Pub Food
Published 24 May 2015
For many years the mainstay of my walks in the South East came from two tomes called the Time Out Book of Country Walks, and the Time Out Book of Country Walks. Both are jam packed with walks across the south east, and introduce to the world the concept of the self-organising walking club. There’s no leaders, but a schedule of walks is published, and anyone can turn up. (Similarly, no one could turn up.)
They’re popular books, and there’s now a quite sizeable website “running” the walks. If you pick a walk at random and go on a Saturday, there’s a strong chance you’ll meet someone else clutching the book whilst you’re out on your travels. Probably at the pub. For each walk includes a pub to stop at for lunch.
On several of the walks, I passed pubs with this wonderful “ceramic plate” on the outside. The pubs were formerly owned by the defunct brewery, Friary Meux, which was closed in 1969 after being sold. Yet despite many changes of ownership since then, this wonderful sign can still be seen on the exterior of its former pubs, especially in rural Surrey and Sussex. It’s a lovely little touch from an era before chain pubs with plastic menus.
Although whether the food was any good better back then, is something I can’t answer.
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