Fitzrovia and Soho Pub Crawl with Gav
Fitzrovia and Soho Pub Crawl with Gav
Saturday 10th January 2009
An entirely random and impromptu pub crawl through Fitzrovia, Soho and a bit of St. James's.
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| 18:09:38 Gav looking a bit Rowley Birkin QC in pub number 1, the Duke of York. | 18:22:33 There's the outside of the Duke of York. Hadn't actually planned to go to this pub, it just caught my eye. In fact this became the case for most of the pubs visited this evening. | 18:31:17 Chie and Gav being convivial in pub number 2, the Fitzroy Tavern. Note that I managed to persuade Gav to drink halves from here on, and thus the small glasses, which put me in mind of Kolsch. |
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| 18:43:53 Excellent bit of signage there. | 18:44:03 ...and another bit of the very attractive frontage of the Fitzroy. | 18:50:15 Pub number 3, the Wheatsheaf, sporting some very nice stained glass. |
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| 19:00:50 There's the outside of the Wheatsheaf. | 19:01:30 Pub number 4, the Bricklayers Arms. Another Sam Smith's pub, with an interesting (albeit mock something or other) frontage. As Gav said, sort of a student union atmosphere inside. | 19:29:05 Pub number 5, the Black Horse. A bit hard to make out given the lighting, but they gave us these delightful miniature half pint mugs. |
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| 19:29:23 ...can see it a little bit better there, but there isn't really much to compare it with. | 19:43:13 There's the all important shot of the pub name, lest we forget. | 20:04:07 Pub number 6, the Nellie Dean of Soho. Probably my least favourite of the evening, there was a bit of an unpleasant smell in here. |
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| 20:12:59 Pub number 7, the Blue Posts, containing this interesting warning about "hugger muggers". | 20:28:30 This pub was almost bordering on being trendy, quite a charmingly "retro" interior, like something from the 1970s. | 20:30:41 The Blue Posts also sports this rather fetching Watney Combe Reid lantern on the outside. |
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| 20:30:58 ...and there you can just about read the pub name. | 20:32:30 Pub number 8, the Star and Garter, and impressively only the second of the evening that was actually on my original list. | 20:36:09 Amongst other attractive features, the Star and Garter boasted this, without a doubt my favourite shelf of the evening. |
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| 20:57:09 Pub number 9, and contrary to what you might expect we were actually doing a better job of sticking to the original plan towards the end of the evening, this being the third pub which was actually on my original list. | 21:02:41 It appears somebody at the pub is a friend of David Beckham, and on the wall by where we stood there was a little display of these rather charmingly child-like letters he had written: "I got my first wage packet the other day and a bonus which come to £120 so that went in my bank and I have got about £250 in there now." | 21:02:48 There's the chap in question, probably here somewhat jubilant about his £250 bank balance. |
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| 21:03:57 Oh and there was also this old copper pan. | 21:21:01 It seems our pace had definitely slowed by this point in the evening - looking at the times of these photos it looks like we spent well over 20 minutes in this pub! | 21:57:19 By this point in the evening dinner had become a pressing requirement, and fortunately Soho Pizzeria was close by to address this issue. Apparently this has some shared history with Pizza Express. It certainly had a very similar menu. |
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| 22:55:11 Finally, pub number 10 - the Red Lion - a mecca for fans of etched glass. | 22:55:59 Was difficult to get a decently lit picture in here, but hopefully you get the idea. | 23:03:38 Gav unsuccessfully tried to buy some crisps. |
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| 23:03:48 Chie admiring the glass etchings. | 23:27:54 There's the Red Lion from the outside, albeit somewhat blurry. | 23:28:09 ...that's a bit better. Jolly nice pub to end on. |
