoughts to myself.

I went for a walk through London earlier this week, mainly around Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, both areas not short of pubs. I noticed a couple of things.

First, there seems to be the beginnings of a softening on eye-watering London prices. I saw a few different places either making a point of advertising they have at least one pint available for a fiver or offering some kind of Happy Hour promotion. Considering how prohibitive any kind of session has become in many London pubs this felt like a really positive step forward. I’ll happily try out a new pub for a fiver, I get more wary when somewhere new doesn’t clearly list their prices and I might be looking at a nasty surprise when they ring up my drink. These pubs, on the whole, seemed like nice ones too. It’s a really encouraging sign and I hope the trend continues – as much as I appreciate overheads are high, pubs do need to do more to meet drinkers halfway and give them a reason to step through the door. Having at least one pint at a reasonable price seems a good start, and a good principle for all pubs to have.

Secondly, I saw a few pubs being renovated and several others that looked like they had recently been refitted. The trend seems to be to make places look a bit more “craft-y”, if that is actually a style of pub. I guess when I say that I mean some form of pseudo-restoration where the carpets are pulled up, the wood revarnished, tiling laid in various places and a general clear out of pub tat in favour of the odd bit of art or an old mirror. Someone has worked out that there is a certain visual identity that is appealing to drinkers right now and it is something that feels modern yet respectful, that is tasteful but not really homely. The kind of place I can admire but probably not love. The funny thing is that many of these places haven’t actually become craft pubs – they have all the aesthetics but none of the beer. More often than not the drinks selection is pretty uninspired, either the usual suspects or (at best) the most pedestrian craft-adjacent stuff. I guess this might be a brewery thing.

Drinking more locally, on the unfashionable outskirts of London, I’ve noticed that London Prices have very much made it out here – and in some cases have been surpassed. £7 to £8 for something not hugely exciting has become the norm in some of the more fashionable/”upmarket” places. My suspicion is this is to weed out a certain kind of customer, as much as anything.

However, we popped into a very unfashionable pub near us the other night and the prices weren’t so bad and there was a nice mix of people for somewhere that in the past has either been a bit dead or a bit “local pub for local people”. We took the dog along, and it was a reminder of how much a dog can be a great ice breaker when it comes to venturing in a pub where you aren’t known and aren’t sure what kind of welcome you’ll receive. The person behind the bar couldn’t do enough for our furry friend, the regulars made a fuss of her too and I guess in the process we showed we aren’t too awful either!

Finally, I watched the 1969 documentary I Love This Dirty Town on iPlayer. Margaret Drabble laments what has happened to the city and decries the facelessness of the suburbs. There are plenty of arguments I imagine people would still agree with today, although I think I’m a little too attached to the suburbs to accept all her criticisms. But I certainly agreed with her words at the end of the film:

“Neighbourhoods need pubs in the same way they need a church to bring in people – in a word this is…Life”

Image from First In Last Out in Hastings, a lovely pub with a proper pub interior and a real community feel.

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October 3, 2025

Bad photographs from an overcast afternoon

Red brick wall with a storage container behind it with rubbish sacks on the roof. Behind that is a mid-20th century building with a sign reading "Celestial Church"

I had some time to kill waiting for a bus and so had a little play with the Nomo Cam app. The app replicates old camera styles and I stuck to one of the free ones on offer, that essentially has the look and feel of an old disposable film camera.

There’s a double nostalgia to these kinds of apps and these kinds of photos. They look like old photos, so they jog a memory there. And I think they also, more directly, look like a memory – slightly blurred, ill-focused but still familiar. Or perhaps I have been so influenced by photographs taken on cheap film cameras as a primary document of my past that my brain has rewired itself to see all memories that way, or at least recognise these kinds of photos as a kind of memory?

Concrete underpass entrance, railing and steps leading down to a pavemented area with the underpass itself

I feel like all of this then influences the kinds of shots to take with this kind of app (or this kind of film, if you still have it). It seems to make sense to take photos of scenes that are relatively timeless, or of things that were about when these kinds of cameras were popular. It is almost like recreating the past. A more modern scene would be jarring, awkward…although maybe it would be an interesting exercise to see that kind of juxtaposition between old tech and new subject, to see if they play off each other in interesting ways, or just look like a corny Instagram filter.

Wet pavement with an abandoned street sign saying "Diverted traffic" with an arrow pointing left

I couldn’t properly see my screen when taking the photos, as the light reflected off it. This was initially frustrating, but then I thought it was entirely apt. You would have to wait to get the film developed in the past, and so only really seeing my photos once I was home felt like a sped-up version of that. I stopped overthinking what I was doing. I could also tidy up the shots later.

