One of the unexpected benefits of my daughter's new school is that I see a slightly different bit of the city on a regular basis now. Our trip takes us through the common and into one of my favourite parts of town. On the way back, I take a slight detour onto my local high street (for my American friends, a high street is a bit of town with shops on it)....
All but disappeared in most of the US, the high street has a bakery (which shuts mid-day, presumably because the staff are up early baking and are knackered by lunchtime), a butcher's, a greengrocer and a variety of other small shops. I can get the day's supper out of the way and avoid the supermarket for most of the week.
Going back to pick her up is even nicer, because there's a lovely little corner with a couple of pubs and John Cook's, a very old-fashioned grocery/off license that I love. I've started going early, because I can stop in one of the pubs for a half before school gets out. On Friday I noticed that one of the pubs, The Cricketers, does Sunday lunch and we decided to break with tradition and give it a go.
The Cricketers is, according to a plaque on the wall, the oldest continuously occupied pub in that part of town. Built in 1838 when the area was known as "the Garden of Eden", the pub was originally called the "First and Last" but was renamed the Cricketers when the famous Hayward family became landlords. Three of the Haywards played cricket for England, the sign tells us. Not that I'd know anything at all about that.
Anyway, the pints are somewhat pricey - £2.75 for a Guinness - but the Sunday lunch was fab. Three thick and very tender slices of lamb with good crunchy roasties, yorkshire pudding and 3 kinds of veg - all cooked very nicely indeed.
