London pub crawl Christmas 2012

Here's the arrangements and route for the Christmas 2012 London pub crawl on Wednesday 12-December.

Meet at the waiting room at Kings Cross Station just before noon. Travel on to the first pub at Blackfriars to meet up with Martin at about 12:30 and have lunch.

The aim is to reach the last pub about 18:00 for a bit of tea before dispersing into the night so Terry can catch his train home from Kings Cross at 20:00.

The Black Friar... an Art Nouveau pub unique for its elaborate interior. A Dominican friary stood on the site from 1279 to the Reformation in 1539, hence the name. Built in its current style in 1904, there are about 50 different types of marble used in the building. Hard to believe it was scheduled for demolition in the 1960s, saved after a campaign led by Sir John Betjeman. Thankfully it's now a Grade 1 listed building. The address is 174 Queen Victoria Street, Blackfriars, EC4V 4EG.

The Punch Tavern... once a favourite with the staff of the satirical magazine The Punch, which was conceived in the pub in 1841, the interior is all Victorian extravagance, with beautiful glazing and tiling, ornate plasterwork and Art Deco lighting. The interior was originally larger, but when the joint ownership between two brewing giants came to a sticky end a few years ago the right hand side of the pub was bricked up; the bar actually continues through the wall into a now derelict room. The address is 99 Fleet Street, City of London EC4Y 1DE.

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese... step back in time to a pub with a dark interior and sawdust floors where Charles Dickens warmed himself beside the fire in the tiny front bar, and the surroundings would be much as Dr Samuel Johnson remembered them during his visits. The pub dates from its rebuilding after the Great Fire of London in 1666, and many famous names have sipped here; Thomas Carlyle, Lord Tennyson, Wilke Collins, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, W. B Yeats to name but a few. The address is 145 Fleet Street, City of London EC4A 2BU.

The Seven Stars... staking a claim to one of London's oldest continuously occupied pubs and built in 1602, it narrowly escaped the Great Fire of London by a few hundred yards. Today it's a an uncommercial, warm and relaxed pub with one of the most charming routes to the toilet. The landlady is interesting too, Roxy Beaujolais, chef, cook book author and once celebrity chef on a BBC food programme. The address is 53 Carey Street, Holborn WC2A 2JB.

Cittie of York... one of London's most unique, there's been a pub on this site since the 1400s. In a great church-like hall, under a high pitched roof, a long bar counter sits below large oak vats. On the opposite wall is a series of small cubicles, like confessionals, where it's easy to imagine lawyers in confidential conversation with their clients. Another unique feature is an ingenious triangular stove (c.1815) which stands in the centre of the bar. It has no visible chimney, the smoke is ducted away below the floor. The address is 22 High Holborn, Holborn WC1V 6BS.

Princess Louise... the interior of this pub must be a national treasure. Even the gents' toilets are listed! The manufacturers of the interior mirrors were so proud of the beautiful mirrors produced for the pub, they even signed them. The address is 208 High Holborn, Holborn WC1V 7BW.

The Cross Keys... one of the few pubs to serve beer from the microbrewery of the Sweet William Brewery sounds enough reason to visit this establishment. An interior full of authentic bric-a-brac and the feel of a real old London pub is thrown in for good measure. The address is 31 Endell Street, Covent Garden WC2H 9BA.

Lamb and Flag... one of the few remaining timber framed buildings in London, at one time the pub had the apt name 'The Bucket of Blood', reflecting the prizefighting that took place in the adjacent Lazenby Court. The address is 33 Rose Street, Covent Garden WC2E 9EB.

The Porterhouse... strangely, we end up in one of the area's superpubs, so no great age to this one. But three things making this pub special; although the interior is huge there's lots of levels and spaces to find an quiet alcove, it has an award winning interior where there's great attention to detail and huge amounts of copper, but most of all it has a huge collection of bottled beer from the Porterhouse brewery in Dublin, but also from around the world. Good place to end up and have tea. The address is 21-22 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden WC2E 7NA.

Is there still a drought?

