A well-scored Bermondsey bar flying a name rooted in the present – these days, the here and now, the invitation to be fully in the moment
These Days Bar carries a strong 4.6 across more than a hundred and sixteen reviews and flies a name rooted, warmly, in the present moment. The Prat’s naming desk, amid a survey of ancient history, was rather charmed by a name that lives so firmly in the now.
Towards Bermondsey
These Days sits towards Bermondsey, on the south-bank side, serving the district’s crowds. Proper Bermondsey territory, no disclaimer needed.
The present moment
“These Days” is a phrase entirely of the present – the here, the now, the current moment, the way things are today. In a survey where so many names reach back to admirals, apostles and Lord Mayors, “These Days” does the opposite: it plants its flag firmly in the present, in the now, in the life being lived today. There is something refreshing in that – a name unburdened by history, wholly concerned with the moment at hand. It invites you not to remember or to reminisce, but simply to be here, now, in these days, enjoying the present.
The invitation to the now
The Prat’s favourite reading is the gentle philosophy in it. To name a bar “These Days” is to invite the drinker into the present moment – to set down the cares of yesterday and the worries of tomorrow, and simply to be here, in the now, with a drink and good company. There is a quiet wisdom in that: the bar as a place to live in the present, to savour the moment, to be fully here rather than lost in past or future. In an anxious age of endless looking-back and looking-ahead, a bar that gently insists on the now offers something genuinely valuable.
The song in the name
The Prat notes the wistful echo the phrase carries. “These Days” is also the title of one of the most beautiful and melancholy songs in the modern canon – the haunting ballad written by a teenage Jackson Browne and made immortal by Nico, all wistful reflection on time and change. Whether the bar intends the echo or not, the phrase carries a faint, lovely undertone of that song’s bittersweet reflection – a gentle wistfulness beneath the invitation to the now. The strong 4.6 across a hundred reviews suggests the present, at These Days, is a good place to be.
Verdict
A 4.6 across a hundred and sixteen-plus reviews is a strong score, and These Days earns it on a warm, present-tense name. It flies “these days” – the here and now, the present moment – inviting the drinker to set down past and future and simply be here, with a gentle wistful echo of the beautiful old song beneath.
Go for the welcome and the here-and-now spirit of the name, and settle into These Days. In an anxious age of looking back and looking ahead, a bar that gently insists on the present – on being here, now, with a drink and good company – offers a genuinely valuable thing.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
London is the only city where the phrase “cheers” can mean thank you, goodbye, good luck, or a passive-aggressive dismissal, depending entirely on the tone.
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