Remembering good times at The Nightingale

BY BILL LACY

A few years back I had a job interview.

Knowing that I would deserve a well-earned pint afterwards I thought about which pub I would visit and what I would order, and completely lost focus in the interview.

It’s hard to communicate an example of how you demonstrate good leadership skills when you’re wondering whether they are still serving a good-conditioned pint of Landlord down at the Dog and Bull.

Lesson: don’t get ahead of yourself. You’ll only be disappointed.

I felt a bit like that this week when I received my vaccine invitation and my mind immediately started to think about when the pubs will open.

It seems I’m not the only one.

Wetherspoon’s has urged the Government to open pubs, and ministers are considering plans to serve outside by Easter.

Young’s have gone even further, suggesting that it is “nonsense” to open outdoors only in a showery April, and there should be equality between pubs and “non-essential” retail.

The rumblings for reopening are getting louder, but I’m not getting ahead of myself yet.

Even when life stirs back into the sector, many pubs won’t be able to reopen after April.

This recent intervention by Young’s, and references in the news to the “Nightingale”, reminded me of one of the best Young’s pubs in South London, and I reflected on how quickly things can change as I was only in there in a year ago, just weeks before the first lockdown, but still a time when socially distant meant someone who was unfriendly.

Oh, we didn’t realise how lucky we were.

My grumbles at the time were two-fold and both my fault: a long and unnecessary walk to the pub from Balham Tube station (it turns out I should have taken the Tube to Clapham South) and then a pint poured into the wrong glass when I arrived.

I made a little mental black mark against the pub because the barman had poured a pint of St Austell’s into a Young’s glass but when I looked again I realised I was, in fact, wrong.

I’ve made mistakes at work that caused me less mental turmoil.

Years ago I used to observe in bafflement and with superiority the slightly strange men who moaned about things being in the “wrong” glass but then I slowly, imperceptibly, became one of them.

Trivial things aside, I was able to enjoy what is a genuinely splendid pub.

Before they threw lots of money at their pubs a few years ago, many people thought Young’s were old-fashioned, but I like this about them.

The Nightingale, for example, is a mid-Victorian cottage and Grade II listed building, completely juxtaposed from its surroundings and like a country pub in the inner city.

The beer selection includes well-conditioned beers other than Young’s, for example from By the Horns and Sambrook’s, the food is of the usual Young’s high standard, and it still feels like a proper, traditional pub despite the modern furnishings.

There is a “hidden” beer garden but I love observing the smaller details and for me I really like the entrance – it is round the side and looks like the door to a charming house.

The fact that it wasn’t busy when I arrived made it seem like I had come across a little secret, although of course this is a justly popular pub that gets busy (and Young’s have a decent app and other measures to ensure Covid-compliance).

The Nightingale, 97 Nightingale Lane, Balham, SW12 8NX.