With rainfall for November 2011 being well below the average, and in some regions the lowest for many years, maybe it shouldn't come as any surprise we're making up for it this month. In fact some areas may be well over 150% of average for the month.

So it came as no surprise on my chicken tickling visit (i.e. cleaning out the coop... no need to report me for exotic practices) that the pond had burst it's banks.

There were loads of fungi sprouting from logs. This one was in the pile beside the pond.

Another type in the same location.

And another.

This type was in the log by the shed door.

Whilst digging on the front plot could be more advanced, not too concerned yet.

Though some work is needed on the Gardman polytunnel, which barely survived two winters. Going to cover it with scaffold netting.

The onions sets are sprouting.

Even better, the garlic cloves are really doing well in spite of the weather.

Just need a decent spell of frost to sweeten up the leeks, swedes and parsnips.

My Christmas list 2012

For the benefit of my offspring, (well, my two daughters at least... David and John aren't quite as organised) here's my Christmas list for 2012. Take your pick from any of the items below, and if struggling, the default of wine or whisky is perfectly acceptable as well.

Close Range: Brokeback Mountain & Other Stories - £5.59 ... Yes, I know the subject matter is a bit off-piste, but it's the descriptive power of Annie Proulx, my favourite author, that enabled a 55 page short story to be made into an Oscar winning film. I'm asking for this so I can use it as a reference book when I start writing my short stories.

Thomas Feiner & Anywhen, 'The Opiates' - £14.54 ... one of the finest music CDs ever put together. This is serious mood music to listen to while I'm writing.

Band of Brothers boxed set, well... tinned set - £18.00. A real roller coaster of emotions following the fortunes of US Army 101st Airborne division 'Easy Company' in WW2.

The Sopranos boxed set - £45 ... this is for a couple of you to pair up and buy together in view of the price. The story of Tony Soprano and his mobster family.

Out of guarantee? Know your rights!

How often does it happen... just as the guarantee on your goods has expired a fault develops, and when you return to the shop the salesman he shakes his head and says sorry, out of guarantee.

But there's no need to accept that. The guarantee, whatever the period, is only something offered by the manufacturer. Whether it's a 12 or 24 month guarantee, your legal rights actually stretch right up to 6 years after you bought the item. So don't be fobbed off with the expired guarantee excuse. And don't be diverted by the salesman stating you'll need to contact the manufacturers directly yourself. It's the retailer who has to sort things out for you.

Just to inject a bit of common sense at this point, this isn't about the plastic toy you bought at the local pound shop three years ago. Neither are we talking about the fact you've changed your mind over the shade of lamp bought last year. You can only claim some time after purchase for goods you can have a reasonable expectation would last that long, and your claim must be reasonable.

How about an example? I bought a Pashley Roadster Sovereign classic bicycle, worth all of £600. After 14 months the hub gear started to play up again... Halfords had already fixed a problem once. But when I returned I got the classic 'out of guarantee' excuse. A trusted cycle repairer in Cambridge told me Pashley were economising on parts and there had been lots of problems with the hub gear fitted to the bike.

Emails to Halfords' head office got me no further. So I emailed Pashley directly posing as a potential purchaser concerned about the complexity of the combined hub gear and brakes. I asked what they considered the life expectancy of the part, to which they replied 'many years'. Bingo!

Even a copy of this failed to gain the required response from Halfords. Time for a County Court claim. Sounds complicated, but it's really easy to do on-line and costs as little as £25, which you get back in costs as part of your claim.

Surprisingly, Halfords failed to respond to my claim, and also failed to pay the costs of a similar replacement hub gear and court costs within the court deadline. The next option was to send in the bailiffs... again, sounds complicated but is really easy. Just fill in a form, and although the cost is at least £100 this again becomes part of your claim and when successful you get the money back. No surprise this time when Halfords were falling over themselves to pay up!

Of course you need to be sure of your case. No matter how obvious it seems to you, unless you can provide proof to back up your arguments it's probably best to accept defeat if a letter to head office doesn't do the job. 

