London | Wait until next year

Sunday afternoon in The Old Tiger’s Head, Lee. It’s good to see a pub doing well when it has had its fair share of trials and tribulations – to go from boarded-up to thriving is quite an achievement, I think. It was sad seeing its counterpart across the road, The New Tiger’s Head no longer a pub, but at least the building hasn’t been completely left to rot. As an aside, I think more pubs should have matching names.

The place is very much a Sunday Lunch kind of pub. It seems like every table is having a roast dinner. The decor is modern and a bit trendy, but with an underlying pub-ness. It appears to be catering more for the monied folk up the road in Blackheath than the less well-heeled lot down the road in Lee. Everything is, well, keenly priced. The staff, on occasion, seemed harassed.

I could absolutely see why it is popular, but I also thought it wasn’t really my kind of pub.

A midweek lunch at the White Cross, North Cray. A country pub that one day woke up and found a massive dual carriageway was running past it. And as such, it’s not the easiest pub to get to unless you’re driving there.

Inside was all more modern than I was expecting from the look of the place outside and the age of the pub. At a small bar at the front sat a few drinkers, the locals/regulars by the look of it. As you walk around the bar to the back of the pub there’s two seated sections, one very much looking reserved for those having meals, but really the whole area seemed more for eating than drinking. Drinks were to be ordered from the bar. Food from a separate counter. So, you have patrons dancing between the two, and their table, trying to get through their order.

There were older couples, a few people who looked like they’d popped out from work, at one table a big family birthday party.

Clearly the food is what brings people in, and a busy pub on a weekday afternoon is another achievement in this day and age. The staff seemed a bit harassed too.

Clearly food-led pubs can and do work. But I’m not sure they make for the most relaxing places to go. The staff are having to juggle food and drink orders, along with whatever other demands coming from patrons often with very different needs – it’s hard enough serving drinks quickly let alone fielding questions about the menu, asking about allergies or dealing with special requests to change what will be on someone’s plate.

And there can be a bit of an off-vibe too. People in for a pint create a different atmosphere to a big family having a meal. Either can be annoying, and in the same place that annoyance can multiply – either with each other, or with the staff, or from the staff to the customers. Too many things for too many people makes nobody happy.

However, if food helps keep pubs alive I’m all for it. And there’s certainly times when it’s nice to head out for a meal but you want something less formal than a restaurant but with a little more service than a fast food place. But I don’t think it is easy to find places that get both food and drink right – it takes two quite distinct skillsets to strike the right balance and create the best possible environment for everyone to enjoy. A great pub that does food and drink right, with an atmosphere that appeals to all, feels a bit like a unicorn.

Leave a comment

February 13, 2026

Pub Thoughts #4

Pub carpet, red in colour with an illustration of two horses within a circle, along with text saying THE RUNNING HORSES

A very swift half in the Running Horses, Erith. If you were to flick through local history books you would see that Erith once had many pubs in its town centre. Now it only has one. The Running Horses is a rather large and rather handsome 1930s building, overlooking the Thames. The Saloon bar is lovely, with what looks to be the original features, but is generally closed. The public bar is a fair bit more lived in, a reflection perhaps of it taking all the passing pub traffic alone.

I like a pub with a bit of history and a bit of a mythology. Places with a tale to tell, and a tale you can tell yourself when they are mentioned. There’s apparently been a pub on this spot for over 200 years. After its rebuild in the 1930s it was bombed in 1940 – killing the licensee Zachariah William Coles, an ancestor of comedian and Celebrity Traitors winner Alan Carr. There are tales of many years ago the upstairs holding a party and the floor collapsing onto the drinkers below. If you were to mention the pub to anyone local of a certain age they will more than likely tell you all about how popular the pub’s carvery was in the 70s and 80s, how it was the place everyone went on a Sunday afternoon.

The carvery appears to be back, although it doesn’t seem to be as popular as it once was. There are a few people having a drink waiting for it to open. A few others are playing pool. The Winter Olympics is on the telly. We don’t stay long, but there’s a lot to be said for pubs in town centres, where you not only grab a drink but rest your legs, use the loo, escape the shops for a bit. Pubs can, and perhaps should, be a refuge. And when they are they weave themselves into the fabric of the community. They don’t have to be a destination, just a stopping point on the way.

All of this made me think that sometimes we underappreciate pubs as pitstops. They don’t always have to be destinations in and of themselves. We don’t always need to settle in for a session. Sometimes pubs work best as somewhere for a brief reprieve from the outside world before you pop on your coat and brave the big bad world again.

Leave a comment

January 31, 2026

Pub Thoughts #2

A framed beermat advertising Shepherd Neame Blacksmith, a strong stout, in black and red lettering. There is a picture of a blacksmith working in the centre of the beermat.

Back with more thoughts!

We were in the William the Conqueror at Rye Harbour last weekend. We went in at teatime Saturday after a stroll around the nearby nature reserve and it was a reminder that a long walk is improved immeasurably by a good destination. The place was cosy, calmly lit and while not too busy it wasn’t too empty either. The kind of place to rest weary bones and enjoy the post-windchill glow of cheeks.

