Best Pubs in the UK

by Neil Woodburn on

Narrowing down the best pubs in England and Wales is a Sisyphean task. Just as you think you’ve found the best, the rock comes rolling down and you have to start all over again.

Alastair Sawday, writing for the Times (UK) seems to think he’s manhandled the task, however, and apparently has the bollocks to claim he’s found the very best the UK has to offer.

Naturally, every drunk hunched over every pint across this beer-drinkng nation will have their own thoughts on the matter. After reading Sawday’s review, however, I think I’m going to side with his well researched and surpsingly sober opinions.

Take for example the 16th-century Harrow Inn at Hampshire that is “Unspoilt, brick-and-tiled,” and “hides down a country lane that dwindles into a footpath by a little stream.” Sawday notes that the pub’s “timbered walls, brick inglenook fireplace aglow in winter, [and] scrubbed elm tables” is the perfect place to while away the winter–although the fact that the “loos are a quick dash across the lane” slightly detracts from the allure of the place if you ask me.

Photo of the Day (5/9/07)

by Adrienne Wilson on


When localsurfer strikes the Gadling Flickr pool with his whimsical, secret, shady, sunken tree-lined photographs he sure does strike hard or shoot with an incredibly focused eye, doesn’t he? How I’d love to be the lucky individual in blue walking towards the end of the path. According to localsurfer’s notes anyone can visit Clovelly for a fee, but not everyone knows the back way in. Nice work!

Tube Challenge ’07: May 18

by Willy Volk on

When my friend ran the Chicago Marathon, we followed her progress on The L. We had a transit authority map that we pre-plotted, and we met her and cheered her on at various stages of the race. It was great fun and somewhat like being in a mini-version of the Amazing Race. Consequently, if I was in or near London on May 18 of this year, I could definitely see myself participating in the Tube Challenge.

During most of the year, London’s Tube is a necessary evil. However, for certain intrepid individuals, the Tube Challenge — a race through London’s Underground — is a fierce contest between rival teams. An official Guinness World Record event, the currently recognized record time for doing a tour of the London Underground taking in all of the 275 stations, is 18 hours, 35 minutes and 38 seconds, by Sam Cawley and Steve Wilson on May 30, 2006. (However, the following September, two Swedes — Håkan Wolge and Lars Andersson — hit all 275 stops in only 18 hours, 25 minutes and 3 seconds. They’re still awaiting confirmation from Guinness, though, before bragging rights are officially theirs.)

On May 18, a Zone 1 Challenge will be staged. A Zone 1 Challenge means racers *only* have to hit 63 stations. The record for this event is 2 hours, 45 minutes, 11 seconds — as long as a long-ish movie — held by Ric Brackenbury. For more details on this Zone 1 Challenge — including start times and where to meet — hit the Tube Challenge forum.

The UK’s Best Coastal Walks

by Neil Woodburn on

Of all the places one can walk, the most enjoyable location to stretch one’s legs is undoubtedly along the coast.

There is nothing quite like an offshore breeze, crashing waves, and the salty air to really wake you up and make you feel alive.

So where are the very best places for a coastal stroll? Well, if you happen to be in the UK, Martine Wainwright has thoughtfully compiled a descriptive list of the region’s ten best locations, not one of which I’ve ever heard of before–such as number one on the list, Pittenweem to Elie, Fife. Huh?

Nonetheless, if you find yourself in the UK any time soon, seek out at least one of these walks; it will do you a world of good.

Keats and the Hampstead and Highgate Festival

by Jamie Rhein on

This is the last day of National Poetry Month. Although this month is an American invention, here’s a poet whose influence on American poets is unquestioned, and whose former home is now a museum and poetry center. John Keats lived in this elegant house from 1818 to 1820. Back then the house was actually two houses that were later joined together.

Keats wrote several of his most famous poems here maybe because of his love for the girl next door. Fanny Brawne and Keats were supposed to marry, though theirs is a sad tale of romance cut short by illness. Keats had tuberculosis, not the best affliction to have when living in London. He headed to Italy and died there at age 25 without ever seeing Fanny again.

The Keats House Museum is in the London suburb of Hampstead. From May 9-19, the Keats House Museum is part of the Hampstead and Highgate Festival that includes concerts and community arts events.

The first four lines of Keats’ poem, “The four seasons”

” FOUR Seasons fill the measure of the year;
There are four seasons in the mind of man:
He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear
Takes in all beauty with an easy span. . .”