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Next dates to remember…

19th May Ramble ICONLondon Pub Ramble
@London
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21st May Meeting ICONBranch Meeting
Starts: 8:00pm
@The Crown, Buntingford
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31st May Ramble ICONPub Ramble
Starts: 8:00pm
@Letchworth
Details »
22nd June Award ICONNorth Herts POTY Presentation
Starts: 8:00pm
@Red Lion, Preston
Details »
30th June Award ICONHitchin Beer-of-the-Festival presentation: Windsor & Eton Brewery
Starts: 12:30pm
@Windsor & Eton Brewery
Details »

Richard’s London Beer Ramble – May 19th

London Beer Ramble May 2012

London Beer Ramble May 2012

One of our members – Richard Merritt – has devised a London Beer Ramble route and we have scheduled a branch social outing on Saturday May 19th to follow it.

We’d love to see our members, and prospective members too, come along and enjoy some London pints with us.

The invitation is extended to all nearby CAMRA branches including London of course! If you’d like to put up a poster advertising the ramble you can download one here [PDF].

From North Hertfordshire our travel arrangements are to catch the train to King’s Cross and then the Northern Line to London Bridge. The train originates in Cambridge at 08:55 (two CAMRA members will be joining from there) and stops at North Herts stations as follows:

08:55: Cambridge

09:15: Royston
09:20: Ashwell & Morden
09:25: Baldock
09:29: Letchworth
09:34: Hitchin
09:40: Stevenage
09:44 Knebworth

10:20: London King’s Cross

We will be meet in the front carriage of the train – no doubt several of us will be wearing beer/CAMRA-related shirts.

The map below shows the route we shall be taking, and below the map are Richard’s notes about the pubs and surrounds!


View May 18th North Herts CAMRA London Beer Ramble in a larger map

1 – BREW WHARF – Brew Wharf Yard, Stoney Street, SE1
You will have a chance to sample their own beers brewed on site. 11:00 – 11:30

We then proceed on to the…

2 – MARKET PORTER – 9 Stoney Street, SE1
Here you will find up to 9 hand pumps serving a fine selection of beers. 11:30 – 12:15

Weather permitting we take a historic walk beside the Thames passing Southwark Cathedral, The Golden Hind and the Globe. We then cross the Thames again at Blackfriars Bridge and walk via Tudor Street and the Inns at Temple (if open), where some of the top legal people ply their trade, to reach the…

3 – KNIGHTS TEMPLAR – 95, Chancery Lane WC2
This is a Weatherspoon’s pub and may be a lunch stop. 13:30 – 14:30

We take a very short walk to the…

4 – SEVEN STARS – 53 Cary Street, WC2
In this Camra National Inventory pub a selection of beers can be found including Adnams and Dark Star! 14:30 – 15:00

We can walk through Lincolns Inn Fields passing the Old Curiosity Shoppe then cross Holborn Kingsway, noting the old tram tunnel to our left, to reach the Old Covent Garden Market taking in all its splendour via Kemble and Russell Streets. From here it is a short walk to reach the…

5 – HARP – 47 Chandos Place
This was the CAMRA National Pub of Great Britain for 2011, need I say more!! 15:30 – 16:15

We then cross the Strand and walk down Villers Street to the…

6 – SHIP and SHOVEL – 2 – 3 Craven Passage W1
Badger beers are sold here. 16:30 – 17:00

We then take a walk past Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square and Gerrard Street which is part of London’s China Town to reach…

7 – DE HEMS – 11 Macclesfield Street, W1
This is a genuine Dutch bar that has been trading on this site for over 100 years. Expect the unusual here but all the real beer will probably be found in a bottle! 17:30 – 18:00

We then walk round to Frith Street and on to the…

8 – DOG and DUCK – 10 Bateman Street, W1
This Nicholson’s pub is on the CAMRA National Inventory 18:30 – 19:00

From here we walk down Greek Street to Cambridge Circus and then proceed via Earlham Street and Shelton Street to the…

9 – CROSS KEYS – 31 Endell St, W1
Here you will encounter Brodies Beers from East London and a load of pictures and other bric-a-brac that adorns the pub. 19:30 – 20:00

From here it is a short walk back to Covent Garden (sometimes closed due to crowd control) or Leicester Square tube stations.

