The Marlborough Head

I've been keeping mum all summer about this experience, which was really hard to do, just so I could share these photos with you during the month of October. The one full day we spent in London with Sam and Kyla found us wandering in the late afternoon, hungry and in search of a typical English pub.

We were all hungry and there were those amongst us that wanted to just hit the first place we could find. Which, if I remember correctly, was a KFC. Uhm, I didn't spend all day on a plane so I could dine at an American fast food restaurant. So we trekked on. Sam decided he would find us a place we could all agree on. Here's Sam and Kyla walking ahead of Hubby and I.


Several blocks down the busy main thoroughfare, Sam turned down this charming side street and...


We found this pub. Looks like you expect a typical English pub to look. Right? Neat old building. We went in.

Up above, an odd assortment of restaurant decor. Cool. A bit dusty. But cool. Hmmm.


Uhm, okay. Walking past this spot I started to suspect this wasn't your typical pub after all.


We were seated in a dark corner. This, er, gentlemen...?... looked down at us from the back wall.


We ordered our meals and while we waited, we took in more of the ambience. I think these shelves held some of the extra kitchen spices and supplies. As frightening as that might seem...


Our meals were delicious! We ordered some traditional selections. Hubby ordered fish and chips plus really yummy smushy peas.

I ordered Bangers and Mash in their own lake of rich gravy. We helped each other eat our choices.

Kyla and Sam liked their choices as well. And no, Sam is not being rude and flashing a finger, he's flashing a french fry on the way to his mouth. Actually, I remember that what Kyla liked best was her wine selection.


More eerie decor - sorry 'bout the dark photos but it was a really dark pub - a goblin fellow enjoying his own cup of ale.

Another sign. He looks friendly, yes?

This friendly dragon was behind a glass shelf on the way down the stairs to the basement if I recall correctly.


In the basement they had extra kitchen storage space. I think this is ale making supplies on the top shelf and oils and vinegars for the salads on the lower shelf. Don't you think?


They had a second bar in the basement. Yes, real bar that you could step up to and order drinks. So step on up and order. What's your poison? I think I'll have a pint of gluttony and a shot of sloth.


The reason I went down in the basement was because I was told that was where the toilets were. I looked all around the bar area and couldn't find them. I looked all around the seating areas and couldn't find them. Can you find them? You're looking at them.

Look again. At the bookshelves. Now look at the floor. This one says "LADIES" with an arrow pointing forward. There was another one next to it that said "GENTS". Walk forward and push on the FREAKIN' SECRET DOORS IN THE BOOKSHELVES!!!! Is that totally AWESOME!? I had to run back upstairs and tell everyone they had to come back down and find the toilets, trust me, and then when they couldn't find them I gave them clues and finally they figured it out and everyone was like "OOOOoooh" and "Awesome" and "Cool!" And we all had to go in and out of the bathrooms several times and us girls took photos. Because we're totally sauve and sophisticated world travelers and not silly tourists. Nope. Not us.


Even the bathrooms were awesome. The stalls and mirrors were black gothic frames with stone walls. Funny the stones though, because they were fake stones and I mean, come on, there's lots of real old stone buildings in this ancient city. But still, don't you want a bathroom this cool?!

I looked up the pub when we came home and apparently it's a chain. We thought it was a lot of fun!

Tomorrow we're off to another away football game. This one is only a six hour round trip. Better than the nine hours it took for the last away game. I hope to get my post ready to go up, for Vanessa's Halloween party, before we leave so I won't be late posting in on Saturday in case we decide to spend the night before driving home.

In the meantime, you can see some quilts and other pretties over on Laume's Studio.