Scene from a road, silhouettes of trees, a streetlight, some buildings in the far distance

I enjoy these kinds of apps as I’m no great photographer and my phone camera is even worse. And these kinds of things help me to create something novel despite those limitations. It’s a great way to create something quickly, and to then contemplate the act of creation more generally – that art is so often a consequence of its tools and its context.

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September 22, 2025

In praise of the pub queue

Blurred image of a bar, people are milling about, two men stand by the side with pints of beer

Last week and I was in a pub in Central London and it was packed. It was packed, but it wasn’t busy, which I appreciate probably doesn’t make much sense. There weren’t that many people there, especially for the Thursday night after-work drink slot. There were empty tables. There was room outside to enjoy the early Autumn evening sunshine. Back at the bar it was packed, uncomfortably so.

There were plenty of staff, but there were loads of people crammed around the bar. It was hard enough to navigate past, let alone to get a drink. And those who were successful getting served were then faced with a mass of humanity to navigate past with their drinks. It didn’t seem the ideal set-up.

Meanwhile, I’ve noticed this year that there’s been lots of grumbling around people queuing in pubs. Pubs and breweries are closing, the economy is making a night out a luxury rather than a routine, and yet people lining up for a drink appears to raise far more ire amongst a certain kind of pub-goer.

But…dare I say it…I think queues in pubs are fine…and sometimes even good?

I’m not quite sure why queues are such an issue. They can be annoying if they wind around seating areas, but then a scrum at the bar can be just as irritating and intrusive. A long bar might be wasted with a queue, but not if there’s only one or two bar staff working behind it. Crowd control is part of the art of running a pub, and a queue can work just as as well as anything else. If people like going to the bar (as opposed to getting table service) then surely their main focus is on getting them served as quickly as possible, rather than focusing on the formation in which they stand?

Queues guarantee that people are served in the order they arrived. As much as staff should be able to clock who is next, they have enough to do without keeping tabs on that. There are the bar-blockers who think that if they are standing at the bar then that means they should be served-on-demand no matter who else is waiting. There are the entitled regulars who think they have a fast pass to their usual. Then there are just the confident, the tall and the selfish. It is an unnecessary minefield for staff and drinkers alike.

Ultimately, I can see queues as a helpful tool, especially during busy periods, as the reality is many people will just not behave in pubs, and the current system benefits some people more than others. Pubs should be spaces for all, not just for those more able to navigate them.

In many pubs if you are white, male, able-bodied and known by the staff you have a significantly better chance of getting served than if you are none of those things. And considering pubs have traditionally not exactly been the most welcoming of places to those who aren’t white, male and able-bodied and are closing at a rapidly escalating rate you would think it would be in their interests (and in the interests of all pub regulars) to make it easier for the widest possible demographic to actually spend money in a pub.

My suspicion is the most vehement opponents of pub queues have simply never had an issue getting served themselves. And perhaps they might benefit from showing some empathy towards the kinds of people who regularly find it difficult, either getting jostled out the way, or overlooked by bar staff, or simply feeling uncomfortable in that kind of environment.

Pubs can be intimidating places, and getting served can be a big part of that. Some of the biggest issues I’ve had in pubs have involved people getting aggressive at the bar over who should be served next, or encountering problems from all the pushing and shoving on the way to and from the bar. I’m fortunate enough to feel reasonably comfortable handling all that, but I wouldn’t expect everyone to be.

Pubs need to adapt, and if the current system isn’t working then people will adapt themselves – most queues are spontaneous, not mandated. The economics of drinking mean a trip to the pub is more of a financial commitment than it has ever been. And if people are having to fight their way to pay a premium for a pint, they will soon look elsewhere to spend their hard-earned and rapidly diminishing cash.

The queue is egalitarian and deeply British. It’s not the answer in every pub. But in many pubs it just might be.

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August 28, 2025

The Royal Oak: An addendum

Corner of Royal Oak pub, tables leading up to wood panelled wall and a window with sunlight beaming in

It’s the hope that kills you.

I recently wrote about the Royal Oak at Northumberland Heath and how through a change in management and a recent refurbishment it was becoming quite a special place.

Yesterday the person behind that transformation, Hazel Southwell, revealed that the owners had relieved her of her duties.

Hazel is clearly a good person as well as an exceptional pub manager. Hazel and her team have done so much to turn the pub around from a tired old building catering primarily to a couple of dozen regulars to a smart, welcoming place for both everyone in the area and those from further afield looking for an example of how traditional pubs can still work today. This is a place that a year ago most locals wouldn’t dream of stepping in and now it is somewhere many are eager to visit.

We need pubs to be community assets, and for that to happen we need people willing to welcome all communities to their pubs, not just a chosen few. Hazel was well on the way to achieving that. If anything, she deserved a promotion, not to be shown the door.

I’m not sure I want to give my money to a business that treats it’s employees this way. And I’m not sure the pub will be the same without the person who has steered it on such a promising course.

When it comes to pubs and their survival there is often quite a lot of talk about the beer and the buildings, but I don’t think there is enough acknowledgement of how important people are to the equation too. Good pubs have good people running them and good people working within them. And those people help cultivate an environment that attracts good patrons too. Pub management and pub staff aren’t just interchangeable. You change the people, you change the pub.

The hospitality business stands or falls on its staff, and it’s about time it addressed the precarity within the industry. It’s simply not good enough.

Selfishly, I hope the company behind the Royal Oak sees sense and changes their minds. At best it is a thoroughly bemusing business decision, and at worst it is a completely destructive one.

Beyond that, I hope Hazel gets a job where her talents are appreciated. She would be an asset to any pub, or indeed any business, looking to widen its appeal.

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August 18, 2025

VCD Athletic vs Sittingbourne (FA Cup Preliminary Round)

Sandwich board advertising VCD vs Sittingbourne

I like to try to make at least one FA Cup game each season. I find it amazing that we still have a tournament where the smallest clubs in the country are in the same competition as some of the biggest clubs in the world.

Early qualifying rounds are a chance to feel part of something bigger – genuinely you are on the Road to Wembley. You are witnessing a small part of a much larger story, one that will play out over a whole season. Some people choose to follow the competition round-by-round picking a team at the start to watch and then following the winner of each fixture they see, right up to the final.

Hill leading down to a football pitch, with picnic benches on the way

For all that, it does feel a little peculiar that the non-league season starts with a glut of cup fixtures, at least for those lucky enough to progress, a fun run of games to have for sure, but a mixed blessing for any team looking to make a good start in the league.

And this game was not just about the magic of the FA Cup but was also a chance to see two teams in the same division face off and to see they might progress, or otherwise, this season.

Window of a clubhouse with a TV above it

VCD have a great ground, as you enter you pass a bowls green and a tennis club, a reminder that this was once a much larger sports ground for local munitions workers. The footballers still change in something that looks suspiciously like a cricket pavilion. The clubhouse feels like a proper clubhouse, a pubby feel, not too bright, with trophies, old team photos and a league ladder adorning the walls, along with the obligatory dartboard, pool table and Sky Sports screens. Some clubhouses can feel a little cold, with bright white walls and too bright lighting, more like a leisure centre lobby than a place to anticipate a win or commiserate a loss. Yet VCD’s clubhouse gets it right, it is homely, lived in.

Hatch of tea bar with a table in front with condiments

Once you pass through the turnstiles, if you can resist the tea bar, you are led down a slope to pitchside, and there’s something really pleasing about how the pitch opens up to you like that at the bottom of the hill. There’s a stand on one side, and then roofed standing all alongside the other side – a great place to watch football as you are sheltered from the elements and the low roof magnifies the sound too. All of these features help hem in the ground on what is a pretty large piece of land, enclosing it in a way that helps give the place some focus and identity.

Group of people leaning against hoarding watching football, a football stand in the distance

On to the game itself, and Sittingbourne would have considered themselves very unlucky not to win, but VCD certainly battled well to stay in the game the way they did. A penalty after 15 seconds was a hell of a start for Sittingbourne, as most of the crowd were still filing into the ground and milling around the tea bar. However, Frankie Leonard made a tremendous save to keep it out, followed up by an equally good reaction save from the rebound. Sittingbourne would go on to hit the woodwork three times and miss another penalty before Ellis Brown finally put them in front late in the game.

Cricket pavilion beyond a large patch of grass

Sittingbourne look like they could be a force to contend with in the league this year, strong, focused and able to attack on the break at pace. There were moments where it felt like they and their supporters were getting frustrated at not being ahead. And I felt that in some ways gave VCD some hope that they could get something out of a game they were still in with a shout of winning. There’s that certain kind of promise from hearing an opponent getting increasingly exasperated despite being on top, that maybe they are focused too much on perceived injustices rather than the game at hand and might soon have something to be genuinely fed up about.

Top of the hill, clubhouse and tea bar at the peak, people watching football going on down below

That VCD were able to stay in the game and frustrate Sittingbourne for so long is an encouraging sign for them. They play good football, are coached well and seem to have got a good balance between maintaining some continuity by retaining their core squad and recruiting the kind of quality players who will offer something new. If they can build on the determination and skill they showed in patches in this game they could surprise a few people this season. They just need a little more consistency and concentration over the 90 minutes.

So, the game ended 1-0, a fair result, but I can also imagine both dressing rooms might have spent some time contemplating if they should have got more from the game – that Sittingbourne should have put away their chances, and VCD should have maybe tightened things up more at the back and could have nicked something at the end. But it was a good day’s football, and a proper FA Cup tie. Now, to concentrate on the league…

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