Munich on Thames

A couple of weeks ago to Victoria to see what is left of the street between Victoria and Westminster that I once used to walk twice a day - until I discovered that Waterloo was slightly nearer GOGGS than Victoria. Plus I rather liked the stonework detailing of County Hall; an agreeable visual adjunct to one's morning stroll into the office.

The refurbished Wetherspoon's at Victoria looked to have the same open work plastic chairs as I have glimpsed behind the hoardings at the Epsom branch. The sort of chairs that they have been using outside at the Regent Street All-Bar-One for a year or so now, so perhaps Wetherspoon's are into buying odd lots of furniture in the same way as they were said, back in their beginnings, to buying odd lots of beer going cheap. Thus enabling them to hold to a pound a pint (at Tooting anyway) for at least one of their warm beers, for a good many years.

And talking of All Bar One, there was a flashy looking branch in Victoria Street, on the side opposite the Cathedral, and I almost fell for one of their paellas, which would have made just the sort of lighter lunch that I was looking for.

The branch of Coco di Mama looked rather flashier than the one at Southwark Street noticed at reference 2 too.

And yet another large slab of Victoria Steet had been taken out. And what had been the flashy offices of Department of Trade & Industry - the place where one Mr. Heseltine liked to style himself the President (of the Board of Trade), with grand office and outer offices to match - looked as if it was in the throes of a major refurbishment. Not the first, I dare say - this after something more than half a century of existence. A period during which a suburban house might expect to go through several such. Maybe three or four kitchens?

Then round the corner and down the stairs - with rollator - to the spacious but near empty Munich Cricket Club of reference 1.

Opened proceedings with a carafe of Weissburgunder - which I had confused with Spätbegunder, which I used to buy occasionally from the off-license in Bridge Road, opposite Hampton Court Palace. Once a wine shop, now more of a wine bar. Name of Vineking. Maybe I will remember next time that 'Weiss' is foreign for white. Tasted fine.

Opted for a lightly smoked sausage, Bockwurst, which came with a dab of potato salad and another of sauerkraut. presentation good, sausage good, the whole only let down by the potato salad which was made with mayonnaise rather than the salad cream which I much prefer. While BH told me later that Finns make their potato salad with all kinds of strange stuff.

Much deep thought, then opted for a second, just asking them to hold the potato salad. Which they managed to do, while swapping in some extra sauerkraut, which was fine as I like the stuff. No problem with the modest amount of brown goo.

Full enough after my light lunch, I fell to thinking about whether barrel hoops - presumably steel - started life in cylindrical form or whether they had been cunningly cut on the bias, as it were, so that they fitted nice and snug, without strain, onto a barrel which was not cylindrical at all. I try asking Gemini this evening, and he says that the hoops start out their life cylindrical and are driven home hot, which gives them the flexibility needed to adjust to the shape of the barrel. When probed, he descends into unconvincing waffle. But he may be right for all that. Not sure who I might ask next: YouTube video of barrel making for beginners?

Diverted from barrels by the waitress, possibly German, who knew her business. Cheerful and chatty without overdoing it. Not in uniform - while her colleague, who was English, had to go the whole lederhosen thing to make up. It was a good formula, so I hope they did more business in the evening than they appeared to be doing at lunchtime.

Out, and elected to return via Westminster Bridge and Waterloo. I thought Westminster Abbey was looking very well from the north, with the bays of the nave and the transept all looking very much the same. Were they all built in the one campaign? Wikipedia talks of Henry III's work being interrupted for a century and not being completed until the time of Henry V.

Pity that they are taking so long to dispense with the decorated hoarding at the bottom; it seems to have been there for years.

Round into Parliament Square where I was pleased to find that there was still room for the eccentric protester in our world of heavily tooled-up policemen.

Onto the bridge, where I noticed a very handsomely and expensively dressed lady, young and beautiful, somewhat Islamic. A few paces behind a much older man, with full white beard and rather more Islamic. I thought she looked very sad, but that might have been projection on my part.

A little further on, two groups working the find the lady stunt, played on the floor with little metal cups. I thought middle eastern. Organised to the extent of one of their number being a lady who appeared to be winning. Much noise and bustle. I bustled past.

Having my own chair worked well at Waterloo, as I could sit in comfortable range of the indicator board while I waited for my train, passing on the Raynes Park option on this occasion. I don't think it even occurred to me.

Home to a craving for lemon squash, which was odd as is it not something I drink from one year to the next. But I did get some good lemons from the market the next day, taking my squash without sugar on that first occasion. Two more lemons today, taken with sugar.

PS: the next morning, I followed up on the barrel hoop business. What could Gemini have said that would have satisfied me? A summary plus references to what looked like authoritative barrel making sources? Poking around for myself, Google fairly quickly turned up reference 5, which was an interesting general account. I then poked hooperage more specifically (rather than cooperage, maybe from coops for chickens, a possibility explicitly rejected by OED), and turn up lots of advertisement infested material, a lot of it on YouTube. It seems that making barrels is a big craft activity in the US. Now while I failed to find an answer to my specific question about making the iron blanks for hoops, it seems reasonably clear that Gemini was right. They are just flat strips, bent into a circle and closed with rivets or bolts. The wooden staves and the iron hoops accommodate to each other during the driving of the hoops - a business which may involve gentle firing of the barrel from the inside - but which does not seem to involve heating the hoops, in the way of the iron tyre of a wooden cart wheel. A business which may involve temporary hoops. Some perspective is given by the fact that during most of the 19th century, the hoops were made of wood rather than iron.

References

Reference 1: https://munichcricketclub.co.uk/.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/08/borough.html.

Reference 3: https://thevineking.com/.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Abbey.

Reference 5: The cask age: the technology and history of wooden barrels - Diana Twede - 2005. Michigan State University, School of Packaging, East Lansing, MI 48823-1224, USA. For which see below.

Reference 6: https://www.canr.msu.edu/packaging/.