Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Scotted
Yesterday I thought to make a dash for the east pole, that is to say the eastern most stand of the Bullingdon bike system, starting from Waterloo rather than my usual Vauxhall, to give me a bit of a head start. East down the Cut and along the length of Union Street. Down Marshalsea Road, a road I have not knowingly been down before and well keyed to the ongoing Dickens' Fest (both on the box and in-house), and then down Great Dover Street to the Bricklayers Arms which now seems to be the name of a large junction rather than a pub. But I did get to pass what must have been a serious gin palace at one time, The Roebuck. Massive great place. Full marks for managing to stay open, albeit as a foodies' establishment. See http://www.theroebuck.net/ where it does not look quite as big and impressive, at least from the outside, as it did in real life.
All this involved swinging around to the east of the Shard, where the building has reached the cab of the uppermost crane without having yet narrowed to a point, which I assume is the intention. The uppermost crane is a luffing crane so maybe it will serve to lift the pinnacle into place. We shall see. Onto to Tower Bridge approaches to pass another giant pub, but this one was a Wetherspoons, called 'The Pommelers' Rest'. From the look of a place a reasonable bet that it was never a serious gin palace, perhaps a shop or a bank instead. Wetherspoons do not seem to think that the apostrophe is needed but OED suggests that the word might be some sort of east end slang for a bruiser or a fighter derived from the pommel of a sword, so maybe there was a pub of that name in the vicinity at some point.
Over Tower Bridge where I manage to get slightly lost on the way to Whitechapel, but make it in the end. Only to be hit by a double whammy. First, getting a bit windy about breaking the half hour limit, I park up by mistake one stand short of the east pole. Whitechapel west rather than Whitechapel east or something. Rather like Scott who got windy on his penultimate attempt on the south pole and pulled up slightly short - but at least he and his men got back in one piece that time. Second, I find this morning that I broke the half hour limit anyway, by maybe eight minutes, thus incurring a £1 fine. The good news is that Whitechapel looks to be an interesting place and well worth a proper visit. The bell founders, for example, have been in the area, if not on the present premises, since 1420. After waiting the 15 minutes or so it takes the Bullingdon Computer to realise that I am ready to ride again, much faster run back to Smith Square, along the northern embankment, and into Tate Real for a second bite at the John Martin cherry (first bite November 13th), this time taking in the audio visual accompaniments to the big triptych. All great fun, but this time left with the feeling that while Martin had clearly tapped into a fat seam of the 19th century subconscious (part of which was providing lightly clad ladies and gentlemen in a form fit for consumption on the Sabbath) and has served as inspiration for plenty of science fiction illustrators, maybe not all that much there for the conventional art lover.
Rounded out the day with a smoke test at the Goring Hotel and I can confirm that as well as providing quite a decent line in bottled beer, if a touch cold, they also have a very decent smoking den. Otherwise the veranda to be seen at http://www.thegoring.com/.
All this involved swinging around to the east of the Shard, where the building has reached the cab of the uppermost crane without having yet narrowed to a point, which I assume is the intention. The uppermost crane is a luffing crane so maybe it will serve to lift the pinnacle into place. We shall see. Onto to Tower Bridge approaches to pass another giant pub, but this one was a Wetherspoons, called 'The Pommelers' Rest'. From the look of a place a reasonable bet that it was never a serious gin palace, perhaps a shop or a bank instead. Wetherspoons do not seem to think that the apostrophe is needed but OED suggests that the word might be some sort of east end slang for a bruiser or a fighter derived from the pommel of a sword, so maybe there was a pub of that name in the vicinity at some point.
Over Tower Bridge where I manage to get slightly lost on the way to Whitechapel, but make it in the end. Only to be hit by a double whammy. First, getting a bit windy about breaking the half hour limit, I park up by mistake one stand short of the east pole. Whitechapel west rather than Whitechapel east or something. Rather like Scott who got windy on his penultimate attempt on the south pole and pulled up slightly short - but at least he and his men got back in one piece that time. Second, I find this morning that I broke the half hour limit anyway, by maybe eight minutes, thus incurring a £1 fine. The good news is that Whitechapel looks to be an interesting place and well worth a proper visit. The bell founders, for example, have been in the area, if not on the present premises, since 1420. After waiting the 15 minutes or so it takes the Bullingdon Computer to realise that I am ready to ride again, much faster run back to Smith Square, along the northern embankment, and into Tate Real for a second bite at the John Martin cherry (first bite November 13th), this time taking in the audio visual accompaniments to the big triptych. All great fun, but this time left with the feeling that while Martin had clearly tapped into a fat seam of the 19th century subconscious (part of which was providing lightly clad ladies and gentlemen in a form fit for consumption on the Sabbath) and has served as inspiration for plenty of science fiction illustrators, maybe not all that much there for the conventional art lover.
Rounded out the day with a smoke test at the Goring Hotel and I can confirm that as well as providing quite a decent line in bottled beer, if a touch cold, they also have a very decent smoking den. Otherwise the veranda to be seen at http://www.thegoring.com/.
# posted by Jim @ 11:14 AM 
