02/10/21 - London Spiral Walk - Stage 2

Distance - 7 Miles

Start - Marylebone

Finish - MeatLiquor - Hoxton

Areas Walked - Marylebone, Soho, Charing Cross, Waterloo, Southwark, City

Geocaches - 3

Pubs - 2

Previous Walks - Stage 1

 

It's good to be back in the Smoke.  The psycho-geography that is the London Spiral Walk taking me through Soho, Southwark and the heart of the City where the only thing stopping too many distractions is pub opening hours.   It's not often I have walked past Soho's Coach and Horses without paying my respects to the author Derek Raymond.

My starting point is Marylebone.  Easy walking through the mews, stopping only for a sausage roll at the Ginger Pig, Moxon Street.  If you haven't found this place, you must.  Yes, the pork and stilton cost £4.50, but you won't find a better snack in all of London.

Marylebone

Through Soho and the Chinatown and the diversions start.  A number of new Adventure Lab Caches take me off piste from Westminster to Temple.  I am then delivered back to the Salisbury at 11am.  This is a Len Deighton London Dossier pub that needs ticking and worthy of a separate blog.  Eventually, I am back on track at Lisle Street. 

Chinatown

National Portrait Gallery at Trafalgar Square

The first crossing of the Thames is over the pedestrianised Hungerford Bridge, delivering me to probably the finest residential street in London, Roupell Street.

Over the Thames at Hungerford Bridge

Roupel Street - home of the Citroens

It was tempting to go into the Kings Head but the nearby Ring has been added to the 2021 Good Beer Guide.

This basic boozer is directly opposite Southwark Station and was the closest pub to the London office (remember them) of my previous company.  I was most surprised to see its inclusion - it was certainly nothing to write home about in the years between 2000-2013.

The Ring - Good Beer Guide Tick - #593

Our 'Enry

It's a single roomed pub, with boxing pictures on the walls and apparently a boxing ring/gym upstairs.  Four real ales on.  Ignoring the Doom Bar, I selected a Butcombe Original.  It looked dreadful, tasted worse and I didn't even need to say anything to the barman to have it instantly swapped over for a more palatable Saltaire Brewery Cascade.

Disappointing that they tried to pass off what they knew was a bad pint - especially in a CAMRA promoted pub.

Onwards through the rain, leaving the badlands of the South via Southwark Bridge and working my way through the alleys of the City.

Always quiet on Saturdays

There's no fixed end to the stages on this walk.  I was planning on getting as far as Archway but with the weather deteriorating and the need for lunch, I called it a day at the public art at Hoxton Square.  

MeatLiquor - a burger restaurant in a repurposed Christian Mission - provided a decent meal and a first ever Rooster's Baby Face Assassin - a beer I've heard extolled about on many beery podcasts.  We are a long way from Harrogate.

The London Spiral is all about the Public Art

Funky Lunch at the MeatLiquor

The short walk back to Old Street tube station providing the full London Hogarth experience.  A young lady collapsed in the street, tended to by three friends desperately calling an ambulance.  An older lady of the street barking at passers by, sat in the rain surrounded by empty bottles.

2:30pm on a Saturday afternoon.