Our final stop, Euston, was a short distance from St Pancras, so we again jumped on the next passing bus for the duration of one stop. The pub we had selected to be our last was called simply London Pub. It's a curious-looking establishment which I'd often seen when walking up Woburn Place, but I had never considered visiting it until the Stationlink crawl, when it suddenly seemed appropriate. Looking back, I now recall that the reason I'd never gone in was because it looked absolutely appalling.
We were not to be disappointed. It was heaving with people, who seemed mostly to be American tourists. Which is not entirely surprising when you consider that the "pub" is actually part of a hotel. Then again, it was about 10 p.m. on a Saturday night and I don't know about you, but if I went on holiday to New York (for example), I'd hardly be drinking heavily in a rancid hotel bar called New York Pub at that time.
The other notable thing about London Pub was its vast size. It seemed like acres and acres of tourists all partying hard, pretending that this – fake furnishings and gaudy "paintings" – is what London is all about. Whereas of course it's really about people getting on buses and visiting a selection of extremely bad pubs.
Despite taking a particular dislike to London Pub and its customers, Tim obtusely gave it the most points; though I strongly suspect that Al's score is nearest to the truth.
| Robert | 4 |
| Pad | 5 |
| Simon | 4 |
| Tim | 6.1 |
| Alan | 2 |
| Average | 4.22 |
In fact, Tim's high score may be due to a change of heart, which it is possible to trace through the following sequence of photographs. Whilst inside the pub, he is clearly annoyed:
Then, upon leaving, he becomes positively despondent:
But finally, he perks up to the extent that he has no problem participating in an improvised outdoor display of synchronised dancing:
Whatever the case, we'd made it to our final pub. Although we'd not managed to take the Stationlink buses around the whole route, this was due to circumstances beyond our control, so we felt justified in congratulating ourselves on a successful undertaking.
Another consequence of not using Stationlink was that the last few stops had taken us far less time than expected, and we were pleased to discover that we still had well over half an hour's drinking left. We could, of course, have remained in London Pub until closing time – but I think if any of us had stayed for more than one drink, some sort of trouble would have erupted.
So with the exception of Simon – who adamantly had to go home in a drunken stupor – we decided to get one last beer in at an old favourite, the Hope on Tottenham Street. This was the pub we'd managed to get thrown out of during L2K, so this time we thought it prudent to sit outside on their picnic tables.
I think it would be accurate to say that we were all rather tired after our endeavours. This may or may not explain the rather morose look on my face in the final picture of the day.
(Disclaimer: my expression should not be regarded as a comment on the Hope, which after all is a good pub where I occasionally go for lunch – they serve quality sausages in an upstairs room.)
So that was it. We had reached the end of Stationlink 2001 and it was time to go home, as we were left to reflect on just how long it would take me to update this goddamn website – er, just under two years, it eventually transpired.
Finally, I leave you with a summary of the pubs we visited, in order of our average scores.
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