Obscure suburban pubs
There's not much London RIP likes better than an obscure suburban pub, and this one fits the bill. Looks a bit like the castle at Disneyland, doesn't it? OK, maybe if you were very pissed. Actually, it's the Turrets in Friern Barnet, or New Southgate if you prefer.
Customers of the Turrets in days gone by were mainly staff from the nearby Friern Hospital, a huge and remarkable Victorian construction (second longest corridor in Europe after one at the Palace of Versailles, you know), which closed around 1993 and is now, guess what? luxury flats.
By all accounts, the Turrets was a friendly enough pub with its own nightclub. It could get a little lively, but you know what those psychiatric nurses are like when they've had a few. Anyway, the hospital's closed and the pub's now closed.
Perhaps it didn't appeal to the residents of what was the hosptial. Perhaps its closure is a sign of an area in transition. Or maybe it's just another closed pub. The Bankers Draft over the road looks as if it's doing well though. That used to be a bank.
London pubs: Strange little places
Pubs sometimes stand out because they're incongrous. This was certainly the case with the Drum and Monkey in St John's Wood. This is one of those upmarket areas that at one point had an unusual number of pubs, several of which have now closed or been turned into restaurants.
For those of you unfamiliar with it, SJW is an area imbued with what one writer described as plutocratic gloom. It has that sort of muffled quality you often find in very affluent parts of London, as if the air has been soundproofed. The Drum and Monkey was neither muffled nor plutocratic.
It was in a very small street near Rider Mews where the (60s)Saint was filmed. In the mid-1980s, the street had shops in it, two pubs and a few grand but distressed houses, seemingly forgotten by their absentee landlords, which were occupied by various eccentrics. The D&M had obviously once been a house, and having a drink there was a bit like sitting in someone's front room.
It was a typical old-fashioned pub, dark, flock wallpaper - really, to call this place unpretentious doesn't begin to describe it. The locals were friendly older people, including one chap whose party piece was sticking cigarette papers all over his face at the evening's end. It was a nice place to go.
The street is now as immaculate as its neighbours and the D&M is a house once more.
London pubs: landmarks we've (sort of) liked
In some ways, London-RIP feels disinclined to include Jack Straw's Castle, but it's difficult to leave it out because it was such an integral part of the area, so much so that it's genuinely disturbing to think that it's gone the same way as the Hare and Hounds, the Nag's Head and other lesser-known NW3 boozers. Apparently, it used to be a coaching inn, with the current building dating back to the 1960s. JS was in a fantastic positon just by the Heath at Whitestone Pond where Hampstead really begins.
It's a handsome-looking, weatherboarded building, and a real landmark. It's got several storeys and used to have a pleasant restaurant on the top, overlooking the Heath. Despite its natural advantages though, London-RIP feels Jack Straws never quite lived up to its promise. Ultimately, we think 'a good place to start a pub crawl' would have to be its epitaph.
It's now been turned into flats, with a small cafe where the bar used to be. It's kept its pub facade though - which is just daft, we think. Who wants to live somewhere that looks like a pub? And, even worse, who wants to think they've found a pub, only to discover that it's actually a collection of flats and a cafe?
London pubs: pubs with two names
On a rare sortie to Chelsea recently, London-RIP was dismayed to find that the Kings' Head and Eight Bells in Cheyne Walk has closed and is now a brasserie. This was an unpretentous riverside pub were you could sit and ponder the area's interesting Rolling Stones/Bram Stoker associations over a pint. Now it isn't.
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| Message: | 2/2 |
| Date and time: | 04/02/2009 at 22:15:15 |
| Sender: | Roger |
| Hi I'm trying to complete a quiz about London pubs. I am stuck on the final question, which is: "What was the name of the pub which stood at the junction of Farringdon Road and Clerkenwell Road until the 1990s?" If anyone could tell me the answer I'd be really grateful - it's driving me crazy. | |
| Message: | 1/2 |
| Date and time: | 05/11/2008 at 12:53:52 |
| Sender: | Anne |
| Aahh the Turrets....I was one of those psychiatric nurses from Friern hospital referred to(I trained there) Happy days... | |
