It was Saturday and I had planned a fun day in inner London. It was supposed to be a more relaxing day without as much walking. However, thanks to a geographical error on my part (we aimed and arrived on foot at the wrong station. We should have aimed for Hyde Park Station, but we ended up one stop east at Green Park). So we walked a lot further than planned. By the time we got to our first stop, Apsley House Museum, we were pretty bushed. The pub crawl was supposed to be later, but we started early. Our walk was in the rain, a light rain. It took us past Buckingham Palace, where only madmen and women would voluntarily go on a Saturday during a long weekend. We bustled our way through crowds, eventually surviving and gasping for air in Green Park. We stood under a large tree in the rain for a time, enjoying the smells of wet grass and leaves, and watching groups of people hurry past, heading for the palace.
We chose a pub close to Apsley House, and eagerly entered The Grenadier, one of London's oldest standbys. We had left our home station, East Croydon, 90 minutes earlier, and we were thirsty. The pub has its own ale, called Grenadier Ale. It was beautifully kept (cellar temp of 50 F) and was quite delicious. We also shared a juice before heading towards Apsley House.
We were glad to see the back of the palace, and we turned and headed into Green Park. Because of my error we had circled the palace, with the front of it packed with tour buses and people who think the royals are important to their lives.
Green Park, heading for Hyde Park Station area, the long way.
Even with a good map and directions, The Grenadier is not an easy pub to stumble across. It seems to sit within its own dimension.
A small, sane and secret corner of heaven in London. Our first pub of today's crawl.
Apsley House was the home of the Duke of Wellington. It's address is Number One London. How about that? Designed by Robert Adams in the 1770s, the Duke purchased it in 1817. It houses a collection of china and silverware together with paintings. The staircase has a 12' statue of Napoleon, naked. For us the highlight was the paintings, with Spanish masters prevalent. We last visited this place in 1991, on our very first visit to London. We still had fond memories of that visit, so it was high time we returned.
The entrance to Apsley House. A large demonstration was going on in Hyde Park behind us, and the police were swarming the area. All was quiet within.
Staircase in Apsley House, with Napoleon statue.
Table center piece for the Egyptian dishes setting. Each dish, this being one of several dozen, was individually decorated with different images. Yellow Drawing Room. Internet photo. https://tmlighting.com/projects/apsley-house-london/
The main gallery. Internet photo.
https://www.thegeographicalcure.com/post/guide-to-apsley-house
Brouwer is one of our favourite Flemish artists.
Another favourite Flemish artist.
More Brueghel, son of Bruegel the Elder.
A beautiful early Flemish Annunciation. Titian shows the correct way of depicting the shower of gold; not as coins but as golden rain showering down upon Danae. Internet photo.
The masterpiece of the collection is The Water Seller of Seville, by Velasquez. This is his finest painting outside of the Prado. Internet photo.
Not far from the museum was a little corner of London we had never explored. Shepherd's Market is a small warren of narrow streets with shops and restaurants. It was still raining a bit, so we didn't spend a lot of time here. However, an unplanned stop at the Market Pub brought us great joy and happiness. We had a half of Harvey's Best Bitter (brewed in Lewes) and some remarkably good Rhubarb Cloudy Cider from Rosie's. We also ordered and split an order of mushrooms on toast, which turned into one of the best meals we had on our trip! Vegan food is plentiful at most puts. We only went to an all-vegan restaurant once in two weeks.
Now the official pub crawl resumed. I use London By Pub: Pub Walks Around Historic London by Ted Bruning. Last time we did a walk in the Strand with Caroline. This time we were just two and we chose the chapter called "Belgravia: Masters and Servants." We had been to a few of the pubs many years ago, but the revisits were welcome. Many of them used to be divided into smaller rooms. Grooms and servants would use one part of the pub while the upper class (men) would use the fancier part. Today most pubs dispense with such class divisions, but still retain their historical integrity. In addition to the two pubs visited earlier today we managed to visit four more. Not bad for a day's work.
The pub is infamous for being the safe haven of a woman, Lady Lucan, whose husband had just murdered the nanny and was trying to kill her. He escaped and was never seen again. This occurred Nov. 7th 1974. We kept our eyes and ears open. We had two brews from Greene King, their standby IPA, usually quite bland unless, like today, perfectly kept and fresh, and London Glory, which was even better.
