Anyone know what's happening to the Head of Steam at Euston ?
Is is just a (heavy) refurb or is it the end of an era ?
C.
Anyone know what's happening to the Head of Steam at Euston ?
Is is just a (heavy) refurb or is it the end of an era ?
C.
Wasn't it already the end of an era when it was taken over by Fuller's in August 2005?
Wayne
Well...It's still serviceable. Never was cheap, so perhaps guest Holts at
2.70 isn't quite stunning. Nothing better in the area anyway, Mabel's Tavern across the way is OK, but is Shepherd Neame. HoS still has 4-5 guests, on top of the 3-4 Fullers beers. I just feel slightly dirty going there now.Can't believe they'll mess with the formula too much, and there must be a small fortune >
I assume Fuller's will strip it all out and flog it. That would seem to tie in with their usual business philosophy. After all, it's not making any money just sitting there is it? - I can almost hear their accountants say :(
Hear, hear :(
Btw, do they still have any real cider in the HoS, or have Fuller's replaced it with Strongbow or whatever garbage keg cider they sell in most of their pubs?
SD
Yes, yes, I know I'm replying to my own post but I've passed there again today and things have become a bit clearer ...
The exterior is now a maroon red with new signage (including a rather good pictorial hanging sign) naming it as "The Doric Arch". Branding is totally Fuller's and the HoS name has disappeared. The Fuller's glass in the windows (this appeared soon after the purchase by Fuller even though the HoS name persisted) remains.
Don't know about the interior (and the fate of the Railwayana) as it's not open yet but it looks as though it will be soon. I'll post info as soon as I get in ...
I suppose that the answers to my original question are Yes and Yes.
The "Head of Steam" era looks to be over but it is reopening as a Fuller's House.
C.
Sigh. Whenever I return to London to visit family and shop at Marks and Sparks I usually stay around the Russell Square area for its convenient location and because the HOS was only a stone's throw away and made a nice pit-stop on my walk back to the hotel from my family who live in Islington. Yet another reason not to come over anymore.
Wayne
Cheer up, it's not that bad. Get the tube from the Angel to Old Street and pay a visit to the Wenlock Arms. Plenty of buses from that area back to KX and Euston (late ones, too).
The tube!! Need a second mortgage for that! I was totally shocked at the cost of travelling only a few stops on my visit in June 2005! (Here I pay 80 pence for the 23 minute journey into town on an air-conditioned, reliable, clean train)
We did visit the Wenlock Arms during that trip. We walked down from The Angel where we had a pint of (Hand pumped?) Bass at the Old Red Lion Theatre. We walked a lot in the 6 days we were there and saved the money for our thirsts :-)
Brief summary and weird piccies here:
Wayne
Agreed - it now costs 4 quid each way from Angel to Old St (or any other tube journey between 2 adjacent stops). Ken Livingstone's strange idea seems to be to get people using public transport by whacking up the price (doh!)
Having said that, Wenlock recommendation seconded! :-)
SD
(snipped)
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Photoid cards! (xposted)
If it wasn't so expensive in London, I'd bring my family over for the kids to see their granny and for me to get a beer! The real killer is the crummy, overpriced accommodation. The cheapest double in a central London hotel is about 50 quid and that gets you threadbare carpets and stained, grotty wallpaper, shared bathrooms in the halls, dusty rooms in real need of a paint-job and who knows what else! In Tokyo I can pay 36 quid for a double, en-suite with free PCs in the lobby to use and a wired internet connection in the room. The UK is such a rip-off! If the 4 of us come over it gets close to 2 million yen or 9 thousand quid, which is one years' tuition for one kid at their secondary school! My mother has only seen her grandkids twice and the eldest is now almost 15!
And definitely on my hit-list the next time I can afford to make the trip! In fact, thanks to info gleaned from this group, there are still a few places I didn't visit in 2005. We wanted to go to the Jerusalem Tavern but it's closed on Sundays and that's the only day we had free to go there :-( If we'd known beforehand we would have planned differently.
Wayne
Hmmm. You know what you said about grotty wallpaper and threadbare carpets etc...
Obviously have to save more pennies to afford something with better carpets :-)
On another note, I wish the GBBF wasn't on in August! It's been on my 'to do' list for a number of years but being the high season it means frights are much more expensive. Plus the departure taxes, arrival taxes, fuel surcharges, airport security tax, fright insurance, it's just so unaffordable!
Wayne
You're funny.
At first I thought you've been in Japan so long you've picked up the accent. But then, flying maybe a bit scary these days after all.
If he'd been Irish, he'd have been trilled about it.
I hate flying, it's fer the birds!
I'm not actually afraid of flying. It's the thought of crashing that terrifies me. I've actually walked off a plane through fear. Of course BEFORE they'd closed the doors and taken off :-)
Wayne
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