The Travellers Friend, Woodford Green

Reopened after refurb. Lovely paint job on the wall outside. Welcoming, friendly, spacious. Despite new clientele of the unread in convertible Bentleys and withered tan, TOWIE women in face-sized sunglasses and rehearsed bleached-teeth-smile, and waddling tattoo-ees 'drinking what looks expensive rather than tasty', the 'Spivs' is 10 times better than under OLD management, who. are. reading. this. very. sentence. Congratulations to new owners. 10 out of 10.

29 Jun 2017 19:21

Chequers, Walthamstow

Excellent beer, and strong variety. An exceptionally good wheat beer from the London Fields Brewery; cask ale Beavertown(?) Jaipur IPA? The staff, I found to be VERY helpful, efficient and not tediously over-familiar.

Decor is dark mixture of brownish-black treacle and equally dull sea-green coloured paints that adds needless decades to a newly renovated pub; a setting that contrasts with those inhabiting it; wealthy 40 year-olds, trying to strip themselves of their decades, wearing expensive glasses, clothing and footwear. The Chequers poor decor appears to be the work of those with whom it is now frequented; the affluent, South-West London artist - from whom all measure of suffering has been kept. Looking to recreate the dilapidation of an old East End public house for other middle-class people of no financial constraint, the Chequers clientele is entirely educated and well-dressed, and presumably secretly thankful for the complete absence of the poor, working-class Walthamstow resident, whose house their parents bought up 12 months earlier. Like the Private Eye cartoon 'It's Grim Up North London' (with only 'north' substituted for 'east') "Oh, eating sea bream whilst watching all the tradesman outside, it's like being back in Marrkech!"

The Chequers' customers' well-to-do and generally superficial presentation of their whole character through their clothing, means that one fears not unprovoked violent attacks from strangers, since those at whom you 'stare' are pleased to have their jumper or haircut looked at continually by the lesser-presented you. Twenty-something boys, frightfully handsome and coy, show off dark beards, whilst their pallid and plain looking girlfriend thumbs dispassionately at a phone.

Now, the real question is whether it is better than the reopened Bell. For beer, the Chequers; for decor, the Bell; for clientele, both are good; for food, I hear the Chequers. I'd strongly recommend both. 9/10.

31 May 2013 23:18

The Victoria Tavern, Loughton

An excellent pub; the Timothy Taylor is very moorish.
Friendly staff, comfortable, and cosy setting, down a residential road leading to High Beech.
One does get a bit of attention from the extremely wealthy, former-criminal-turned-property-developer regulars who enter with wideboy son, BNP voting friend, and attractive, reluctantly-ageing wife, but the attention is not hostile, more curious.They all stand in a space 'tween door and bar making it difficult for customers to enter or exit.

For such a picturesque, leafy part of rural London/Essex, Loughton does have a slightly uncomfortable feel to it. The odd gang of teens whom believe themselves to be extras from 'The Football Factory', clad in designer tracksuits and oiled side-partings, walk the street standing at an imposing 6"0+, and all born of stick-thin, perma-tan mothers (whose obsessive gym-routine has given them a dishonest appearance of youth akin to their son's demographic); unnecessary, customised 4x4s selfishly parked on the pavements by attention seeking, Heat-magazine-reading men, before they're driven 50m back to the house and parked on 100ft driveways clad by the owner's tax-evading company; there is a ubiquitous vanity that is worn on the faces of all those that spend their day not engaged in: cultural, emotionally or morally stimulating work, but instead vacuous beauty treatments, such as having fish eat dead skin off their toes...

The Victoria does feel like an oasis in this nouveau riche town, aspiring towards greater, and greater levels of celebrity culture and materialism. Certainly the best pub I've visite don the Lodnon Essex borders.
9/10.

20 Feb 2011 18:12