The Three Lions Pub Crawl

Here's a great pub crawl to consider if you are in the Piccadilly area. The three pubs are all interesting both historically and architecturally, and have a great choice of real ales to boot. What more can you ask?

First off, start at the Red Lion in Crown Passage. Reputed by some to be one of the London's oldest pubs (300 odd years), it still has a slightly Dickensian feel, thanks to the narrow, atmospheric lane on which it is situated. Inside, it feels rather like a country pub, except for the rather more cosmopolitan range of customers. It's often busy with punters ranging from suited and booted types to local builders and foreign-accented tourists. There's another room upstairs if the bar is packed. Beers include Adnams Bitter and St Austell Tribute, so real-ale fans are well catered for, and they serve food, too.

Walking along Crown Passage, it's only a minute or two to the Golden Lion, our second venue. Built in 1897 on the site of a pub with the same name opened in 1762, this pub has a single narrow, downstairs bar, and a covered passage at the side. There's also a dining room upstairs, open at lunchtimes. The decor has a theatrical theme, incorporated into some stunning stained glass and wood panelling. The real ales include London Pride and guest ales, such as Hog’s Back Summer Ale and Sharp’s Doom Bar.

Finally, it's a five minute walk across St James's Square to another Red Lion, and here we really have left the best until last. Tucked away under the shadow of St James's Church, this small pub has what can only be described as a spectacular high Victorian interior (above). It is on both the London and the National Inventories of Pub Interiors of Outstanding Historic Interest. A quick look around, and you can see why: the walls are covered in mirrors decorated with elaborate etched and cut glass, and above is an elaborately embossed ceiling above a decorative frieze. Even the spiral staircase to the lavatories has impressive ironwork, and doors with stained glass.

It's well worth making a special visit, but be warned: it is packed at lunchtimes and with the after work crowd, so aim to get there in the afternoon or later evening to appreciate it at its best. Oh, and they serve real ales too: on my last visit, Fuller’s London Pride, Jennings Cumberland Ale and Deuchars IPA.

Seriously, what more could one ask for?

A very large creepy crawly in Kensington

No, this isn't another story about how climate change is helping cockroaches to flourish in West London, but a spectacular new addition to the insect collection of the Natural History Museum.

Officially the world's longest insect, the new species of stick insect Phobaeticus chani (or Chan's Megastick if you prefer the common name) measures in at an astonishing 56.7cm, or just over 22 inches. That's including the legs, but at 35.7cm, it also wins the insect world record for the longest body.

Amazingly, despite being nearly two feet long, the species is new to science, with just three specimens in the world, brought to light courtesy of Mr Datuk Chan. The fact that it is thought to live high in the rain forest tree canopy of its native Borneo helps to explain why it has not been found before - as well as underlining the importance of the rain forest for natural diversity. And it's not just its length which is impressive: its eggs are unique too, produced with wing-like extensions that allow them to drift in the wind, helping to spread the species further.

All this underlines the desperate importance of preserving these important habitats from destruction: 'It is a sad thought that many other spectacular insect species are disappearing as their habitats are destroyed, before we have even had the chance to find and name them,' said Dr George Beccaloni, the stick-insect expert at the Natural History Museum. Even sadder in my view is that they are being lost at all.

One other little fact I didn't know is that the UK now has three species of stick insect (there are 3,000 world-wide), naturalised in the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall from their native New Zealand. Thankfully, they are not quite so large...

A visit to the Church of St Nicholas, Poling, West Sussex

Poling really is hidden Sussex. It’s not remote, by any stretch of the imagination: it’s only a mile from the busy A27 between Worthing and Arundel, and two miles as the crow flies from Littlehampton. But it’s tucked quietly away, a mile down a small minor road off the A27, just over a mile east of the junction with the A283 to Littlehampton.

The lane is lined with old farms, brick cottages and newer houses: all are beautifully kept, not to say prosperous, with lovely gardens. In one of them, the author AA Milne and Christopher Robin once lived, and a swan from a local lake, ‘Hopper’, features in one of the ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ stories.

The church itself is rather hidden: after a bend in the road, there is a name board for St Nicholas, but to get there you walk down the adjacent path and turn left past more immaculate gardens, around the back of Manor Farm.

The churchyard, like the rest of the village, is immaculately kept. The church is modest, and very Sussex, with flint walls and a low but well proportioned tower, with a sweeping roof of red tiles and Horsham slates. The interior is whitewashed, but charming.

Inside, the proportions give away a Saxon nave, to which was added a south aisle with an arcade of two bays of plain pointed arches and a chancel. The church guide and Sussex volume of The Buildings of England (Nairn & Pevsner) disagree about the date of the aisle: the guide gives 1180, whereas Nairn & Pevsner give 1300. I’m inclined towards the former, but both agree about a date of 1380 for the chancel. The tower was added around 1420 and the porch in 1830.

The nave and chancel are, unusually, the same height, so there is no chancel arch. Instead, the remains of a 14th century rood screen separate nave and chancel, and the composition is very attractive. There is a small Saxon window high on the north wall, and preserved below are the (incredibly rare) remains of the original wooden shutter.

Apart from the East window, which was replaced in 1830, the remaining windows are all attractive Perpendicular square-headed single or twin lights, dating from 1380 to 1420. The East window contains a small fragment of 17th century glass.

For a small country church it has a set of remarkably interesting furnishings. Pride of place goes to the brass on the chancel floor, to Walter Davy, vicar of Poling 1442-1499, decked out in his best ecclesiastical garb. The interior has other 17th and 18th century memorials, but by the south door is very rare survivor indeed: an iron-bound poor box on a pedestal. On the top are the initials Rt de H I C of A, and a date of 1285, thought to refer to Robert of Hastings and his wife, Isabella Countess of Arundel. On the front is the date 1797 (more likely to be the true date).

Above this is a stone inscribed (complete with spelling mistake): PRAYE REMEBER THE POORE. Opposite is an ancient stone tub font, thought to be Saxon, with a rather odd, modern decorated font cover from 1946. The west wall of the Nave bears a fine painted Royal Coat of Arms of George I, dated 1714.

But my favourite item is a headstone, located in the porch. It is dedicated to Alice, the wife of Robert Woolldridge, who died on 27th May 1740, aged 44 years. It has a wonderful rhyme, and one which is not entirely inappropriate for our own celebrity- and wealth-obsessed times:

The World is a round thing
And full of crooked streets
Death is a market place
Where all Men meets
If Life was a thing
That money could buy
The Rich would live
And the Poor would dye

The church is still a focus of its tiny community, and judging by the state of the graveyard and the beautiful flowers, it is well loved.