I write about real ale drinking and pubs. The Watercress Line heritage railway. Preserved Leyland National buses. Co-owner of a preserved Dennis Dart bus. Also visiting other heritage railways, beer festivals and other trips. Comments welcome.
To Manchester for the CAMRA National Winter Ales Festival plus some pubs and trams. booked train ticket a while ago for £40 single first class.
First Class on South West Trains
First Class on Virgin Trains.
Free tea, soft drinks, and a delicious roast beef and horseradish sandwich on the Vigin train from Euston to Manchester Piccadilly.
Port Street Beerhouse
The Port Street Beerhouse was my final stop but I took the photo walking towards the Smithfield Hotel as it didn't open til 1600.
Smithfield Hotel:
Smithfield
Smithfield bar with jugs at the back!
Smithfield
next stop was the Angel, formerley called the Beer House. The Beer House was legendary among beer tickers for many years with its amazing range of ales.
Angel
Angel
Angel
Angel
On to the Marble Arch. Mind the slope! Wonderful interior with the excellent Marble beers on sale.
Saturday 14th January. A few hours to spare today, so a quick trip to the West End of London.
Heres the video of the song that inspired the title of this blog entry.
Information received showed that the Old Coffee House was having a mini beer festival promising 6 new Brodies beers. East end beers in a west end pub sounded a good idea especially as it had been on my list of of pubs to visit. Located on Beak St just off Regent St near one end of Carnaby St, its a fairly small pub but the 6 hanpumps provided a warm welcome. I was also quite surprised to to see a number of fellow beer enthusiasts I know there from York, St Albans, Pitsea, Southampton, Woking and Horsham.
All beers were priced at £1.60 a half or £2.99 a pint, hardly west end prices.
I had a half of five beers there from Brodies::
Stepney Green Steam 4.2%
Columbus for Breakfast 6.6% believed to be Collaboration with Kernel
Brodies Brick 6.8% believed to be Collaboration with Redemption
Awesomestow IPA 7.1%
Summer Saison 8% Collaboration with Windsor & Eton
All 5 were very good and different styles. Columbus for Breakfast was a black IPA for instance. I don't know what a saison beer should taste like but the Summer Saison was enjoyable.
Outside
Inside
Inside
The six handpumps
Inside
Above the bar
Inside
Pub sign
One end of Carnaby St
I then went for a quick half of Red Squirrel West Coast Stout in the Harp.I didn't note the other beers available and i think there were 8 handpumps available. Its a tiny pub just off Trafalgar Square and the current CAMRA National Pub of the Year. Always busy with a fine selection of Independent brewery beers and one or two pump clips above the bar for decoration.
Outside
A few pump clips
and some more
Not much room.
Paintings on the wall
Finally I visited a pub just down the road from the Harp. The Porterhouse has a selection of beers from the Porterhouse brewery of Dublin. Its an intriguing multi levelled pub, quite dark inside and difficult to photograph well. You'll have to visit it yourself to see what its really like. I went here a few years ago but this was only my second visit. Only 2 handpumps here. One had a Purity Brewery beer on and the other was their own TSB. The rest of the beers are served on keg but are unpasteurised. They do a sample tray which is 3 thirds for £4. So I had 3 lagers, 3 ales and then 3 dark beers to finish. A sensible way to taste all their different beers:
Lagers -Chiller 4.2%, temple brau 4.3%, Hersbrucker 5.0%
Ales - TSB 3.7%, Porterhouse Red 4.4%, An Brain Blasta 7.0%
Dark Beers - Plain porter 4.3%, Oyster Stout 4.8%, Wrasslers XXXX Stout 5.0%
Outside
beer taps
and some more
3 lagers
3 ales
I did meet all the family there
And finally a photo of the National Portrait Gallery. I didn't go in but its a nice shot.
Restore a rolling 30 year-old exemption to VED, for classic vehicles
Responsible department: Her Majesty's Treasury
Re-introduce a 30 year rolling vehicle excise duty exemption scheme, for classic vehicles. For too long now the tax exemption of classic cars has been frozen, to only apply to those manufactured before 1973. History did not simply stop in 1972. These are not cars which are driven everyday but rather on sunny weekends, to attend enthusiast shows etc.. It is vitally important that we help to preserve this important part of British motoring history.
Wednesday 28th Dec and another day with ex Alder Valley Leyland National NPJ472R.
For once today, I actually achieved my task. Todays job was to remove the plasticised coating offs ome of the seat frames. Over the years bits have been picked away so my job was to remove it completely on the affected frames. In the new year the bare metal will be painted black.
Elsewhere more panels were being removed including the rear dome, once the pod had been moved forward on the roof. It proved to be quite stubborn to get off, once all the rivets had been removed. We also had a mad volunteer working on the roof.
Then at the end of the day there was a big shuffle round of the buses in the yard to get NPF completely under cover.
Work continues and later this year NPJ will be back at bus rallys again. We have a target date but its too early to say yet if it will be met.
Additional Update 3/1/2012: NPJ has now had all windows removed (except windscreen) and all panels that need to be replaced have been removed. Removing panels has revealed a fair amount of welding work is required to patch up metal work munched by those nasty tin worms. Painting of previously hidden bits is in progress to protect them from rusting. No photos yet.
Enjoy the photos below.
Rear with a bit of the insides now painted
New emergency door fitted on my last visit
Pod has been moved forward
Seat frames
rear dome halfway off
rear dome now off
and on the floor
rear seat finally out as well
rear seat had a clue where it came from
detachable skirt panels off
bare metal on seat frames
this seat frame needed nothing from me. how they should look
nearside detachables off
now in its temporary home at the back of the lean to.
