Daley Dozen part 5 - 12 closed pubs

Daley Dozen - an occaisional series devoted to a dozen things in the beer world
Part 5 - 12 closed pubs

Some of the pubs the Brew Wales editor has been in over the years that are no longer there.

1. Cupid's Hill Inn, Grosmont. The legendary Cupid's Hill and equally legendary landlord and undertaker Joe take equal precedence for this once in a lifetime pub. For that I mean you only had to visit this place once for it to be etched into your mind. The pub was a timewarp with settles and table skittles and some really old bottles of an obscure Whitbread beer on the counter. But no one went there for the beer. Cupid's Hill Inn was a cider house with bottles of Westons and one year a wooden cask of perry on the bar, made with pears from the back garden and pressed by Denis Gwatkin. Another year some American tourists turned up at the Inn and asked to see the 'cockpit', Joe took them outside and showed them a hole in the ground, at which the Americans asked where the rest of the aircraft was! Obviously tourists are not familiar with some of the more traditional pub games played on the Monmouthshire/Herefordshire border. When the ancient locals, all sitting around the fireplace on a cold Saturday lunchtime, recanted this story to me, I pointed out that cockfighting had been illegal since the 1820s, “Nay we used to have it 'round 'ere up to the 1950s, in fact we tried the other night to get the cockerels to fight in the pub but they weren't having none of it!” The thought of the police and RSPCA raiding this pub in the early hours of the morning to find the cider-sodden regulars arranging an animal fight sprung to mind. What did close the Inn was the death of the landlord Joe and the former Inn is now a private house.
2. Purple Dragon, Bute Terrace. Cardiff. Having aged 10 years since running this establishment, along with 'Chopper' Charlie, the memory of this bar is still fresh. Decorated in 1970s colours and posters, the Purple Dragon even featured a smoke breathing dragon above the front door. 3 real ales were on – Brains SA, Fullers London Pride and a guest, all served in unique over-sized pint glasses. The Purple Dragon was a rare free house for the centre of Cardiff and featured occasional bands and barbecues. All the food served was guaranteed GM free – well it was all bought in from Iceland across the road! But what really made this pub stand out was that it was a pioneer for less strict licensing laws. It was not unusual to see customers leaving during daylight hours, having enjoyed the interesting guest beers throughout the night. The Brew Wales editor even left the pub early one morning, went to Cardiff airport to fly to Reykjavik for a day trip (sweet & sour haddock in the local Chinese is recommended) and was back behind the bar for 2230! Entertainment in the bar was provided by the sadly short-lived Live TV, broadcast from the Daily Mirror offices in Canary Wharf. With high-class programmes such as Topless Darts, the Weather in Norwegian and the unforgettable News Bunny, the Purple Dragon did manage to acquire a certain class of customer who now frequent the chav-palaces of central Cardiff. Some customers even fished in the Dock Feeder that ran alongside the pub, one staff member even barbecued an unfortunate fish caught in that watercourse and suffered the effects the next day. On the bright side, it is quicker to park and open the front door of a bubble car when driving around Cardiff with food poisoning than another car door! Anyway the Purple Dragon was sold together with the hotel above and Mr Malkovich and his partners did not like the idea of a pub and changed it to a hotel bar without the real ale. Recently the Big Sleep Hotel has even got rid of its ground floor bar. A sad loss to a short-lived but fun bar.
3. Rossetti, St John's Wood, London. One of the first places the Brew Wales editor tried Fullers beers, the Rossetti was primarily a restaurant but was owned by the London brewers. Seem to remember it was a bit of an odd design for a pub – sort of Frank Lloyd Wright meets a gastropub. The pub was very popular with members of North London CAMRA and the landlord, who was Italian, insisted on showing the branch members around the cellar after a Pub of the Year or similar award. The cellar was the cleanest and most immaculate I have ever seen, it was also large, the 1960s building had been built with a cellar fitted with a lift for casks and had plenty of headroom. The only complaint from the landlord was that Fullers had stopped supplying ESB in 36-gallon barrels! He had to do with 18-gallon kils instead and they made twice as much work. The Rossetti was sold for redevelopment and flats were built on the site.
4. Ale House, Newport. Steve 'Skinnner' Davidson, from the Hornblower, took over the Sovereign Bar in John Frost Square and changed it into the Alehouse installing real ales on gravity and handpump. Unfortunately the first manager put into the pub was not that good and the beer quality dropped off with a resulting loss in customers. Another manager and a replacement of the beer lines that the previous manager had been unable/unwilling to clean resulted in an improvement but the siting of the pub did not help, at the entrance to the Kingsway shopping centre. At one CAMRA meeting, held in the troglodytical basement of the pub, the attendees from across the UK had problems finding the Ale House as it was in a corner of John Frost Square, Tourist Information were unable to help as the teutonic teetoatal matriarch who ruled the Newport office refused to tell anyone where a pub was! Still the Alehouse had a good following of regulars and the downstairs bar (there was also an upstairs one) became popular due to the restrictions of the licensing laws. Unfortunately the Ale House shut shortly after Skinner was divorced and never reopened as a pub, converting to a retail unit, a DVD shop, before finally being demolished in the attempted redevelopment of Newport City Centre. At the time of writing the building plot is empty.

