Just Another Case Of A Lost And Thirsty Traveller In London
Getting lost is an easy thing to do in London, especially if you don’t carry one of those pocket maps with you. I had one but it slipped out my back pocket on the tube a few weeks ago and I haven’t replaced it yet.
If I’m going some place new in London, I normally have quick look at Google maps and that does the trick, I usually find where I’m going without too much of a problem. Usually being the key word!
On Sunday I was out and about in central London, when on the spur of the moment I decided I would head to Fleet Street, to visit a couple of historic pubs. I wanted to find out if they were as good as they are cracked up to be. Or whether they were just hyped up tourists traps. The pubs in question were “Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese” and “The Tipperary”.
I knew Fleet Street wasn’t too far from St Pauls Cathedral, which was quite close to where I was at, when my idea for a few historic lagers came crashing into my brain. I however managed to head off in the wrong direction, in hindsight It should have only taken me 10 minutes to get to Fleet Street.
Fast forward an hour later and I’m well and truly lost, with the help of some street maps I eventually find my way back to St Pauls. Just when I’m trying to figure out what way to go, a girl traveller struggling along the road with her suitcase asks me for directions to Smithfield. I knew the answer to that one and I asked her if she happened to know where Fleet Street was, she did as she had walked along it not so long ago. Two lost travellers were now slightly less lost.
By this stage I was one lost and thirsty London traveller who was desperate for a lager or two. I eventually made it too Fleet Street and I couldn’t believe it when the place was virtually deserted. I have been in Graveyards with more of an atmosphere.
I suppose it was Sunday evening, but I was in London, the city of cool, a city, which supposedly never sleeps. Well Fleet Street sure as hell sleeps on a Sunday evening, it was only 9pm.
I located the historic pubs I was looking for Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese and The Tipperary, WTF? Both of them were closed, in fact every pub in Fleet Street seemed to be shut. I couldn’t believe it. I felt as thirsty as I did when I was wandering around the Pyramids in Giza all those years ago, but it was easier to get a drink there than it was on Fleet Street on a Sunday.
At least I now knew how to find Fleet Street and I would return another day, I still had the problem of quenching my thirst. I remembered an interesting looking pub beside the Millennium Bridge, I had passed on Saturday night called “The Centre Page”. I thought any pub that is located on a Lane called Knightrider Street has got to be worth a visit.
I took the short stroll back up towards St Pauls and The Centre Page to finally get a cool refreshing pint of Lager. You guessed it, the city that thinks it never sleeps was well and truly asleep, it was closed. I thought fuck this and headed to the tube station and home. I had a couple of cans of lager chilling in the fridge at home.
I was maybe lost in London for a wee while, but it wasn’t the first time and it sure as hell wont be the last time. When I’m in no particular hurry to get anywhere it can be fun wandering around just getting lost in London. It however would have been better if the pubs had been open!
Related posts: