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New Malden's best kept secret
On a hot, sultry, and fairly pointless New Malden afternoon, I've been biffing around the more alcoholic corners of the internet. While perusing beerintheevening.com, I found this wonderful review of the incomparable Woodies public house, and I'm sure the author of it won't mind my putting it up here on this, the prefab psuedo-temporary New Malden blog.
It made me shed tears of agreement.
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Marketing psychologists will tell you that a certain amount of difficulty in achieving something helps to increase the ultimate sense of reward. Hence, for example, one-armed bandits are easy to put money into, but to pick up any winnings (as if) you have to stoop down and feel around in an implausibly long trough, eventually coming up with your 20p coin with a feeling of real triumph. So, the trek to Woodies may be long and arduous, but boy is it worth it.
For such a pub to exist anywhere without the safe and healthy people closing it down or the breweries homogenising it is pretty remarkable by itself. That it should thrive and prosper in New Malden - base camp for Daily Mail readers - is a miracle.
The thing is, I'm not particularly interested in the big screen and the sports events. I'd be more attracted by a pub with a huge sign outside proclaiming 'Here! Live conversation!'. I've never stuck around for the quiz night and seem to have missed the live bands completely. I can't even comment on the food, preferring to drink in pubs and eat in restaurants.
But for all that, Woodies still offers something magical. I suppose it's what we used to call atmosphere and what today is known as ambience. True, the great range of beers helps, as does the enormous collection of (mainly sporting) ephemera that adorns every square millimetre of wall and ceiling space. And the customers - shouty football fans notwithstanding - who represent more of a cross-section of the neighbourhood than any of the other pubs in New Malden, thus lending the pub the social balance that, in my opinion, every good local should have.
In the end, it probably comes down to the management. It is they who determine the 'feel' of a pub, and in Woodies case they are quite happy for it to remain quirky, interesting, welcoming, rewarding and, for the area, utterly unique.
Give it a try.
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To date 58 Comment(s)
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erudite baboon
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(18.7.06 15:44)
is new malden really a 'base camp for Daily Mail readers'? I really should pay more attention.
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james
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(18.7.06 15:46)
Presumably they live here in preparation for the arduous climb up Kingston Hill, to the promised land.
My neighbour reads the Daily Mail, and I'm pretty sure Old/New Paul's family read it from time to time. But we're not that Tory - we keep voting for bad, mad Ed Davey, for one thing.
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M'sieur Grenouille
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(18.7.06 16:24)
It looks like a scout hut. Some of my best drinking was down when I was a cub scout. Ahh that takes me back.....
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pog
(18.7.06 16:29)
Ooh - a proper pub. Like wot we 'avenot got round my way any more.
No, people. A Wetherspoons does not bloody count.
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foxinthesnow
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(18.7.06 16:37)
Or an All Bar One. All Bar Ones are abominations against God. They make baby Jesus cry.
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*Slytherin Head Girl*
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(18.7.06 17:32)
'Spoons are evil.
I agree with Monsieur Frog - it *does* look like a scout hut
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foxinthesnow
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(18.7.06 17:42)
But Wetherspoons do cheap, decent food, which is good for those of us with 8p in the bank til payday. Really - 8p.
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Katja
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(18.7.06 17:43)
You obviously have well posh scout huts down Portsmouth way. Ours were all - well - huts ...
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{Emotic(jump)} M'sieur Grenoui
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(18.7.06 17:45)
Katja, what are you doing lurking round scout huts. It's just for boys you know.
Unless...*gasp*
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{Emotic(jump)} M'sieur Grenoui
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(18.7.06 17:46)
I guess you can't put emoticons in your name after all. Tsk! That would have been good though.
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*Slytherin Head Girl*
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(18.7.06 21:19)
Ah yes, 'spoons do indeed do cheap food. It's usually a bit mingin' tho, innit. The big one of West Street is Ok by me though. At about 1pm on a Tuesday, it's almost tolerable. Katja - you bet the scout huts down pompey way are posh - they are all sea-scouts, you see...
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james
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(18.7.06 21:24)
I can confirm, for those still interested, that Woodies is indeed an ex-cricket pavillion. Indeed, it's the only pub housed in a wooden former cricket pavillion in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE.
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*Slytherin Head Girl*
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(18.7.06 22:30)
So Katja wins then. There was us rambling on about scout huts, when in fact she was right all along!
How lovely
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foxyboy
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(20.7.06 18:05)
If I'm ever down that way I'll make the effort, and pop into the pub!
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Katja
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(20.7.06 21:12)
Cor. I'm not used to being right, although I'll happily argue the toss regardless. How marvellous...
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quoteoftheday
(24.7.06 12:17)
Regrettably my parents do read the Daily Mail from time to time, but most of the time they read the Express; the paper read by all those whose children say, "Don't read the Mail you facist scum!" I love Woodies, it makes me wet... with ale that is. Hohoho.
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Shaunyjb
(20.5.08 15:37)
Good to see such nice writings about my local. It truly is a one-off in very much a 'one-off' suburb of SW London. And no we are not Tory any more, we saw the light in 1997 & have not been back since..................
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Alice
(10.8.11 00:59)
i live round the corner from this place, its amazing. I practicaly grew up here and I've got some great memories from it.
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