Thursday, April 19/2012

Camden town for a bit of shopping - mostly browsing the charity shopps. And in the afternoon we check out one of the pubs on my A list. It's the Mitre (more completely, Ye Olde Mitre, and old enough that the name isn't just fanciful), at the end of a lane of Hatton Gardens. The lane is entered through a door that's closed when we arrive. does mention the brewer, but we would never have gone in if we hadn't known. The pub is small but picturesque. The two separate rooms don't link up, though the bar in the middle serves both. All dark wood and reproduction period portraits. Is that Elizabeth I in the corner? Maybe we're basing the assumption oon costume. Amazingly the pub does date back that far - to 1546. The lounge on the other side is tiny but cosy and has small panes of old glass. It's full - with drinkers spilling out and sitting on the upturned barrels in the courtyard.

We're intending to hit another A list pub, stopping on the way to pick up an Economist at the nearby LSE (where it's a pound cheaper than elsewhere). It's been showering off and on - increasingly on - and turns into heavy rain. So we abandon pub number 2 and also our plans for eating out. Just doesn't feel worth the stormy walk, even with umbrellas. We'll picnic in after a hot cup of tea. By the time we reach Queensway there's thunder and lightning and we're happy to be in with tea and telly.

Fascinating documentary on our newly enhanced television. The story, accompanied by quite a lot of period home filming, of Jutta and Helmuth Cords, a Jewish girl and a German soldier, who fell in love near the beginning of the war and were the first couple to be married in Berlin after the end of the war. They later emigrated to the States. Narrated by the wife, still very sharp.