London

[marshbrewer]

Drove the good lady and the kids down to that there London for the weekend, to visit museums, Kidzania, that sort of thing.

Didn't loose my rag with the place and didn't even moan about the price of stuff, despite it being a ship hole and everything costing a fortune.

My understanding is that such acts of heroics are generally rewarded with some kind of medal.

What happens next, do I need to apply, or will the queen have noticed out of her window while I waited for the number 70 bus, and would have already sent me one in the post?

 

[Gunge]

London.... rather you than me. Thank your lucky stars that you went on a terrorists' off-day and didn't get blown up or summat. Or even worse, mown down by a Chelsea tractor on its way to Selfridges.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Many years ago a Newcastle bloke gets a job driving a lorry. One day his boss says, "Drive this load of timber down to London."
"How do I get to London" says the driver. "Follow the A1", says his boss.
The guy sets off and gets to Darlington, leans out of the cab and calls over a passer by: "Hey mate, is this London?"
The passer by says, "No - further South".
Geordie continues on his journey and pulls into Doncaster. He asks a policeman, "Hey mate, is this London?"
The policeman says, "No - further South".
To cut a long story short, the bloke eventually gets to Golders Green. He goes into a shop and asks the shopkeeper, "Is this London?"
The shopkeeper says, "Well, it is and it isn't."
"Make your mind up", says the driver, "is this London?"
The shopkeeper says, "Yes".
"Right," says Geordie, "where do you want this timber?"

 

[Clint]

You need to be careful darn there you might get run over by some pissed up hipster on a funny bike....

 

[LarryF]

If I'd have known you were down I'd have brought you up to Ally Pally, brought you over to the Park Inn, "The Irish", a proper pub and sent you home with a selection of bottles. Central London's dreadful, I'm born and bred here and can't stand it.

 

[Bigcol49]

Central London's dreadful

Hi!
The occasional oasis - The Princess Louise in Holborn for one.

 

[chesters-mild]

Try 'The Flask' or The Holly Bush' in Hampstead'
Cheers

 

[IainM]

Hi!
The occasional oasis - The Princess Louise in Holborn for one.

Good call. That used to be my watering hole.

 

[MyQul]

Central London is hell on earth. Ironically enough, because of the people (the hordes of tourists) that dont actually live in London. The only thing going for Central London (imo) is the world class galleries and museums. Which are free

 

[LarryF]

Try 'The Flask' or The Holly Bush' in Hampstead'
Cheers

I've been in The Flask, I'm not sure if it's a bit up-market for me or if I'm a bit down-market for it but they're all a bit too posh for me in there. I was in there one night trying to get served and my mate leans over my shoulder and says to the barmaid "Excuse me love any chance you can serve this bloke" at which point Nigel beside me says "perhaps if this bloke (emphasis on bloke) could wait his turn, we'd all get served", loud enough for the whole pub to hear. So Nigel now has me and my mate Tony on him so he turns round to find our other four mates with a very genuine interest in just what exactly his problem is. It all went south pretty quickly after that and that's one of the problems with those areas full of..........people like that.

 

[LarryF]

Th

Hi!
The occasional oasis - The Princess Louise in Holborn for one.

The Princess Louise is a great pub, it does get banged out lunchtime and at about 5pm when the offices kick out but there's a sweet spot from about 2.30-5pm.

 

[Thumper]

The Holburn Whippet is a damn good watering hole as well.

 

[foxbat]

The Holburn Whippet is a damn good watering hole as well.

Holborn/Chancery lane is a great area for pubs. Need to be careful at the weekend though as many are closed (e.g. the Mitre & The Old Nick). The Whippet is open though, as are the Princess Louise (Sam Smiths), the Bountiful Cow (Adnams), the Craft Beer Company (frickin' everything). The nearer you get to Leicester Square the more likely the pubs are to be open.

