19/09/25 - Architecture and Oktoberfest in Cheltenham

Traditions and the Death of Pub Exploring

Traditions don’t arrive fully formed – they creep up on us, stitched together from small acts we stubbornly repeat. What begins as a comedy of errors gradually takes on the weight of ritual, the very mishaps becoming part of the story we tell ourselves about why we return.

In 2024, I turned up at Oktoberfest in the Sandford Park Ale House to find plenty of beer but not a hint of Bavarian food. Not on a Monday. In 2025, I try again, this time preparing with military precision: calendars consulted, reminders set, messages dispatched. Yet as I board the 7.27am bus from deepest Worcestershire, I know some minor disaster is already on the timetable. The only question is what shape it will take this year.

I want to earn my lunch - so I start the day on an architectural town tour promoted by the Council.

How to Explore Cheltenham

I concentrate hard on the Montpellier district - an area that is a showcase of Regency elegance: graceful terraces, ashlar façades, and classical detailing like Corinthian, Doric and Ionic orders everywhere you look. Perhaps the most striking are the caryatids lining Montpellier Walk — draped female figures under cornices, modelled on those from the Acropolis, lending the streets a sculptural poetry.

Here's the pictures;

This time yesterday, I didn't know what a Caryatid was

Queens Hotel

Imperial Gardens

Neptune's Fountain

There is more to investigate, as the morning gets hijacked by geocaching. I've been wanting to have another go at a Whereigo for some time. In brief, a more involved treasure hunt that involves collecting information from several places before the location of the treasure-box is revealed. The theme of this one is Penfold Post Boxes. Yes, I walked around 5 miles around town looking for half a dozen of these;

If I hadn't have started looking for Penfold Post boxes from the 1860s.....

..... I wouldn't have found the Pitville Pump Room

The church bells strike midday and I am ready to abandon amateur architecture and treasure hunting. Coordinates set for the heart of the Sandford Ale House. But where is the Deya van dropping off supplies?

Only Favourite Beers!

There's no doubt that the Good Beer Guide takes me to some wonderful places but I often wonder how much I miss. Favourite Beers is an impossibly richly laded Aladdin's cave of beery delights. It also sells keg. Great Keg. At great prices. I shall be forever grateful for being successful in today's mission. Paulaner Festbier. A bargain at £4 for half a litre.

Of course, take out was purchased. One beer made it home more or less intact

I don't know whether to be sad or grateful the shop is so far from home.

Onto my original quarry. The Sandford Park Alehouse - former CAMRA pub of the year - always hosts a fully fledged Oktoberfest. Beer! Music! Lederhosen! and Bavarian Food!. It starts today.

Little Germany

Except when they have marquee issues. The launch postponed until tonight. Not a single Oktoberfest beer available. Boring the staff with tales of my 2nd year of disappointment, I manage to get the Bavarian menu delclared open. But having had the items relayed to me verbally, rather than read on a page, I manage to make a monumental error of ordering.

Sausage sandwich with chips. With chips. With sausage on those chips.

Still, if you want to make friends, go around a pub offering free chips

It's getting to the point of my life when I don't want to go out with a chaperone to question my choices.

And does sauerkraut go with Uley Brewery Old Spot?

The only thing that can save Oktoberfest now is Lidl's suitcase of joy.

There is time for my final Good Beer Guide Tick in Cheltenham. Somehow, I manage to go from loving the Railway to hating it with a passion that has me leaving Google reviews and having a conversation with the head brewer of Nothing Bound.

An unassuming back street local

LOVING IT: £5 for Bristol Beer Factory Fortitude and wondering why more pubs don't play blues music in the afternoon sunshine. Eavesdropping on the boozy pensioners on the next table. Loving the lady who said that her husband can have a Thai bride when she passes as she knows he would be looked after. Mrs M says she is coming back to haunt me when she goes.

HATING IT: With an hour before the train that I know will be delayed, I decide to have a second pint. In the interests of experimentation, I go for (the not ironically named) Count Me Out from my local craft brewery, Nothing Bound. It's a 6% Keg. How much would you expect to be charged?

£7.80 is the answer here.

I am beyond outraged. Not only with the price but with the lack of warning from the server.

I am declaring pub exploring over and sticking to finding old post boxes in newly visited towns.