MEMORIES OF THE MAGDALA
It was good to see the recent report that the Magdala in Hampstead has re- opened. In the early 1980s a group of us had ‘lunch’ there every weekday. The walls above the panelling in the saloon bar were then adorned with such exotica as a puffer fish in a glass case and a coco du mer (the first time I’d seen one). In the days before computer tills Pat the barman would tot up the cost of a round in his head while serving and, if you weren’t fast enough getting your money out, he’d be serving someone else and doing more mental arithmetic while he waited for you. No staring into the distance while thirsty customers fret and a punter searches for a note or a card as now happens. The lady licensee and an antipodean barmaid did all the cooking. As we ate every day we were often asked what we would like the special to be the next day. Liver, bacon and onion casserole was the favourite, homemade of course. Beer was Charrington’s IPA or Bass. I drank a lot of the latter. Guest beers were very much a thing in the future. Peter Miller
BEER RANGE AND QUALITY
Just read the latest London Drinker and a good issue it is. Here in Birmingham, and on my travels with my London based friends, we too have noticed fewer hand pumps purely because of diminished trade. However we do feel this has led to a dramatic improvement in the quality of the real ale we have been drinking. We suppose it’s because more throughput of one real ale is much better than the many pre-Covid pubs who had rows of pumps with insufficient turnover to make their beers even vaguely worth drinking. Every cloud as they say!
Brian Moore
A VIEW FROM THE NORTH
I’m a long-standing CAMRA member, living in the north east of England, about 250 miles north of Kings Cross but I’m an ex-Londoner, with connections to the place still. I love the London Drinker and simply want to thank everyone who’s involved in its production and distribution. I greatly appreciate the level of detail in all aspects of the articles. People must be putting hours into this stuff. When I get a copy I go through it and mark off all the things I can pass on to various mates, in or out of the Capital, while noting, and swearing to visit one day, all your regular advertisers. (There’s one right below ‘Letters’ on page 39, the Wenlock Arms. Yep, I’ve sought that one out, as a result!) Thanks for me being able to see the first two of this calendar year go to the King Charles I, a pub I also first learned about from an item in a previous issue. Some of us old geezers are in danger of getting left behind, more so since the Covid era drove a horse and cart through so many aspects of our ways of life. So, where there’s a hard copy option, trustworthy and well-researched information plus some pub adverts with landline telephone numbers, I’m in! Anyone fancy adding, to Pub News, where it’s true, ‘the current management is fully committed to always having a cash payment option’? I’d visit those bars as priority! As long as the beer was right. Cheers!
Brian Dixon