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The Thoughts of Chairman Mick
Mick Lewis,
Chair of the North London Branch
Oh well, another successful London Drinker Festival has come and gone. It only seems like a year ago that we had the last one. I spent three days with customers asking me if I was the person in the photograph! Let's just say that I don't normally look like that, but which version is better is open to debate!
Winner of the best mild of the festival went to William IV with their own beer, brewed at their pub in Leyton just down the road from the Orient's ground. Well, at least Leyton's won something this season.
Morgan Grenfell have bought Whitbread's estate - about 3,000 pubs. It seems that they are likely to break up the estate, with the Hogshead chain going first. With the current trend of converting ex-banks into pubs, it's a strange turnaround to see banks buying pubs.
The Holly Bush in Hampstead is slowly being re-furbished. The current tenants have very sympathetically altered the back bar, using materials acquired from other pubs, without altering the overall atmosphere (Ed—see page 6).
And staying with pubs, the lease at the Feathers in Marylebone is up for sale. £120,000 should get you into what must be the smallest pub in north London.
Talking of tiny outlets, a fisherman in Mevagissey, Cornwall, has applied to turn a shop into a pub. It will only take nine customers, and will become the smallest pub in Britain. Apparently, locals are worried that customers may fall off the quay when they leave at night, as it is only 12ft from the sea. I thought that you normally fell into a curry house. Obviously, they do things differently in Cornwall.
Anyone who has drunk Lyne Down perry over the years, will be sad to hear that Jean Nowell is retiring, and has put the house, land and business up for sale. Anyone with £400,000 to spare could still have trouble competing with Jean's award-winning perry, which was a regular CAMRA Perry of the Year winner in the 90s.
I notice that Paul Van Ostman has taken early retirement. For those not familiar with the name, he joined Holsten in 1977 and was one of the early pioneers of the premium packaged lager sector. Pity the lager didn't take early retirement as well!
Ravenhead Glass, the biggest supplier to the licensed trade, has closed it Merseyside factory, whilst Dema are up for sale. If the Government really do bring in oversized glasses, you'd think that they'd be laughing all the way to the bank. Do they know something that we don't?
Mick Lewis
Reproduced from the Full Pint, Issue 9.
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