Today we will collect untraveled London. Since I move to London 10 years ago I still look at it with the eyes of a tourist and I continue to admire its versatility and the variety of opportunities that this amazing city gives to all. I love to look to facades of the houses and imagine the life inside everyone during the period. For me the immersion in the past is facilitated not only by museums and famous sights of the English capital, but I get much more affect from visiting old pubs, having their own traditions, interesting interiors and exteriors, and especially their History. Pubs look like a doors and portals for the deep connoisseurs of the Victorian era. In my posts I will try to systematize interesting London pubs by location. Today I would like to start with Bermondsey beer mile.
London mews and pubs are a hidden world where time forgot, world with history and character and are more trendy affairs with true locals. The fact that very few genuine mews pubs have survived. Sometimes you must be brave to enter some of them, but the beauty of seeking out these places it’s that you avoid the tourist places. The most hidden ones are more hardcore local, secret, hidden, elusive, the ones ordinary tourists couldn’t ever see, because they’ll never have the time or inclination.
As you know, the format of the Tavern, where served alcohol with food, in England brought the Romans. PUB became a real institution of English life. However, only a few dozen London pubs can really have a history.
For example, The Mayflower - the building is the oldest pub you’ll find in London on the Thames. It’s full of history and the original mooring point of The Pilgrim Fathers’ Mayflower ship. Of all the Thames side pubs, this one is the most special, the most atmospheric, the most tucked-away – and its wooden deck at the back has probably the best view of the river too.
If there’s a better accompaniment to an evening pint than the sound of the river slapping away through the slats under your feet, and the lights of the City twinkling away in the distance, we’ve yet to find it.Inside is brilliant too – it dates 1620, with ecclesiastical wooden pews, real ales, an open fire and a friendly hubbub of chatter. Traditionally, pub windows glass is made of smoky or frosted glass to protect guests from the hustle and bustle of the world.
It is said that whistles in ancient England were mounted in beer mugs to whistle, not screaming, to let the bartender know about the need for another pint of beer. Be sure to catch the sunset and try the best fish and chips in London and imagine who may have been sitting in your seat 400 years ago! A real find of a pub.
So, if you want to feel the spirit of old England, go straight to the pub. Continuation of the story will be in the following posts.