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The Best “Londonist” Pubs

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forrado
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The Best “Londonist” Pubs

#59076

Postby forrado » June 9th, 2017, 11:49 pm

While I’m not London born I’ve been living at the north-west London end of the Piccadilly Line for near 35 years. Now retired I’ve never been a serious drinker. Indeed, I can’t remember the last time I had hard liquor, as for wine I’ll only drink it if someone else buys a bottle. However, I do like beer – and the blacker the better. Over the years I’ve become quiet partial to a pint or two of porter on occasions. Unfortunately, these days it’s becoming ever-more difficult to find the genuine article on draught. Now, I don’t mean the bitter dry stout porter beer that is Guinness, though I will drink Beamish and Murphy’s Irish Stout when I can find it on tap.

For the uninitiated, the brewing history of porter and stout beers are intertwined. Porter, as it became known, was said to have been brewed in London as early as 1720. It is also said that it got the name porter because it was cheap and the favourite thirst quencher for street and river porters who didn’t trust drinking the standing water. It wasn’t long after that London brewers began producing a stronger version of the beer which they named either double porter or stout porter. It was not until 1759 that Arthur Guinness founded the St James’ Gate Brewery, Dublin and began producing his particular brew. Which I’ve learned was sometime after the historic Griffin Brewery, later to be owned by John Fuller, was doing its thing on the site of Bedford House on the Chiswick Mall.

Like I said, I’m retired now and I’ve an ex-work colleague, retired also, who is a long-time resident of Notting Hill and who I occasionally visit. And, when in the mood, we have been known to pay a visit to a particular Fuller’s public house on Kensington Church Street that has London Porter ale on tap. While I’m going to make you wait a bit longer for the name of this establishment, it was reportedly built in 1750 and later named after a famous British Prime Minister because reportedly a relative of his would on occasions be known to partake of refreshments there. However, in recent years it’s become something mini-tourist attraction, for those who know or have been told about it, during the summer months for reasons that will become apparent.

I recently came across a website called “Londonist” devoted to all things London (obviously). A section of which champions the supposedly best pubs in London as voted for by devotees of the site. For those interested enough, you will find each pub voted for broken-down into London districts by clicking on the link below and scrolling down the page in order to further click on one of the 88 London district links of your choice to view what pubs have been deemed worthy of mention …

http://londonist.com/pubs

I daresay a few of them will ring one or two bells for some. Being that it was the aforementioned pub below that rang a very loud bell for me when I looked up the watering holes in Notting Hill at …

http://londonist.com/pubs/pubs/the-churchill-arms

The spectacle that is the Churchill Arms has even made itself known to the wider world on You Tube at …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HloYH0OqY1I

OTT being a somewhat understatement.

CommissarJones
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Re: The Best “Londonist” Pubs

#59200

Postby CommissarJones » June 10th, 2017, 6:28 pm

Nice post. Just to give an update on the Marylebone section of listings, the Duke of Wellington and the Windsor Castle have closed. Not sure what the story is with the Duke of Wellington, but AIUI the Windsor Castle is in a stretch of buildings slated for demolition so the owner can cash in on increased property values. However, the Windsor Castle's landlord apparently also runs the Heron, a short distance to the west in Norfolk Crescent, and has moved his considerable collection of memorabilia over there.

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Re: The Best “Londonist” Pubs

#59210

Postby dealtn » June 10th, 2017, 7:21 pm

http://londonist.com/pubs/pubs/the-hope

First pub I ever drank in and greatly acclaimed, winning awards regularly. Technically in the London Boroughs but very much the suburbs so won't be known to many. It was rescued by its drinkers when it nearly closed, and a superb range of "proper" beers.

AleisterCrowley
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Re: The Best “Londonist” Pubs

#59219

Postby AleisterCrowley » June 10th, 2017, 8:06 pm

CommissarJones wrote:Nice post. Just to give an update on the Marylebone section of listings, the Duke of Wellington and the Windsor Castle have closed..

Aaah :cry:
We used to drink in the Windsor Castle when our London office was on Edgware Rd. Lots of character (clutter!)

