Randomness Guide to London

Hello and welcome back, it's been a few weeks!



This month's featured article is The Orange Tree, TW9 2NQ, a pub and hotel near Richmond station. It's Young's-run so expect a decent pint of Ordinary. Also note that RGLers have been visiting long enough that there are comments pre-dating the smoking ban. Ah, those heady days.

Our two new articles are: Melisi, an Italian bar, cafe and restaurant in Ruislip. A small place, but nice food, soft rock, and Italian service. I learned that the "s" is soft in Ruislip from Kat when I visited recently (a sibilant sound, like "Rye-slip", not a "z" sound as I'd been incorrectly doing for years). There's also Taste of Kerala, where in Croydon you too can sample a taste of, er, Kerala I'm guessing? Kake gets into some detail about exotic and interesting styles of rice cooking in the entry, so be sure to read up on that.

Significant updates have been made to Nakhon Thai in E16's delightful Royal Docks area. Pretty nice, we conclude.

Finally the reported permanent closure of The Bree Louise due to HS2 redevelopment of the area. Expect more transport links, but fewer cask ales and ciders served on gravity dispense.

Sorry for the late entry this week! I hope it hasn't thrown out your planning for all the places you want to check out...



This week's featured article is Murger Han, NW1 1DA. It's a Northern Chinese restaurant in Euston, and although I've never really been sold on 'Euston' as a descriptor of the area, I recognise most people probably know where you mean (this is really Somers Town, surely). Anyway, I'm getting distracted from the important thing, which is that for all its utilitarian decor, you can get some interesting porky fatty burger-type things (these it seems are the "murgers" of the name), and a nicely-balanced vinegary soup. Don't try and pay with Scottish currency, mind.

One addition is a Nigerian restaurant in Canning Town, Squires, with decent thoroughly-cooked fish stew.

There's an update to Napura, a Portuguese restaurant in Nunhead, from which you can also order takeaway.

Two temporary pub closures are the Aeronaut pub in Acton, and the Great Northern Railway Tavern in Hornsey.

Finally the reported permanent closure of East Dulwich tea shop Le Chandelier. Now a restaurant called Spinach, the idea of which isn't really thrilling me tbqh but I don't live in East Dulwich.

Hello there, sorry for the delay. Kake tells me what's in the charts this week and it always then gets lost in the depthless mess that is currently my inbox. So this week's featured article is...



... the Ship and Shovell, WC2N 5PH, a charming and slightly hidden little pub, one of the few remaining outposts for Hall & Woodhouse (aka Badger) beers in the capital, as yet unsullied by any word of "craft" or the like. Just a row of handpulls dispensing classic and well-kept English bitters and pales (or "boring brown ales", though I don't mean that as any disrespect: I love the BBB). The pub is rather more interesting for its unusual twin-site arrangement, taking up buildings on both sides of the little alleyway. The north has the main bar, the south has the "Crow's Nest" upstairs.

Our one new article this week is for Garden Community Cafe, a community-focused greasy spoon by Prince Regent DLR out there past Canning Town.

Two reported permanent closures are The Old White Bear in Hampstead (which we felt had gone downhill since it was Ye Olde White Bear and was a proper real ale pub), and The Clifton in St John's Wood, one of very few pubs in the area and a delightful little getaway, so it's particularly sad to see this one go.

Finally, two more impending pub closures. There's The Star, also in St John's Wood because clearly nobody is drinking there anymore, or (more likely) property is worth more as residences. And then there's The Sekforde Arms in Clerkenwell, which your correspondent only visited for the first time a couple of years ago, and what a delightful unpretentious boozer it is, serving tip top Young's beers, and now sadly looking like it'll become a restaurant after only 185 years of sterling service to drinkers.

But at least there's a couple of reopenings, both following refurbishments, and both out in Twickenham: The Prince Blucher and The Eel Pie.

This week's featured article is The Hole in the Wall, SE1 8SQ, a pub hidden away down the side of Waterloo station which feels like a proper traditional locals' pub rather than a transient station drinking hole. It's bigger than it looks too.

The one addition is the Fox @ Connaught, a pub in the Royal Docks across from London City Airport. There's precious few pubs in this area, so just having some handpulls makes it a bit of a haven (relatively speaking).

Significant updates to the entries for The Railway and The Black Horse in Greenford, and The Lemon Tree in Covent Garden, no longer run by Jack Beard's (thankfully) and largely still avoiding the tourist trade.

Reported permanent closures are Sweet and Spicy Indian restaurant on Brick Lane, and Little Hanoi Vietnamese just off Old Street.

Finally, possibly a temporary closure for The Horse in Lambeth North may be a more permanent one, but we're not sure.