Craft Beer Review: The Word Craft Means Almost Nothing Now
Craft Beer Review: The Word Craft Means Almost Nothing Now | It meant small and independent, and then the definition was bought, and four multinationals own most of it
Tag: London Bars. London Pubs
Simmons Review: A 4.8 Under Twenty Pounds, and the Cheap Room Wins Again
Simmons Review: A 4.8 Under Twenty Pounds, and the Cheap Room Wins Again | Fifteen hundred people, and the cheap venues have out-rated the expensive ones in every district without exception
Little Orange Door Review: A 4.7, and the Door Is Doing the Work
Little Orange Door Review: A 4.7, and the Door Is Doing the Work | Fifteen hundred people, a hidden-flat concept, and a puzzle is not the same as a rope
Trinity Review: The Trinity Is a Doctrine That Broke Christendom in Half
Trinity Review: The Trinity Is a Doctrine That Broke Christendom in Half | Three persons, one substance, and the argument over a single letter split the church
Cyclist Review: A 4.7, and the Bicycle Did More for Women Than Almost Anything
Cyclist Review: A 4.7, and the Bicycle Did More for Women Than Almost Anything | It was denounced as immoral, it forced a change in what women were allowed to wear, and the doctors invented a disease
Falcon Review: A Peregrine Dives at Two Hundred Miles an Hour and It Nearly Went Extinct
Falcon Review: A Peregrine Dives at Two Hundred Miles an Hour and It Nearly Went Extinct | The fastest animal alive, and a pesticide made its eggshells too thin to sit on
Windmill Review: A 4.5, and the Small Venue Is Where Every Band Starts
Windmill Review: A 4.5, and the Small Venue Is Where Every Band Starts | Fifteen hundred people, and a room with a capacity of about a hundred and fifty has launched an extraordinary number of careers
Beehive Review: A 3.8, and the Cheap Pub Is Being Punished for Being Open to Everybody
Beehive Review: A 3.8, and the Cheap Pub Is Being Punished for Being Open to Everybody | Two thousand people, under a tenner, and the low number is structural and it is not the beer
Hootenanny Review: The Word Meant a Thingamajig Before It Meant a Party
Hootenanny Review: The Word Meant a Thingamajig Before It Meant a Party | A placeholder word for something you cannot name, and then it meant a folk music session
Blues Kitchen Review: The Blues Was Recorded Because a Man Drove Around With a Machine
Blues Kitchen Review: The Blues Was Recorded Because a Man Drove Around With a Machine | Four thousand people, and the music in the name survives because somebody put a disc cutter in a car
Two Brewers Review: The Gay Bar Existed Under a Criminal Law
Two Brewers Review: The Gay Bar Existed Under a Criminal Law | A room where a community that could not exist in public went anyway, and it was raided
Kricket Review: A 4.7, and It Started in a Shipping Container
Kricket Review: A 4.7, and It Started in a Shipping Container | Eleven hundred people, and the cheapest possible room is where almost everything good in London begins
Venn Street Review: The Venn Diagram Was Not Invented by Venn and He Did Not Call It That
Venn Street Review: The Venn Diagram Was Not Invented by Venn and He Did Not Call It That | Euler did it first, Venn formalised it, and the name was given by somebody else afterwards
Satay Review: A 3.8, and Satay Is a Grill You Can Carry
Satay Review: A 3.8, and Satay Is a Grill You Can Carry | Thirteen hundred people, and a skewer over charcoal is the oldest street food format there is
Park’s Edge Review: A 4.8 on Eleven Hundred People, and That Is Very Nearly Unfakeable
Park’s Edge Review: A 4.8 on Eleven Hundred People, and That Is Very Nearly Unfakeable | Volume punishes, and a number this good on a sample this large is one of the hardest things in hospitality
WC Review: It Is in a Public Lavatory and That Is the Best Room Reuse in London
WC Review: It Is in a Public Lavatory and That Is the Best Room Reuse in London | A disused Victorian toilet under the pavement, and the tiles were always going to outlive the plumbing
Half Moon Review: The Moon Is Never Half and You Are Looking at a Shadow
Half Moon Review: The Moon Is Never Half and You Are Looking at a Shadow | It is always fully lit and always fully dark, and you are seeing the terminator
Duke of Edinburgh Review: The Award Was Designed by a Man Who Ran a School in the Hills
Duke of Edinburgh Review: The Award Was Designed by a Man Who Ran a School in the Hills | Kurt Hahn, a refugee from the Nazis, and an idea about what young people are actually short of
Bedford Review: The Comedy Room Above a Pub Is Where Everybody Learns
Bedford Review: The Comedy Room Above a Pub Is Where Everybody Learns | Eighteen hundred people, and an enormous number of famous comedians died on a stage in a room like this
Tsunami Review: A Tsunami Is Not a Tidal Wave and the Sea Goes Out First
Tsunami Review: A Tsunami Is Not a Tidal Wave and the Sea Goes Out First | It is the whole depth of the ocean moving, and the water withdrawing is the last warning you get
Funky Pub Review: No Rating At All, and That Is How Bow Ends
Funky Pub Review: No Rating At All, and That Is How Bow Ends | Fifty-seven articles on the Lea, and it finishes with a pub the system does not know exists
Moxy Review: A 5.0 From Three, and the Hotel Bar Is the Best Value in London
Moxy Review: A 5.0 From Three, and the Hotel Bar Is the Best Value in London | Walk in. Sit down. Nobody will ask which room you are in, and nobody ever has.
Cody Dock Review: Six Reviews, and the River Lea Was an Open Sewer
Cody Dock Review: Six Reviews, and the River Lea Was an Open Sewer | A volunteer-restored dock on a river that industry poisoned, and they got the fish back
Nico’s Review: Twenty-One Reviews, and That Is the Dead Zone Exactly
Nico’s Review: Twenty-One Reviews, and That Is the Dead Zone Exactly | Enough that people believe the number, too few for it to survive a bad week
Pearl Dive Review: The Pearl Divers Went Down on One Breath and It Destroyed Them
Pearl Dive Review: The Pearl Divers Went Down on One Breath and It Destroyed Them | Ninety seconds, thirty feet, a hundred times a day – and then a Japanese man grew them in a shell and the industry died
In Vino Veritas Review: A 4.9, and the Phrase Is Older Than Latin
In Vino Veritas Review: A 4.9, and the Phrase Is Older Than Latin | The Persians decided everything twice – once drunk and once sober – and Tacitus reports the Germans doing it too
Young Prince Review: A 3.9 From a Hundred and Twenty-Six, and the Dead Zone Is Real
Young Prince Review: A 3.9 From a Hundred and Twenty-Six, and the Dead Zone Is Real | Enough reviews that people believe the score, and too few to absorb four bad nights
Templar Review: They Invented Banking and the King of France Destroyed Them for It
Templar Review: They Invented Banking and the King of France Destroyed Them for It | Deposit in Paris, withdraw in Jerusalem – and Philip IV owed them a fortune, so he burned them
Outpost Review: The Lounge Is Doing Nothing and the Word Is Empty
Outpost Review: The Lounge Is Doing Nothing and the Word Is Empty | A lounge used to promise a chair you could stay in, and charge extra for it, and everybody understood
Hawke Review: Every Mews in London Is Named After a Moulting Hawk
Hawke Review: Every Mews in London Is Named After a Moulting Hawk | The royal hawks were kept at the King’s Mews, then the horses moved in, and the word never left