Old school

Been a while since I've had a bat round Lenton of an evening, but an early arrival at the Chinese New Year celebrations led to a visit to some pubs not frequented for quite a while.

Back in the day, the Johnson Arms was always full of students & nurses which of course made it a magnet for anyone looking for a bit of fun on an evening. On Saturday it was quite empty early doors, but the beer was still as good as it alwasy was there.

Round the corner to one of the hidden gems of Nottingham pubs. Many a happy Sunday afternoon was spent in the Boat Inn watching Sky football in the days before mass home Sky purchasing. I don't seem to remember it having as much nautical memoribilia as it does now, and it certainly never had the disinfectanty type smell as soon as you walked in, one strange bit of fall-out from the fantastic smoking ban. Still a good pub, and if you've never been, search it out.

Round the corner again to the Red Cow. Bit of a local's pub, this one, with the old dear who sat next to us clearly not happy we'd not only sat at HER table, but actually moved it a couple of inches as well. Awful awful beer.

Just down the road to the White Hart. This used to be lots of little rooms, if memory serves me correctly, but now a modern (crap wooden floors) open plan pub / restaurant. Nice pint of Olde Trip, but no atmosphere at all.

And then on to the biggest walk of a cold night, over the railway bridge to the Grove. Again, I remember this being a lot busier when I used to go in, and I'd have expected it busier this late on a Saturday night. Several hand-pumps, but ALL of them empty. Tut tut tut. Awful awful awful beer.