Thursday 23 April 2015

Walk: Horse-Drawn London - Brewers, Saddlers & Stagecoaches

When I saw a Meetup advertised that involved a walk in the City, I was immediately interested; I love the City, and the promise of back alleyways intrigued me. So I signed up, both for the walk and as a member of the Central London Outdoor Group (CLOGs, as they call themselves).

Only thing was, I was a bit worried about the logistics of getting to the meeting point at Barbican Station for 6.30. However, I experienced no delays, and left the office in good time to travel straight there. On the way, I picked up some Yorkies, since I wouldn't have time for dinner and these were more practical than sandwiches for the Tube. Indeed, it was an arduous trip at that time of the evening - nearly an hour to get there, and standing all the way. Lucky, in fact, to get a decent amount of breathing room! I was really glad to change at King's Cross, and gladder yet to get off the Tube entirely.

Outside, I looked around but couldn't see a group anywhere - I was early anyway. After I'd stood there a few minutes though, I noticed a group beginning to gather - on the other side of the doorway, naturally! Turned out to be them, and I chatted to a couple of people as we waited for start time - and then for potential latecomers.. I was so glad I'd brought the Yorkies - I'd already eaten one, and ate another now, feeling a bit faint. The organiser, as we finally started off, made sure that none of us thought we were on a Jack the Ripper tour - apparently there was one starting from the same place, slightly later!

He really made an effort to take us through backstreets and uncommon routes. We passed through numerous housing estates, and I rarely had much of a clue where we were. The theme of the walk was horses, so we sought out breweries that used to use them, and indeed, as we progressed, we detoured for anything horse-related! Lloyd's bank, with a horse as their logo.. horse statues.. an office with a zebra in the lobby. And the City police station stables. This time, I finally remembered my camera.. pictures here.

They were a really friendly bunch, with several making conversation as we trekked along - at a fair pace. These people walk more frequently than I do! One woman brought those ski-type walking poles you sometimes see, and I was sometimes worried about tripping over them. Anyway, I was pretty knackered by the time we came to the coaching inns south of the river, where people used to stop in at the beginning or end of, or during, their stagecoach journeys, back in the day.

I was relieved when we finally stopped at The George, a fabulously old example, where we had a drink and some of us also ate. It was packed, but we found enough space for most of us at the end of one of the bar rooms.. the bar itself is in the middle, but there are rooms on either side with tables, which you have to leave the building to enter. So every time you want to go to the bar from your table, you have to nip outside! You can see how old the building is, and indeed it's detailed for you on a sign on the gate - dates from the 1500s, but the present building is the remaining wing of a replacement building that was constructed after the original was destroyed by a fire in 1676. As someone remarked - they survived the Great Fire by 10 years, then had one of their own!

Some who just wanted food went to the restaurant upstairs, but you could get food downstairs too. After a lengthy queue at the bar, I managed to order the chicken, with a side order of onion rings, and a large white wine. The wine I took back to the table with me, the food is served to the table when it's ready - so do remember your table number when ordering! The chicken, covered in BBQ sauce, was lovely, and served with salad and exactly seven chips - I counted. These were the enormous kind though, each taking several mouthfuls to finish. I wouldn't bother with the onion rings though - quite bland. And the wine was no great shakes, but I was hungry and tired, and it filled a spot. The place was heaving on a Wednesday night - I shudder to think what it must be like at weekends! Gorgeous old building, though.

Back too late to blog last night. Well, I'm taking a break from walking for the next two nights, and heading to the cinema instead. I realised at that film talk on Tuesday how much I missed the cinema! I don't go that often these days. I'm very excited about tonight - I rejected a couple of films at the top of my list, from lack of interest in the subject matter basically.. gleefully, I saw that that brought me down to It Follows, a horror film that's supposed to be a cut above, and which not only started much higher rated than your standard horror film on IMDB, but actually rose in ratings! and luckily, it's still showing in a few cinemas in town. Goodee! Provisionally, I'm headed to the cinema again tomorrow night, to see a documentary called The Forecaster, about a guy brought in by American banks to predict the markets mathematically. Banned in the States, apparently, which of course makes it all the more interesting!

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