DUKE OF HAMILTON, NW3

• 

  John Cryne of CAMRA North London reports that the owners of the three times winner of CAMRA North London’s Pub of the Year competition, the Duke of Hamilton, New End, Hampstead, NW3 1JD have now submitted formal planning applications to Camden Council to convert the pub into two private dwellings.

  The first application [2010/1923/C] was filed on 28 May for the demolition of a single story extension at ground floor level - the toilet block. The second and more substantial [2010/1901/P] was filed on 1 June for conversion to residential after the previously mentioned demolition.

  CAMRA is asking people to write to Camden Council and object to the plans which you can do on-line before the end of June by clicking the application numbers above and then clicking the "Add Comments Here" link. It is also possible to write to them via this link tinyurl.com/32pre6b.

  You don’t have to be a Camden resident to post your objections. If you use the pub or have visited at some time then you have the right to object. Indeed, even if you have never used the pub, the fact that we are losing a pub a day across the country means that somewhere a line has to be drawn in the sand. So we can all object!

  For more details on how you can help go to www.savetheduke.com.

NORTH BRIXTON CRAWL — THURSDAY 24 JUNE

We had a branch pub crawl around North Brixton on Thursday, 24 June. A very good time was had by all who joined in.

Five pubs were visited as follows:

• 19.00, Beehive, 407 Brixton Rd SW9 7DG;
• 19.45 Rest is Noise, 442 Brixton Road, SW9 8BH;
• 20.30 Duke of Edinburgh, 204 Ferndale Rd, SW9 8AG;
• 21.00 Marquis of Lorne, 49a Dalyell Road, SW9 9SA;
• 21.45 Grosvenor, 17 Sidney Road, SW9 0TP;

See the excellent urban75.org website for Brixton pub details.

Check here regularly for details of our next crawl.

ARMOURY, SW18 - OFFICIAL LAUNCH NIGHT

• The Armoury (formerly The Crane) in Wandsworth welcomed CAMRA members to their launch party on Wednesday 26th May.
• Patrons received a complimentary pint of Sambrook’s Wandle or Junction, Young’s Bitter or Hook Norton Old Hooky.
• There was a live band and canapes throughout the evening too.
• Customers old and new toasted a pub that really appreciates good beer.
• For more details about the re-launched pub contact:
  The Armoury, 14 Armoury Way, Wandsworth, SW18 1EZ.
  020 8870 6771 or see the pub website www.thearmourypub.co.uk.

S.W. LONDON CAMRA PUB OF THE YEAR 2009

ANOTHER VICTORY AT TRAFALGAR

• 

  Karen Wood & David Norman of the Trafalgar, Martin Butler of SW London CAMRA and Cllr Nick Draper, Mayor of Merton at the presentation

  The SW London CAMRA Pub of the Year 2009 (i.e. the current Pub of the Year throughout 2010) is once again the TRAFALGAR in Merton. This pub was also the winner of our Pub of the Year 2007 award and the CAMRA Greater London Pub of the Year 2008. The result is decided by a ballot of all CAMRA members in the SW London branch area - currently over 1,200 - and the winning pub was announced at the Battersea Beer Festival on Thursday 11th February at 4pm. The award presentation was on Tuesday 4 May at 8pm. See the Pub of the Year 2009 page for details or see more photos on Flickr.com [www.flickr.com/photos/flynnbar/sets/72157623872118951/].

  FULL RESULT

  • 1. Trafalgar, 23 High Path, Merton, SW19 2JY.
  • 2. Nightingale, 97 Nightingale Lane, Balham SW12 8NX.
  • 3. Eagle Ale House, 104 Chatham Road, Battersea SW11 6HG.

  • The other finalists are listed here alphabetically - all are well worth a visit.

  • 4. Falcon, 2 St Johns Hill, Battersea SW11 1RU.
  • 5. Grapes, 39 Fairfield Street, Wandsworth SW18 1DX.
  • 6. Hand in Hand, 6 Crooked Billet, SW19 4RQ.
  • 7. Sultan, 78 Norman Road, South Wimbledon SW19 1BT.

  See the Pub of the Year 2009 page for details and a googlemap of the pubs.

