Regular Meetup
A few of us informally get together to meet up at the Crosse Keys pub located at 9 Gracechurch Street in the City of London on the second Tuesday of the month. Regulars, irregulars and first timers are all very welcome.
We have put back the suggested earliest time to arrive to 7.00 p.m. This is because the City is slowly but surely getting busier and we are now struggling to find a free table at 6.30 p.m. There will probably be a couple of us who will arrive slightly early in order to try an nab a table at the first opportunity. As the evening continues, finding enough free tables becomes less of a problem.
We aim to meet in a downstairs room on the ground floor at the back. There are two rooms so we will choose the less busy one. As a last resort we may be at one of the large tables in front of the entrances to these rooms.
In case it isn’t obvious who we are, we generally try to have a sheet or two of paper on the table with ‘London Reconnections’ on it and possibly an obviously transport-related book lying around as a clue. We do not restrict ourselves to talking about transport and almost anything goes but we do try and discourage strong political opinion (easier said than done given how a lot of transport decisions are political).
The pub is an enormous Wetherspoons pub that is only about five minutes walk from Bank station and around ten minutes walk from Liverpool Street station. Is is easily walkable from London Bridge station although it might be worth catching a bus over the bridge and getting off at the first stop after the bridge if one happens to conveniently appear.
There is an extensive food menu as well as a large selection of drinks available including many beers. Food and drink can optionally be ordered using the Wetherspoon’s app if you don’t want to miss out on the conversation.
For those familiar with the area, the pub is just to the south of Leadenhall Market on the other side of the road.
Dates in 2025
Our remaining meeting date in 2025 is December 9th.
Directions
From Bank Underground station: If you exit at Bank Junction, where a lot of roadworks connected with pedestrianisation are taking place, we recommend you head for Lombard Street which is just to the left of St Mary Woolnoth Church. There is a short cut possible to the rear entrance of the pub but on the first occasion we recommend continuing to the end of the road and turning left at the traffic lights into Gracechurch Street.
Alternatively, use the fairly new Cannon Street exit at Bank Station. Turn left out the station and follow the main road. This is very slightly longer than from the Bank Junction exits but there is not a lot in it.
From Cannon Street station, cross the road (Cannon St) and turn right to pass the aforementioned Cannon Street exit of Bank station and again follow the main road.
From Liverpool Street station you need to exit onto Bishopsgate and head south. Look out for Leadenhall Market on you left and the pub is shortly afterwards on your right.
From London Bridge station the buses listed below all serve London Bridge station and all serve stop M on the south side of London Bridge itself going north across the river.
Buses: The nearest bus stops are stops T and U on Gracechurch Street. Gracechurch St/Monument stop T is for northbound buses and is served by buses 35, 47, 149, 344 and 388. Opposite stop T is stop U which is the southbound Fenchurch Street stop and is served by 35, 47, 149, 344 and 388. You can also use route 133 to cross so , if using bus 133 northbound, alight at Bank Station/King William Street.
Map and Route Planner
We can’t do better than provide you with the link from the Wetherspoons website.
I have just read Lemmo’s excellent piece(s):
https://www.londonreconnections.com/2012/london-terminals-fullsome-farringdon-part-1/
and
https://www.londonreconnections.com/2012/london-terminals-fighting-over-farringdon-part-2/
I noted several requests for the connected images to be reinstated. They seem to have been ignored. However, for anyone interested, the full articles together with all the images can be found here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20151109035826/http://www.londonreconnections.com/2012/london-terminals-fullsome-farringdon-part-1/
and
https://web.archive.org/web/20180629024924/https://www.londonreconnections.com/2012/london-terminals-fighting-over-farringdon-part-2/
I grew up in wartime South London the outer suburbs then, at Worcester Park, and did my teething on the single deck LT on route 213, on which with my Mother, I traveled most days through out the second world war. Later from 1945 besides the above, my days were supplemented with every possible single deck class you could wish for; Central areaT, TD, Q, TF, Green line T, OBBedfords hired in; all of these were pushed into service on route 213.
Then when I graduated into long trousers besides the above, my day’s invariably involved in addition; D/Deck LT, ST, STL, D, RLH. RF and the experimental RTC. By the time my hormones started working, in addition to those already mentioned, I also involved daily travel on Red and Green RT’s, RTL’s, RTW’s. I loved them all and treasure the memories. I loved the coachwork, the paint finish, the liveries and the sounds of Gearboxes and Diesel engines. The road in which I spent the first twenty five years of my life, was blessed with Red central area at one end and Green country area at the other end. You couldn’t ask for more it was all a bus enthusiasts dream.
Can I propose a pub meet expedition to the forthcoming ‘spoons at Fulham Broadway (named the Walham green), so we meet in a former underground station?
Ianvisits has the background history
Seems entirely appropriate!
Any other former stations which are now pubs that are convenient?
Miles T,
We will bear it in mind for the future but currently we feel it is important to meet centrally to make it as easy as possible for everyone to come.
@PoP.
Wasn’t proposing to move the regular meet (central location is good), but maybe have an additional one off meet out of regular sequence when the pub opens for the sake of experience.
Is it possible to find a non-Wetherspoons venue? Not that I have ANY problem with ‘Spoons, but coming up from the South Coast, I want to put on The Ritz 😂. I’ll ask about next time I’m in town. Confidentiality what went wrong with the Borough location?
We could find a non-Wetherspoon’s venue. But the critical thing is to find somewhere we can have a conversation as well as seating without too much background noise. If we could guarantee a decent attendance every time we might be able to find a pub willing to let us have our own room. This used to be the case but it is getting harder to find any pub willing to give you a room without paying a hiring fee for the privilege. We did well in the past but each time the policy changed or the publican’s lost their lease on the premises and the new owners weren’t so co-operate. Where we meet now is almost ideal.
Don’t knock the Crosse Keys. It might be a Wetherspoons pub but it is not just any old Wetherspoons. We are told it used to be the sumptuous Midland Bank headquarters and where we sit is the former boardroom.
We abandoned Southwark because the latest landlord would accept an alternative booking for ‘our’ room without even informing us so it was hit and miss whether we had it. Sometimes the booking didn’t even manifest itself and we could have used the room without detriment. The problem was the rest of the pub was crowded and we could sit together and, more importantly, we struggled to hear ourselves speak. Apparently, a local purpose-built, AirBnB that recently appeared ensured plenty of tourist custom.
Fyi it seems that sometime next year there will be a new ‘spoons right next to Charing cross station (Trafalgar Square side, in the modern office building).