 

[Thumper]

The Craft Beer Company have just opened a new bar (I use the Americanism deliberately; it isn't a pub) in Old Street, less than five minutes from my office. The decor may not be to my liking, but my god the beer selection is the stuff dreams are made of.

 

[Saisonator]

I try and steer my and my wives visits to London towards The Craft Beer Company in Covent Garden.
Some fantastic beers, give me opportunity to try before I brew certain unusual styles like hoppy wheat beers, stronger rye IPA's and sours.

 

[AdeDunn]

I must be unusual in that I am rather fond of London. My fave pubs are both in Greenwich though (Trafalgar Tavern & Cutty Sark). When I lived down there as a student though I drank in a pub on Trafalgar Road called The Old Friends, beer was garbage but it was a proper local with a good vibe. I introduced my wife and 2 of our kids to Greenwich too, and they now love it as much as I do. Not so much the bit where I used to live though, that bit of Trafalgar Road and Vanbrugh Hill seems to have avoided the gentrification that's gone on there (I lived there in 97).

I still can't get over how fizzy Mean Time draught ales are though... lol

The tourists don't bother me as much as the joggers to be honest. I mean, what kind of muppet tries to jog along the front of County Hall during peak tourist periods? They're super annoying along the Thames path in Greenwich too. Go jog around the parks ffs, with the parakeets.... :P

 

[Sadfield]

I don't mind London, but tend to only go there for football matches. I usually aim straight for the Harp near Covent Garden then work a route to my destination via the Craft bars (so far I've done Covent Gd, Islington and Clerkenwell). Love the Harp, nice pub and a good chance for some Harveys Sussex Bitter.

 

[strange-steve]

Only been to London once but I loved it. Saying that, I was there as a tourist, it's probably a different story living there I imagine. A bit like how I feel when people tell me they love coming to Ireland.

 

[AdeDunn]

Only been to London once but I loved it. Saying that, I was there as a tourist, it's probably a different story living there I imagine. A bit like how I feel when people tell me they love coming to Ireland.

I've done both bud. London is less fun to live in than to visit for sure! You're forced to travel during rush hour for one, trains, buses and the tube are seriously no fun! A few times on the tube I'd get somebody pull a fast one on the ticket gate too. There's a trick where they PRETEND their ticket is valid, put it in and walk forward. If you aren't on the ball, with it been so rushed, you then put yours in to go through, only they go through instead... You then have the fun of showing a disinterested employee your ticket and explaining so they let you through... Even travelling OUT of London during rush hour used to be a nightmare, for a few weeks I had to go from Greenwich to London Bridge station, then come back out again. Trying to get off the train at London Bridge basically involved bodily shoving the guy in front of me off the train as he didn't want to move in case somebody stole his standing spot.... lol

Far more fun to visit, as you can completely avoid normal rush hour, and once you have visited a few times you learn the tricks to avoid the bigger tourist crowds (main ones been avoid eating at normal meal times, visit the attractions then instead whilst everybody is queueing in McDonalds... lol).

 

[Braufather]

I must be unusual in that I am rather fond of London. My fave pubs are both in Greenwich though (Trafalgar Tavern & Cutty Sark). When I lived down there as a student though I drank in a pub on Trafalgar Road called The Old Friends, beer was garbage but it was a proper local with a good vibe. I introduced my wife and 2 of our kids to Greenwich too, and they now love it as much as I do. Not so much the bit where I used to live though, that bit of Trafalgar Road and Vanbrugh Hill seems to have avoided the gentrification that's gone on there (I lived there in 97).

I still can't get over how fizzy Mean Time draught ales are though... lol

The tourists don't bother me as much as the joggers to be honest. I mean, what kind of muppet tries to jog along the front of County Hall during peak tourist periods? They're super annoying along the Thames path in Greenwich too. Go jog around the parks ffs, with the parakeets.... :p

I also lived in greenwich in the late 90's- great place -especially in the summer, a regular at those pubs plus the Mitre.