Comments on: THE FT TOP 25 PUBS OF THE 00’s No 24, The John Snow, Soho

By: MJ Hibbett

MJ Hibbett — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:57:28 +0000

I used to drink in The John Snow with my brothers every Thursday night – about once a month you would get a Statistician in there, thinking himself KRAZY for having a HALF, who was DESPERATE to tell somebody, ANYBODY, about The John Snow Society. Not the same Statistician every month, different ones.

Also, one of my brothers SWORE BLIND that one time he was there he saw The Other John Snow having a drink. We SCOFFED, but i hope it is true.

By: Mark M

Mark M — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:53:14 +0000

Re 6/8 etc, yes the original Wagamama is the one just off Bloomsbury Street, which up the road becomes Gower Street, hence the confusion (or slack Wikipedia entry). I spent the summer of ’92 living either in the building above it or the one next door, and can confirm endless queues the whole time.

Even with mobiles and all, finding the people you’re meeting in the Angel in St Giles can be a prolonged adventure.

By: Pete Baran

Pete Baran — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:02:05 +0000

I firmly believe that the death of Webster’s ushered in the last fifteen years rise in real ale.

By: burkesworks

burkesworks — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:32:04 +0000

Trust me Ewan, you missed out on precisely nothing regarding Watney’s Bleedin’ Red Barrel. It tasted of bugger all except carbon dioxide.

Up here in t’dark satanic north, Watney’s were single-handedly responsible for that old lie about all southern beer being rubbish, though we had a few keg bitters that were just as bad (the Freddie Trueman-advertised Webster’s Pennine Bitter being the worst; no coincidence that Webster’s were the Yorkshire arm of the Watney Mann empire at the time).

By: Richard J

Richard J — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:53:50 +0000

IIRC, it wasn’t a sewer pipe but a poorly pointed and leaking cess pit wasn’t it?

(Small internet, BTW.)

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:14:46 +0000

Pedantry: John Snow didn’t install the pump to supply clean water, he proved that the water from the pump was contaminated with cholera germs, and disabled the pump to stop it spreading any more (by taking away the pump handle). The pub is directly on the site of the house where patient zero, Thomas and Sarah Lewis’s baby daughter, contracted cholera; the cholera got from her into the public water supply through a badly installed sewer pipe that let “abominations unmolested by water” build up only a few inches from the brick lining of the well.

I once got pissed with Daniel Davies in this hostelry, and I recall someone shouting at me about being “just off to Kosovo with the Israelis”.

By: Pete

Pete — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:17:17 +0000

Beyond Red Barrel I am unfamiliar with the Watney’s range, but always loved the name and what it signified (I still love the Double Diamond logo etched in glass too).

By: Ewan

Ewan — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:49:11 +0000

Whatever one might wish to say about Sam Smith’s, it’s surely better than Watney’s and its Red Barrel (from what I’ve heard; I’m too young to *know*).

By: Pete

Pete — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:56:27 +0000

Yes the first Wagamama is by the Pizza Express near the British Museum. I remember going in the summer of 1992 and queue until 1993 to get a meal!

I stole the picture from the Universityy Of Michigan’s Public Health Website here:
http://www.sph.umich.edu/epid/GSS/pub.html

2002 for us vs UKIP. Yowsers!

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:25:31 +0000

According to my LJ, the UKIP incident was as long ago as July 2002. Bloody hell, 7 years, etc. etc.

By: sarah logged out

sarah logged out — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:10:38 +0000

Hmmmm… but it seems so real.

(anyway I have just realised they probably mean the Wags by the Oxfam bookshop and WHISKY SHOP, I have never been there and do not really consider that ‘gower street’ tho it probably is, who knows, anyway, shut up).

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:08:07 +0000

I have never worn a fez and gurned frighteningly at a camera, Steve must be thinking of somebody else.

By: sarah logged out

sarah logged out — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:01:15 +0000

I wasn’t there for the UK1P um, ‘debate’, but I will state again that the JS retains an air of exoticism as:

- it was the first place I ever saw weissbeer (heffewiess?) in a big long fancy glass and was AWED
- a handy meeting spot for Wagamama when THAT was new and exotic and their edamame wasn’t ridiculous and their dumplings were better and well on saying that I still end up going there sometimes. Apparently the first one opened in ’92 on Gower Street – anyone know where exactly?

It is also the only pub in which I have played link up MARIO KART on the DS. So it is futuristic too.

By: Glue Factory

Glue Factory — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:59:58 +0000

That illustration has the look of those in “The London Nobody Knows”, but I’ve not noticed the John Snow in there. Where’s it from?

By: Pete

Pete — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:32:08 +0000

The Angel In St Giles just missed this list by a whisker!

I have no photos of Tom In A Fez. Lets see what Google offers us.

By: CarsmileSteve

CarsmileSteve — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:12:26 +0000

this is obvious nonsense DC, the Posh End of the Angel (which would have easily made a top 5 appearance in Smokiest Pubs of the 00s) has CARPET and everything, how can it feel outside?

in terms of the john snow i can only think of it as the “tom in a fez” pub, much cosier upstairs than down (although this is often the way with SS)

By: Matt DC

Matt DC — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:53:34 +0000

My problem with the Angel is that you don’t ever feel like you’re actually indoors at any point. If feels like three version of those outdoor smoking areas you get these days, even the indoor bits.

By: a tanned rested and unlogged lørd sükråt wötsît

a tanned rested and unlogged lørd sükråt wötsît — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:49:14 +0000

actual real centre pint is the nu-intrepid fox surely? or at a pinch the angel — which i am fond of for “pathbreaking lollards summit”, viz it’s where my pal ben thompson put me together with mr resonance to get the show on the road

also it has even stranger room structure than j.snow: three separate inside rooms but you can’t move between them within the building itself, plus a fourth room which is basically a car-garage with tables in it

ALSO IT HAS A FIREPLACE WITH A FIRE