London meet suggestions / ideas

[Phoenixflame (Julie)]

Unfortunately we will no longer be able to have our meets at the Prince of Wales Feathers as their company has now totally banned vaping. Matt asked his boss if we could still do so as we were in a private room but he said no.

jessica and I have been doing a lot of researching and phoning, we also went to London today (in the pouring rain ) trying to find a new venue.

It is proving difficult to find places that meet all our criteria which are:

Central Location

Private room

No hire charge

No minimum bar spend

Open Saturdays

And of course, that they allow vaping !

We are still looking but at the moment we only have two options.

1. The Kings Arms 68 Great Titchfield Street, Fitzrovia, London, W1W 7QL www.mcmullens.co.uk/kings-arms

Although the website says that they open on Saturdays they no longer do so; but the manager seems keen to have us and has said that he will open specifically for us if we can guarantee that 30 people will attend.   An added bonus is that this one has wheelchair access and we would be on the ground floor as it would be only us there.

2. The King & Queen: 1 Foley Street, London W1W 6DL www.thekingandqueenpub.com/

These are also keen to have us but are already booked for the original date we had in mind which is 31st January. I am waiting for them to get back to me about February dates. They do not charge for use of the function room but they ask for a donation of a minimum of £1. per head for macmillan nurses.

If anyone has any comments, suggestions or ideas then I would love to hear them please.

Am just going to add some tags for people who have recently attended or shown an interest in the London meets to make sure that they see this thread.

VapingBad philmepowers mart166 BAzz Mrsmac remnant dagl DrMark reggy666 giles iremiix blakey Bob OneDay bubbleglass twiglet X&Y Tom tomj777 elfish alanfinal Daniel ervi

[qsplan]

what about The Vape Lab? thevapelab.co.uk/pages/the-lab

[Phoenixflame (Julie)]

Thanks very much indeed for the idea qsplan but our lot like their alcohol far too much for us to consider having it anywhere other than a pub !!

[qsplan]

what about "Moon Under Water" in Leicester Square ( www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs/the-moon-under-water-west-end ) or "St Christopher's Inn" in London Bridge ( www.stchristopherspub.co.uk ) or "The Old King's Head" in Borough High Street (www.theoldkingshead.uk.com/ )

[jessica]

The Moon Under Water is out because Wetherspoons have banned vaping in their pubs - but the other two are definitely worth looking into - thank you qsplan

[Phoenixflame (Julie)]

Thanks again qsplan but we have already previously used both of those places for meets. I don't mean to discourage you at all, please do keep the ideas coming.

St Christophers ended up sending us out into the alleyway the last time we were there, even though we had been there previously and we had booked in advance (luckily it was a very warm night).

The Old Kings head's barman got fed up with us vaping in the end.

Unfortunately neither of those had a private function room, which is why I am now insisting that we have a private room to ourselves. It saves a lot of hastle.

[lairey]

Do we know what would happen if we didn't make the 30 for the King's Arms? Other than they probably wouldn't want us back again?

Maybe we should do a headcount to see if we'd be likely to make 30 for the 31st?

Sorry, I've no venue suggestions, unless you guys want to come down my way?

[Phoenixflame (Julie)]

No we don't yet lairey. We will be asking that and finding out a lot more about it later on today.

Trouble is sometimes we get over 40 names on the list and only 20 odd actually turn up !!

[Phoenixflame (Julie)]

qsplan My apologies, I have just seen that according to their websites both of those pubs you mentioned do have function rooms.

In that case I am not sure why we only used the general bar areas. It was in the early days when we first started meeting up and I wasn't involved in organising them.

[Deleted]

Jan 7, 2015 0:21:28 GMT Phoenixflame (Julie) said:

Thanks very much indeed for the idea qsplan but our lot like their alcohol far too much for us to consider having it anywhere other than a pub !!

Vape lab is pretty cool but as you said it has no drinks licence and closes about 8, the boss has applied for a licence and will hopefully have one soon. Much better place to support/give your money to than pubs than are just banning vapors IMHO 

just incase I forgot about this thread and you guys do go there in the future it's just up the road from Liverpool street a walk straight down the high street which i recommend you stick to, no back streets if you don't know the area. It's trendy now and pretty safe but some of the "old/real" locals use its trendy status to their advantage. Phones out of site, handbags close etc. 

Have fun and stay safe.. 

[qsplan]

Do not know which of them is vape friendly, but you can give them a shot... www.traditionalpubslondon.co.uk/

wish was still living in London, would definately be there with you...



of course, if you cannot find any suitable pub, you can come to Greece... for a change... lol

[mart166]

Phoenixflame (Julie) jessica

Thanks for all the hard work your putting in, sure we all appreciate it.

We will of course try to be at next one (family problems allowing) and either of those good for us, in fact all of central London mostly one bus ride away, we are very lucky.

Pity we cannot go back to Coach and Horses, it was a nice reasonbly priced pub with decent food, I cannot see how we never made minimum spend in there unless it was not being recorded by staff, we spent over £60 last time, so thats nearly a quarter to start.

MP

[Phoenixflame (Julie)]

Jan 7, 2015 9:31:28 GMT qsplan said:

Do not know which of them is vape friendly, but you can give them a shot... www.traditionalpubslondon.co.uk/

wish was still living in London, would definately be there with you...



of course, if you cannot find any suitable pub, you can come to Greece... for a change... lol

Thanks very much for this qsplan I will have a look at it to see if there are any that we haven't investigated yet.

[Phoenixflame (Julie)]

Jessica has now spoken to the manager at the Kings Arms - 68 Great Titchfield Street, Fitzrovia, London, W1W 7QL www.mcmullens.co.uk/kings-arms.

We have booked it for Saturday 31st January from 5pm until 11pm.

Because we couldn't guarantee that there will be 30 of us, he says that we can all vape in the bar, but it will be open to others as well, he said that he only has about 3 likely regulars that may possibly be there, and as its a very long bar they would be quite far away from us anyway, so it should not be a problem.

Unfortunately the bad news is that although wheelchairs can get in the doorway of the pub there are 15 steps down to the toilets.

I will start a new thread to announce the meet.

[mart166]

Jan 7, 2015 15:40:39 GMT Phoenixflame (Julie) said:

Jessica has now spoken to the manager at the Kings Arms - 68 Great Titchfield Street, Fitzrovia, London, W1W 7QL www.mcmullens.co.uk/kings-arms.

We have booked it for Saturday 31st January from 5pm until 11pm.

Because we couldn't guarantee that there will be 30 of us, he says that we can all vape in the bar, but it will be open to others as well, he said that he only has about 3 likely regulars that may possibly be there, and as its a very long bar they would be quite far away from us anyway, so it should not be a problem.

Unfortunately the bad news is that although wheelchairs can get in the doorway of the pub there are 15 steps down to the toilets.

I will start a new thread to announce the meet.

Cannot go there !! looks like at least 5 minutes walk from bus stop, good beers, then you fall drunk down 15 stairs and find at bottom you've already done what you went to go down them for !!

Bloody good choice count me in

MP