Hoxton Pubs (for people who aren't hipsters) 

Thanks Paul! I did think about making one of those "thanks for 1k subscribers" videos, but I suspected the people who follow the channel would far rather I just get on with it and show more pubs! I too hope I don't inadvertently do anything do displease the RU-vid gods, for the time being they seem to be smiling on me because I think I'm doing my bit to fill a niche which was surprisingly underserved on RU-vid. There aren't many other channels about historic pubs out there as far as I can tell.

Thanks Rob, and good to hear something of the good old days (or bad old days depending on how you look at it) of the Eagle remaining!

Thank you! When my daughter was a toddler, getting her to sleep was a bit of a marathon, often involving singing (it's amazing that ever worked considering how utterly tone deaf I am). Given she was born in London I thought it would be appropriate to focus on London based songs, including Pop Goes the Weasel. So I had already researched the meaning of the lyrics long before this video. I liked the idea we might one day pass the Eagle on a bus or somesuch and I could point it out to her, and remind her of the song. Obviously when that opportunity eventually arose she wasn't really interested! One bit of footage I cut from this video was a mention of the fact Marie Lloyd popularised that "My old man said follow the van (and don't dilly dally on the way)" song, which is also something I used to sing to my daughter to try and get her to sleep. She never seemed very convinced by my attempts to do a Cockney accent. In yet another bit of deleted footage I talked about Marie Lloyd nearly being turned away on trying to enter the USA for "moral turpitude", which resonated with me, having very recently been watching videos about Sebastian Horsley, who was denied entry to America on the same grounds. Those young people at the start also seemed to be making some sort of video, so I thought they'd understand. As a nice book end, as I was filming the outro, two young ladies were standing nearby within earshot and saw me talking to camera. I told them I was feeling a bit self conscious, and I was "just doing some RU-vid crap". They replied "Oh, we're doing Instagram crap".

@@TweedyPubs It was the act of reciting nursery rhymes to my children (mainly to induce sleep) that got me thinking about their meanings and origin. I may have tried the odd bit of Cockney too. Anything to get them to sleep, basically. Of course nowadays, I would just make them watch some of my own “RU-vid crap” - that would do the job! How the world has changed. I imagine it’s now a requirement to demonstrate “moral turpitude” in order to be allowed into America. I neglected to commend you on the successful Hipster avoidance, by the way. No mean feat!

@@WC21UKProductionsLtd I have to admit to being oddly fascinated by hipsters, as subcultures go it is (was?) nebulous, and I struggle to think of another example of a youth movement which would refuse to even acknowledge its own existence. Call a punk a punk or call a mod a mod and they'd be delighted, but nobody would ever willingly self-identify as a hipster. I think that's partly down to the inherent cynicism in the ideology (if that's not too grandiose a term) that went with it, that anything you had actually heard of was therefore mainstream and passé, and that obviously included hipsterism itself. I don't know if you ever watched Nathan Barley (I think it aired around 2005) - it's rather niche, and I'm not sure how well the comedy would have dated, but it was amazingly prescient of hipster culture, and the rise of social media etc. Interestingly they never used the word "hipster" at any point in the show, instead just referring to them as "idiots".

I didn’t see that, but it sounds like I should. Obviously - now that I’m a RU-vidr - I have totally shunned mainstream, legacy media, but I’m sure a 2005 production will be allowed? It’s interesting that you describe hipsters as a youth movement - I always associated them with slightly older people - say, 30 plus? This may very well be my limited exposure. I think it all took off around the time I was 40 and I knew peers who suddenly adopted large, carefully sculpted beards and moustaches. Are they actually still a ‘thing’? Possibly evolved into a youth group? I know some of them do wear tweed. Badly.

@@WC21UKProductionsLtd Yes maybe "youth movement" isn't the right term, and I think you're right it was certainly never really a teenage phenomenon. Very hard to tell if they are still a thing - given that they themselves would never have admitted they were even at their peak!

Proper “honest” crooks back then, not todays online “scumbag” scammers.😂

Thanks Ysgolgerlan! I really wanted to like Cwtch, given the name, but just couldn't get past the grapefruit! As it happens one of my favourite beers of all time is Welsh - Hancocks HB. I'm not sure it still exists, but it was a very traditional bitter and no hint of grapefruit!

It is a great pub - although alas these days even there we're not entirely safe from grapefruity beer!

@@TweedyPubs 🥴🤢

Thanks AFT! Hoxton probably isn't that well known as an area of London, and to be honest I probably wouldn't put it high on my list of areas to go for a pub crawl. I partly featured it because I know I have a bit of a bias towards central / north London and haven't covered much of the East End, but also I do think if nothing else the Wenlock Arms is worth the trip to that corner of town.

