Pauline London

OPs are invited to share their favourite places to eat, drink or visit in the capital. Please send your suggestions to: jeremy.withersgreen@gmail.com

This selection is by Henry Dyer (2010-15)

WHERE TO DRINK The Crown & Anchor, Stockwell

Equidistant from Brixton and Stockwell tube stations, this pub on the bustling Brixton Road, just down the road from the Brixton Jamm, has a brewery-like decor and a range of beers to match. A freehouse which flies the flag of the Camra movement without its pub bores. It combines a range of real ales, ciders, and craft beers with its achingly young clientele. The Crown’s jaunty mixture of reggae music, exposed original brick walls and the cash-free policy is a real delight. You still have to pay, of course, but two quality pints will leave you with change from £10.

p The Crown & Anchor, Stockwell

WHERE TO EAT Booma, Stockwell

But why limit beer to a pub? Situated right opposite The Crown & Anchor is Booma, a curry house which develops the staid “pint of Cobra with a chicken korma” into a tapas-style meal of small plates with schooners of craft beer to match. 15 dishes and 10 beers make up their menu. Familiar dishes such as wonderful onion bhajis and a delicately spiced curry with succulent chicken tandoori nestle next to unconventional but delicious options like pulled duck in a garlic naan roll or slow-cooked spare ribs drenched in a spicy masala. Fancy a curry? Go to Booma.

WHERE TO VISIT The Ritzy, Brixton

Finding a good and relatively affordable cinema seems to be an increasingly difficult task. But handily a short walk (or stumble, if visiting post-pub) from Booma and the Crown is the Ritzy, which has stood for over a century despite WW2 bombing, a 1980s reputation as a lefty cause, and recent strikes and pickets over employees’ low wages. A Picturehouse cinema with great films, cheap tickets especially on Mondays, and a discounted bar for members.

Pauline Gallantry

OP military awards

The front cover of the recently published For Conspicuous Gallantry by Neil Thornton has a photo of three officers, one of whom is the Old Pauline war poet, Lieutenant Ewart Alan Mackintosh M.C. (1909-12) of the 5th Seaforth Highlanders. He was killed in November 1917. The officer on the left is Siegfried Sassoon.

Other Old Paulines awarded the M.C. in World War 1 include the cricket and rugby international Major Reginald Oscar Schwarz M.C. and the rugby international Major Sir Laurence Pierce Merrian, M.C., ‘Toc H’ Founder, The Reverend Philip Byard ‘Tubby’ Clayton D.S.O. M.C. and Lt General Sir Humphrey Myddleton Gale K.B.E. C.B. C.V.O. M.C., who later became Deputy Chief of Staff to General Eisenhower.

In the South African War (18991902) Old Paulines were awarded 15 Distinguished Service Orders, 3 Distinguished Conduct Medals and 30 were Mentioned in Despatches. The South African War Memorial commemorating those killed unveiled by Field Marshall Lord Roberts in 1906 was designed by Old Pauline architect, Frank Chesterton who himself was killed on the Somme in 1916. The monument was disposed of from the Barnes site in the 1970s and languishes in a garden in Sussex.