London pubs and the ball of losers

Microbrewery Fridays - Jonas Follonier

Visit ads These legendary London spots share one major constant: they continue to serve classic English beers. They also boast another great quality: they’ve become benchmarks in the world of gastronomy. Finally, one unforgivable flaw: you can barely hear anything over the din of elevator music.

These are must-visit spots for anyone traveling to London; they promise an atmosphere that’s’english and haunts of gentlemen; places where all strata of the population meet in a form of daily ritual; settings in which to taste stouts or porters by making almost no difference between the nineteenth^th century and the present - in short, every man of taste's paradise. ads.

During my recent month-long stay in the British capital, I took the opportunity to explore some of them—some more amazing than others. Each time, I appreciated the eclectic, antique furnishings—the Alexandra in the Wimbledon neighborhood is a perfect example—which complemented the friendliness of the staff and the brotherly—not sisterly, I must emphasize—that reigns in these venerable establishments. But have they truly managed to escape the weight of modernity?

Nonstop elevator music

Not sure, not sure at all, judging by a large component of the ads, at least in my imagination: music. In a ad When you think of London, you expect rock music from London. London, the vibrant city; London, the historic city; London, the city of music—this city that gave birth to legendary bands that we automatically know—and this goes for newcomers as well—are British and not American. Because London is a sound—a sound that Françoise Hardy and Michel Polnareff, the two greatest French music connoisseurs of the era, managed to unearth between 1966 and 1968. Except that, to parody one of Polnareff’s iconic songs, these days it’s more like a “ball of losers” on the music scene in the ads of the English capital...

Read also: An anti-hippie song

Indeed, the reality is consistent and indisputable. The owners of the overwhelming majority of London bars simply play the radio, which broadcasts the latest pop hits—each one more commercial and international than the last. There’s no trace of Led Zeppelin or their successors. Take a disoriented blind person to a ad desert: he won’t feel at home in London. Music—and we may tend to forget this—is an essential part of the environment around us and of the impression a place makes on us. And while the choice of music can be problematic, it is also its omnipresence that is unbearable. Background music and silence can and should coexist in harmony.

Read also: The virtues of silence

Gastronomy: nothing to say

Fortunately, London pubs haven't lost any of their charm, and their reputation is actually growing. The reason? Their menus have become more sophisticated over the decades, moving beyond the good old ad where we're going to have a drink at the ad a place where we go to eat—and, of course, always to drink. The rise of gastro-pubs is proof of that. These are currently excellent places to enjoy good British food, because there are some, ladies and gentlemen. I particularly recommend those based on magpie (pasta) and meat, with a Guinness, mint or Coca-Cola sauce. And a good old ale beer by way of drink, which will delight you just by the way it was made, in an English cask, where Mister Bean may be hiding.

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Photo credit: © Jonas Follonier for Le Regard Libre