Face Of Cheam

Anyway from West Brompton getting there meant a walk through Brompton Cemetry.  Here you can see the final resting place of the ex Who manager Kit Lambert.  The gravestone was tidied up a couple of years ago by some Who fans, but it is a shame they only concentrated on Kit instead of the whole family including the composer Constance Lambert.
The Iconic Gallery was very welcoming and full of very expensive photos.  One classic image of Elton John at Dodger Stadium was priced at £15000.00 + VAT but without frame.  Reflections made it difficuly to take photos of photos and I am not sure that is even the done thing, but the below of Peter Sellers with Britt Eklund was nine grand.
A very nice little gallery it was too with other pictures including Katherine Hepburn and Bowie.  The Box Gallery was next down the road and really just a small room.  There was a nice collage of Roger Moore with the girl who was in the opening scene of Live & Let Die,  (magnet on zip) and a few posters.  Had a nice chat with the staff member too, who likes the Dalton films.  As that only took up ten minutes there was some time for pubs.

First stop the Angelsea Arms.  A couple of weird pictures here too and a pint of Estrella.

The Sporting Page was next where i was served by a friendly girl from Sweden. Another Estrella here too and as the name suggest it concentrates on TV Sport.
The Chelsea Ram had a model Ram by the bar and a bookshelf of old books which was interesting.
Finally I ventured to Lots Road.  In the nineties i had two separate fantastic nights here when it was called The Ferret and Firkin in the Balloon Up The Creek.  This was before the Imperial Wharf development was built on the creek, and had a car impounding lot opposite.  That surprisingly is still there but much smaller.  I did once return in the late 2000s when it was Lots Road Dining Rooms and that was hideously depressing.  Fortunately it has returned to more pub like in status with a good selection of beer and soem board games.  I doubt they have the guitar bands like the Firkins regularly used to have.  In nostalgic mood I found this very interesting page https://www.goodbeergoodpubs.co.uk/articles/what-happened-to-the-firkin-pubs/
and subsequently ascertained that out of the 55 London based pubs only 35 still exist in pub form.  One, the Fox & Firkin in Lewisham has even kept the Firkin name. At the time, we probably didn't appreciate the chain, but a range of pubs with cover band nights, reasonably priced beer is certainly missed.