Shiver Me Timbers

And so another weekend without our regulation quota of trains, pubs and football. Obviously not a surprise given that there had been no let-up with the wintry conditions and so it was almost a complete white-out across the country with a handful of games actually going ahead.

Since the match was called off on the Thursday, this gave me plenty of time to come up with some alternative plans for the Saturday. Thankfully Chris T was more than willing to throw in his lot and join me.

And since he'd had ventured over to my side of town for a crawl before Xmas, it was now my turn to head to south London for the start of our little wander.

I arrived at Elephant & Castle tube and finally found the Walworth Road through the maze of underpasses - not a particularly salubrious stretch of road but it wasn't long before I found our rendezvous point, Arments Pie, Mash & Eel shop.

Arments have been plying their trade around here since the First World War but the premises at Westmoreland Road are relatively modern and probably the largest I've seen for a pie and mash shop.

(left) Luvly Jubbly!!

Unusually they offer a steak and kidney pie in addition to the standard issue and it's not too bad - quite a decent bit of kidney and quite flavoursome. The mash is OK - a few too many eyes in it for me which for some reason reminds me of school mashed potato - whilst the liquor is positively glowing (reminding me of Percy's purest green).

Following this we meandered towards Camberwell taking a slight deviation via the very impressive Addington Square - just about 100 yards from Walworth Road but seemingly from a different time - impressive regency-type houses with a central communal garden - very grand.

From here we went through slightly grimmer housing estates until we reached the first pub of the day - the Hermit's Cave - which is on of the corner of Grove Road on Camberwell Church Road.

It's quite a small-ish pub with a couple of tight bars, one of which seems to be set up for TV viewing rather than anything else and another with more comfy seating. It's a bit dark inside and rather quiet for a Staurday lunchtime but I suppose it is still quite early.

There's a decent selection of beers with three from Brodies (Mild, Red and IPA) plus Gravesend Shrimpers Bitter from Loddon Brewery. There were also two ciders on tap.

(right) The Hermits Cave

I tried a pint of Shrimpers Bitter whilst Chris had the IPA - both were OK but nothing special so we moved on.

We walked along Camberwell Grove which is also in marked contrast to the Walworth Road - very large and elegant houses - and as Chris commented, some wouldn't look out of place on a well-to-do seafront.

We popped into what was the Grove pub and is now in the final stages of being revamped as the Grand Union. Three handpumps for Youngs Ordinary and Well's Bombardier on the bar but no beer available from any of them.

We continued on and headed to Hooper's Bar and weren't totally surprised to find we were the first customers of the day. Two beers on offer - Adnam's Yuletide and Keltek Arthur's Ale. There was a third pump with Moorhouse's Pendle Witches Brew but this appeared to be off.

The Keltek is a new brewery to us - the pump clip was a rough and ready homemade affair which offered no clues but subsequent googling shows the brewery to be based down in Redruth - and the Arthur's Ale was quite tasty given it was only 3.5% but it didn't warrant a second pint.

It was also nice to see they use oversize glasses here too - I hadn't noticed this on previous visits. And no sign of our chum, landlord Jamie, as he's sunning it up in the Caribbean.

We'd originally intended to move onto the nearby Gowlett but after a flurry of texts with some other London Millers, we decided on a change of plan that saw us go to Herne Hill instead.

On the way there we popped into the latest branch of William Rose on East Dulwich Road - a butcher with a fine array of game birds as well as some enticing sausages and pork pies - and enticed we certainly were.

From here it was a bus ride to Herne Hill and the Florence pub. I'd been meaning to come here for a few years following good reports. On the slopes of Brockwell Park opposite there were lots of families out sledging as the snow started to come down quite thickly.

Inside the pub, we were warmly welcomed by the manager who sensed we were on a crawl - not quite sure what radar he has but it was spot on.

It's a big airy pub which seems heavily focussed to food with few people at the bar. We tried a pint of their own brew, Weasel, which was quite hoppy but a bit flat. Probably not surprising as it turned out to be the last of the barrel.

They also brew a wheat beer, Beaver, but this unfortunately wasn't on tap but our friendly manager managed to get us a small sample. Quite nice too with spicing more akin to Hoegaarden than Schneider Weisse but enjoyable all the same.

The manager said they were thinking about brewing a mild as well - they'd then have to try and come up with some ploy to market it to the younger crowd they serve so that it won't simply be regarded as an old man's drink.

I had a pint of Adnams Old before we left - very more-ish but served a tad too cold for my liking. Chris went for a bottle of the Coopers Sparkling, rolled before poring to disturb the sediment as is traditional with our antipodean cousins.

From the pub it's a very short walk to Herne Hill station where we catch the train to Beckenham and then take the tram to Addiscombe.

It is here that you find Clarets Free House which is the oft-visited pub for those three gentlemen of South Norwood - Chris, Andy and Paul. It is my first visit so I was keen to see what the fuss was all about.

(left) London Millers found here - beware...

A large-ish one room bar - quite gloomy and populated by what is probably fair to describe as an older clientele. Few pretty young things in here but sometimes that doesn't matter.

There was a great range of beers - apparently there is always a Palmers beer on sale (and it is Palmer's biggest selling outlet in London and has the certificate to prove it) but their beers don't do it for me.

I opted for an opening pint of Celtica from the Great Orme Brewery - a golden ale, quite light but nothing challenging.

There were also a few beers from the Westerham brewery - we were all on their William Wilberforce Freedom at some point which was another golden ale with a nice dash of hops - a Fairtrade beer originally brewed to celebrate the abolition of slavery.

Paul was in residence when we arrived and Andy arrived shortly afterwards - the chat was the usual male stuff and varied from how much we all spend on our weekly shop, which Sainsburys is best around that neck of the woods and do borlotti beans belong in a stew. Heady stuff.

The best beer of the day for me was the last one - the Sussex Stout from the Dark Star brewery which I almost overlooked as the pump clip looked like an old-fashioned Guinness clip. Dark Star is one of those breweries from which I've never had a poor beer and this pint wasn't about to start a trend - a nice full-bodied dry stout without any overwhelming bitterness. A perfect final beer.

Paul started the exodus as there was a stew with his name on it back at home - with borlotti beans - and it's then that hunger got the better of the rest of us.

I had the longest traipse back to east London where I popped into my local kebabish where I had a very interesting chat about brain and lambs foot curries.

It seems they no longer make a brain curry but they do still have the lambs foot curry - check out the recipe here - I have to admit I chickened out and went for boring old tikka instead. Maybe next time when I've had more Dutch courage...