We will take the Piccadilly line to Kings Cross where there are lots of fast food outlets before catching the train back to North Herts!

If getting off in Hitchin, who is for a quick one in the HALFMOON?

Spring Beer Festivals Galore!

Starting today (Thursday April 26th) we have two beer festivals running over the weekend at two great pubs. Both the Half Moon in Hitchin and the Our Mutual Friend in Stevenage have beer festivals this weekend! Why not visit one, or even both? These two pubs are the 2012 North Herts CAMRA Pub of the[...Read on]

FIGHT BACK TO SAVE YOUR PINT – SIGN THE BEER TAX E-PETITION

Beer_A5 Flyer_highres

It’s time to save your pint and fight back against this year’s budget which saw the Government continue its damaging policy of the beer duty escalator. Every year beer tax increases by 2% above inflation meaning your pint in the pub costs you 5-10p more. This mounting pressure is contributing to the closure of 16 pubs [...Read on]

Community Pubs Month & Pub Beer Festivals

Community Pubs Month 2012

Community Pubs Month - support *your* local It has nearly been a whole month since Hitchin Beer Festival, so you should have recovered well enough to be thirsty for another beer festival or two. This month we know of four pubs holding beer festivals: The Orange Tree in Baldock and The Lytton Arms in Knebworth this [...Read on]

Hitchin Festival Report

All is calm before the festival doors open.

One word summary: Success! Friday evening was crammed, over the course of the day we counted 1406 people entering the town hall. Saturday was steady but slower, 872 customers enjoyed the ales – bringing us to a total that trumps last year’s record by 104 people. Will the Hitchin festival ever shake its “runs out [...Read on]

FestyCam Hitchin 2012

See you at the festival! It’s over! See you next year?

All our time-lapse videos from the festival are below – they can all be viewed in HD mode too if you choose. Day 1, day 2, and then the set-up. Alas we didn’t get a pack-up one because somebody slept in on Sunday morning… maybe[...Read on]

Sneak peak: Hitchin Beer Festival 2012 Set-Up

It begins (Hitchin 2012 setup)

*Whew*! Finally finished up the Hitchin Beer and Cider Festival set-up for the day. Thanks to the CAMRA and the Round Table volunteers – some who had started before the 8:30am opening – that helped! It’s looking like a very long and intriguing list of ale, cider/perry and foreign beer that I’m waiting in rabid [...Read on]

The beer, it beckons.. 2012 Hitchin Beer & Cider Festival

hitch2012v2

Just another reminder: (at the time of writing) it’s less than 10 days to go until..

We need YOU to score beers!

Calling all North Hertfordshire CAMRA members!

Your local pubs need you!

Good Beer Guide 2012

Good Beer Guide

The deadline for entering beer scores to help us pick the 2013 Good Beer Guide pubs is rapidly approaching – it is February 19th in fact. We would dearly like to see more scores in our database before[...Read on]

Our Mutual Friend – Winter Beer Festival

Bar at the Our Mutual Friend

There is a whole 5 weeks to wait until the Hitchin Beer & Cider festival — what to do in the meantime? Well all year round you can get great cask ale in excellent North Herts pubs — especially at their own independent beer festivals! The Our Mutual Friend in Stevenage, a Good Beer [...Read on]

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Branch Diary

   May  2012 »
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  • Pub Ramble

    Starts: 8:00 pm

    Ends: 11:00 pm, 11th May, 2012

    Location: Royston

12
  • Hertfordshire POTY Minibus trip

    Starts: 12:00 am

    Ends: 12:00 am, 13th May, 2012

    Location: Hertfordshire

13
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  • London Pub Ramble

    Starts: 12:00 am

    Ends: 12:00 am, 20th May, 2012

    Location: London

20
21
  • Branch Meeting

    Starts: 8:00 pm

    Ends: 10:30 pm, 21st May, 2012

    Location: The Crown, Buntingford

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  • Pub Ramble

    Starts: 8:00 pm

    Ends: 11:00 pm, 31st May, 2012

    Location: Letchworth