EASTER CRAWL OF CHELSEA & BATTERSEA

• On Saturday 3 April 2010 some members of our branch joined up with West London CAMRA branch for a joint crawl of Chelsea & Battersea. The original schedule, which was pretty well adhered to, was as follows:
• 13.00 Imperial Arms, 577 Kings Rd, Fulham SW6
• 13.45 Chelsea Ram, 32 Burnaby St, W Chelsea SW10
• 15.00 Coopers Arms, Flood St, Chelsea W3
• 16.00 Cross Keys, Lawrence St SW3
• 16.30 Pig’s Ear, Old Church St SW3
• 17.00 Draft House Westbridge, 74-76 Battersea Bridge Rd SW11
• 18.00 Castle, 115 Battersea High St SW11
• 19.00 Asparagus, 1-13 Falcon Rd SW11
• 20.00 Falcon, 2 St Johns Hill SW11.
• See some photos on Flickr.com.
• See our Diary Pages for other branch events.

LONDON PUBS GROUP CRAWL

Daytime Crawl of Tooting, Earlsfield & Wandsworth

• On Saturday 27 February 2010 there was a London Pubs Group daytime crawl of Tooting, Earlsfield & Wandsworth. This started near Tooting NR Station at:
• 12.00 Gorringe Park, 29 London Road, Tooting, SW17 9HW;
• 12.45 Antelope, 76 Mitcham Road, SW17 9NG;
• 14.15 Little House, 13 Tooting Grove, SW17 0RA;
• 15.15 Hare & Hounds, 99 Summerstown, Tooting, SW17 0BQ;
• 16.00 Prince of Wales, 646 Garratt Lane, SW17 0NT;
• 16.45 Jack Beard’s in the Fog, 2-4 Groton Road, Earlsfield, SW18 4EP;
• 17.45 Spread Eagle, 71 Wandsworth High Street, SW18 2PT.
• For further details please contact Jane Jephcote 07813 739856 or email jane.jephcote@googlemail.com. All are welcome - you don’t have to be a CAMRA member to come along.

LONDON PUBS WEEK 2009

• London Pubs Week 2009 ran from Saturday 7 November - Sunday 15 November and helped promote London LocAle Pubs.
• An ale trail Passport was available featuring the 36 pubs that participate in the CAMRA London Branches’ ‘LocAle’ scheme. Passport holders who drank a local cask ale in each of these pubs during the nine day period and had their Passport signed/stamped and dated by one of the bar staff were eligible for a prize.
• For more details see our London Pubs Week 2009 page.

SAMBROOK’S - NEW BEER LAUNCHED

• SAMBROOK’S has launched a second beer, Junction Ale to go alongside its established Wandle.

  This new 4.5% ABV bitter was introduced to coincide with London Pubs Week 2009 and it is initially available in 16 selected London pubs [List].

  The beer is described on the brewery website as follows:

  “Named after our local railway station, Junction Ale is a strong 4.5% ABV premium ale. Brewed with Challenger, Bramling X and Goldings hops, the beer has a deep amber colour with a spicy hop character.”

  For more information, including a list of pubs where Sambrook’s beer is available, see our Sambrook’s Brewery page. The brewery website can be found at www.sambrooksbrewery.co.uk.

GREATER LONDON PUB OF THE YEAR PRESENTATION

• The presentation of the award for the CAMRA Greater London Regional Pub of the Year 2009 took place at the Bricklayer’s Arms in Waterman Street, Putney, SW15 1DD on Monday 5 October. It was a double celebration as it was also the landlady’s birthday.
• For more details see our Greater London Pub of the Year 2009 page or www.bricklayers-arms.co.uk. See some more photos on Flickr.com

CAMPAIGNING TO LOOSEN PUBCO TIES

• Three London Labour MPs - including a serving minister and an ex-minister - have had a workshop with local licensees about how pubcos affect them.
• Transport Minister Sadiq Khan (Tooting), former Sports Minister Kate Hoey (Vauxhall), and Battersea MP Martin Linton were involved.
• The meeting took place at the Eagle Ale House, run by Fair Pint [www.fairpint.org.uk] members Simon Clarke - 07850 319257 or email siclarke@aol.com - and Dave Law, on Wednesday 23 September between 3.30-5.30pm. (This pub was the runner-up in our Pub of the Year 2008 vote).
• This MP’s Workshop was mainly aimed at licensees but anyone else was welcome to attend if they were interested in hearing what was said.
• If the workshop idea is proven to be a success, similar schemes could be rolled out across the country.
• See this Morning Advertiser article for a report on the meeting. [www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news.ma/article/84491].

