Tuesday 22 May 2012

More London Enjoyment

...starting with the Place of Beery Happiness (or in other words the Utobeer stall on Borough Market in Southwark!). There I found a bottle of Tally Ho, from Adnams - a beer I haven't seen since I lived in Norwich! (It was their last bottle, too). On the next shelf was a range of St Peters beers which was much larger than I remember from the last time I bought from them. After much deliberation, I chose the St Peters Mild, and now I'm determined to try more from the range.
We went for lunch with Mark's sister at one of her favourite places, the Stringray Globe Cafe. Don't ask me where it is - I just followed her! They serve some really very good Italian food - and a fine chocolate fudge cake (though they no longer do 'lumpy-bumpy'!).
Not far from there is the Geffrye Museum. It's free to get into, and the building was originally a 'hospital' for old ladies, built by Ironmonger and Alderman Geffrye in the 17th century (judging by the wig he was wearing in his statue). A graveyard for ironmongers is just to one side of the building.


Inside is a succession of living rooms through the ages, from 1600 to the present day, as well as the original chapel for the hospital, and exhibition space. There's also a lovely garden at the back, and a garden room overlooking it where anyone can go to sit quietly and read. There's a reading room full of interesting looking books as well.
Hayley doesn't drink real ale, but she had managed to find us a wonderful pub, also nearby. The Fox at Haggerton serves craft beers (so not necessarily real ales, but from small breweries that care about quality). There I tried the St Peters Porter (it really wasn't intentional that my bottle of beer was twice the size of Mark's!) and Mark tried the Harvistoun Old Engine Oil. At least partly because of the Steampunk name.
Later we went on back to Greenwich to meet another friend. The Gypsy Moth is the pub right next to the Cutty Sark (named after Sir Francis Chichester's yacht), and there we found a local London beer - Sambrook's Wandle (named after one of the lost rivers of London). Every so often I had to casually turn round - while thinking I'm sitting next to the Cutty Sark!!!!
It was another very fine day.

2 comments:

ros said...

St Peters is one of my most favourite beers - it is a revelation! You have great taste :-)

Anonymous said...

You give such an animated and enjoyable report of your time away! I enjoy it as much as if I'd been there too. So glad you've had a good break and hope you feel ready for the Hay Festival now.