Day 38 – London

Stewart and Jeanette had left for work by the time I rose today. I sat and had some breakfast whilst watching some World Cup Rugby and then looked at the computer. I am out today to meet up with two collecting friends.

Peter lives up in Milton Keynes and collects beer logo playing cards. He has travelled to Australia many times with his wife Joyce as they have a daughter and grand children on the Gold Coast in Queensland. He has also been to one of our Canathon’s and also comes every couple of years to our meeting in Ballina whilst he visits his daughter. I also went to visit Peter and Joyce last time I was in England.

Also in town is Bruce who is a great mate from Brisbane who is the Editor of our Beer Can Collectors magazine. I talk with Bruce all the time on the phone and see his at least two or three times a year at collector meetings. He is in London for two days before going on a European trip.

I had to check timetables and train and bus connections before I left to make sure I would not get lost. I left the house before noon and walked up the road to get the bus. I am going first to the Museum of Brands, Packaging & Advertising in Notting Hill. I have to go by tube and change trains at Bank station. The museum is about a 15 minute walk from Notting Hill station.

The museum is the collection of one man Robert Opie, it contains over 12,000 pieces of memorabilia on all types of brands and advertising from Edwardian time up to the current day. As it says on the website;

It’s all here...the brands and packs, posters and adverts, fads and fashions, toys and games. Evocative and inspiring, it’s a kaleidoscope of images and iconic brands.

It costs six pound fifty to enter and you go through a tunnel of advertising showing all the different periods up to today. You are asked not to take photos whilst walking around but I turned off my flash and took some anyway. Towards the end of the display there is a selection of brands showing the packaging all in one line from start till today. Johnson's Baby Powder, Heinz Soups etc, there is also a lot of original Guinness posters and memorabilia around the displays. Plus Guinness has a large display at the end of the walk of advertising from the 1930’s till the 1970’s.

After I left the museum I made my way three streets over to a bus stop so I could catch the number 27 bus across town to Euston. This is where we had decided to meet up for the afternoon, Peter is able to get a direct train down from Milton Keynes and Bruce and I could get there quite easy.

We met at the Bree Louise pub in Coburg Street. It is a free house hotel meaning it can sell any beers. A lot of pubs are signed up to a particular brewery or breweries and can only sell particular brands of beer. They are a real ale hotel as well and sell 11 gravity ales (poured straight from the barrel), and 6 more ales on the pump. This is on top of some regular gas fed lines with the popular mainstream brands available.

We met just after 3pm and sat outside at a table in the nice weather right through till when we left just on nine o’clock. The pub is on a quiet street corner and people we walking past doing business and then later heading for home along the street. A lot of business people stopped after work and stood on the street side and drank whilst chatting with the others in the now ever increasing crowd. We had a great get together and a good chat about our collecting and what we had been up to since our last meeting. Peter has had a knee replacement and has another one still to be done.

We had some food during the night, they make their own homemade pies and there are 7 varieties to choose from. They are made in ceramic pots and tasted wonderful. We continued chatting until Bruce had to leave; he has a plane to catch in the morning and wanted to get some good rest before he starts his trip on the continent.

We all made our way back to the Euston Station and I caught the tube back to Mordon Station. The Northern Line train goes direct from Euston to Morden so I did not even have to change trains on the way home. After getting off the train I had to wait about 20 minutes for a bus back to Stewart's and then walked up the street to his home.

Jeanette was already home when I arrived but Stewart was still out working. I went to bed straight away and was asleep very quickly after my long day’s outing.