(Drivebycuriosity) - I am back from London where I stayed 6 weeks. The metropolis has so much to see. One important feature are the city´s pubs. They are ubiquituous, you can find a public drinking house at almost every corner. It seems that London is a city of pubs. In this post I can just display a tiny fraction of them.
Many of them look really impressive, at least from outside. Some have majestic fronts and look almost like drinking palaces. And many have ambitious names, like Prince Regent, Duke of Wellington, Duke of York, The Crown Tavern or Marquis of Granby. Some names sound militaristic like The Newman Arms or Masons Arms.
And I like the often beautiful designed coat of arms.
Some pubs also have funny names like The Rugged Hare.
I was impressed that these drinking houses often attract huge crowds, even early in the afternoon. Often I saw a flock of people surrounding the pub. I think without huge & thirsty crowds these pubs could not survive. London belongs to the most expensive places in the world, real estate prices are sky high. In order to pay their extremely high rents the pubs have to sell enormous quantity of booze (and food). That explains that many pubs look so impressive. Their majestic fronts attract a lot customers and keep the inns alive.
Sometimes the crowds like somewhat elegant or funny.
The pressure to sell a lot booze has a flip side. I got the impression that all this great drinking palaces focus on global brands, boring industrial beers like Heineken, Peroni, Amstel & Guiness. I live in Manhattan where many pubs offer a selection of craft beers on tap, not so in London. I understand that these craft beer specialties don`t guarantee the revenues these pubs need to survive.
But it was fun to visit these places anyway and be part of a happy crowd.
Fortunately there are some exceptions, pubs which found low cost locations allowing them to leave the trodden paths. Above images from Mother Kelly`s, a craft beer pub (and shop) located in a railway underpass in Vauxhall. They had delicious & hopy IPAs.
Stay tuned
(Drivebycuriosity) - I really loved watching "Midsommar", directed & written by Ari Aster, which is now running in US cinema theaters (imdb). A group of young Americans follows an invitation to participate in an ancient festival somewhere in Sweden, called "Midsommar". The event becomes more and more strange and upsetting, aggravated by psychedelic drugs, and culminates into a vortex of horror & madness (this is a spoiler free blog. You can find a synopsis here wikipedia).
I enjoyed that madness & horror developed very slowly - blended with weird humor - which makes the film even more scary. Ari Aster, who also directed & wrote Hereditary, was certainly inspired by a lot of movies & books, but he developed his own ideas and found new ways.
I indulged into the cinematography, which mixed breathtaking beauty with sheer terror. "Midsommar" doesn`t have leading actors, rather a team of equals, but Florence Pugh impressed as a woman, who is drawn into something which is far beyond her understanding. Aster created a masterpiece and proved that he belongs to the league of cinema magicians like Lars von Tier & Park Chan-Wook.
Go and watch it!
(Drivebycuriosity) - I am a connoisseur of street art. Wherever I am I take pictures of murals, stencils & graffiti. So I hoped that a six weeks stay in London will add considerably to my photon collection. I got disappointed, apparent from some location like Spitalfields or Notting Hill`s hyper-touristy Portobello Road, there is not much to see. London is aristocratic, clean & neat and way behind New York`s urban art (here my latest report ( driveby) and the street art of Los Angeles, Miami or even Rome (driveby ) & Naples/Napoli (driveby ). But I discovered some gems anyway.