THE URWINS’ FAREWELL TO THE PRINCESS OF WALES

• In July 2009 Terry and Debbie Urwin left the Princess of Wales Morden Rd, Merton after 23½ years in charge. You can see some photos and a video of Debbie’s leaving speech on this website’s End of an Era page. In 2008 they were awarded the first CAMRAswl award for consistent good service.

BANK HOLIDAY CRAWL OF FULHAM & PUTNEY

• On Monday 28 December 2009 we had a joint crawl of Fulham & Putney with West London CAMRA branch.
• 15.30 Golden Lion, 57 Fulham High Street, SW6 3JJ;
• 16.15 Temperance, 90 Fulham High Street, SW6 3LF;
• 17.00 Duke’s Head, 8 Lower Richmond Rd, SW15 1JN;
• 18.00 Half Moon, *Closure averted* 93 Lower Richmond Rd, SW15 1EU;
• 19.00 Bricklayer’s Arms, 32 Waterman Street, SW15 1DD;
• 20.30 Green Man, Wildcroft Road, Putney Heath, SW15 3NG;
• 22.00 Railway, 202 Upper Richmond Road, SW15 6TD (opposite Putney station).
• See our Diary Pages for other branch events.

LONDON PUBS GROUP CRAWL OF BOW & DOCKLANDS

• On Saturday 24 October 2009 there was a London Pubs Group daytime crawl of Bow and Docklands. This started at:
• 12.00 Coborn Arms, 8 Coborn Road, Bow, E3 2DA; then to include
• 12.30 Morgan Arms, 43 Morgan Street, Bow, E3;
• 14.00 Palm Tree, 129 Grove Road, Bow, E3;
• 15.15 Little Driver, 125 Bow Road, Bow, E3;
• 16.15 Widow's Son, 75 Devons Road, Bow, E3;
• 17.30 George, Glengall Grove, Isle of Dogs, E14;
• 18.30 Star of the East, 805a Commercial Road, Limehouse, E14;
• 19.15 Grapes, 76 Narrow Street, Limehouse, E14.
• [www.camranorthlondon.org.uk/londonpubsgroup/events.html].

OCTOBER GUIDED ALE TRAIL - PEAK DISTRICT

• The author of CAMRA’s Peak District Pub Walks, Bob Steel, organised a aletrails.com Autumn Break based at Hartington in the Peak District.
• This was from Monday 5 - Thursday 8 October 2009 with three nights’ Half Board at the Charles Cotton Hotel.

CAMRA CELEBRATES 100,000 MEMBERS

• CAMRA has announced for the first time in their 38 year history that they have 100,000 members signed up to the organisation.
• Mike Benner, CAMRA Chief Executive, said:
• ‘We are overjoyed at reaching 100,000 members, brought together by our passion for great British beer and community pubs. But while we may relax and raise a glass or two to celebrate at the opening of the Great British Beer Festival today, we are not complacent and tomorrow the hard work campaigning for drinkers’ rights will continue.’

See the main CAMRA website for full details [www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=306084].

RUDGATE RUBY MILD IS CHAMPION BEER OF BRITAIN

• The Champion Beer of Britain 2009 is Rudgate’s Ruby Mild (4.4% ABV) from the Rudgate Brewery in Tockwith, near York.
• Chairman of the judging panel, Roger Protz, made the announcement on Tuesday 4 August 2009 at the Great British Beer Festival.
• This photo shows Rudgate’s brewery director Craig Lee (right) and Head Brewer James Allen (left) with the trophy. An elated Craig Lee said:
• ‘It’s an excellent achievement, we’ve come close in previous years, and we are really proud to have won the Champion Beer of Britain. It’s unbelievable, and we hope our beer helps popularise the cause of real ale.’
• Overall second place went to the 2009 Winter Beer Champion, Oakham’s 7.5% ABV Attila (Peterborough, Cambridgeshire) and in third place was West Berkshire’s 5.0% ABV Dr Hexter’s Healer (Thatcham, Berkshire).

See the main CAMRA website for the full results [www.camra.org.uk/article.aspx?o=306417].

