Halloween Post - The Spaniards Inn

White as a sheet, I look like I've seen a ghost.
But more likely I'm just recovering from the shock of paying £7.55 for ⅘ of a pint in a pub that didn't even want me to sit inside.

For this Halloween post I'm returning to London where the Spaniards Inn - spectacularly located on Hampstead Heath - is a sure-fire entrant on any list of most haunted inns of the capital.  Even though any ghost stories surrounding it are flakey, at best.

The Spaniards Inn (Spaniards Rd, London NW3 7JJ)
I approached from Golders Green, hopping aboard the 310 bus, which swings a left at Jack Straw's Castle, then takes you to within a few paces of the historic hostelry.
It dates back to around 1585 when it was built to accompany a toll house on the edge of the Bishop of London's estate.

🎃 It's associated with highwaymen, including the most famous of them all, Mr D. Turpin
🎃 Amongst an impressive list of literary connections, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley once frequented the Spaniards

🎃 The pub gets a mention in Bram Stoker's Dracula
🎃 It's said to be haunted by at least three ghosts...

There's a bit of a dispute about where the unusual name comes from - it could be named after a 16th century Spanish ambassador to King James, or it could be named after two landlords: Francisco and Juan Porero.  I like the second better, mainly because it links nicely to the ghost story.

It is said that Francisco and Juan got on fabulously well until they both fell in love with the same woman.  Fighting a duel was deemed the best solution to this love rivalry and resulted in Juan being shot dead and buried nearby.  But predicatably his spirit has risen from the grave to haunt the pub.
There is also a Woman in White whose ghostly form has been seen shimmering through the garden.  She just might be the woman the brothers were fatally besotted by, or could even be Dick Turpin's wife.

Legend has it that Dick Turpin's dad was landlord of the Spaniard's and that the nefarious highwayman would use the inn to spy out potential victims travelling these once remote roads.
There are modern-day stories of folks hearing the ghostly sound of the beating of horses hoofs on Hampstead Heath as though Turpin's steed Black Bess is racing towards the pub.
As if that's not enough, there is also the spirit of a money-lender who lost his life under the wheels of a carriage outside the Spaniards and has hung around to haunt it ever since.  His presence is a subtle one, more of a chilling presence, tugging on shirt sleeves only for folk to turn around and see no-one there.

After all that build-up, here's the picture of the main bar of the Spaniards, not lookng in the least bit spooky...

Jam jars in front of the cask selection inform us that all the ales are the same colour (do you really need jam jars for the two ciders?).  Isn't the latest Doom Bar pump clip rather hideous and over-sized.

I eventually managed to order a Timothy Taylor 'Boltmaker' after a short wait at a busy bar.
The staff member was admirably speedy in dealing with the crowds, but unfortunately the ferocious three-second pump of the beer engine doesn't make for the best served pint.  By the time I'd sat down I realised there was a good inch of foamy head on top of a wicked under-served pint. 

The interior has some nice nooks and crannies and a decent historic feel to it, but is 100% restaurant rather than pub.
Everything is set up for dining and everything is reserved.

They do have a good-sized garden, although - hell's bells - even a chunk of the outside tables were reserved, officious staff talking into walkie-talkies and directing customers.  I think I even got a scowl for helping myself to the high stools just outside the back door without checking I could perch there.

Okay, however short the measure, the 'Boltmaker' was lovely - well kept and selling at a rate of knots.

Right...enough.  I needed to get myself somewhere where the punters didn't sit outside with blankets draped over their cashemere sweaters.

I'm veering from Halloween post into further explorations of North London...

The bus to Golders Green turned up almost as soon as I reached the bus stop opposite the Spaniards (not even leaving me enough time to look out for Black Bess galloping across the Heath).
Back at Golders Green I switched to the 260 service and made the 20-minute trip west to Cricklewood.
Here's the travel shot from the front seat of the upper deck...

And here's the confirmation that I'd found my way to my intended destination...

I set off on foot down the vibrant and bustling Cricklewood Broadway, my destination the Beer-Guide listed Spoons...

The Beaten Docket (50–56 Cricklewood Broadway, Cricklewood, Barnet, NW2 3ET)
This is a compartively early JDW, opened back in 1991.  It's a lively single storey L-shaped pub (with the rarity that the Spoons toilets are on the same floor and don't require the usual hike).
The name comes, rather dubiously, from local horse racing, with the one-time popular Kingsbury Races taking place 'nearby'.

