Kingston Arms - JHB

[nutsaboutamber]

Can I moan about the Kingston Arms? It's the second time I've been caught out with this. Basically they can't be arsed to open lunchtimes on Monday to Thursday. The Geldart is the same although they are the only two in that whole area. Is this the thin end of the wedge? For me pubs are for drinking in during the daytime, end of.

[cambcam]

Yeah, that sort of feeds back into the stuff we all touched on previously - when is a pub no longer a pub? etc... It must be very hard running the business side of a pub whilst meeting its traditional and ‘community’ obligations (if there is even such a thing anymore).

I went in the Kingston on Friday evening for a few beers and food. The food was the driver - no food or tables available and we’d’ve gone elsewhere. But something doesn’t feel right, I generally go to the pub because I want to eat (the good ale being very important too) but dislike pubs that shut off tables to customers that don’t want food who just want to sit down and have a social drink without being made to feel very much like second class citizens (Hello The Standard (particularly), The Petersfield and all the others (you know who you are)), but I do accept you can’t have it all ways.

I’m full of contradictions on this one - I grumble when I want to eat and the tables are full of drinkers, and grumble when I want to drink but the tables are empty but reserved for diners. I honestly can’t remember when I last had a lunchtime pint, but would be very irritated if the occasion arose and I nipped up to the The Geldart (personal favourite) one lunchtime only to find it closed. I suppose these places are closing because it’s not economical to open at lunchtimes, but again, there has to be a responsibility from a community and social perspective to be open at certain times.

It all seems a bit clinical these days. Maybe that’s just a brutal byproduct of the financial pressures the industry is under. I dunno, I’m torn. It does feel like pubs are cherry-picking their customers and adjusting their opening times and offerings to suit. Something isn’t sitting quite right for sure, but I honestly don’t know what the answers are.

[cambcam]

Just on the subject of the changing dynamics of pubs for better or worse - the smoking ban?

Was in The Geldart for food last night and being a sticky evening sat outside in that lovely little courtyard. Couldn’t believe how the smoke hung in the air and just how unpleasant it was - not least affecting the taste of the food and making your clothes smell. As a non-smoker naturally I think the smoking ban is a great thing and I’m not for one second suggesting smokers shouldn’t be able to smoke outside (they’ve had to compromise enough), but it got me thinking that the smoking ban has amplified the changes we are seeing.

Moving forward from the dark days of smoke-filled drinking holes is a great thing, but pubs closing at lunchtime because their target clientele is not those that fancy a lunchtime pint and a ciggie doesn’t seem right either.

Can’t have it both ways I suppose.

[nutsaboutamber]

I've always thought you should have smoking(only, if that makes sense) pubs! On the opening hours, the real victims of pubs that no longer open lunchtimes must surely be the elderly population. A shame. It also explains why the likes of The Regal are stuffed with old people in the daytimes, not least because of the pricing structure.

I'm retiring in December(55!) so I'm gonna take this subject on big time.

[rocky]

Jul 19, 2019 13:43:19 GMT nutsaboutamber said:

I'm retiring in December(55!) so I'm gonna take this subject on big time.

What's that? Smoking or lunchtime drinking? or both?

[nutsaboutamber]

Neither. Working full time.

[Mark Peters’ Bonce of Power]

Regarding the smoking ban, I’ve always felt it should be left up to the proprietor and in turn, for punters to decide if they wish to visit an establishment that allows it. That said if the law were changed tomorrow, I don’t see more than a tiny handful of pubs bringing it back. Things have changed too much, smokers are now a small minority and people are accustomed to smoke free environments. The younger generation especially, I’m 30 and the ban has been in place for over a decade now, so anyone more than a couple of years younger than me has never even really known it to be allowed.

[cambcam]

Jul 19, 2019 13:43:19 GMT nutsaboutamber said:

I'm retiring in December(55!) so I'm gonna take this subject on big time.

Good man. That’s what I like to see.

In my previous life in industry I never got to shake the hand of a single person that had made it to the end and wish them well in their retirement. Before getting that far they’d all either A) Been sacked B) Been made redundant or C) Died.

Things like that shape you. Get out as early as you can, if you can.

Well done, bold move - especially if going all-out full retirement?

[nutsaboutamber]

I'll do something that's vaguely remunerated, deliver leaflets or I see you can be a postman two days a week now, something like that. In effect I'm just disengaging from working in the insurance industry since the age of 17, got a good pension and drawing it at the earliest opportunity, rather than waiting until I'm 70 and dying shortly thereafter! Got no debt. Morbidly, but maybe pragmatically, if I go at 80 then I'll have had another life for 25 years beyond work which seems to feel about right. But then who knows? Perhaps I'll acquire the Kingston and ensure every lunchtime we're open!

