The Wenlock Arms
The publog vs CAMRA: a battle which is inherent in our very core. They believe the ale is the thing, we beg to differ – it is all about the pub. It is even more nebulous and subjective to judge the atmosphere of a venue than even the taste of a beer which might be why CAMRA has never risen to that challenge. Instead some time in the mid seventies CAMRA decided that quiet pubs without too many lager drinkers and well kept ales were the ticket. Problem with this is that some time in the early nineties that anti-Euro bloke with the funny quiff agreed and set up a pub chain just like it. I’m not saying that all CAMRA members love Wetherspoons, but institutionally they are stuffed if they disagree.
Which brings us to the Wenlock Arms, a regular winner of North London pub of the year. About six real ales on, a chewy cider, a mild and yes – it is actually a pretty nice pub. A genuinely friendly little boozer, with the kids playing cricket popping in and out. The beers seem to get changed every hour or so, and the doorstop sandwiches are just frighteningly large. (I don’t have a big mouth, which explains why my salt beef sandwich won the fight with me). Pubs like this are few and far between which is probably why they get a decent clientele – I certainly did not feel intimidated during the solo pint I had a while back.
That CAMRA run a pub of the year competition suggests they have at least a passing interest in the institutions. In the end though they are merely interested in places that serve the beer they want to drink. Fine, it is their campaign. But you wonder if it only sold Stella and Fosters if the Wenlock could ever win. But then, we wouldn’t have gone off the beaten path on the City Road to go either.
Pete Baran in Pumpkin Publog • No Comments
The lock-in is in danger. The licencing White Paper, with its attendent all night drinking will relegate the after hours boozer to the dumper of regulation and bouncers. I say this because of late I have become acquainted with a few lock-in pubs and have to sadly report that yes, half the fun is getting away with it.
Some pubs watch their backs firmly. At eleven the thick curtains go up and the front door is locked – exit only be a side way. Other pubs, the Harlequin in Islington for example, are a touch more lackadaisical. This brilliant little boozer discovered recently has welcomed myself and Tim with open arms, like long lost sons even. This may partially be to do with our general demeanour, our willingness to engage in the banter of the pub and the copious amounts of the well-kept Landlord bitter. Or it may be to do with the Pink Clove I drank up there.
Anyway, if the demise of the lock-in were to spoil a place like the ‘Quin then it would be a sad day. Though we have got to start going there without the temptation of after hours boozing.
Pete Baran in Pumpkin Publog • No Comments
Further perusal of the historic pub interiors list shows that we have most certainly been sold a pub with theis CAMRA survey. When is a restoration not a refit after all? Of the five pubs in Central London with authentic pub interiors, two are Sam Smiths who go a bomb on turning back the clock and the other three are pleasant enough tourist traps. Whilst I would agree the The Salisbury on St Martin’s Lane has a sumptuous gin palace interior, you are talking absolute bollocks if you are saying that nary a lick of paint has seen it. There is definately at least a screen that has been taken down.
Things get even more suspicious when we look at North London. The Salisbury Green Lanes, and the Queen’s Hotel in Crouch End. Both nice, rambling examples of Victoriana, who have both been – as the CAMRA North London Drinker pamplet says – sympathetically restored. The Salisbury was more authentic back in the days I drank there, cheap and nasty with its rambling rooms. But again tell me that this was not a seperated pubs and you will be talking nonsense.
Yet again this list is a CAMRA backslap to the “protected pubs” or to the occasional pub chain that tries to restore a pub. And don’t get me wrong, restoring a pub is a nice enough idea. But let us not pretend that nothing has changed for two hundred years. Show me a pub on their historic interiors list with a ladies toilet and I’ll show you the door.
It is intereresting that the Guardian piece notes a 1930′s estate pub to be added to the list. I would be surprised that any other estate pubs, or indeed pubs built this century have made the list. It’s a horse brasses or nothing kind of list.
Pete Baran in Pumpkin Publog • 1 Comment
CAMRA weeps: The Guardian reports on CAMRA’s report on pub heritage. It’s interesting that this pops up the week after Pete and I found ourselves inveighing against CAMRA’s failure to obsess about the pub environment. I’ve ordered their book and I’ll report back, but my fear is that this is a case study in missing the point. It has already left the door open for reports like the Guardian’s: ‘only 248 good historic pub interiors remain’. That’s so plainly untrue: maybe 248 unaltered interiors remain but there are thousands of good, historic pubs. Preserving examples of architecture and design is a good plan but insisting that a living building be unchanged is something else entirely. I don’t want to drink in some Heritage Centre. I hope I’m being unjustifiably harsh.
I wonder whether The Old Bell on Fleet Street counts as one of CAMRA’s pubs of National Historic Interest? It was apparently built by Sir Christopher Wren to feed and water the chaps working on St Martins Within Ludgate, just up Ludgate Hill there. It’s one of those no-straight-lines buildings which it’s always a pleasure to find in London. It does a very fine pint of Landlord. It’s a comfortable and friendly enough sort of gaff, especially for those of us who work in the area. Maybe CAMRA have found a way to disqualify it on the grounds that it had a refit in 1877 or something. It’s one of dear old Nicholson’s range of tiresomely authentic premium-priced premises (‘Heritage Inns’, I believe).
Anyway, I was in there last night with Jonesy (whose ILE thread on Wimbledon is strongly recommended, my favourite weblog of the year so far) and something happened which may turn out to be momentous. It was simple enough. There were a quiet couple of minutes at the bar, and one of the bar staff came round, apparently collecting glasses. She stopped at our table and she said it: ‘Would you like another drink?’ Our jaws, as you can imagine, dropped.
Shocked and disturbed, we naturally agreed that another drink was definitely in order, at which point she toddled off to the bar, poured our drinks, brought them over to us and happily accepted our money. She came back a couple of minutes later to return a pound which I’d overpaid. Well done her!
My friends, this is waitress service and strikes at the heart of what makes a pub a pub. I’m all for attentive bar staff bringing your pint over if it’s taken a few minutes to pour, or if they’ve had to change the barrel or whatever. But if you are waiting at my table you are turning my lovely pub into a darned dirty restaurant. If the Old Bell made it to the National Historic Pubs list, I move that CAMRA delete it forthwith.
Tim in Pumpkin Publog • No Comments