Here's the cask ale selection, complete with a 'Beer Guide - 2 years In a Row' advert (that's actually 2025, so they can celebrate 3 years now).

I picked the 5.5% 'West London IPA' from Twickenham, the £3.00 price being much more agreeable that what I'd paid in the Spaniards.
And no 'reserved' signs here, meaning I could take my pick of the seats, eventually ending up with a view of some rugby on the TV screen and a giant collection of empties behind me waiting for someone to take on dishwasher duties.
The Beaten Docket was satisfyingly busy and full of all walks of life.

The run of games machines bringing a bit of Vegas to Kilburn...

Just under a mile straight down the same roD is Kilburn High Street and the chance to visit a three-star CAMRA Historic Pub.

The Black Lion (274 Kilburn High Road, Kilburn, London, NW6 2BY)
The Black Lion was rebuilt on the site of an earlier public house in 1898, designed by architect R.A. Lewcock.  The turn of the century was a great era for extravagant and elegant pub designs and this doesn't disappoint when stepping through the door...

Just look at that stunning ceiling.
Uh-oh, at least two people seem to have clocked the suspicious oddbod who's arrived with his camera.

Three cask ale options on the bar, plus a hand pump dedicated to the Seacider.  I've always enjoyed the Five Points 'XPA' but was distratced from it on this occasion by the house-beer 'Black Lion Best'.
Costing a very reasonable-for-London £4.90 a pint - probably actually a St Austell 'Cornish Best Bitter'.  On good form, if not especially exciting.

The main room would once have been sub-divided by wooden panels with various doors from the street leading to public bars and salons.  Now only one wooden screen remains for posperity at the far end, the main space being open-plan and full of customers on this visit.

Back when I lived in London I made a few trips to the Luminaire music venue on Kilburn High Street, a bit of the city devoid of cask ale at the time.  A lot of the nearby pubs and bars do look on the 'edgier' side of capital boozers, and cask is still not a given in this area, but I'd throughly recomend making the effort to find your way to the Black Lion.
In hindsight I wish I'd stuck around a bit longer and tried something from the great-looking Indian-inspired menu.
This time, I was just here to prance around taking heritage pub pics...

From a pub rebuilt in 1898 to one rebuilt in 2020.
Another short-hop on the first bus bound for the city centre took me a mile-or-so to the Carlton Tavern.

Carlton Tavern (33 Carlton Vale, Kilburn, NW6 5EU)
Back in 2016, the Carlton Tavern was closed and the owners applied for planning permission to turn this into 10 flats.  That permission was denied but, just a couple of days before Historic England were set to grant the building a Grade II listed status, in came the demolition crew to tear the place to the ground.

After a valient campaign for justice for the pub, Westminster Council took an unprecedented step of ordering it be rebuilt "in facsilmile".
Handily, Heritage England had taken plaster casts of bricks and had collected detailed info, whilst bits of the bar counter, fireplace, and decorative ceiling were amongst things that could be salvaged from the rubble.  Almost six years after being torn down, the pub reopened amongst the challenges of lockdown rules in 2021.  And it looks great.

Super busy on this visit, with a cheerful crowd of punters - the armchair in the side room was the last available seat in the house.

The Anspach & Hobday ' Carlton Tavern Bitter' was on great form (more re-badged house beer - the 3.4% 'Ordinary Bitter' on this occasion, I suspect).
But the quality of the interior picture I managed to take is indicative that it was nearing time for me to call it a day and catch the train home.

Just time to pay a revisit to the nearby heritage Warrington Hotel...

I've visited the Maida Vale pubs a couple of times now, but never managed to write a blog post on them.  Just visit Pub Gallery for proper pictures of the Warrington and a couple of other corkers in this suburb of London.

Myself...I was on my way home.
Pondering whether I ever will manage to find a genuinely creepy pub, shrouded in mist, with creaking floorboards and cobwebs, for a proper Halloween pub post one year.

London - Old Banks, Railway Arches and Beer Guide Ticks

At a bit of a loose-end, I decided to make a recent weekend trip to London with a vague idea of visiting a few places from the 2026 Good Beer Guide.
A quick check revealed no high-profile football clashes, no dubious reclaim the flag events, no big protest marches or anything else to make central London a place to avoid.  Although I did later discover I was only 10-minutes away from BRAPA at one point.

I travelled on the Circle Line from Paddington, alighting at Monument.

