Randomness Guide to London

Welcome back to another week of RGL!



Ah here is a Croydon pub, and it's your featured article for this week: The Cricketers, CR0 6SG. I've been there, though before it went through its troubled smoked meat phase. I mean, we all do, don't we? Luckily, they have a sandwich good enough that Kake would travel all the way there to eat it. You may demur and say, well, Kake doesn't live all that far from it, but I think it's still enough of a recommendation. Why not read the entry to find out about this wonderful sandwich? (If you like fish.)

We have an update to the Cafe Oto entry. The Persian-inspired food is perhaps a little overpriced, but I'm visiting later this year to see some kind of avant-garde cacophony no doubt, so perhaps shall get to judge it myself.

A reported temporary closure for The Compton Arms near Highbury, but I was told a few weeks ago that it was fully open once again, so perhaps just tread carefully. Perhaps it is, perhaps it's not.

Many other pubs, though, have definitely closed, and closed more or less permanently. There's The Fox in Dalston, there's South London Pacific in Kennington, there's The Fountain in New Malden, and there's the Adnam's pub The Bridge House on Tower Bridge. Times do change, but I can't imagine some of these locations will be closed forever.

One final note about the Earl Haig in sunny Hounslow, not closed but instead renamed to Keg & Cask. Well I for one will be unlikely to visit, but mostly because I rarely make it quite so far out of the centre.

Hello, it's that time of year, time for the new Good Beer Guide and all the new pubs it brings. The category page for this book is therefore, of course, the featured article.

Before we get into that, there's one new unrelated article, which is Banh Mi Hoi-An in London's trendy Hackney, which will do you a decent noodle salad.

Now this leaves us with all the new pubs for this year, so brace yourselves:

* The Aeronaut in Acton (also a brewpub!);
* The Argyle in Clerkenwell (Hatton Garden area);
* The Black Horse in High Barnet (also a brewpub!);
* The Clarence in Mayfair;
* The Constitution in Pimlico;
* Craft Beer Co. in Brixton (ell, can't complain about the beer selection I guess);
* The Crooked Billet in Upper Clapton;
* The Crown in St Margaret's, Twickenham;
* The Elephant and Castle in Kensington;
* The Flying Pig in East Dulwich;
* The George in South Woodford;
* The Grapes in Sutton;
* The Grove in Ealing;
* The Hops and Glory in Canonbury (Essex Road);
* The Hour Glass in Brompton;
* The Huntsman and Hounds in Upminster;
* The King's Head in Tooting;
* The Leyton Technical in Leyton;
* The Lighthouse in Battersea;
* London Fields Brewery Tap Room by the park of that name in Hackney (really a brewery);
* The Lord Aberconway by Liverpool Street;
* The Misty Moon in High Barnet (ex-Spoons, obviously);
* Oaka at the Mansion House in Kennington (the Oakham Ales pub);
* The Old Bell on Fleet Street;
* The Old Loyal Britons in Greenwich;
* Old Tom's Bar under the Lamb Tavern in Leadenhall Market;
* The Pig and Whistle in Southfields;
* The Prince of Wales in Clapham;
* The Railway Bell in New Barnet;
* The Royal George by Euston Station;
* The Shortlands Tavern in Bromley;
* The Sporting Page in Chelsea;
* The Station Hotel in Hither Green;
* The White Lion in Warlingham;
* Williams Ale and Cider House in Spitalfields; and
* Woodin's Shades around the corner on Bishopshate, by Liverpool Street Station.

There are also two stub entries which will be filled out by Kake in the next week or two:
* The Door Hinge in Welling (a micro-pub!); and
* The Hare and Billet in Blackheath.