To get evidence do what I did... email the manufacturer's head office sales department asking about the reliability and longevity of their product. Are they really going to tell you it's unlikely to last more than 12 months? Also email the retailer's head office, and maybe a competitor as well. Armed with possibly three ringing endorsements for the product it would be a silly retailer who allowed you to put in a County Court claim with costs.

The legislation involved is the Sale of Goods Act 1979

There are some useful template letters on the website for BBC's One Show

And you to get advice and make your on-line claim click Make a Court Claim for Money

Keeping a tidy allotment

Believe me, in almost seven years of tending my allotment I've tried every method of using it most efficiently and keeping things tidy. Unfortunately I've also spent a lot of time cutting back weeds and not nearly enough time digging and planting.

So, in the hope of saving you some time and effort, here's a summary of what I've tried, why it failed, and what works for me as the best overall solution.

Raised beds

The first plot I acquired was in a desperate state, with all the appearance of an abandoned bit of rough pasture. But a few days work by my carpenter son in law putting in raised beds on half the plot gave it some structure. Well remember the January afternoon I stuck the spade in one corner of the first raised bed to turn over a turf. And plugging away bit by bit, the progress was almost magical.

But over the next few years the problems associated with raised beds gradually wore me down. There were loads of paths in between the beds to keep tidy... in fact as much as 40% of the available space was used up by access paths. Laying carpet on the paths gave slugs the perfect home to breed from, and when a bit muddy and wet they were treacherous under foot. Growing grass meant there was so much of it to cut and lots of awkward angles to manoeuvre the lawn mower around. Weeds grew up from along the wooden border and invaded the beds.

It's nice theory that raised beds don't need digging, are easy to access and enable a greater concentration of vegetables to be planted... but much of that depends on actually raising the level of soil in the bed. And unless you're going to import tons and tons of soil, it's going to take years to increase the level by adding the compost you produce yourself. I was composting several cubic metres a year and had still only lifted the level in the beds by an inch or so. Raised beds no doubt work if you've got one or two and can expend the care and attention needed. They don't seem practical for something the size of an allotment.

Grass cutting

In an effort to retain green credentials whilst at the same time keeping the grass under control, I bought a battery powered strimmer. Got a great deal, the spare battery included meaning I could merrily strim away for almost an hour. Works fine for small areas, but not practical for something the size of an allotment, where it also has to tackle some tougher opponents.

Next tried a push along mower. After a good session with that I hardly had enough energy to make it back home! Next was the purchase of a magnificent petrol powered strimmer, complete with 30cc motor. No fun to use... fiddly, noisy, and the final straw was when the spring flew off never to be found. So much vibration using the bush cutter blade I'm sure it loosened all my teeth. Back that went for a refund.

Soil turning

Hired a rotavator for a day at not inconsiderable expense, the aim being to break up that part of the plot not turned to raise beds. Spent the day attempting to steer the damned thing whilst it merrily skipped over the surface. At the end of a few hours the area looked much improved, purely because any available vegetation had been scratched away. There was very little penetration into the earth...maybe not such a good idea to use a rotavator in summer on clayey soil! And maybe just as well, since a rotavator doesn't do the worms much good.

And the best solution?

I've ended up with the plot turned over to two large beds with a broad grass path down the middle and narrower grass paths around the sides. This gives the maximum area of cultivation and flexibility for planting. I can plant in any configuration and use planks for walking across the beds to keep the soil uncompressed.

The grass is cut with a petrol mower. The uncomplicated layout of the paths means I can whizz up and down in a fairly short time, and the grass cuttings get bunged into the compost bin where they create some warmth.

You can't beat digging the old fashioned way with a spade. And on our allotment site it always pays to follow what the Italians do... they've been present well over twenty years and are masters at getting the best from their plots. They dig over in September while things are still dry, turning the soil in clods as big as they can. This enables the winter frost to penetrate well into the earth, giving them a deep fine tilth in spring.

To see the progress of my allotment in pictures, just click the 'What's it all about' tab at the top.