Just a few minutes up the road was a Wetherspoons pub, which I figured would make an ideal start to the day.
Early opening guaranteed - the chance for a late breakfast - and prices that would ease me into City of London beer tarrifs.

The Crosse Keys (9 Gracechurch Street, City of London, EC3V 0DR)
Wow!  This is a bit of a Spoons Stunner.
The building used to be the home of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, designed by W. Campbell Jones and opened for business in 1913.  At the time the ground floor was one of the largest single spaces in the City devoted to banking.  It may now be lined with purple and mustard coloured fabric chairs at tables covered in Wetherspoon's promo clutter, but this is a majestic room that you easily imagine being full of economic hustle and bustle.

Marble pillars line the walk from the front door to the island bar.  There's a nifty cross keys carpet (the name being derived from a 15th century inn that stood nearby). 

The cask range wasn't the most exciting - Spoons staples, plus Pride or Purity.  I was pleased to see the Norfolk interloper - 'Sirius Dog', a wickedly dark malty red ale which scored a SIBA Champion Cask award in 2018. 

I took this to the high tables in the far corner from where I could take in the whole moodily lit room.
I imagine this would attract a fairly different crowd on a weekday in the City, but it's relatively quiet with a gentle hum of conversation pre-noon at the weekend.

Checking what else was nearby, I spotted I was 0.0 miles from another GBG entry.  So with a quick stop alongside a gaggle of tourists to marvel at Leadenhall Market, I rounded the corner to visit the Counting House.

The Counting House (50 Cornhill, Gracechurch Street, London, EC3V 3PD)
Yep...I was on a roll with bank conversions and perhaps should have kept this going as a theme for the day.
In this case the building dates back to 1893 and was once Prescott's Bank, later becoming part of the Nat West empire in 1970, then a pub in 1997.
It has a wow factor as soon as you step in through the front door. High ceiling with a domed skylight, murals on the wall, marble pillars, decorative mosaic floors, shiny wood...

Cask ales on offer were Gales 'Seafarers', Fullers 'London Pride' or 'Red Fox', and a St Austell 'Proper Job'.  Feeling autumnal, I picked the red fox, not cheap at £3.45 for a half, but on top form.

Out of curiosity, I climbed the stairs to the mezanine level on which the tables were all set for dining with wine glasses and exceptionally shiny cutlery - not somewhere they'd appreciate a scruff like me plonking himself, I suspect.  I ended up on a high stool to one side of the ground floor, marvelling the skylight and the big safe incorporated into the island bar counter.

Okay, so it was a little too smart for my liking and I'd probably detest the place if I visited when the Friday steak & malbec night was in full swing.  But I was quite content on a quiet Saturday lunchtime, Noel Gallagher crooning  'Easy Now' through the speakers.  Then Sam Smith came on which was my cue to leave.

I set off on a wander eastwards, the modern Lloyd's of London and Leadenhall Buildings stretching towards the grey sky on either side of me, St Andrew's Undershaft harking from a different era with the gherkin looming behind it.

Right on the edge of the City was my destination...a new entry to the 2026 Good Beer Guide down a side street - a pub of two halves...

The White Swan (21 Alie Street, Goodmans, London, E1 8DE)

Hmmm...making up the obligatory central London Shepherd Neame quota, I suspect.
They may be the oldest brewery in the country but I'm rarely pumping the air in excitement when I encounter the Spitfire pump clip.
Just a half pint for me here (£3.45).  Not that I had much choice..

Fair play to the White Swan for actually being open at the weekends, although the lunchtime trade justifies all the pubs in this area that aren't.  It was just me and a couple of boisterous chunky blokes, bizarrely deciding to stand and holler at each other over a barrel despite having the choice of every single seat in the pub.
I hid away on the bench in the older half of the pub, with bare boards floor and wooden panels rising half way up the wall.  It certainly looks like a proper city centre pub...

...even if it was completely lacking the customers to have the atmosphere of one.
The funky soundtrack of Prince, Sister Sledge, and Kool and the Gang did nothing to lift my spirits.  The 'Spitfire' couldn't quite raise itself to a NBSS 3.

Drinking up and returning my glass to one very bored staff member, I headed southwards on foot, joining the tourist masses once I reached the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.
On the southern side of the Thames, on a complete whim, I scrapped the theme of GBG'26 pubs today and strode into the Brewdog boozer.

