The Spirit World

Just south of London Bridge is a covered market where you can buy all kinds of fresh produce: greens, artisinal cheeses, meats. There’s even a decent little open air bottle shop where you can find the best bottle conditioned real ale from the UK across from a wall of Belgian beers. This bottle shop has the distinction of being the only place I’ve ever found Hoegaarden Grand Cru outside of Belgium (aside from my house).

I arrived at Market Porter on the edge of the covered market at what appeared to be happy hour. The street outside the pub was full of people milling about, beer in hand, talking and generally having a good time. Squeezing into the pub proved to be a challenge but I managed it and retrieved a pint of Gunpowder, a “strong” Mild. I joined the rest of the natives outside on the street to participate in this Mardi Gras style drinking fest.

Market Porter wasn’t the only pub on the block. There were three more along the short, mildly trafficked street. These pubs were the epicenters for their own large crowds of drinkers.

While standing around sipping my Gunpowder in the open air, I did some crowd watching to see what people were drinking. I’d say that half of the pub-goers were drinking real ale, but I was surprised to see that the second most popular drink was a certain Mexican beer served in clear longneck bottles. (One thing I did make note of was that despite the ample signage for Budweiser, I only saw one person actually drinking a Bud in London. Evidently it doesn’t even rate as the Commoner of Beer in London let alone the King.) After the Mexican fizzy beer with limes jammed down the necks, I would guess that Guinness is the next popular followed by Magners Cider (served over ice, blech).