Stationlink 2001: Waterloo

The London Men's Self-Help Pub Crawl Group are very familiar with drinking in Waterloo, having visited it during both E2K and L2K. Thankfully, there are enough pubs within walking distance of the station to sustain about twenty pub crawls, and on this occasion we went for the White Hart on Cornwall Road, which is an excellent pub with a very wooden interior, good real ales, and a large sofa, upon which we smirked broadly.

Gurning down the house

One of the reasons we were smirking was the barmaid's choice of music, which involved a strong (if not solitary) emphasis on James Bond theme songs. At one point – for reasons unknown to this day – Tim went up and asked if he could look through the collection of CDs, following which the Tom Jones version of "Burning Down the House" mysteriously blasted out of the speakers.

We then further pestered the barmaid by asking (every five minutes or so) if she had a pin. A strange request, you might think, but not if one of your number is keen to demonstrate some sort of elaborate magic trick involving a match and cigarette paper, or some other combustible materials. The fact that she repeatedly did not have a pin was probably for the best, particularly given that Simon – real name Simon Burner – has a history of being ejected from various institutions for pyrotechnic reasons.

  Ambience  
 Dangerous  Rough and ready  New media
 Student  Beatnik  Laid-back
 Cosy  Session  Party 2 hard
 Other (please specify): ........................................................................................................
Décor
 Standard  Olde-worlde  New media
 Urban hunting-lodge  Stained/soiled  Contrived
 Sports  Stripped pine  
 Other (please specify): ........................................................................................................
Staff
 Foul-mouthed  Surly  Brusque
 Ignorant  Friendly  Fawning
 Other (please specify): FANTASTIC (BUT DID NOT HAVE PIN) .................................
Toilets
 Dangerous  Medieval  
 Acceptable  Clement  
 Other (please specify): ........................................................................................................

Anyone who's been to the White Hart on a weeknight may be surprised by our description of the ambience as "laid-back", but on an early Saturday afternoon it was pleasantly relaxed without being desolate like the Pool Shack. All told, it was by far the best pub of the day:

Robert 8
Pad 8
Simon 9
Tim 8.2
Alan 8.5
Average 8.34

Naturally we were all eager to visit Burger King in Waterloo station, but we decided that we didn't have time (and hey, there's always the Burger King at London Bridge), so we went to find the bus instead. Curiously, given that we didn't have time, we found ourselves having to sit in a stationary Stationlink for about fifteen minutes. It was at this point that the first cracks began to appear in the façade of being able to get round eleven pubs on time – but we made efficient use of the delay by badgering the driver to take a photo of us all, to which he kindly agreed.

Only losers take the bus

Eventually the bus got moving, and we moved on to London Bridge.

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