The Tower Bridge Arms (206-208 Tower Bridge Road, London, SE1 2UP)
This is somewhere that I have visited before back in the days that it was called The Draft House.  That was back when Siren were brand new and I was showing off my brewery knowledge telling the staff the brewery was in Burkshire, duly corrected to Barkshire.
Siren aren't new-fangled any more.  And I moved to Reading the following year and learnt to pronouce the county name properly.  Brewdog's empire has expanded and then diminished...the fact that the Oxford branch is now shuttered with a 'To Let' sign on it playing a part in tempting me to call in here.

This is Brewdog with a difference.  No giant back-lit white beer board above the bar (they've got a big wooden one around the corner instead).  Being as this is a Brewdog pub rather than bar they have hand pumps serving Adnams and Mad Squirrel on cask.
Neither of which I tried, due to being stood in front of a keg advertising Mackie's of Scotland's 'Two Scoops' honeycomb ice cream stout.

"Probably wise going for the half," opined the friendly bar staff pouring my beer.  "And not just because it's 7%" (which actually seemed a pretty good reason to me - as did the fact that the pint would cost over the £11 mark). He actually declared it too sweet for a larger measure, even for someone with a sweet tooth, and he was absolutely right.
But by 'eck, it was a lovely pudding of a beer.

Moving onwards, I trekked down to the London Bridge line railway arches and the beginning of the Bermondsey Beer Mile.

Southwark Brewing Co. Tap Room (46 Druid Street, Bermondsey-West, London, SE1 2EZ)
This is located at the western end of the Beer Mile, Southwark being one of the earlier arrivals in these railway arches, opening here in 2014.

Unusual amonsgt their neighbouring bars, they're dedicated to cask ale which has won them a place in the Good Beer Guide for the past couple of years.
There was a fine choice across six hand pumps, from which I picked the single hop 'Galena' pale ale.

I sat on the trestle tables underneath a row of display boards recounting the history of brewing in Southwark which a surprising number of folk actually took the time to read.  The trains rumbled overhead on their way into and out of London Bridge.  The lederhosen clad Oktoberfest gang made some cheery noise.  And I got a little bit tempted to spend the rest of the day in railway arch tap rooms.

Okay...one more destination on this side of the river.
A pub in Borough that has appeared in the 2026 Good Beer Guide, just at the point that I thought I'd surely been to them in this neck of the woods.

The Trinity (202-206 Borough High Street, Borough, London, SE1 1JX)
The Trinity looks great from outside - a nice symetrical mock tudor design, which has elbowed its way in between the dull brick shoebox buildings.  Signage in Wetherspoon's blue, proudly displaying its most recent name, having spent most of its pubby existance as the Hole in the Wall.
Fullers have been in charge here since a 2020 refurbishment, making for a familiar beer range.  They get a thumbs-up from me for their very neat luggage tag descriptions.

I'd have plumped for the rich, "creamy, toasted" Ale of the Week had I not already had the 'Red Fox' a few hours earlier in the Counting House.  So I picked the Dark Star 'Hophead' - on super form on this occasion.

Billy Ocean sang 'Love Really Hurts' and football pundits tried to make the forthcoming afternoon's fixtures sound exciting on ample TV screens.
With only a handful of early afternoon punters, I grabbed the choice leather cushioned bench seating under the front window, frowning at the ample plastic plant collection, whilst the music continued to deliver all your pop favourites from Dee-Lite to the Beatmasters.

I finished my beer and returned the glass to the bar.  The Trinity had proved similar to everywhere I'd visited during this afternoon - a pleasant enough place with top quality cask ale but short on early Saturday custom.  Only the tap room could be described as reasonably busy whilst the biggest crowd I'd seen by far was in a caffeine pitstop at the quite superb Fuckoffee on Bermondsey Street (motto: "Come Happy...Leave Edgy").

But I'd discover that pub customers do come out in force later in the day.  To find them, I needed to descent into the undergound at Southwark and make my way northbound...

Oxford City host the Brakes

 

Featuring a couple of pubs in Marston and a second visit this season to Oxford City's MGroup Stadium.

Amongst very intermitent posts of late, non-league football seems to be featuring quite a bit.  All being well I'll be rocking up at a couple of third division German matches in the near future, putting Prop Up the Bar in danger of becoming a lower league football blog.  One that spends a fair bit of time in the pub and never mentions the Premiership or Ange Postecoglou.

