Alex and James’ Almighty London Pub Crawl

2011 pub crawls

30th December 2011 - All over the map

Emma and I met Alex and Kate in the Market Porter (Borough Market). Three pints later or so, the kids went home with Emma and Alex, Kate and I headed west along the South Bank to the Anchor Bankside pub. From there is was over the bridge and round a bunch of pubs we new were pretty good from our Square Mile pubcrawls. We ended up north of the City in the Clerk & well (a restaurant really) and finished in teh Castle. Not too many new pubs but lots of decent ones...

a) The Market Porter
9 Stoney Street, SE1 9AA

b) The Anchor
34 Park St, SE1 9EF

c) The Cockpit Public House
7 St Andrew's Hill, EC4V 5BY

d) Viaduct Tavern
126 Newgate Street, EC1A 7AA

e) Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese
145 Fleet Street, EC4A 2BU

f) The Clerk & Well
156 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1R 5DU

g) The Castle
34-35 Cowcross Street, EC1M 6DB


27th October 2011 - Farringdon (part 2)

We had Darragh and Fran helping us find more Farringdon pubs this time

a) Bleeding Heart Tavern
Bleeding Heart Yard, EC1N 8SJ

b) One Tun
125 Saffron Street, EC1N 8QS

c) Sir John Oldcastle
29-35 Farringdon Road, EC1M 3JF

d) Three Compasses
66 Cowcross Street, EC1M 6BP

e) The Castle
34-35 Cowcross Street, EC1M 6DB

f) The Hope
94 Cowcross Street, EC1M 6BH

g) Jerusalem Tavern
55 Britton Street, EC1M 5NA


10th October 2011 - City of London (part 23... The End...)

This was the day after we were interviewed by the Brewing Network (at 2am) and hence had to take a day off work. It gave us the opportunity to officially cross off the last pub in the Square Mile (Simpsons Tavern - shuts at 4pm). After a hair of the dog there we set off on a higgledy-piggledy march across the city. We had halves in Abacus (more a bar than a pub) and from there went north to the Chiswell Street Dining Room. This was a closed pub last time we passed by (2009) but has been open since the summer. It is more a restaurant/bar now so halves all round. From there we passed another closed pub (the other side of the Whitbred Brewery) due to re-open in 4-6 weeks and on to Old Doctor Butlers Head. This is one Justin Crosley would like (divets galore) and we sampled the Late Red (Shepherd Neame) outside in the courtyard. We grabbed a McDonalds at this stage which seemed to have a sopporific effect on us both. We headed for Smithfield market and visited the Old Red Cow. It's still great and still has the free jukebox. From there we moved to the Bishops Finger where some doctors (consultants) from Barts seemed to be taking phone calls about ill children whilst boozing!!! We finished off in the pub we started the Sqaure Mile pubcrawl in in 2008 - Ye Old Mitre. There seemed to be tourists in there on a Guy Ritchie-themed pubcrawl (it was featured in Snatch). That was about 6pm - when we usually start - so definitely the earliest we have ever finished.

a) Simpsons Tavern (shut in evening)
Ball Court, 38 Cornhill, EC3V 9DR

b) Abacus
24 Cornhill, EC3V 3ND

c) Chiswell Street Dining Room (formerly St Pauls Tavern)
53-56 Chiswell Street, EC1Y 4SA

d) Old Doctor Butler's Head
Old Doctor Butler's Head, Mason's Avenue, EC2V 5BT

e) The Old Red Cow
71-72 Long Lane, EC1A 9EJ

f) Bishops Finger
9-10 West Smithfield, EC1A 9JR

g) Ye Olde Mitre Tavern
1 Ely Court, EC1N 6SJ


22nd September 2011 - City of London (part 22)

This was Alex re-tracing some of the better pubs and mopping up the final few we had missed. We started in the Bavarian Beerhouse which opened since we originally started the pubcrawl. Lots of German beers as you would expect (I had the Munich Helles). We moved on to the Wine Lodge which was surprisingly very much a pub. After that we headed for the Jamaica Wine house for old time sake. From there we tried to get into the Champagne bar in Tower 42. This time we made it past the security gaurd but declined to actually go up the tower when we were told there was a minimum spend of £10 and the cheapest glass of wine was £9.20... We crossed the road and found The Gallery which was more nightclub than pub but we popped in for a half anyway. We headed to Browns Old Jewry after that for a half and then took a long walk to finally get to the Loose Cannon. After that, we re-visited the Cockpit which seems to have turned into quite a gay place. We stood outside where some really pissed engineers on an alcohol fueled treasure hunt showed up. We finished up at the Crown and Sugar loafs before calling it a day.

a) Bavarian Beerhouse
The Arches, 9 Crutched Friars London, EC3N 2AU

b) The Wine Lodge
145 Fenchurch Street, EC3M 6BL

c) Crosse Keys PH
7-12 Gracechurch Street, EC3V 0DR

d) The Gallery
10-11 Austin Friars, EC2N 2HG

e) Browns Bar and Brasserie Old Jewry
8 Old Jewry, London, EC2R 8DN

f) Loose Cannon Sports Bar
13-16 Allhallows Lane, EC4R 3UL

g) The Cockpit Public House
7 St Andrew's Hill, EC4V 5BY

h) Crowne & Sugar Loaf
26 Bride Lane, EC4Y 8DT

x) Vertigo 42 / Rhodes 24
Tower 42, 25 Old Broad Street, EC2N 1HN


27th July 2011 - Farringdon (part 1)

We had Karren and Juan with us. This area has lots of great pubs so we will need to come back and mop them up. It also joins up with the Sqaure Mile...

a) Craft Beer Co
82 Leather Lane, London, EC1N 7TR

b) Hat and Tun
3 Hatton Wall, London, EC1N 8HX

c) The Gunmakers
13 Eyre Street Hill, London, EC1R 5ET

d) Coach and Horses
26 Ray Street, London, EC1R 3DS

e) Betsey Trotwood
56 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3BL

f) Dovetail Bar
9 Jerusalem Passage, London, EC1V 4JP


20th April 2011 - Nottinghill (cont.)

Alex, Andy and I visited more pubs near Nottinghill Gate

a) Prince Albert
11 Pembridge Road, London, W11 3HQ

b) Sun in Splendour
7 Portobello Road, London, W11 3DA

c) Prince Edward
73 Princes Square, London, W2 4NY

d) The Chesterfield
39 Chepstow Place, London, W2 4TS

e) Portobello Gold
95 Portobello Road, London, W11 2QB

f) Earl of Lonsdale
277-281 Westbourne, London, W11 2QA

g) Duke of Wellington
179 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London, W11 2DY


18th January 2011 - Angel (part 4)

Just Alex and me finishing off Angel.

a) Old Red Lion Theater Club
418 St John Street, London, EC1V 4NJ

b) Charles Lamb
16 Elia Street, London, N1 8DE

c) Prince of Wales
1 A Sudeley Street, London, N1 8HP

d) Island Queen
87 Noel Road, London, N1 8HD

e) The Narrowboat
119 St Peter's Street, London, N1 8PZ

f) The Duke of Cambridge
30 St Peters Street, London, N1 8JT

g) Zenith Wine Bar
125 Packington Street, London, N1 7EA

h) The Winchester
2 Essex Road, London, N1 8LN

i) Slim Jims Liquor Store
112 Upper Street, Islington, London, N1 1QN

j) Round Midnight
13 Liverpool Road, London, N1 0RW