Worst Blackboard Art-Rocity is surely the Wheatsheaf in Oxford’s piss-poor painting of Thom Yorke with “Cheer Up Thom Come To The Wheatsheaf” sloganned next to another painting of the Cheshire Cat out of Alice in Wonderland (why??).[…]

Blackboards: Not only a great Iranian film from 2001 but seemingly the only way a pub can spread its message to its punters. But what I fail to understand is where pubs went wrong and misunderstood the whole point of blackboards. You write on them wi[…]

THE GLOUCESTER ARMS – Gloucester Green, Oxford
The last time I was in The Gloucester Arms in Oxford was probably about seven years ago. Going back for a wet Monday afternoon session last week I noticed that the place had not changed one bit. Th[…]

Open fires in pubs. Attractive? Yes. Bloody uncomfortable if you are sitting three feet away from them? Double yes. As part of the soon to be announced Pumpkin Publog Pub Of The Year award we will be taking into deep consideration comfort of heating.[…]

May I borrow your books of hairstyles? Pre-club trip to the Bricklayers Arms last night showed how randomness should be the order of the pub experience. A hair magazine was extracted for the purposes of discussing which haircut would be best for one […]

Speaking of pub crawls and jukeboxes, I put to you the proposal for Pub Idol (following the success of Pub Brother/Trig Brother last year). The rules are as before – ten contestants and an eviction process – but the determining factor is […]

The ten nominees in a day sounds like a tall order to me. I mean, it’s clearly achievable within the space of a drinking day, with a bit of planning, discipline, careful use of the transport options available and so on. The Eastern (Limehouse) […]

The Seven Stars I knew Tim had reviewed this last year but I couldn’t find the review, else I would have linked it. I had forgotten about the toilets, so I didn’t check ’em out.
Evening Standard Top Pubs It would require an awful l[…]

I’m reminded that one of the things I praised in that review of the Seven Stars was the absence of a jukebox. I also note that, of the pubs I know on the Standard’s shortlist, I’m not sure any has a jukebox. Is there a pattern here?[…]

Looking down Tim’s list I am in a pretty similar position to him with regards to visiting this selection of pubs (and certainly a publog outing should be on the cards). However I can add knowledge of The Bedford in Balham. It was the last pub o[…]