5. Green Meadow, Waterloo, Machen, Mid-Glamorgan. This was an historic building, the undisputed birthplace of Chartist, Doctor and cremation pioneer William Price. Naturally CADW, responsible for protecting historic buildings in Wales refused to list this 17^th Century former farmhouse and it was demolished. There were plenty of rumours as to why CADW refused to protect this part of Wales' heritage, one of them mentioned that Whitbread Property plc, who sold the pub to Discovery Inns, were by a remarkable coincidence sharing the same office building, Brunel House in Cardiff, as CADW! Allegations of rolled up trouser legs and funny handshakes in the lifts abounded as attempts to save this community pub continued, all to no avail in the end. There was nothing else in the community of Waterloo– no shops and when the village had been cut off from mains electricity during bad winters, the Green Meadow became the heart of the community as it was one of the few buildings with coal fires. The Green Meadow was demolished in an outstanding example of institutional vandalism and 13 homes were built on the site.

6.Railway Inn, Pontlottyn. Pontlottyn was built as a temperance town with no pubs in the village. However the teetotal local landowner did not own the land beneath the Rhymney Railway viaduct and an enterprising brewery in the 19^th Century built this unique pub underneath the arches. Unique as it was built out of corrugated iron and featured 3 bars, one underneath each arch, all linked by a long corridor. The pub was closed by the later-day inheritors of the Temperance Movement, Whitbread plc and today the arches stand empty.

7. Royal Albert, Newport. The Royal Albert was a large, 19^th Century pub on Commercial Street. Multiple bars stretched back into the back of this Grade II listed Berni Inn, owned by Bass. Naturally this town-centre watering hole with easy access for all and in the centre of the shopping area did not fit in with the world view of Bass and was closed and demolished. That's right a Grade II listed building was demolished with the full support of the labour-run Newport Council and of CADW. River Island Clothing now occupies the site.

8. Conti's, Newport. Another legendary pub in the centre of Newport was the freehouse owned by the Conti family and it was famous for the quality of the Bass it served. One brewery visit from the pub to Burton-upon-Trent involved two full coaches of fans, not many breweries could cope with that many visitors today. Conti's was primarily a restaurant and the pub license was not obtained until 1976, by the 1980s though it had the highest barrellage for Bass of any pub in South Wales. After the death of one of the family members, the rest of the family decided to sell up and the pub was demolished to make way for retail outlets. Pasty shop now occupies half the site.