My autumnal Satuday started in Marston old village at the closest pub to Oxford City's ground... 

The Red Lion (42 Oxford Rd, Oxford OX3 0PH)
Dating back to the 1800's, this is a village pub within the Oxford ring-road.
When I first visited it consisted two seperate rooms served by the one bar, but a makeover has opened this up into one space.  It's a little smarter and dining-room-like to the right of the front door, whilst the other direction sees high tables and blokes propping up the bar.  

Four cask ales on offer: Abbot, Tribute, 6X, and a Greene King/Belhaven seasonal special.

It's Halloween - the 'Caution Dead Keep Out' tape is wrapped around the pillar - so I picked the Belhaven 'Haunted Highlander' which turned out to be a surprisingly quoffable mild red ale.

I tucked myself into the corner bench by the fireplace.  A group of away supporters met up at the bar and compared journeys here via different means.  One of them pointed out that Truro Town were up in Gateshead on the same day - the longest trip in the football leagues - a fair bit further than the 50-miles from the south of Warwickshire.
That said, never underestimate the challenges of travelling two stops on Cross Country trains.

Finishing my pint, I made the ten-minute stroll through the pleasant streets of Marston Village, the smell of wood smoke in the air, the sun shining on the wedding party emerging from St Nicholas' Church.

Up at the ground, a lederhosen-clad oompah band greeted punters through the turnstiles (all 702 of 'em) with a bit of George Michael's 'Faith', which I don't think counts as traditional German beer fest music.  

Next to them were two very friendly and enthusiastic ladies staffing the mini beer festival where you could ply yourself with Greene King wares in plastic glasses.

I procurred a £5.00 pint of the 'Genieve' West Coast IPA, a collab with Thornbridge which was a fairly decent drop to sip on the barriers as I waited for kick-off.

Today's visitors are in their second season in the National League North having yo-yo'ed between divisions a bit in the past few years.
They date back to 1933 when they were formed as the works team for Lockheed Borg & Beck, their nickname 'The Brakes' coming from the equipment made in the now defunct automobile factory.

Leamington's support may not have been huge in numbers, but they gathered on the seats in the corner of the groud by the goal they were attacking in the first half, banged a drum, and made a fair bit of noise.

Morning rain showers disappeared and the game was played under brilliant autumnal blue skies.  Both teams were on a run of bad form, with Oxford coming closer to breaking the deadlock in the first half.  So everything was looking good for them when the ref produced a red card on the stroke of half time and reduced the Brakes to 10-men.

10-stubborn men...it took right until the latter stages of the second half for Captain Josh Ashby to finally find the back of the net for City.  Only for Ant Lynn to head in a Leamington equaliser in time added on.

I ambled out the ground, politely turning down the frantic attempts of the young lady at the beer fest bar to sell me an 'Old Session Hen'.  I suspect there was a fair bit still left in those barrels.
A 15-minute walk back toward the city centre took me to one of the cities pubs that I haven't visited in ages...

The Up In Arms (241 Marston Rd, Headington, Oxford OX3 0EN)
This was previously a 1930s pub called The Somerset that closed in 2009 and spent several years as a Chinese restaurant.  It looked lost as a pub forever, despite some sturdy local campaigning.  Then in came Dodo to give it a modern makeover and offer up pizza and Arkells ales.

You also get a bit of old Halls Brewery livery on the exterior...

...dogs providing a trip hazzard on the way to the gents...

...cask ale in the form of Arkell's 'Belt Driver IPA' or the local 'Hooky'.

But what you've really come for is the "seriously gushing taps"!

Dodo don't really go in for the traditional pub look, but every time I've visited there has been a decent number of varied customers in.  And whatever I may think of the alarmingly big billboard promoting Burger & Chips above the bar...at least it re-emerged as a pub and wasn't lost forever.
And the Arkell's was a decent enough pint, soundtracked by a bit of Happy Monday and Stereo MCs.

This wasn't about to become an epic tour of Oxford pubs post football.  The fact that I'd quaffed three pints of festival beers throughout the match when I'd usually be having a break from the ale put paid to that.
Instead I was heading home at an early hour, stopping at Lidl's to buy pretzl's for Mrs PropUptheBar to accompany her German bottled beer.

With a quick stop at the Cowley Spooons...

For a late sighting of one of the more unusual options on the recent Wetherspoon's beer festival list.

Yuck!  I probably should have just gone straight home.