Posts by Glynn Davis

Since my early years in London I have largely managed to navigate my way around the city by pub because when I first arrived in the capital I made it a mission to undertake numerous pub crawls that took me to all corners of London. It was therefore with great interest that I received a…

When the Old War Office on London’s Whitehall officially reopened its doors recently as Raffles London at the OWO it couldn’t fail to impress with its largesse. Its gargantuan 71,000 sq m encompass four kilometres of corridors, and the cost of acquiring the lease from the government and renovating the property totaled a hefty £1.4…

The rolling road the grey waves made, as they crashed onto the golden sands of the beach at Ostend, brimming with foam as if to remind me it was nearly time for a beer. Far out at sea, tankers that had slipped their anchors in some faraway port could be glimpsed, dots that suggested another…

When I first came to London to work I signed up for an organised pub crawl that ended in Greenwich, which I’d never visited before, at a pub called the Prince of Orange that was renowned for the quality of its jazz. Sadly the pub is long gone, along with many others in the area,…

Ordering a pint of Outer Haze from Dark Star Brewery at The Globe Pub in London’s Moorgate resulted in an attractive looking pale beer placed on the bar. It was also sufficiently cold to the touch that I was very pleased with my selection. I need not have worried on this occasion, because I was…

Despite the extreme unexpected late-summer heat, I cycled across north London to the BrewDog bar in Camden Town and bought a pint of much welcome “Cold Beer” for a highly discounted rate of £3.05 versus the regular £6.55.  There was method in my “mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun” madness because…

Crossing Chislehurst Common through the heat haze of early summer (remember late May?), the vision of The Crown came into view like an oasis in the distance. Okay, I’m exaggerating a tad, but it was a very welcome sight, even though we’d only travelled 30 minutes or so from London on South Western trains. The…

Tucked away on a side street near King’s Cross is a lovely little pub called the King Charles I that I’ve been irregularly visiting for many years to enjoy the superior quality of its beer. A recent visit involved a couple of pints of perfectly served cask pale ale, followed by the same beer that…

Exploration. I am partial to exploring English market towns in the Welsh Marches with their black-and-white timber framed houses, the suggestion of the quiet passage of history, the shop-fronts, and the passing vans drum-rolled with the names of Joneses and Evanses whose descendants came from a different place. I am also partial to pubs in…

Approaching the dour former Quaker Meeting House alongside Chelmsford train station, there is little indication of the stunning interior that will greet you when you cross the threshold. The open plan, double-height structure houses a floor-to-ceiling back-bar and mezzanine level encircling the entire building that puts you right in among the giant lobster pot-like lampshades…