By Andy
Turning down Carter Knowle Road we headed to The Cherry Tree, a short stroll slightly slowed by snowfall.
In a weird sort of way the pub reminds me of Park Hill Flats: horrible, Brutalist architecture with exposed building materials and angular add-ons, but the more you see it the more it grows on you – looming over the hill with its annexes and its windows and did you know they made the walkways wide enough to drive a milk float down?
Just over the road I spotted Rounds Newsagents and smiled to myself – many years ago a friend of mine used to work there at weekends, so often after a Friday night out we would get a 5am taxi to Rounds Newsagents, he would open the shop up and I would sit in the back room all morning, recovering from my hangover and eating stolen pick 'n' mix.
As The Cherry Tree was our 8th pub of the day it was beginning to get late, so we bustled inside in a bid to beat last orders.
Our short journey down Carter Knowle Road had taken us outside the boundaries of S11, and it showed. However, as non-S11ers ourselves, this was not necessarily a bad thing! Beers were reasonably priced again, and ordering a gin & tonic wasn't accompanied by 17 different types of berry getting stuck in your teeth.
We selected two pints of Tribute – our second St Austell beer of the night. We soon came unstuck though as The Cherry Tree was cash only, and we had spent all ours in the previous seven pubs. Thankfully, we still had a couple of tagalongs from our Mosborough pub crawl with us, and they were able to bail us out.
As the old men at the bar judged us for not carrying cash, Rob and I – not for the first time – found ourselves wishing we could just take the aspects of posh pubs we liked, and combine them with our favourite elements of not-so-posh pubs.
Why can't we have card payments and beers from around the world and incredible meals cooked by professional chefs, while also keeping prices at absolute rock bottom? One of life's great mysteries.
We chose a table in the circular annex, as there was a weird disco vibe going on in the rest of the pub and we wanted absolutely no part in it. This offered us an excellent view of the snowfall while sat in the warmth – peak pub satisfaction.
Although the scene outside resembled a postcard, the interior looked like it had last been decorated in 1965. That being said, there were a core band of locals enjoying themselves at the bar – the lifeblood of any pub, yet sorely missing from most.
Hastened by the ever-quickening snowfall, we drank up and left. Thankfully, the roads were still just about traversable, so we booked a taxi home. Besides, even if we did get snowed in, we could just camp outside Rounds Newsagents and wait for my friend to open it up.
It had been a successful night for Pubquest, with seven new pubs visited across the city. As we patted ourselves on the back, there were murmurings of upping the ante next year, and ticking off as many pubs as possible.
2020 was going to be a great year for pubs, we could feel it in our waters...
Pub:
The Cherry Tree (12 Carter Knowle Avenue, S7 2ER)
Rating:
6/10
Pint:
Tribute
Brewery:
St Austell Brewery (St Austell, Cornwall)
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