Pub One - The Beehive

As I approached the first pub of the evening, The Beehive, I heard a familiar voice "it’s your round" was the call from distance - yes, Geoff had arrived. I’m sure he was hiding in the bushes until I turned up just to get a free beer.
On entering the pub I noticed a small rabble in the left hand corner, on closer inspection these people were my fellow work mates.
I ordered a pint of Adnams and Geoff had a Stella ‘tortoise’. We were served immediately by a pleasant member of the bar staff.
Geoff and I pulled up a couple of chairs and joined the others who had already arrived: Sukhwant, Asif, Stuart and Rachel, Stuart noted that a pint of Bombardier was a very reasonable £2.30.
We looked around the pub to see if we could find anything interesting to say about it and noticed many large cobwebs.
We then saw a skeleton and were pleased that we didn’t have to wait as long as he did for a beer! They were of course Halloween decorations.
Neil arrived, closely followed by Dave and Gaz. We had a good turnout of nine people.
Sukhwant came back from the toilets and asked "who scored the goal for Sunderland against. Leeds?" This was a surprise to the rest of us as he had never shown any interest in football. Apparently someone came and stood next to him whilst he was relieving himself and asked this question. It turned out that the actual game was the 1972 FA Cup Final.
Our 30 minutes was up and it was time for a quick photo and off to the next pub.

Pub Two - The White Hart Tap

After turning right out the Beehive and walking a whole 100 yards we came to The White Hart Tap.
The first thing we noticed is that we needed to disperse as soon as we entered the pub as the bar was only a couple of feet from the entrance.
Beer choice was impressive; they had Pendals Witches Brew, London Pride, Bitter and Twisted and Brays Mild on handpump.
Looking around at the clientel it was noticable that everyone was middle aged to elderley so at least Geoff and I fitted in well.
We found an area big enough to seat all nine of us at the back of this small, friendly pub. Someone remarked that this little back room looked rather like a bedroom that had been furnished completely with items from Marks and Spencers.
Time was moving on and we still had another four pubs to visit so we made our exit and took a photo outside the pub.

Pub three - The Garibaldi

Following a long discussion in the middle of the road as to which route would mean the least amount of walking we decided to visit the Garibaldi next.
On entering the pub we were faced with four wonderful beers and a barmaid although maybe I should say a wonderful barmaid and four beers.
Geoff was in the mood to try something different so we convinced him that the Fullers ESB would be a good follow up to his Stella and Grolsh. Most of us stuck to Chiswick and London Pride (yes, it’s a Fullers pub).
This was the second pub in a row where I actually lowered the average age of people in the pub.
We all managed to avoid treading on the labrador and found ourselves a seat on the right hand side of the pub.
It’s very much a locals pub with most of the old boys sipping their pint of bitter.
After a pleasant pint of Fullers It was time to go but Geoff was in the middle of one of his stories (probably the one about the St Albans one-way system) so our exit was delayed by about ten minutes. Keeping roughly to schedule we left the Garibaldi and posed for another photo outside the pub.
Sukhwant and Asif left us so the group was down to seven members.

Pub Four - The Hare and Hounds

Turning left outside the Garibaldi and then right brought us to the Hare and Hounds.
Beer selection was quite good with London Pride and a couple of other real ales available.
It was refreshing to see some under forties in the pub after the previous two pubs.
This is a reasonably large pub with plenty of seating left and right of the central bar.
We sat around the back which was a sort of games room with a pool table, dartboard, video games and jukebox.
The bright lights outside the Hare and Hounds prevented a decent photo, despite the best efforts of somebody coming out of the White Horse opposite.
This passing stranger turned out to be the landlord of the White Lion so he must have been pleased that we were about to double the number of people in his pub.

Pub Five - The White Lion

Not far to walk as the White Lion is virtually opposite the Hare and Hounds.
On entering the White Lion it was noticable that they had an unusual selection of ales; Black Sheep, Skinners Cornish Knockers, Bath Ales Barnstormer.
This pub is another one that is dominated by men but the age group was younger than the White Hart Tap or the Garibaldi.
Be prepared to remove several layers of clothing as we found the pub very warm (we sat at the back).
After the White Lion we said goodnight to Stuart and Rachel and we thank Rachel for volunteering to be the photographer for the evening.

Pub Six - The Goat

We entered The Goat, our final pub of the evening, bang on schedule at around 10:15pm.
A few notes were scribbled down in this pub but unfortunately they are unreadable!
One thing that was noticable straight away (to some of us more than others) was that the Goat had female customers. Also the age group was young to middle-aged which made a nice change.
I cannot recall which bitters they sold although I vaguley remember declining a pint of Adnams Broadside in favour of something a little less heavy.
The rest of the evening was very hazey although I think some of us may have managed a second pint in here taking our tally for the evening to an impressive seven pints.