Saturday 19^th of October: The Regent Street Crawl

Meeting in The Grain & Hop Store at 7:00pm.

Five pubs to visit.

• The Grain & Hop Store (previously the Avery, previously the Hog’s Head) (69 Regent Street, down an alleyway)
• The Prince Regent (91 Regent Street)
• The Old Bicycle Shop (104 Regent St, near Lensfield Road)
• The Panton Arms (43 Panton Street, by Coronation Street)
• The Alma (26 Russell Court)

Directions:

• The Grain & Hop Store (formerly the Avery, formerly the Hogshead, etc.) is a large pub accessible from Regent Street via a small alleyway beside City Kebab. You can also enter from Parker’s Piece. Fortunately this time it’s at the end of a crawl; sometimes this pub has been in the middle of a crawl, and the two exits have caused Google Maps a lot of confusion.
• Leave the G&HS via the Regent Street exit, and turn left, away from the entrance to Downing. The Prince Regent is, astonishingly, on Regent Street, on the left. If you get to a lot of traffic lights and a church, or what the web site maintainer used to consider “the thing on the corner that goes dong” when hostelled in Lensfield Road, you’ve gone too far. Don’t stop off at the other pubs on the way or you’ll be late — we’ll get back to them. The Prince Regent is a pub; you are encouraged to get a drink. Hopefully more experienced club members will demonstrate.
• From the Prince Regent, cross Regent Street, heading in the general direction of the thing on the corner that goes dong (that is, south). The Old Bicycle Shop, which was a bicycle shop for a long time but actually only fairly recently a pub, is on the right before the traffic lights.
• Turn right out of the Old Bicycle Shop to continue along Regent Street (hopefully you’re not getting lost yet), then turn right at the junction with Lensfield Road, which is where all the traffic lights are. Walk west for a while and cross the road to the south side, walking around (or through, if you&rsqsuo;re athletic) the car park of the chemistry department. Don’t be distracted by The Tall Trees, which used to be the Snug (the Snug that was the Spread Eagle, not the one which was the Vine, which is why it has a bird on it) — it’s not a pub. If you get to the roundabout on Trumpington Street, turn back, you’ve gone much too far. Instead, turn south down Panton Street, which should be a clue to which pub is next. The Panton Arms is on the left just after Coronation Street (not on the telly); go past it and turn left to get in.
• Leaving the Panton, turn left onto Panton Street and soon after left againt to be heading east on Russell Court. The Alma is on the right. I recommend you drink at it.
• Obviously you want a curry, so head north and opposite from the Alma and from the footpath onto Coronation Mews, then turn right onto Coronation Street (not the one on TV). Head east until you hit Hills Road; don’t go into a church. Instead, turn right, which ought to get you to the Rajbelash. The bad news is that the Rajbelash (formerly the Saffron Brasserie, hence in CUTwC circles the Saffron Brassière) might be the Golpo Bengal instead, although it might still serve curry. It doesn’t do so very late, though, so probably get on with it. For your entertainment, you may wish to learn that you’re near the Raspberry Pi Foundation, but a pie will take the edge off your curry.
• Should you tire of curry, there is no hope for you, so you may as well turn left out of the Golpo Bengal to head northwest along Hills Road, passing, as it happens, where the web site maintainer’s office would be if he actually went to it. If you keep going you’ll find the thing on the corner that goes dong again, and can continue to Regent Street. Since this is where you started, hopefully you can work it out from here, although if it goes badly wrong you could cross Parker’s Piece to the police station if you really need help. But it’s probably easier to ask the porters of Downing.