We discovered, as our Southampton pub walk progressed, that medieval life in Southampton had its horrors as this commemorative plaque shows…
Thankfully today this was not a horror we were about to encounter…not in Southampton at least.
Pub 3 on our pub walk was The London Road Brew House, London Road, Southampton – as the name suggests not only a pub, but a micro-brewer of house beers…owned by City Pub Company an expanding progressive pubco with 34 pubs in London and the south.
This imposing street corner edifice was the 1980s offices of the Transport and General Workers Union where officials and members held meetings to arrange ballots, working to rule, dock strikes, and possibly the occasional trip to Cuba.
We noticed that someone seemed to have left a photo of a TGWU ‘comrade’ on the wall…
…who would probably be horrified to learn of the new capitalist use of the premises…
…just as I thought…
The happy ‘bride of yesteryear’ was another of these horror holograms on display…now called me old fashioned, but not my idea of the ideal marriage…
It was becoming clear that the pubs we were visiting on this pub walk were likely to be bursting at the seams with Saints supporters, and this one was no exception…
…there was a security bloke on the door, and most tables in the cavernous pub – both on the ground floor and mezzanine floor were occupied by fans…
As you can see from the above photo the half pint beer glasses were pretty grim – like classic examples of Ravenhead tumblers…the beer deserved better…
…in fact my half of LRBH Kodiak Best Bitter was at least a good.
The display of lights in random styles were nice too…
Another big vibrant town centre pub which can certainly pack them in on match days (and presumably) on Friday and Saturday nights. Don’t get me wrong – except for the horror holograms (and glass tumblers) this pub is no horror story, it is very impressive, not a cosy kind of pub, more like a warehouse – which will appeal to much younger customers than me. The range of on-site brewed house beers are very interesting.
I think I’d always be worried about some idiot dropping his beer glass from the mezzanine level if I was standing underneath and those half pint tumblers look pretty solid…
We said “cheerio” to the security guard on the door as we left.. and he said “cheerio” back…at least we got out before the stampede of fans heading for the match…
Garden Hermit Goes to the Pub 