Bars and Restaurants — CFFC

Ok – This is going to be fun if I can only get around the Bar vs Pub thing and also what counts as a ‘Restaurant😅 Lets see what we can find for the Fun Foto Challenge that Dan has prepared for us.

Ok – Lets start with a story shot. Back in the day this Inn was built by a guy named Crocker. At the time the Great Central Railway was being built. They were struggling to fund crossing the Regents Canal and were therefore going to build their terminus in St Johns Wood. Crocker saw an opportunity and built a Hotel. Unfortunately, the Great Central came up with the funds and were able to extend their line on to the current Station on Marylebone Road. And thus, the Hotel and Public house on Aberdeen Terrace in St John’s Wood became much less busy than it would have been. Even so, it was a popular pub with locals in the 1970’s. It had a wonderful marble bar and always had a good range of real ales on tap. It was regularly attended by Lords Telephone Exchange staff as a favoured drinking hole. We all went our separate ways in the 1990’s as modernisation caught up. I moved down to a building by Edgware Road and it was while I was there that I courted and Proposed to my Wife, Epi. My Stag Do was held in Crockers. Subsequently, the owners sold out and as you can see from the photo it is now Maroush Lebanese Restaurant at Crockers Folly – Happy memories…

Pubs and Hotels often get re-purposed, here’s the Willesden Junction Hotel. By the time of this shot in 2012 it was no longer a Hotel or Pub but was operating as a Grill…

Lets go off at a tangent and look at one of the stranger eating/drinking options in my collection – A container acting as a servery…

…You buy your beer, food, etc and just go sit on the grass somewhere nearby! – This is in Crystal Palace park.

But you wouldn’t want to be going sitting on the grass at 6am in October – You’d wanna be inside the café with these guys…

Inside the pub, there’s often something going on – a photo quiz for example…

…Or watching the Cricket…

Going a little further afield – Here’s the Patsime Bar in Chegutu, Zimbabwe…

…I Walked in and was instantly recognised as Mrs Chisese’s Mukwasha (Son-in-law) – Word gets around very quickly in those parts🤣

Then, just when you thought ‘A post with no Trains or Buses’… The coffee bar on Gospel Oak station…

…With one of the Goblin Class 172’s loitering in the background. And here’s a very famous London Inn – The Spaniards up by Hampstead Heath with a 210 Bus passing between the Pub and the old toll house…