Pint Of Ale

We’d been looking forward to our mini Monopoly pub crawl for ages, so getting to sleep the night before was a bit of a chore, just like Christmas all over again! Hannah gracefully offered to give us a lift into Leeds at 6.00 and the day was under way. We purchased our Underground travel card, a mini London A-Z and the biggest cups of coffee we could face.

A cold start to the day

Leeds station was freezing as we watched our train pull in:

Prepare, prepare, prepare

We used our travelling time wisely. We re-appraised the locations of each Monopoly property and the route we would take between them. We realised that Mayfair is an area and is not a single street, so decided to try Park Lane instead. (A mistake that we would come to regret!) We also decided that it would be better to finish closer to Kings Cross rather than on Fleet Street so we reversed the order of the pubs. We agreed that it would be suicide to attempt to drink a pint in each of the eight pubs and that we should try to have halves in at least four of them. We also felt it important to try to give ourselves target times - time for arrival and time for departure at each pub. Our plan was then written down in Mike’s notebook. We also wrote nine identical ‘review templates’ into nine pages of the book so that we could just fill in the blanks at each pub.

Tourists in London

Our train got us to London at 09.50. We were planning to arrive at our first pub, The Old Bank Of England on the red block’s Fleet Street at midday, so we whiled away a couple of hours doing touristy things, starting with Whitehall, Big Ben, Downing Street and the London Eye:

We sauntered around St James’ Park over to Buckingham Palace where a high police presence, cordons and huge crowds suggested something was up, but we were too busy talking about the pubs that were to come to ask someone what was going on. Wandering back through the park we stopped to marvel at some tame pelicans, one of which was sweeping up piles of leaves into its beak:

The Reds

We took the Underground to Fleet Street for our first pub, The Old Bank Of England, a stunning Fuller’s pub converted from an old bank. It was ornate and fascinating and we sipped our pints while gawping at the beautiful interior. We also partook in a steak and ESB pie each - a special treat to get us on our way.

The Dark Blues

A walk through some of London’s streets to a different tube station was taken at a brisk pace to walk off some of the effects of the first pint.

When we emerged from Marble Arch tube station, the whole of Park Lane lay before us. We set off, an ale-fired glow inside us. It did not take long for our spirits to drop - this is a street that does not seem to stoop as low as to have a pub on it. We passed Aston Martin and BMW garages and more top-notch hotels than you can shake a stick at. Big cars roared past and people went about their way looking as beautiful as possible. No pub! The contingency plan was put into action - walk in the direction of Mayfair and duck into the first pub we came across. And so we came upon the beautiful, pretty exterior of The Audley, a busy place with an overworked bar manager and his idle staff.

The Greens

It was a long walk through the London air to get to Regent Street, a long, wide shopping street. It was the post-Christmas sales and the place was a heaving mass of bargain-hungry shoppers. We ducked inside All Bar One for swift mediocre drinks.

The Yellows

We’d allowed ourselves only 15 minutes to walk from Regent Street to Leicester Square but we had not anticipated the crowds. I’d never seen anything like it before. In places we came to a stand still, pressed in on all sides simply because the pavements were not wide enough for the shopping throng. If this is what the sales are like in London - you can keep them! We eventually made it down to Leicester Square in 20 minutes where we chose the Wetherspoon’s Moon Under Water rather than another All Bar One. We made this one a full pint and we rested our aching feet.

The Oranges

It was an easy saunter to Bow Street and the Young’s Marquess of Anglesey. This was a haven of a place with a roaring fire, a strong sound of friendly chatter and a set of friendly bar staff. We plonked ourselves on a pair of stools at the bar and alowed ourselves the full 30 minutes to enjoy our pints:

The Magentas

I really enjoyed our walk to Northumberland Avenue. We walked down to the Thames and took a stroll along its banks, enjoying the orange sky and the buzz of the city around us. We took some photographs and looked like real tourists. We did not walk too far up Northumberland Avenue until we came across the pretty, traditional exterior of The Sherlock Holmes, its lights shining out welcome to all who passed. We drank a swift half of Sherlock Holmes Ale in here. The pub is at the junction where Northumberland Street joins Northumberland Avenue. We fear that the pub may actually be on Northumberland Street since it’s a bit set back from Northumberland Avenue, but we’re not going to get too hung up on this point.

The Browns

With some trepidation, we emerged out of the tube station onto Whitechapel Road. This is the cheap end of the Monopoly board and not the most affluent area of ‘Real London’, but we felt safe and sound as we made our way to the Good-Beer-Guide-listed pub, The Black Bull. A large, sparse room that reminded us of the Duck and Drake in Leeds, this was the most interesting pub of the day and with the most interesting selection of clientèle.

The Bright Blues

We made it at last to Islington. Mike spotted a broken down escalator and started to run up it before he realised just how long it was. We emerged into the night air out of breath and breathing hard. As for where to drink, we really had no choice - we were in Islington so had to drink at The Angel. This was another Wetherspoons and not a particularly fantastic one. We sat outside and watched the world go by as we sipped our halves and our Pepsis and congratulated ourselves on a job well done.

The train home

The train home was quiet and we both nodded off a little bit. We’d walked miles, drank lots of beer and written many notes about eight pubs, some good, some mediocre and some very good. We listened to our iPods and looked forward to our beds.