The self-named ‘Jolly Boys’ - Richard Moore, Karl Young, Dave Russell, Jon Main, Vaughan Williams and Trevor Power - meet in the capital every September to continue their tradition, which began after they worked their way through a book on historic London pubs.
Moore, 58, said the idea quickly grew beyond the book’s list of 30 venues.
A shared passion
“As a group of friends, we share a passion for London pubs,” Moore said. “That was back in 2017 - now, we’re expanding out to 500 in central London. So far, we’re up to 169, which is good going seeing as none of us live in London.”
Based across Staffordshire, the Peak District, Chesterfield and North Wales, the group reserve the third weekend of September each year for their tour, starting at the Betjeman Arms in St Pancras before charting a new route.
“It’s the only way we can guarantee we’re all available,” Moore said. “The third weekend in September is always booked out - wives can’t plan anything for that weekend, it’s our weekend.”
‘Never had a bad Guinness’
Among their favourites so far are The Prospect of Whitby in Wapping, The Mayflower in Rotherhithe and Ye Olde Mitre in Holborn. The group document their journey on Google Maps and add around 30 new pubs each year.
“We usually stick to Guinness because we’ve never had a bad pint in London,” Moore added. “And if you stick to the same drink, you’re usually better off. Obviously, some pubs don’t serve Guinness, so we have to adapt.”
The Jolly Boys plan to reach their 200th pub milestone next year - with 500 in their sights.
Their story comes as new research and operators suggest the pub crawl is far from dead, with ale trails and organised crawls seeing a revival across the UK.
The story was reported on MyLondon, you can read it here.