Most of the pubs were very crowded inside due to the rain, as the gardens went unused. A few were too crowded to enter, so we skipped some. This is the interior of The Antelope, where we shared a glass of Vocation Brewery's Bread and Butter Modern Ale. Exterior of The Antelope, on a rainy Saturday. The area surrounding the pub also has a dark history, in the age of ruthless brigands who preyed on travellers as they attempted to cross nearby "Bloody Bridge."
This is a Fullers Pub, and as you can see from the sunshine this is an internet photo. We were beginning to lose our wits around this time. We had Fullers ESB in tip top condition.
Last but not least comes this tiny oasis for drinkers looking for someplace a little different. Kevin no longer seems to run the place. The Asian bartender barely spoke English and did not know what cask ale was. Sigh. The interior remains majorly quirky. We had Adnams Southwold Bitter, a very fine ale in reasonable condition. If you know anything about Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar, this is where Faffrd and the Gray Mouser would most likely be found if in London. The pub is straight out of their home city (Lankhmar).
We walked to Victoria Station, taking a train directly home. We were back in the room by 8 pm, with supper from a Japanese place at the nearby Boxpark in a take away container.
Sunday was to be a local day, visiting our favourite pubs and cafe in Croydon. There was still a fair amount of walking, and no less than four pubs. But we mixed in some outdoor culture. Croydon is this year's London Borough of Culture, and they are having events all year. For four days this weekend they were featuring something called Unexpected Croydon, with seven colourful inflatable sculptures spread around the town center. By Monday we had found all of them, most of them high atop buildings. Near our hotel was a giant fly high on a building wall. In the mall across the street was a large paint can and brush. Here are photos of some of them, including one atop our favourite London pub!
Sunflowers at the entrance to Croydon offices. We stopped here on a quiet street so I could call my mom back in Sudbury (Deb's Lyca card gave us 100 minutes worldwide). We were nearly run over by a firetruck. With lights and siren drowning out my call, the vehicle climbed onto the sidewalk right in front of us and we had to dash. There was no fire, but perhaps a poker game, as four men emerged from the truck and entered a building, never to be seen by us again.
This was our favourite, atop the balcony at Festival Hall. The tentacles were moving in the wind. Clock tower in central Croydon. No balloons here. Move along.
Two views of a sea anemone atop The Green Dragon, our favourite pub. This one moved a lot, too.
East Croydon Station might be the best station in England, with connections to almost anywhere. On the left is the signature station entrance, with the signature round building across the street. This is a twice daily (at least) sight for us.
A favourite local pub for us, it's about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. Sunday from 1 -3 was
a jazz trio, so we got a free concert with our ales. We had a perfect glass of St. Austell Tribute and a glass of Southwark Brewery's Routemaster Red.
On our way to our next pub we stopped at Urban Baristas, a really fine cafe and enjoyed our afternoon fix. There were expensive coffee table books about coffee and growing areas which we browsed as we sipped.
Next came The George, a Wetherspoon pub and the closest one to our hotel (about 5 minutes walk). With about 15 handpulls there is always something interesting to try. They also offer a ton of vegan food options. We always visit here, usually several times on a journey. Today they had an Oakham Brewery (we visited there a few trips ago, in Peterborough) Omarta. I wasn't too crazy about this ale, though I usually adore Oakham offerings.
Next it was finally onward to the Green Dragon! I could spend a whole week here. They have 8 hand pulls, all from small breweries, about a dozen drafts and usually 4 or more ciders. It's big and roomy inside, though they do show 'the football' on a big screen above the bar. We had the blueberry porter, shown above, as well as a pear cider from Pulp.
Lastly came Arts and Craft taphouse, with offerings similar to the Green Dragon, just a few yards away. No food, though they do have several Banksy works on their walls. Even better, there is one in situ just across the road!
This abandoned tower across from the taproom has a Banksy up there.
Closeup of the Banksy in Croydon. The entrance to Arts and Craft Taproom is just to the right. This is the view of the alley. Like something from Bladerunner. This is one of several works by Banksy on display in the Arts and Craft Taproom. We enjoyed a glass of Nitro Stout from Ansbach and Hobday. Afterwards it was back for an early night, with more takeout noodles. We have a choice of about 6 great restaurants within minutes of the hotel.
Telephoto view from our room, #911, showing Crystal Palace hill and towers. The train station is just to the right of the foreground building. From our lobby to the platform is about four minutes walk.
The journey continues in Part 4. Check back soon.
Mapman Mike
