And he's back. Sorry about 2008 but it was the worst year of my life, back to normal a bit.

Derby - and bad news. "The County Vat" was too vague to identify and the other 2, in St Peter's Street, have long gone. A lovely old pub at the one, small undeveloped end of the street called The Neptune had never heard of either.

Yomorrow will post first of many West London entries, but first I visited some again.
In SE1 The Ship is still there but no sign. The others I'll post again tomorrow.

Last Monday I found myself a bus ride away from Brixton with a day to spare. I got to Brixton, had a pint and then found an internet cafe to scribble down notes.
10 minutes later I was standing outside 2 Chaucer Road, and to my astonishment not only is it still there, it hasn't been converted into flats. Then I noticed a car in the driveway and an open window. Summoning up nerve (and hoping my breath didn't reek of Abbot, or whatever I had at the Wetherspoons) I rang the bell.
A very nice lady (who was waiting for a John Lewis delivery) answered, and she got really interested in Bert and his work. She mentioned that the house was built in the 1860s, which makes me think the Temples bought it new, and that her own son was born there - as she put it - "perhaps in the same place"! I promised to send her some info on Bert and the AOFB, which I will do. I didn't ask her name - seems a bit intrusive - but I will download some stuff and print it out.
Right, to Bert's local Vats.
The George IV on Brixton Hill is now the South Side Bar, though the change is very recent and incomplete. Great for the young trendies, I noticed they had coffee on the go but no real ale, so had a half of guinness and left, but did explain why I was there, to the usual interest the AOFB story always elicits.
Then to the Elm Park. It wasn't open yet, so I chatted with an old Irish bloke who was sitting nearby about the pub. He'd lived locally for years, but had never been in on account of it being a bit rough. I left him to the remaining 5 of his 6-pack of special brew and went in.
The pub itself has lots of old stuff, none of it looked bought in and I suspect that the outside hasn't been painted since Bert's day, and I had a decent pint of Bass and searched for memorabilia, but no sign. I did, however, get directions to other Vats I hadn't expected to reach. It also has a pub sign that is worth preserving - v quaint.
The Hand-in-Hand is a Young's pub, and I was the only customer. It is modern (plus bought-in old stuff) but at least has a history of the pub - but it finished before the AOFB got there. I searched in vain, as usual, and after downing a Waggledance headed back to central Brixton.
The remains of the Duke of Wellington were visible from the pub across the road. The pub sign is still there, but the rest is boarded up. The staff at the Young's pub opposite explained that it had become really rough, a magnet for drug dealers and then gangs, and the police finally had it closed after a shoot-out. Gulp.
To the Trinity. Another Young's pub with a history on the wall, this is the pub I used to drink in 30 years ago, when in the mid-evening a couple in a flat opposite would have sex standing up behind a thin blind with back lighting, much to our amusement. No sign of the AOFB as usual, but never mind.
The two vats in Bellefields Road are a mystery, no sign of a pub but the buildings look too old, but the Duke of Edinburgh is still there and a very good pub. Finally, I found the modern bar that was the New Queen's Head and then headed home.
I didn't try the "Brixton" vats that aren't in SW2, but a good haul.

OK, just for a change I'm going to leave my first "hit" until last, because the rest is pretty typical of the East End.
I decided to hit the West India Dock Road vats - and nearby.
The Blue Posts and Railway Tavern have gone - according to those who know, they were on the redeveloped side of the road, and as for the Mahogany - forget it, the AREA isn't there. Docklands, need I say more.
The White Horse in Poplar High Street is still there, but the pub isn't! There is, in the street a yard away from the housing project where the pub used to be, a big thick post with a big white horse statue on top of it - obviously the old pub sign. A nice reminder, but that's all.
So now, the first pub. This is the Vat listed as the Commercial Brewery Tap, 500 Commercial Road. Well, it's still there, just called the Brewery Tap. I walked in, ordered a Newkie Brown (no real ale) and started looking around. I got interest, and while there is no sign or memory of the AOFB I started getting stories.
High up, on the same shelf as the TV, is an empty pint glass and an empty can of Fosters. This is there, as the sign above it explains, in memory of Michael Gallagher. There is discussion about when this old, educated Irishman died. Was it 18 months ago or 5 years? But it is there. A local who knows the Bow Bells (of previous postings on other sites I hope I can repost here) says "it isn't for a ghost, it's just in case he comes back". A modern people's pub myth in the making?
I love this "job".