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Re: The Best “Londonist” Pubs

#61721

Postby DiamondEcho » June 21st, 2017, 7:26 pm

The Churchill Arms is a bit of a classic, and it's a joy 10-15 years on to see that Gerry is still running it, what a character.
Per the Londonist site it also flags the Windsor Castle. IME this is a great place to take visitors from out of town. The quirky period inside timber partitions and very low doors, and wonderful beer garden. And if the former to the latter is too long a hike [at c300-400M :), The Uxbridge on Uxbridge Street about 1/2-way along is another curiosity, very small and local and like time has stood still.

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Re: The Best “Londonist” Pubs

#62339

Postby Hallucigenia » June 23rd, 2017, 6:58 pm

forrado wrote:I’ve become quiet partial to a pint or two of porter on occasions. Unfortunately, these days it’s becoming ever-more difficult to find the genuine article on draught.


Couldn't disagree more - porter is far more available than it was 10 years ago, it's been one of the styles that's benefited from the revival in brewing in that time. You wouldn't have eg had the Bree Louise having Titanic Plum Porter as a permanent beer a decade ago (although Plum Porter Is Not As Good As It Used To Be, per previous discussions over on the Drinks board). And even with big breweries like Fullers, my impression is that they have things like the Porter in more pubs than they used to.

As for the history, some of the common myths are debunked here : http://zythophile.co.uk/2010/11/22/the- ... e-threads/

And the evolution of Guinness - they started out making ale rather than porter : http://allaboutbeer.com/styles-evolve-guinness-example/

These days if you're looking for a specific beer, it can work to look at beer review sites like Untappd : https://untappd.com/b/fuller-smith-turn ... orter/2560 Doesn't work as well for big breweries like Fullers, but it does with smaller ones, particularly if you use the phone app with location awareness.

As for the Londonist pub reviews, I find them a bit hit and miss - about 2/3 of them work for me. They tend a bit to much to the corporate for my taste, but I can see how some people would like them, and they're useful if you find yourself in a strange part of town.

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Re: The Best “Londonist” Pubs

#62344

Postby AleisterCrowley » June 23rd, 2017, 7:09 pm

Bingham's Vanilla Stout is worth a try if you are ever in the Berkshire/Thames valley area - although it probably get around more now as it won an award or two

(Don't get me started on stout vs porter - they're pretty much the same in my opinion, with stouts being the stronger end of the spectrum)

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Re: The Best “Londonist” Pubs

#64032

Postby Hallucigenia » June 30th, 2017, 6:55 pm

AleisterCrowley wrote:Bingham's Vanilla Stout is worth a try if you are ever in the Berkshire/Thames valley area - although it probably get around more now as it won an award or two

(Don't get me started on stout vs porter - they're pretty much the same in my opinion, with stouts being the stronger end of the spectrum)


My impression is that the Vanilla Stout has got around far less than some other CBOBs - whether that's through a smaller brewery, reluctance to deal with distributors, problems in the vanilla market (yes, that's a thing at the moment) or reluctance to even contemplate contract brewing like some other CBOB winners, I don't know. I managed to miss two casks at Olympia and the only bar locally to have had it on has had two more, both of which I've missed. In comparison I seemed to bump into Cwtch quite a bit within months of the award.

Stout may have started as "stout porter" (ie stronger) but they seem to divide more on style these days, stouts are drier and more coffee-ish, whereas porters are richer and tend to a bit of sweetness.

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Re: The Best “Londonist” Pubs

#70083

Postby DiamondEcho » July 27th, 2017, 6:11 pm

Re: my earlier rec for the Churchill Arms on Ken Church Street, and it's great long-time landlord.

'Churchill Arms landlord steps down after 32 years running London's most colourful pub
Cheers to Gerry O'Brien, who has pulled about two million pints of London Pride over the last three decades'
http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/bars ... 96551.html

First used to visit there in the late 80s, last visited there a few months ago. Great pub, great landlord, nothing has really changed in that time at all.


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