9. Chartists, Newport. This place was a dump, but it was one of the dumps that every town and city needs in order to keep the low-life nutters out of every other pub. The Chartists had 2 handpumps, one dispensing 'Khan's Traditional Ale' and the other 'Khan's Traditional Cider', the owner of the establishment being a gentleman from the sub-continent who decided to put profit before his religion in the best Ferengi tradition. The first time I visited the pub was in pre-internet days with Fido from the Lone Voice when PC Plod and Sergeant Jobsworth had thrown us out of the Alehouse as it was Good Friday and the pubs had to shut at 3. Wandering around town, looking for somewhere else to drink, we were warmly waved into the Chartists by one of the inhabitants and presented with the choice of Khan's Ale or Cider. Brew Wales went for the cider and was then offered the choice of, “A pint for a pound or a stein for one pound twenty”and naturally went for a stein. Well this illegal Heineken stein came out with no Crown stamps on it (Trading Standards obviously never dared to come into this pub), filled with a cloudy liquid that tasted like and probably was Bulmers Traditional. The 'Khan's Traditional Ale' turned out to be Courage Best. The toilets were unforgettable; down a spiral staircase, walking through what you hoped was water in part of the cellar to a couple of doors at the end where once inside even the verdigris on the fittings had verdigris on them. Another person in our company later discovered, on his way back through the cellar, that the local inhabitants rarely got as far as the toilet and just used to urinate down the spiral staircase! Anyway PC Plod and Sergeant Jobsworth reappeared a few hours later and chucked us out of the pub for drinking on Good Friday. The Chartist was closed a few years later after a police raid and a Portuguese restaurant now occupies the building.

Above:Trekkers in the snow

10. Trekkers, The Narth. Trekkers was an unique building in Wales, a log-cabin pub set in the hills of Monmouthshire. A rare local outlet for beers from Felinfoel and Freeminer breweries, Trekkers soon gained popularity amongst CAMRA members for its good beer and good food. Unfortunately, when the pub had been built as pony-trekking centre in the 1970s the building standards were not up to scratch and the pub closed after insurance problems related to the wooden framed structure.

11. Brew House, Newport. In the 1990s, the Ross Brewery of Bristol decided to open a second brewery in Newport and took over the former South Wales Argus printing works in Market Street, so where once papers were printed. Pints were now being brewed and served. One of the first things they did was to sell beer at 85p a pint, the cheapest in the UK according to a CAMRA survey. This invoked the wrath of the Licensed Victuallers Association (LVA), the chair of which persuaded a uniformed police inspector to accompany him on a visit to the Brew House, where the chair told the owner that it was illegal to serve beer below a pound a pint in Newport. The owner asked the police officer which law was he breaking, to which the uniformed inspector turned around and walked out! It turned out there was no law being broken, the LVA just had a “Gentleman's Agreement” to keep the price of drinks artificially inflated. Basically they were operating as an illegal price-fixing cartel with the full support of the police. “I'm a Scotsman not a Gentleman”, was the reply given by one of the Ross brothers and the LVA chair left in a huff! The Brew House was also famous for producing the strongest beer in the world, Uncle Igor's Famous Falling Down Water which weighed in at around 23% ABV and was only available in 1/3 rd pint glasses. The Brew House was a marvellous innovation for Newport, before superpubs came in, unfortunately it was never a success and the brewery was sold to WARCOP on the Gwent levels. The building still stands and is a nightclub nowadays.

12. Westlakes Arms, Cwmavon, Torfaen. Originally known as the Railway, this pub changed its name to commemorate the former Westlakes Brewery, the buildings of which still stand in the base of the valley near the pub. The Westlakes Arms was an early winner of the Regional CAMRA Pub of the Year Award and had a good reputation for food and beer. Unfortunately the small size of the car park meant that they could not expand further and the beer range dwindled, along with the choice and variety available, with only HB on in the later years. The former pub is now private accommodation.

Above:The former Westlakes Brewery

Daley Dozen - 12 favourite draught beers

An occasional series devoted to the 12 things best in the brewing world, part 4, 12 favourite draught beers (British).

The Brew Wales 12 favourite draught real ale beers. Beers with strong, hoppy flavours do tend to dominate, but then life is too short to drink bland beer.

1. Fullers ESB A fantastic strong ale at 5.5% ABV with a most complex hoppy nose. The beer is dry-hopped in the cask and this can produce flavour changes in the cask as it is served, a two-day opened cask has a more hoppy aroma than a fresh cask. This beer benefits from exceptional cellar skills and is one of the beers that persuaded Brew Wales to start drinking real ales but then that's another story!
2. Otley O1 Light-coloured, hoppy beer with a wonderful thirst-quenching taste. The Otley boys really like their hops and this beer is no exception.
3. Wye Valley HPA An outstanding pale ale, always a favourite at local beer festivals. Light and hoppy this is always on favourite on a hot sunny day, or a cold wet day in Hereford.
   