The cartoon dog created by Studdy was a favourite character of the period of the AOFB - so it is no surprise this Faithful Bow-wow was a member (Studdy was) - go to this page and search for "Froth":

http://www.studdying-with-bonzo.co.uk/prints7.htm

Steve W

To "London-by-the-sea" for the PCS (Civil Service trades union) conference, where I am due to speak proposing a motion from our branch - which has never been heard by PCS before (either the motion or the branch). Logging on to the Pub History and FOFB site at the hotel I find the list of Vats - and realise I have just walked past one. Naturally, on the way to find various reprobates from last year (when I represented my old place's branch) I stop off at The Old Ship Hotel, site of The Brighton Vat and presumably, from the name, Brighton's first - it is the first listed. Outside there is a painted sign which, although obviously repainted over the years, seems to date from the time of the AOFB (Art Deco feel to it) pointing to The Old Ship Hotel Garage, which was clearly massive. Ah! Brighton motor car rallies! Just the sort of thing the AOFB seemed to be into, given their interest in cars evidenced by both the "Bitser" joke in the membership booklet and their use of cars to help waifs and strays go on day trips.
The Old Ship Hotel is massive. Downstairs is a huge bar with framed memoribilia relating to the history of motor racing - but all recently bought in, I suspect. There are so many rooms on the first floor that the AOFB could have dined in it is impossible to search them all, but being challenged by a member of hotel staff as to what I am doing I explain, and the next thing I know they are showing me where various other Vats are on a free map of the area - except "Harrison's" and "The Greyhound", which were probably also hotels on the front (as is the Old Ship) - King Street being the seafront road - and may now be a Ramada or the conference centre or whatever. No sign of the AOFB at the Old Ship Hotel, but I later find out that it is now the editorial centre for the Popular Front for the Liberation of the CPSA (which was the larger of the Unions that formed the PCS) who produce comedy newspapers at conference, this being their 30th year, on a now daily basis.  Later they get in trouble when some humourless types fail to realise that the views expressed in their "backlash" sections are veiled attacks on the right wing of this nation done by exaggerating their views, so having an imaginary Baptist group complaining about "having to treat Men who have become Women as human beings" was an attack on people with such views, not an endorsement!
Anyway, I attempt to find "The Aquarium Vat" but give up. Instead I find that the Scotch House Vat at the Clarendon isa now a studenty bar called Varsity, below Clarendon Apartments, or something, so no sign there.
The Stafford Vat is listed as being in Boyar Street, but no-one has heard of it and I would like to ask someone with a booklet to see if this is a mis-scan for Boyce Street.
Anyway, I find that the Aquarium Vat is a pub. The locals are fascinated with the story of the AOFB but all their old world memorabilia is recently bought-in stuff, the curse of the pub historian. Even worse is The Dorset Arms, which at least is there, but is so modernised it doesn't even have real ale. I search briefly for sign of AOFB and leave quickly. I find some delegates in the pub opposite, share my AOFB obsession with them and a local confirms that he hasn't heard of my missing Vats. 
I never attempted to find Down's Vat as I couldn't work out where Down's Estate was, and Hove - too far this time round. The Stafford might be there somewhere, and as there is no address, maybe the Greyhound too. But I'll be back if I can.
Later, our motion, against all hope, does get heard within the allotted time (someone, perhaps too hung over from the night before, didn't show up to propose their branches' motion to it fell), I speak, get applause, the National Executive Committee backs it, carried unanimously and the third biggest Union in the country - I believe - (after TGWU and UNISON) bbacks Land Value Taxation (look it up). I propose the motion wearing a Popular Front for the Liberation of the CPSA  T Shirt, which might seem odd, but then one delegate the previous day had worn a T Shirt just reading "WASTED", points for honesty, another was wearing a football shirt that only showed the name of the team's sponsor - BRAINS - but my favourite was a woman who spoke to support the NHS wearing a shirt showing the name of heavy metal band MEGADETH, so mune was fairly non-controversial.
Helluva good week.