I think you made the right choice - the Cittie of Yorke is a favourite of mine, in fact really one of the pubs which started my love affair with pubs, which I think I talked about in the video where I covered it. Although I agree the actual beer offering at Sam Smiths is a bit divisive!

Thanks Scott! Hope you have a good trip to London.

@@TweedyPubs Thank you. I’m meeting some friends around Charing cross. I want to do a small pub crawl, and was thinking Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, The Old Mitre, but what other 2 would you recommend? Thank in advance

@@SC07T My two other favourites in that area are the Seven Stars and the Cittie of Yorke (must see the back bar), but the Seven Stars is quite small, so depending on time of day / day of the week you might end up having to shiver in the street outside! When I've taken other people on pub crawls in that area often their favourite (to my slight surprise) was the Old Bank of England, corner of Fleet Street and Bell Yard. It's quite close to the Seven Stars. If you're starting at Charing Cross and don't want a long walk to pub number 1 then there's always the Ship and Shovell!

@@TweedyPubs Thank you for these recommendations Tweedy. I highly appreciate you taking the time out to reply. I will try to visit all of these, in your honor obviously 🍻

Thank you for watching! I'm fairly sure pretty much every old pub has some interesting history associated with it, but some seem to be better documented than others.

Thanks Peter!

Thank you! I do see what you mean about the architectural details, it probably isn't top of most people's list of things which make for a great pub! That said, I think the architecture of these places probably has more influence on the atmosphere than we may give credit for.

@@TweedyPubs Oh, I agree with that too. People don't necessarily recognise the style of a pub but they feel the atmosphere. I just meant the great thing about RU-vid is that you can be as niche as your own interest dictates, without a producer telling you to cut out the bits about gable ends. TV has been dumbed down so much, it's good that people can now make their own programmes.

Very happy to hear we're in agreement! I really enjoyed the bitter at the Wenlock but in hindsight now I wish I had gone for the mild, it's such a rare thing these days.

I don't mind the occasional unusual beer with a fruity twang, but it's frequently the case now in London that over half the hand pumps in a given pub are something or other which tastes predominantly of grapefruit. I don't even have anything particularly against grapefruit but am I the only person who thinks this is a bit over the top?

@@TweedyPubs No. No you’re not.

Thanks Si!

Thanks Jim!

Thanks JohnRob! Still a few areas of central London as yet uncovered and a few which merit a second visit! Plus much more to do outside of the centre, and the rest of the country. Hopefully many more videos still to come!

That`s good to hear.@@TweedyPubs

Thanks Galveenus!

Yes Maida Vale / Little Venice is definitely on the list, sort of a follow-on from the Paddington video, given that I stayed south of the station that time. I'm also considering Hammersmith sometime soon - some of those pubs along the river there - but that feels like one I'd want to wait for nice weather for.

Thanks Rab! ...and what a beautiful part of the world you live in - I spent Burns Night at St Abb's Head this year, really magical.

@@TweedyPubs thank you i stay just a very short drive St Abbs ,grantshouse I am watching oxford pubs at this time Cheers Rab

I'm glad it's not just me who doesn't like grapefruity beers! I'm all for pubs providing a range of beer styles to suit different tastes, and clearly some people like those kind of beers or they wouldn't sell... It's just frustrating when they end up taking over, and you can't get a simple pint of decent bitter at all in some places. My local pub has four hand pumps for guest beers, and it's not uncommon that all four of them are given over to various types of citrusy pale ale. Yes I'm similarly dismayed by the paint jobs in many pubs now. Although in fairness the objectionable pub "makeover" isn't a new phenomenon, alas. There was a particularly bad spate of that in the 1960s, when many pubs stripped out their original Victorian interiors to be replaced with garish modern styles. I remember watching a documentary about this wherein a guy said he went round buying up a lot of those fixtures and fittings, kept them in a warehouse, then sold them back to the pubs when the fashion for mock-Victorian pub interiors came in a couple of decades later.

That was a wonderful blast from the past! I managed to find a clip on RU-vid to refresh my memory.

@@TweedyPubs I loved that show, particularly Novelty Island and The Man With The Stick. I had Vic Reeves Big Night Out all on VHS back in the day. 🙂

Yes after the Wenlock the interest from a beer point of view at least went down hill very rapidly!

I almost wonder now if that was a test, and that it might have in fact been a genuine beer, only for those in the know!

Oops, I might've spilled the beans when I let the cat out of the bag@@TweedyPubs