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Will Hawkes

@willhawkes.bsky.social

Writes about food, beer, travel. Author of Telegraph’s 500 Best Pubs in England & @LondonBeerCity, monthly missive on pubs & beer. Fortnum and Mason Drink Writer of the Year 2021 & 2023

1145 Posts1777 Follower381 Folgt
David Desi Pubs Dason@davidjesudason.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Good piece this. As Will, says, strip pubs where common in the past. And all kind of pubs had them, especially ones with black or Asian gaffers like the Angel in Brixton I explored here www.goodbeerhunting.com/blog/2023/7/...

Eclectic Avenues — How London’s First Black Pub Landlords Changed the City’s Drinking Culture — Good Beer Hunting

The HMT Empire Windrush has become a fitting symbol of the plight of Black Britain. The ship—which transported 1,027 passengers and two stowaways from Jamaica on June 22, 1948, a journey whose 75t...

goodbeerhunting.com

Will Hawkes@willhawkes.bsky.social · 2mo ago

June’s @londonbeercity.bsky.social is going out this weekend. Featuring the death of London’s strip pubs, Spoons at the Trocadero and a Diego Maradona rug in a beer bar. Sign up here to read it today www.willhawkes.net/london-beer-...

A Diego Maradona rug at Feed The Yak by Wembley Stadium
Will Hawkes@willhawkes.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I had a few free hours in Carlisle yesterday AM so - being a fun-lover at heart - I did a little state-run pub tour. TBH, I didn’t find much evidence of what was but it’s an interesting town anyway.

A plaque on a private home, saying that it used to be the Petteril Bridge Inn until it was shut by state management in 1916The interior of the Magpie, built in 1933 for the state management scheme. It’s a delightful arts and crafts spaceThe exterior of the Howards Arms, which was covered by boarding during the govt-run years. That may be why it looks so good nowThe former Gretna Tavern, the first new government pub, opened in 1916. It had been the post office (and is now Lloyds).
Pellicle@pelliclemag.com · 4mo ago

The story of The Burton Union would be very different without the loving interference of some key figures in the beer world. Now @thornbridge.bsky.social are using theirs to make some of the best beer in the country. @totalcurtis.bsky.social heads to Bakewell. www.pelliclemag.com/home/2026/4/...

The Union Forever — How Thornbridge Saved a Vital Piece of Brewing History — Pellicle

In January 2024 Garrett Oliver emailed Thornbridge co-founder and managing director, Simon Webster. He’d heard a rumour that Carlsberg were “laying the unions to rest,” and asked if the Derbyshire bre...

pelliclemag.com

Jonathan Portes@jdportes.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Subsidising energy consumption in the face of both a short-term supply shock and the long-term need to decarbonise. Bad for the economy, bad for the planet, bad for the world's poor. And *if* you favour a wealth tax (I am sceptical but there's a case) spending it on *this" is just idiotic.

Farrukh@implausibleblog.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Zack Polanski says blanket support for everyone for fuel and energy costs, and then claw back through wealth taxes for those who don't need it This is simple, pragmatic and the least bureaucratic way of ensuring everyone who needs support gets it, in the fastest possible way 👏

Will Hawkes@willhawkes.bsky.social · 4mo ago

On a train from Dorchester to Bath. The next three stations are request stops! How did Beeching miss this one? Keep feeling we’ll draw up at Adlestrop - except it’s not June and this is Dorset, not Gloucestershire.

A view from the train, showing lush Dorset fields and an impertinent bush
Pellicle@pelliclemag.com · 4mo ago

In the far north west of England, beer is flourishing. Who could have predicted that, like the felling of a tree, the fall of one brewery would create space for so many more? @katiematherkm.bsky.social on Cumbria's thriving beer scene. www.pelliclemag.com/home/2026/4/...

My Heart Leaps Up — Beer, Graft and Tourism in Cumbria — Pellicle

I first met Matt and Michelle when they worked at Hawkshead Brewery, Matt as the head brewer, and Michelle as the head of marketing. In the 2010s, Hawkshead was the pride and joy of Cumbria’s independ...

pelliclemag.com

Katie Mather@katiematherkm.bsky.social · 4mo ago

When Hawkshead Brewery shed most of its team and closed its tap room, I thought beer in Cumbria would suffer. I needn't have worried. My latest story for @pelliclemag.com is about the breweries and all the people and pubs that make up this county. www.pelliclemag.com/home/2026/4/...

My Heart Leaps Up — Beer, Graft and Tourism in Cumbria — Pellicle

I first met Matt and Michelle when they worked at Hawkshead Brewery, Matt as the head brewer, and Michelle as the head of marketing. In the 2010s, Hawkshead was the pride and joy of Cumbria’s independ...

pelliclemag.com

Will Hawkes@willhawkes.bsky.social · 4mo ago

The north-south divide runs through the Old Red Lion in Litchborough, Northants. While I was there yesterday two young men asked the landlady to take the sparkler off the Bass, which means - brace yourselves - this pub serves Bass three ways! Can anywhere else say the same? 🤔

A sign at the Old Red Lion which reads ‘Bass 🔺 Available on gravity or through the pump’
Will Hawkes@willhawkes.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Had a nice walk through the Jewellery Quarter in Brum during yesterday’s warm weather. Right up there with England’s best neighbourhoods for a unplanned stroll, imo. Great buildings and random chats

The entrance to the Manton Union Works, built 1913. It’s tower-shaped, faced in faience, crenellated and has lots of Art Nouveau details