All readers \u2013 not just CAMRA members \u2013 are invited to submit letters for publication to London Drinker but please remember that the letters column is intended for debate and constructive criticism. The editor reserves the right not to print any contributions that are otherwise. Please e-mail letters to: ldnews.hedger@gmail.com. If you do not have e-mail, hard-copy letters may be sent to the same address given for subscriptions on page 3, addressed to London Drinker Letters. In both cases, please state \u2018letter for publication\u2019 so as to avoid any misunderstandings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
EARLY DOORS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Feb\/March London Drinker you mentioned my news item that the Market Porter in Borough Market, SE1, still uses its early morning licence. This reminded me of an article \u2018The closing of early doors\u2019 which I wrote for the December 2016 edition (volume 38, issue 6). The article was inspired by the closing of the Hope in Cowcross Street, EC1, one of the pubs near Smithfield Market that used an early morning licence. The Hope has since reopened with three handpumps but it now does not open until 11am. The Fox & Anchor still opens at 7am weekdays (8.30am on Saturdays) but this is mainly for breakfasts. One other pub that was closed when the article was published was the Smithfield Tavern in Charterhouse Street. It has since reopened as a Simmons, part of a chain of 15 central London establishments that operate as late night cocktail bars. Sadly they do not sell real ale. Editor\u2019s note: you can view Colin\u2019s original article here<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n THE PRICE OF A PINT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Rarely have I agreed so fully with a leader article in\nLondon Drinker. Geoff Strawbridge\u2019s piece on beer pricing in the Feb\/Mar\nedition was spot on. \u2018Dry January\u2019 is of course a thinly disguised assault on\nthe pub and brewing industries by prohibitionists masquerading under the cover\nof \u2018concern\u2019 for public health. I make sure to drink even more in January. And\nas for CAMRA discounts and Wetherspoon vouchers, I refuse the former and\nre-cycle the latter. A premium real ale should command a premium price, so as\nto create a margin for the brewer who brews it and the pub that sells it.\nSurely CAMRA needs members who wish to contribute to the campaign, not profit from\nit? I believe a former US\nPresident said something similar at his inauguration in 1961.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To conclude, a story from the halcyon days of the much-lamented Battersea Beer Festival. As manager of the Foreign and Strong beer bar, I once managed to acquire a crate of Westvleteren 12% ABV (yellow cap) Trappist ale for which I charged \u00a38 a bottle, which reflected its quality, its rarity and the cost of procurement. One customer vehemently objected to this price for a \u2018small\u2019 bottle of beer upon which another customer pleaded to pay \u00a310 for it. Behind both stood a third customer waving a \u00a320 note, begging to spend all of it for a precious bottle. My reply to the first customer? \u2018So you still think I\u2019m overcharging for this beer!?\u2019 MEMORIES OF MORTLAKE<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Evening Standard Homes and Property section on Wednesday 12 February had an article about the redevelopment of what was the Watney\u2019s brewery site in Mortlake. This reminded me that in the mid 1970\u2019s, when I first became aware of Young\u2019s, I was going through Mortlake one Friday lunchtime. As I lived in Barking at the time there weren\u2019t a lot of Young\u2019s pubs convenient to me so I got off the train and went round to the Jolly Gardeners. Most of the customers seemed to be workers from Watney\u2019s brewery wearing Watney\u2019s branded overalls. There was also a Watney\u2019s pub nearby called the Jolly Milkman which is now closed. On its page on the Closed Pubs website<\/a>, an elderly gentleman has added a comment that his uncle worked at the brewery as a cooper and got an allowance of eight pints a day (well it was Watney\u2019s) and then went to the Milkman in the evenings! Editor\u2019s note:<\/em><\/strong> it appears that there are now no pubs in Great Britain called the Jolly Milkman. Isn\u2019t that sad? Mind you, there aren\u2019t that many milkmen\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" All readers \u2013 not just CAMRA members \u2013 are invited to submit letters for publication to London Drinker but please remember that the letters column is intended for debate and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838\/revisions\/839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Colin Price<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peter J Sutcliffe<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Colin Price<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n