Capital Pub Guide! (London Pub Walks - Bob Steel)

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Product:	London Pub Walks - Bob Steel
Date:	14/07/08 (94 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Compact, well written and informative .

Disadvantages: Absolutely none at all !

Following on from reviewing the Peak District Pub Walks book I decided to dip into one of his other books again. This one uses the city as its base and gives beer fans a guide to walking around the nation's capital. London Pub Walks is produced by CAMRA (CAMpaign for Real Ale) and can be purchased via the CAMRA website (www.camra.org.uk) or from bookshops (either online or on the high street). Written by Bob Steel, beer enthusiast and author, London Pub Walks is a pocket-sized guide to some of the nicest and historic pubs in London.

The book covers the whole of the city and allows you to tour sections of the city, while always being within easy reach of a decent pint of Real Ale. It includes 30 walks around over 180 pubs. The walks are easy and include all the necessary information you need to enjoy your visit, including which tube or train stations to get off at, architectural details about the pub, opening hours and what beers you will find on the bar.

Each walk is prefaced by a colour map, with the pubs numbered on it. The walks are described in enough detail to prevent even me getting lost! There are full colour photographs of some of the particularly interesting pubs interiors and exteriors - linking to a section in the book about the CAMRA National Inventory of pubs of historic importance. Another excellent thing is that it tells you roughly how long each section of the walk takes (not just the distance) which helps you plan your journey well to make sure you allow time to complete the walk.

The walks are also of varying lengths so everyone can be suited; on our last trip to London we didn't have time to do the whole of the two trails we chose. This is when we found out that it is easy to adapt the walks and cut out bits if your time schedule needs it. There are also ways to link a couple of individual walks together if you have longer to spend. The different walks to suit all tastes, whether you are a beer connoisseur or if you want to sight see around some of London's famous land marks, shop en route, go to theatre land, or just want to see the lovely pub buildings.

Bob Steel gives information on landmarks and any other interesting features you may see on the way, enhancing your visit. There are also "try also" pubs as well as the featured ones to give you plenty of choice. Additionally, and very usefully, the pub listings also tell you whether the pubs serve food or snacks and when you can expect the food to be served to and from.

London Pub Walks is easy to use, easy to follow and is a good read as well as a useful resource. It is very informative, well written and researched and has taken us to pubs and areas in London that we may not have found on our own. On our last visit we ended up in Greenwich and, with the help of Bob Steel's book we found a lovely pub with reasonably priced beer - what made it extra interesting was that a local photographer had used the street outside the pub previously to shoot a picture of about a hundred naked people laying on the road and pavement. The photo is huge and is displayed in the pub, with some information about it. The real treat was watching the faces of other visitors to the pub as they spotted it for the first time!

London Pub Walks is reasonably priced at only £8.99 and is indespensible for those who like to explore and also appreciate good beer in good surroundings. Every time we go to London now we make sure we pack a copy of this excellent little book. It is compact enough to fit in a pocket or bag, yet is big on information and ideas!

Highly recommended!

PRODUCT DETAILS

* Paperback: 160 pages
* Publisher: CAMRA Books (19 Feb 2006)
* Language English
* ISBN-10: 1852492163
* ISBN-13: 978-1852492168

Currently listed on www.amazon.co.uk at £8.99

***This review will appear on other websites***

Summary: An indespensible guide to London's Real Ale heritage.