Flowers with Tommy

originally posted to the London Pubs Facebook page

In a previous beery wander around Poplar that I recorded on these pages, I had a recommendation in the comments to check out the Tommy Flowers (50 Aberfeldy Street, E14 0NU) on the Aberfeldy estate. So off I went, with a bank holiday Monday in my back pocket, on the 115 bus to Aberfeldy. Walking up the street towards the pub I can hear an outpouring of music. In observance of the lovely weather, the customers have taken chairs outside and are boozing on the pavement. Wandering inside I find myself being followed in by the barman, and a beefy sound system chucking out disco classics at a volume that projects to the street outside. “Just to let you know”, shouts the barman, “we close at seven on a Sunday, but I can probably do you a couple”. Forewarned is forearmed, and I get in the pavement pub spirit by going back outside with a chair and a pint of the black stuff, £6.00.

The chatter out on the pavement is relaxed, and occasionally interspersed by the next door neighbour sticking her head out of her front garden to request songs of the barman. He turns the music down after 7pm and serves me a further pint. Excellent stuff.

I wander onwards towards the Manor Arms (150 East India Dock Road, E14 0BP). A birthday do is in progress, with the man of the day celebrating in a West Ham themed Hawaiian shirt. The barman is also done up for a possibly separate occasion, being resplendent in a Batman baseball cap (back to front, it is a bank holiday after all), and a Batman t-shirt. Batman serves me my Guinness (£4.90), and I take my usual seat next to the jukebox. Entering into conversation with a chap at the bar about where shirts are made (his came from Marks & Spencer and was made in Bangladesh), I notice he has a dropped fiver nestling at his feet. I inform him of this. He thanks me, but poses a question: “would you still have told me if it was a bullseye?” I like to think I would have.

The birthday chap moves through the bar. “It’s like a West Ham fucking Kindergarten in here” complains Batman. A regular chucks a couple of quid in the jukebox and informs the fiver dropping man of this. He in turn asks me what I’d like on the box. What an agony of choice! Non-commitally I suggest anything by the Stones. Through some negotiation, this ends up as “Friends In Low Places” by Garth Brooks. I take my leave, courtesy of a passing 115 bus.

I end up in Limehouse at a reinvigorated Crown (667 Commercial Road, E14 7LW) where it is truly buzzing, and a reasonable £5.50 for the dark stuff. A chap orders a bottle of Budweiser: “can I have it in a fancy glass?” I’m not sure what it ends up being served in. “Sitting In The Park” by Billy Stewart plays out on the stereo. All is good.

After several pints I wander along the road to the Clement Attlee (576 Commercial Road, E14 7JD), where Anspach and Hobday London Black is on sale for £6.95. The DLR rumbles overhead, but the breeze through the open door is cool, and the atmosphere relaxed. A group of misguided individuals outside decide to launch into a chant of “Arsenal, Arsenal, Aaaaarsenal”, I’m not sure what this can be about. The London Black has a coffee flavour that is absent from Guinness, it’s different but not unpleasant. I continue my boozy deliberations, fairly sure that curry shall be incoming.

Curry postscript - curry was indeed had, and I very much enjoyed a second visit to Lahori Karahi in Shadwell. An on-the-bone lamb karahi, tarka dhal and a butter naan went down extremely well, accompanied by a cooling salty lassi. This is a place worthy of future visits.