4. Fullers Chiswick Another dry-hopped ale from Fullers. Unfortunately it is rarely seen in the free trade in Wales and Brew Wales has the difficult decision in Fullers pubs whether to have an ESB or a Chiswick.
5. Fullers London porter. Stunning but rarely available on draught, London Drinker Beer festival can usually manage to get a 9 or two. Even the bottled, pasteurised version packs a powerful flavour.
6. Brains Dark An old favourite, the dark and delicious flavours of Brains Dark always go down well on a visit to Cardiff.
7. Oakham JHB at 3.8% ABV, this is proof that beer and real ale in particular does not have to have high ABVs to be packed full of flavour. Citrus flavours and floral notes appear in this light-coloured thirst quenching ale.
8. Thornbridge Jaipur IPA 5.9% ABV. Probably the closest thing to a real IPA, not the bland dishwater that Charington used to knock out in London under that name. Jaipur IPA is hoppy and very easy to drink, the strength is deceptive and according to the Cynical Dragon “It does make a good chaser for Otley O8”.
9. Rhymney Dark 4% ABV. Roast flavours dominate in this beer, the 'mild' or 'dark' style as it was known throughout South Wales once dominated the pubs throughout the industrial heartlands. Good to see that Rhymney Brewery resurrected this style and packed full of flavour.
10. Otley Columb-O. Experimenting with the fantastic Columbus hop from America, the Otley boys came up with this wonderful, light-coloured hoppy ale. Otley brewery have now bought the entire UK supply of this hop. The latest version of Columb-O Brew Wales had the fortune to try had also been dry-hopped in the cask for a month. Naturally it sold out down Cardiff Bay International Food Festival. And some brewers in Wales still insist that bland beers are what the public wants to drink.
11. Otley O8. 8% ABV. At this strength it is hardly what one would call a session ale but Brew Wales and the Lone Voice did manage a session on it the day that Peter Hain MP resigned over dodgy donations to his Leadership Campaign. The hoppy, floral tones of this golden ale mellowed with the satisfaction of seeing the perma-tanned twit having to resign in disgrace.
12. Purple Moose Snowdonia Ale 3.6%. Another example of a real ale that does not have to have a strong ABV to win awards. Light, hoppy and full of flavour, the Snowdonia is always a favourite at local festivals.

Well there we have it, the Brew Wales top 12 of real ales, I'm sure my readers have their favourites as well.

Daley Dozen - 12 South Wales Pubs

Daley Dozen, part 3
An occasional series devoted to a dozen best things in the beer world.

12 favourite pubs in South Wales

1. Clytha Arms, Monmouthshire. Set in its own grounds, the Clytha has won countless awards over the years for its real ales and food. It is even on a bus route, though a somewhat irregular one.
2. Joiners, Bishopston, Swansea. Home of the Swansea Brewing Company, the Joiners offers good beer and good food in a pleasant setting a short bus ride from the city centre. Brew Wales has heard that all the beers are good here, though Three Cliffs Gold is the only one ever imbibed by him here.
3. Boars Head, Tyla Garw, Glamorgan. Great pub, about 10 minutes walk from Pontyclun Railway Station. The management actively support local breweries here.
4. Ye Olde Murenger House, Newport. The Brew Wales local, despite their being around other 15 pubs between home and this pub. A haven in a superpub ghetto. Dates back to the 1520s with ghosts and Sam Smiths OBB, although Brew Wales avoids the spirits!
5. Green Dragon, Monmouth, Monmouthshire. The Brew Wales regular hangout in Monmouth, situated close to the now pedestrianised medieval bridge. A fine 2-bar boozer with good beer, Fullers London Pride is a regular on the bar here.
6. Winchester, Merthyr. Well anywhere named after Arthur Daley's preferred drinking establishment has to be good and this is no exception. Four real ales on, that's often three more than the nearby chav palace, all from the local Rhymney Brewery.
7. Goat Major, Cardiff. I like the beer, the 1920s décor and even the food is interesting. Despite being on the busy St Mary Street and close to the castle, the Goat Major is often quite, a good place to hide away from the busy streets of the capitol.
8. Bell, Caerleon. A cider pub, with often up to 20 different ciders and perries on. Excellent food and real ales as well. Hidden away in a back street of Caerleon.
9. Otley Arms, Trefforest. One of Brew Wales favourite pubs for years, the Otley offers everything that is needed in a good pub, good beer, good conversation and good food. Oh and did I mention the beer? O1 for Brew Wales, unless Columbo is on.
10. Boar's Head, Brecon. Situated by the river, the Boar's offers the full range of Breconshire Beers and is one of the best pubs in Brecon.
11. Vulcan, Cardiff. Well, Brains Bitter and SA on here, the famous brown urinals have been saved for 3 years, let us just hope that a more secure future can be made for this wonderful pub.
12. Bunch of Grapes, Pontypridd. Yes I know it's a gastopub and my feelings on such pubs are mixed but the beer is superb and the food is as well.

Daley Dozen - 12 London Pubs

Daley Dozen, part 2. An occasional series devoted to a dozen best things in the beer world.
12 favourite pubs in London:

1. Dove, Hammersmith. Riverside pub, just down the Thames from Fullers Brewery. It seems that nothing has changed here for years and yet this pub is still surprisingly unknown. Brew Wales escorted a couple of American tourists to the pub after a trip around Fullers Brewery last year and they were amazed to find such a place that was not in any guide books. It is in the 1934 edition of “The Old Inns of England! The long pub has separate drinking areas, including the smallest public bar in the world, verified by the Guinness Book of Records. Oh and 'Rule Britannia' was composed upstairs!

Photo above from 1934 book "Old Inns of England"

2.Cittie of York, Holborn. The interior of this Sam Smith's pub is fantastic with an oak-beamed roof, old spirit casks and a triangular fireplace. Forget the front bar, always head to the rear of this pub, for a truly unique drinking experience. One of the Capitol's more unusual pubs, it was rebuilt in 1924 on the site of an older building and there is also a cellar bar dating from an earlier building
3. Old Cheshire Cheese, Fleet Street. Another favoured haunt owned by Sam Smith's brewery, this pub was rebuilt after the Great Fire and some of the wood panelling in the pub is believed to be original. An odd collection of different rooms on different levels, this surely must be one of London's greatest pubs?
4. Sanctuary House, Westminster. A short walk from the Palace of Westminster, the Sanctuary House was the closest Fullers pub to Parliament until their recent purchase of the Red Lion. Handy for a bite to eat at a reasonable price and a good place to read the Evening Standard, the Sanctuary House is also an hotel.
5. Mad Bishop & Bear, Paddington. The old station bar at Paddington was never much good and Brew Wales only ever used it whilst awaiting the (often last) train to South Wales. However, when the station and the Great Western Hotel were redeveloped, Fullers Brewery put a pub on the first floor of the food court. Handy for breakfast from the early trains or the last pint whilst awaiting the last train, the Mad Bishop & Bear stocks the full range of Fullers beers as well as guests from other breweries. Also useful to stock up on a few bottles of Fullers ales for the train journey back to Wales, but not too many 1845 as might miss the stop!
6. Ye Olde Mitre Tavern, Holborn. Difficult to find, no make that really difficult to find, the Mitre is surrounded by buildings on all sides and is accessed via a narrow passageway. Very popular pub lunchtimes but the rush does ease off after 2. The Mitre is wood-panelled throughout and offers excellent real ales as well as toasted sandwiches in an atmosphere unparalleled anywhere in the Capitol. Recently bought by Fullers, we do not expect any big changes here!
7. Red Lion, Westminster, back in since Fullers have bought it! The Red Lion was always one of Brew Wales' favoured haunts back in the days of living in the smoke. Great enjoyment is still to be had when the Parliamentary Division bell rings in the pub and the tourists run out thinking its the fire alarm! Now Fullers closest pub to Parliament, Brew Wales will no doubt be using it a lot more.
8. Princess Louise, Holborn. 20 years ago this pub was owned by Vaux Brewery of Sunderland and was a large building with an open-plan island bar. Then a few years ago Sam Smith's Brewery bought it and did what can only be described as a “derefurbishment” in which new partitions were put into the slots left when the pub was converted to open-plan in the 1960s. What resulted was an authentic restoration of a Victorian pub, so good that it looks like it has always been like this.
9. Founders Arms, Bankside. One of the few proper outside drinking areas in London, the Founders is a Wells and Youngs pub on the south side of the Thames. A moden pub, it was built to take full advantage of the the setting and the views of the river and of London are great here on a sunny afternoon and yes you can see St Pauls Cathedral from the pub.
10. White Horse, Parsons Green. Now the 'Sloaney Pony' offers an unprecedented range of beers, both foreign and from the UK. A very popular pub, the Green outside often becomes an extended drinking area in the summer. A few beer festivals are held throughout the year, including a 'Winter ales festival' at which the author of this blog was photographed in the Hammersmith Gazette some 18 years ago!
11. Victoria, Paddington. Unusual 'Gin Palace' survivor that has its own theatre bar. A short walk from Paddington station, this small, street-corner pub is well-worth visiting. Used to be the Brew Wales regular stop off before the refurbishment of Paddington Station.
12. St Stevens' Tavern, Westminster. Closest pub to Parliament, the St Stevens' Tavern is next door to Westminster Tube station and across the road from Big Ben. It was closed for 20 years, hence Brew Wales never went there whilst living in London and it came as a nice surprise when someone told us about the pub. Owned by Hall & Woodhouse (Badger) the St James' is a nice mixture of Victoriania and modern pub design. As long as there are no protesters in Parliament Square.