AXE THE BEER TAX - SAVE THE PUB

• November 2008 saw the launch of a campaign to Save the Pub and oppose plans to further increase beer tax. Unfortunately the Chancellor increased beer duty yet again in the budget of 22 April 2009 having already increased it by 9% in March 2008 and by a further 8% on 24 November 2008. With tax already taking up a third of the price of a pint of beer, further hikes can only accelerate the decline of the pub.
• This campaign aims to give a voice to ordinary British pub-goers and consumers, and send a strong message to Whitehall and Westminster that we’ve had enough.
• See the main CAMRA website for more details, then please sign up as a supporter of the campaign at www.axethebeertax.com. Over 60,000 have already joined the Facebook group.

THREE OF OUR LOCAL PUB GUIDES ARE NOW ONLINE

• The Third of our local pub guides, Down the River - a guide to the pubs of Wandsworth and Battersea which was originally published in 2008, is now available on-line on this website. It joins the first two guides, Through the Gateway to the South, which was originally published in 2006, and Across the Commons, which was published in 2007.

  This new addition means we now have UPDATED on-line pub lists available for SW11(in 2 parts), SW12, SW13, SW15, SW17, SW18(in 2 parts), SW19(in 2 parts), SW20 and SM4.

  See the Local Pub Guides Page for full details or simply use the Pubs drop down menu at the top of any page for direct links to the on-line pubs lists.

NEW LOCAL PUB GUIDE - THE CLAPHAM OMNIBUS

• The fourth of our proposed five local pub guides, THE CLAPHAM OMNIBUS - a guide to the pubs in and around Clapham and South Lambeth, was launched at the Battersea Beer Festival. It is available, priced at a very reasonable £2.00, from the CAMRA shop. See our Local Pub Guides page for full details.

LONDON PUBS GROUP CRAWL

• There was a London Pubs Group daytime crawl of Wood Green, Hornsey, Crouch End, Finsbury Park and Harringay on Saturday 20 June 2009. [Details].

50 MOST INFLUENTIAL PUB PEOPLE

• Pub industry daily The Morning Advertiser has published its annual list of the 50 most influential people in the drinks business.
• Tim Martin of Wetherspoon’s is top of the list for 2009. CAMRA’s chief executive, Mike Benner - pictured left, is listed as 29th most influential. See the [Full list] Full list on the Morning Advertiser website [www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news.ma/article/83175].

EBCU MANIFESTO 2009-2014

• Prior to the European Parliamentary Elections on 4 June 2009, the European Beer Consumers Union (EBCU) published a manifesto setting out what the beer drinker should want from the EU.
• All candidates and parties contesting the elections were sent copies of the manifesto as were the usual media outlets. Read more on the EBCU website.

BEER SALES DOWN 8.2%

• UK beer sales dropped by 8.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2009, compared to the same quarter in 2008, according to the latest UK Quarterly Beer Barometer, published by the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA). This is by far the highest first quarter fall since 1997, and comes just after the Chancellor announced yet another increase in Beer Tax in the Budget.
• See more on the main CAMRA website.

BATTERSEA BEER FESTIVAL - RECORD ATTENDANCE

• A record 5,014 attended the 19th BATTERSEA BEER FESTIVAL at the Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill from Wednesday 11 to Friday 13 February 2009 which was an unprecedented success. [Full details].
• To see some photos of the Festival on Flickr.com, or to upload your own photos to the group if you have any that are suitable, please go to www.flickr.com/groups/batterseabeerfestival.

CONSISTENT GOOD SERVICE AWARD

• Terry and Debbie Urwin at the The Princess of Wales Morden Rd, South Wimbledon have recently been awarded the first CAMRAswl award for consistent good service. They were presented with their certificate on 22 October 2008 by branch chairman, Martin Butler, who lives nearby and is a regular at the pub. See photo to the right or click for more details and pictures.

ASCOT ALES “MEET THE BREWER” EVENING

• The Brewery Tap in Wimbledon Village hosted another of their “Meet the Brewer” evenings on Tuesday 14 October 2008. The featured brewer this time was Ascot Ales from Camberley. See photo to the right or click for more details and pictures.

LONDON REGIONAL PUB OF THE YEAR PRESENTATION

• The Greater London Pub of the Year 2008 Presentation to the Trafalgar in Merton/South Wimbledon, our branch’s Pub of the Year 2007, took place on Thursday 2 October - see photo to the right. CAMRA’s Regional Director for London, Steve Williams - click to read his blog, was on hand along with the local dignitaries. The Pub featured on the cover of the October/November 2008 edition of the London Drinker Magazine.