Temple

The Edgar Wallace

40, Essex St, London, WC2R 3JF

Date of Visit : 23rd May 2005
Approx. Time of Visit: 8.15pm

Route Used: District from Blackfriars
Distance Traveled : 0.47 miles

Guests: 1 and 4
Clientele: Local legal eagles

Pub Number : 025

Characteristics	Rating	Comments
Ambience		A bit smoky, but obviously popular even with no music on
Facilities		A golf machine, a bizarre quiz machine I havent seen anywhere else before, 2 tv's and a newspaper rack!
Ladies		The two foreign barmaids were pretty good and were very friendly, I have a note that says "Hand down pants" under this section, but I can't remember anything about it, so the beer must have been good that night! Plenty of other women around that were all OK and a desperate housewife style woman with an old guy who was shagging her way up the legal ladder (probably)

OVERALL

A very nice pub and one we'd come back to for sure

Temple is not that blessed with pubs, being situated on the Thames riverside. The "Walkabout" chain have a branch here, but as a non-MD qualifier, it was ignored and we hit the back streets. The problem with this approach is that we might miss a pub that is slightly closer to the tube, but as long as we see one first and there is no obvious contenders, then this is fine. We therefore, chanced upon the Edgar Wallace, a nice looking pub that obviously has some history. The very friendly barmaid was up for some banter and was truly interested in me (erm... and the marathon drinking project possibly....), so extra marks there. She seemed to think that the "Cheddar Cheese" might be closer to Temple station, but we were in and the pints were ordered (she volunteered us the exact prices without being asked!) so there was no looking back now. We were highly interested to find the bar snacks menu were sold as "English Tapas", a very unique idea. On offer were Fish-finger sandwich, black pudding and bubble & squeak, Yorkshire pud and Irish stew, welsh rarebit, porkpie and mustard, a "baby" ploughman's and the baby breakfast! We tucked into our relevant choices with gusto and some hunger after our hard work so far. Further investigation revealed that this pub was originally the Essex Head (from 1877), Samuel Johnson used to meet here 3x a week starting in 1783 and in 1975 the pub was renamed the Edgar Wallace to mark its Centenary in 1975. Interesting.... Reluctantly, we had to tear ourselves away and head for our final appointment of the evening at Embankment.

Not quite, but not bad at all...

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