A lot of Fullers pubs in that list, but then again, Brew Wales is partial to a pint or two of their beers. Just a personal choice, I know there are pubs with better beers in London, but for some reason or another, these are the pubs that Brew Wales has frequented regularly over the last 20 years and still returns to them.

The Daley Dozen

An occasional series devoted to a dozen good things in the world of pubs/beer/cider/brewing.

12 best beer/pub books, personal choice from the Brew Wales library

1. Good Beer Guide, Editor Roger Protz. The Campaign for Real Ale's flagship publication makes its annual appearance every Autumn with the best of British pubs and details of British breweries. The brewery section is indispensable especially when you can't remember who owns/brews Bass at the moment – it is brewed by Marstons but the brand is owned by In-bev. Useful to remember for the pub quiz!
2. The English Pub, Michael Jackson 1976. The late Mr Jacksons' books quite deservedly take pride of place on a Brew Wales bookcase but this is the book that launched him onto the beer scene. An excellent history of the pub, packed with photographs.
3. Death of the English Pub, Christopher Hutt 1973. Pubs are under threat today but in the 1970s they were under threat for different reasons. Chris Hutt takes a look at the brewing industry that over the years led up to this crisis.
4. Prince of Ales, History of Brewing in Wales, Brian Glover 1993. Indispensable for anyone researching or just interested in the history of Welsh brewing.
5. Pub Names of Britain, Dunkling & Wright 1987. 10,000 different pub names with descriptions about them all. My only gripe is Ye Olde Murenger House is not featured! Does need updating to a new edition.
6. The Faber Book of Drink, Drinkers and Drinking, ed Simon Rae 1991.Over 500 pages of anecdotes and snippets from literature from Burns, Orwell, Hardy, Byron etc. Well worth delving into for a good quote.
7. The Beer Book, editor Tim Hampson 2008. Described elsewhere as 'Beer Porn' this is a guide to the world of beer with full colour photographs and tasting notes, written by experts from the countries involved. Excellent reference manual for beer in the 21^st Century. Reviewed by Brew Wales last year.
8. Licensed to Sell, History and Heritage of the Public House, Geoff Brandwood, Andrew Davison & Mick Slaughter, 2004. An excellent, fully illustrated book on the history, development and architecture of the pub. Mythbusting section at the back deserves a book to itself.
9. Rough Pub Guide, Paul Moody & Robin Turner, 2008. 50 of the most extraordinary drinking experiences in the UK. Packed full of pubs Brew Wales knows and loves and others waiting to be discovered. Reviewed by Brew Wales last year.
10. The Guinness Drinking Companion, Leslie Dunkling 1992, an anthology and guide to 5000 years of drinking, covering beer, cider, wine, spirits etc.
11. The Brewing Industry 1950-1990, Anthony Avis 1995. A collection of essays on the British brewing industry, written by someone who was an insider throughout these times. In-depth knowledge that is often missing from other books.
12. A Century of British Brewers 1890-1990, Norman Barber 1994. Indispensable A4 booklet listing old breweries in their towns. Brew Wales copy is now looking very haggard with the cover falling off and packed full of handwritten notes.