Your intrepid FT correspondents are today embarking upon an ambitious endeavour!
The London Borough Orgabooze is a semi-competitive points-based race around London, whereby teams of up to 4 people visit drinking establishments in each of the London Boroughs using public transport and walking only, picking up points for difficulty (e.g. Islington and Hackney are central so score 1pt, Hillingdon and Havering score 5pts with a bonus for getting both). We are commencing today at 12noon in the City of London, and finishing up in the City of Westminster at 10.30pm. If we don’t make it to the final pub in time all points are lost! You can follow all the ruinous action on Twitter (hashtag #borocrawl).
Although drinking alcohol is not mandatory on this FT adventure, its probably wise to hear a few words of caution from Pop World Cup striker Umek, who has teamed up with the President of Slovenia to bring you this mind-blowing ‘trading places’ skit with an important message.
Clearly it’s ok for them to toast their success as they are responsible adults and would never sick up on the front steps of Ljubljana University after a pub crawl. Oh no.
How d’ya like the sidebar widget (some formatting to be fixed…)
Awesome!
Full points breakdown for those interested:
–Inner (1 points):
City of London and all Boroughs which touch the City of London:
City of London
Westminster
Camden
Islington
Hackney
Tower Helmets
Southwark
–The Middle Ones: (2 points)
Not touching the City, not touching the edge
Kensington and Chelsea
Hammermith and Fulham
Wandsworth
Lambeth
Merton
Lewisham
Greenwich
Newham
Barking and Dagenham
Haringey
Brent
Ealing
–Outside: (4 points)
Touching the horror of zone seven
Hounslow
Richmond upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames
Sutton
Croydon
Bromley
Bexley
Redbridge
Waltham Forest
Enfield
Barnet
Harrow
–Really actually outside and possibly fictional (5 points)
Tim doesn’t believe in these and therefore anyone visiting both gets an additional 2 points.
Havering
Hillingdon
Ah, Kat, this reminds me of the Monopoly Board pub crawl I took part in over ten years ago now. The rule of thumb was to down a half pint in each of the twenty six(?)drinkers around the ‘board’, with modifcation needed when some squares (eg – Pall Mall) did not contain a pub. We started at opening time in some gaff in the Old Kent Road and finished in Oxford Street at about 22.20. There was a group of over twenty starters. It was like the Long March and needless to say, there were casualties. By the time we finished, there was only about seven of us left. I remember very clearly an Australian guy with us who had a camcorder and he came round to all of us when we hit the last pub. I was one of the first he ‘interviewed’:
AUSSIE: “Now, here’s a guy who’s lasted the whole stretch. Good on yer, mate. How you feeling?”
WALDO: “Knackered”.
AUSSIE: “I bet you are…”
WALDO: “…All that walking and tube journeys. I bloody need a drink!”
Although many of the group did indeed fall by the wayside, including one bloke who stumbled off a bus in Whitehall and done his leg, none of us to my knowledge moved directly to jail. Lots of damage done to a few Water Works, though.
Happy Days!
Waldo: my branch of my bank has a plaque on the wall bearing the image of the top-hatted monopoly millionaire because the bank stands on the site of the Angel Pub after which Angel Islington tube and Angel Islington the square on the board are both named. I think the pub hasn’t been there for many years.
#teamabba’s route:
http://bit.ly/9F3in3
15 pubs, 46ish miles, 1 Michelin Starred Restaurant, and some nice sweeties from a proper sweet shop.