In New Cross so it’s ‘one’ at the @theshirkersrest.bsky.social

Dead community pub near Fordham Park.

Visited The Wolf’s Tavern, Evelyn Street, formerly The Black Horse about 10mins from The Dog. Southern Italian flavoured pub with a wonderful smell from the pizza own wafting through the place. Excitingly TNT Sports 4 is on the telly showing sport no one cares about.

My mouth was watering after reading Will’s piece and the wheel of fortune means I have time today to pop in on a lovely quiet afternoon to really appreciate the pub in all its glory.

Began watching this because it’s a Paul Greengrass film and he can handle a story. Starts off strongly in his typical style i.e. frenetic and stressful but then it becomes Bizarro Speed where the bus has to painfully manoeuvre at no more than 20mph while kids scream a lot.

Spent the day immersed in British crime from Brink’s-Mat in the 80s to the Murder Mile of the late 90s/2000s. Ellroy with a whiff of cockles and jerk.

Terrific piece here about the Dog & Bell, Deptford. One of London’s finest boozers.

I’ve written for @pelliclemag.com about the Dog and Bell, a unique pub whose evolution over the past 40 years nevertheless illustrates the story of modern London pubs. It’s here: www.pelliclemag.com/home/2025/9/...

Bloke in the pub yesterday just casually using nail clippers to trim his fingernails.

Courtesy of @thefence.bsky.social I discover that David Mellor has an absolutely incredible house and absolutely execrable taste. Apparently this is decorated in the manner of John Soane. Yeah. Sure. www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/1...

Ha. Recorded, partially, at Konk in Hornsey. Also, the lyrics might be a slight nonsense. Who could tell?

Admittedly I’ve never actually read Jilly Cooper but this cover (and perhaps Rivals) feels as much a part of my childhood as a Sade album in the car with mum smoking fags with the window up, on a trip to Laura Ashley, Grandstand and Brian Walden boring on at Geoffrey Howe. 🫡

They call me Shadowhat.

Brings your mates for a sit down in Walworth but remember to ask for the keys @deserterblog.bsky.social

Spied around Walworth.

Popped into The Charlie Chaplin, Walworth. Only (re)opened a few months ago after a name change it seems. £5 pints before 8pm which is lovely. No cask ale for the heads. Found it very pleasant for a couple on a Sunday afternoon.

Feel absolutely drained after watching this. Many things I loved about it not at least Sean Penn on staggeringly lunatic form, his second PTA collaboration where the direction appears to have been ‘you do you Sean’.

If I see a Yop, I’m buying a Yop.

The poignantly empty perches in Bookmongers, Brixton.

Ghouls and jackals these shithouse property developers. Absolute rage reading this @londonermag.bsky.social article. “Linea Homes has been called the “grim reaper” of pubs. Their targets include some of Peckham, Wimbledon and Camden’s most iconic boozers.” www.the-londoner.co.uk/trafalgar-wi...

Lovely stuff from Squires.

On Channel 5 tonight.

Lovely piece here by confirmed central London parking daemon Mads on Reggie Perrin.

'For many of the victims of this miserable episode, the culprit is clear: the current Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally. While she may claim to have purged the diocese of its murkier elements, she was ultimately in charge during the disastrous denouement of Sargeant’s career. '

Yep www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

🫡

You ain’t seen me, right?

🫡

Spied around Russell Square.

🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Iconic south London club Corsica Studios is set to close next year. Read: www.the-londoner.co.uk/exclusive-co...

I’d recognise that pub anywhere. Episode 1 of The Hack on ITV and it’s The Salisbury, Harringay Green Lanes.

No, you’re a…

The Ryder Cup. The only time I’m truly invested in golf due to the fact that American golf fans are cunts. Every single one of them. Boorish, baying, arrogant, unfunny cunts.

Got the perfect lean. Wonderful.

Ran into an ancestor of mine.

Very much in keeping with the @deserterblog.bsky.social aesthetic, my bag fell off the airport security carousel wagon and had to go round again.

Uh oh, Camberwell is now ‘vibrant’. www.timeout.com/london/news/...

Greggs are opening a pub and I’d be well into that but it’s in Newcastle and I can’t stagger that far home. www.greggs.com/news/welcome...

Funniest football sticker I’ve seen in ages.

Rather lovely afternoon at The British Vintage Wireless and Television Museum bvwtm.org.uk

Potentially visiting London’s* only pub with a pig again today. *I say London, in its in a weird hinterland where you slip out of the known universe and could be in Croydon, London and Novosibirsk simultaneously.

Excited to share the first three case study 'long reads' from the After Last Orders project - funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk. Each case study draws on extensive research to tell the story of a pub and the people and places affected by its closure. after-last-orders.lboro.ac.uk

Cheery night in with the whimsical lads from The Firm www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Yep.

subscriptions >>> shop.viz.co.uk/viz348bs

Chimps, bang on it. Potentially bum dossers @deserterblog.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Fallen into an 80s Hollywood studio history rabbit hole lately (recent books about Gruber/Peters time with Sony and Don Simpson’s epic Heart of Darkness tale) so I’m intrigued to read about David Puttnam’s Clough-esque stint in charge of Columbia when execs stopped talking to him altogether.

No man ever turned his collar to the wind in a peacoat better than Redford. 🫡

RIP to Nicholas Grimshaw (not that one) architect of my childhood Saturday morning nightmare and one spectacularly pissed Christmas Eve shop. www.modernism-in-metroland.co.uk/sainsburys-c...

Made a very very very small contribution to this case study by Loughborough University on closed pubs and McGlynns specifically… after-last-orders.lboro.ac.uk/mcglynns/