[cambcam]

Jul 21, 2019 11:56:01 GMT nutsaboutamber said:

I'll do something that's vaguely remunerated, deliver leaflets or I see you can be a postman two days a week now, something like that. In effect I'm just disengaging from working in the insurance industry since the age of 17, got a good pension and drawing it at the earliest opportunity, rather than waiting until I'm 70 and dying shortly thereafter! Got no debt. Morbidly, but maybe pragmatically, if I go at 80 then I'll have had another life for 25 years beyond work which seems to feel about right. But then who knows? Perhaps I'll acquire the Kingston and ensure every lunchtime we're open!

Interesting, some parallels there.

I’m the same age as you and started grafting at 17 too. Huge decisions to be made at 55 pension wise - lump sum/drawn down/annuity etc. Very strange how mortality creeps in and suddenly becomes an important part of your equations too, especially if you still feel and behave as though you are 25.

I had a couple of private pensions that I quickly realised were going to be more or less useless, so went down the (morally questionable) additional-properties pension-plan route at quite a young age. Jacked in the rat-race late 40’s, spent a couple of years building a couple of lifestyle businesses and the last few years cherry-picking those. We are all very different and you have to do what is right for you, but your plans sound very good indeed. I think at 55 it’s far too young to fully retire, and having some sort of revenue stream is very important too, both psychologically and literally. Besides, when you work on your terms it never really feels like work anyway.

Well done, enjoy it, you deserve it. Let me know when you’ve bought the Kingston and I’ll come up one lunchtime for a pint!

[nutsaboutamber]

See this building here......the white one. Used to be called the Old Abbey, a pub, but was shut down some time in the last century although nobody seems to really know. It''s on the corner of Beche Road and Priory Road. That whole area, which is lovely, was the catalyst for the naming of the Abbey district(priory/Abbey, Abbey House, St Andrew the Less church, became known as the Abbey Church, etc) including the political ward to this day, and of course a meddling little football club which started kicking a ball round in the years before WW1. How Id love to buy that and turn it back in to a boozer - £600k for the property, and same again to get the licence? What would the neighbours say??

closedpubs.co.uk/cambridgeshire/cambridge_oldabbey.html

[Mark Peters’ Bonce of Power]

Just had a fantastic steak at The Alex. Quality meat, cooked perfectly and brilliant value. For £11 I’ve just eaten a delicious piece of Sirloin and couldn’t have asked for more unless I’d gone somewhere really upmarket. Going to have to tell my boss about this, our gaff charges £15 for a significantly smaller piece of Rump.

[cambcam]

Sept 9, 2019 17:14:26 GMT Mark Peters’ Bonce of Power said:

Just had a fantastic steak at The Alex. Quality meat, cooked perfectly and brilliant value. For £11 I’ve just eaten a delicious piece of Sirloin and couldn’t have asked for more unless I’d gone somewhere really upmarket. Going to have to tell my boss about this, our gaff charges £15 for a significantly smaller piece of Rump.

Good to hear. Not much better than good pub food and a decent beer or two. Do you recall the ales that were on? The Alex always seemed a bit hamstrung by being GK but that’s not nearly the issue it used to be it appears.

Funnily enough, went to the Wrestlers for food midweek (what a line up of ales in there) and the place was jam packed and very, very noisy. A quick google showed The Cricketers as doing Thai food so headed up there. Gotta say the food was excellent, really really good, but it was GK and there was only ONE ale on, Tim Taylor Landlord I think. It was ok because the evening was about the food but come on, one ale? No wonder the place was nearly empty.

[animal]

On Sunday, the Alex had (from memory) An Oakham beer (can't recall which but they often have some of the lesser seen ones) 2 mad Squirrel beers, Tribute, a redemption beer, & two GK standards. Not a bad selection

I love the Wrestlers but their beer selection these days strays hardly from the Youngs/Wells stable.

[cambcam]

That’s an impressive line up for sure. Mightily so in fact for a GK pub. Desperately want to throw off the GK prejudice and The Alex shows that ‘it’ can be done.

You are right about the Wrestlers beer and thinking about it, it’s just a personal penchant for Wells beer that stop similar frustrations to that of GK. That and the sheer scale and state of paralysis of GK. It used to be primarily this region but you can’t go anywhere to escape the stranglehold now.

Fair play to The Alex though, looks like they do a decent Sunday roast too. That’s always a good catalyst for a visit.