It’s a funny old place in the sense that a lot of its business happens during the day, and so by teatime things are winding down, whereas in most pubs this would be around the time things start picking up for the evening. But it made for a nice refuge – the daytrippers and dog walkers had gone and there were just a few of us hardy souls still out here at the last pub before the sea. I like a pub that feels like an outpost. The last call of civilisation before the wilds of nature take over.

I had one of their last bottles of Shepherd Neame’s Christmas Ale. I can take or leave SN’s beer but their bottled ales are almost always worth a go. It was pretty strong but packed full of malty and spicy flavour. Best to only have the one, I think.

The other night back home and another trip to the Local Unfashionable Pub we went to last week where we got a warm welcome despite being far from regulars. It’s those little things that make a difference and help you to overlook any pub’s shortcomings. Give me a friendly pub over a quote-unquote “good” pub any day. The 6X was a nice surprise too, the kind of boring brown bitter that is still worth championing.

The place soon filled up with the Tuesday cribbage club. It seems to be the case that Tuesday night is cribbage night in this neck of the woods, or at least that’s how it appears from seeing it in one or two other places too. This lot looked more like the pros though, displaying a trophy and everything. The place would have been practically empty without them, and it was good to see some frankly pretty elderly people out down the pub of an evening. While I’m not a big fan of pub games, if it brings more people in I’m all for it, and if it brings in different kinds of people then all the better.

Friday afternoon, and the local town centre Spoons was rammed. In some ways it benefits from being the only pub next to the shopping mall. But I think it also benefits from not only being the cheapest place for a pint, but also the cheapest place for a coffee, or a meal. All things to all men and women. The real ale is generally disappointing, despite the local CAMRA regularly voting it in the Guide – I suspect a case of never mind the quality, feel the width. There’s lots of choice, it’s just not that well kept. I went for one of the keg craft offerings, Mad Squirrel Sumo and it was incredibly murky. I feel like we’ve gone past the craft murk craze now and this felt almost…old-fashioned?

Photo from William the Conqueror, Rye Harbour

Leave a comment

January 22, 2026

Pub Thoughts #1

Several people sat at a pub bar, there is a glow behind the bar and a wooden fitting with lighting above. Hops hang from the ceiling.

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.

Leave a comment

August 8, 2025

Ace Records pop-up

A red Ace Record t-shirt hangs from the ceiling, boxes of records are behind it with more records on the wall

I miss record shops. I remember many happy Saturday afternoons working my way through all the local places, trawling their bargain bins and hoping something wonderful would appear. Now and then I’d make my way up town and work my way along Berwick Street’s record shops before taking on the giant Tower Records and HMV.

Obviously record shops still exist, it’s just there are far fewer of them. So when I have the opportunity to root through some records and CDs, I take it. Ace Records’ pop-up shop at Chalk Farm offered one of those opportunities. As part of their 50th birthday celebrations they have taken over an empty shop for a few days and filled it with much of their extensive back catalogue, predominantly of reissues of rare and previously unheralded tracks, along with some real rarities from their collection, including test pressings, along with some fun merchandise. There was loads of great stuff, and all reasonably priced too.

As much as it would be great to have a permanent physical home for Ace Records, a pop-up is a pretty good second best. I think it is something plenty of other labels could try. Last year Numero Group had a similar pop-up shop in London that was brilliant. There’s something quite special about being able to immerse yourself in a label’s back catalogue for a while.

Ace Records poster on a wall, and beyond it boxes of CDs on a table, with records and a tote bag hung on the wall behind that table

I particularly enjoyed overhearing the conversations between staff and customers. I think I know a fair bit about music, but I was in the presence of people who have forgotten more than I have ever known, who were clearly enjoying finding a venue where they could actually use their esoteric knowledge in a social setting. Funny how in just a few minutes you can hear about obscure old producers, the best record cutting services, upcoming gigs and major beefs amongst record collectors (something I didn’t even realise was a thing!). Record shop spaces can feel intimidating sometimes, but they can also be fascinating and very funny, intentionally or not.

On my way back I thought about what I see as The Collector Impulse – an impression that some people gain more fun in collecting (and hoarding) than in the actual thing itself. The thrill is in the chase beyond anything else. I see it sometimes in those people snapping up rare beer releases, or seeing how many football grounds they can visit, or…collecting rare records.

And then I thought how Ace Records, as a reissue label, is the antithesis of that impulse – they haven’t just collected, they have shared – and there is so much more wonderful music out there and easy to access because of their work. These songs aren’t lost, or lingering in a handful of private collections, but are back out there in the world enjoying a second life. It is a democratisation of music, bringing it to everyone, not just those with the time and budget to uncover lost classics. And that’s a very, very good thing.

The pop-up shop is open until Sunday, at 1 Adelaide Road, NW3 3QE, across the road from Chalk Farm tube station.