If you’re doing things right, people will knock on your door with business opportunities. Every so often, one of these opportunities will catch your attention. While you already have a strategy—a path you’d outlined to get where you wanted to go, and a list of things you decided not to do—you’re figuring out how to […]

On EastEnders' 40th birthday, let's go in search of the soap's iconic pub. London has only one remaining Queen Victoria pub, as far as I can tell, but remnants of several pubs of that name survive. The Queen Victoria, 148 Southwark Park Road, Bermondsey SE16 3RP corner pub from when this entire area was packed with Victorian terraces. You can still find a few of these if you walk down the right streets, then you turn a corner and it's all postwar flats and modern apartment blocks as is so often the case in inner London. Had the pub been one street corner to the east the Luftwaffe would have got it but instead it shines on with its yellow brick, sash windows and brown faience tiles. One less storey and it could almost pass for the actual fictional Queen Vic. Indeed a bit of digging suggests the soap's producers visited when the show first went into production and used the bar "for a dummy run". So says Julie O'Sullivan, the pub's millennial landlady, although she also claims that "Barbara Windsor, Dot Cotton, Ross Kemp, Shane Richie" have drunk here which suggests she sometimes mixes the real and the fictional. Alas Julie had the lease taken away from her in 2019, such is the way of pubcos, and the latest owners haven't quite retained the ambience. The central wooden bar is still there but now with downlit optics and the upper display shelf removed, plus Julie would never have allowed those chairs in here or illuminated a ring around the dartboard. But it still looks good because Craft Union like to put on a decent show, and it still has a bottle blonde behind the bar (called Carole) with a cheery voice well capable of passing an E20 audition. formerly The Queen Victoria, 118 Wellington Street, Woolwich SE18 6XY hostel, and still might be upstairs, but the former bar has since been taken over by a lowly convenience store called the Q. Victoria Supermarket. I'd have abbreviated it 'Queen Vic Supermarket' instead and taken down all the Oyster top-up signs, but I was not consulted. It still looks striking from a distance, a three storey gabled building with two tall chimneys rising higher than seemingly necessary and a fading inn sign depicting a book-reading monarch above what used to be the door. These days you enter up the side, they hope enticed by a wall of generic grocery vinyls and adverts for Lyca mobile, and it's so out of date the alcohol options still include a bottle of Becks. But the interior is low-key, low-lit and low-appeal, and all I spotted was Robinson's fruit squash, so unless you live locally and have run out of something urgent I probably wouldn't. formerly The Queen Victoria, 1 Gillender Street E3 3JW Charrington & Toby Ale tiles out front. formerly The Queen Victoria, 72 Barnet Grove, Bethnal Green E2 7BJ Still in the East End, not only does this look every inch a Victorian boozer but it's attached to a proper Victorian terrace, part of a patch of conservation area between Columbia Road Market and Roman Road. Just look at the gorgeous 'The Queen Victoria' moulding on the roof beneath a royal crest. In this case closure came in 1993 before this corner of Bethnal Green became the gentrification magnet it is today, and the odd grey doors at pavement level now lead to separate flats. The planters out front somehow haven't been removed by Tower Hamlets' car-friendly Mayor, not yet, and yes I did have to wait for marketgoers clutching wrapped flowers to get out of the way before I took that photo. formerly The Queen Victoria, 78 How's Street, Haggerston E2 8LP pub and all the houses it served have long been swept from the map. Instead the area's now solid former council housing, almost entirely flats, with the location of the Queen Vic now a row of parking spaces along the front of Fellows Court. Pubs are no longer a feature of the surrounding neighbourhood, the nearby shopping parade is as downbeat as it gets and the local primary school closed last year due to lack of pupils. If EastEnders were set here, sorry Haggerston, it'd be an utter gloomfest. formerly The Queen Victoria, 236 Church Hill Road, North Cheam SM3 8LB current plan is to build a 7-storey block of flats as a 'gateway development', which anywhere in inner London might look quite normal but would be a jarring highrise imposition here. No replacement pub is planned but a Wetherspoons exists just round the corner on London Road and that's quite enough. formerly The Queen Victoria, 13 Tooting Grove, Tooting SW17 0RA pub with copper roof, renamed 'The Little House' before it closed in 2010. An English Heritage spot-listing failed so now subdivided into five quite nice-looking flats. formerly The Queen Victoria, 98 Mitcham Road, Croydon CRO 3RJ formerly The Queen Victoria, 136 Falcon Road, Battersea SW11 2LP formerly The Queen Victoria, 121 Bath Road, Hounslow TW3 3BT formerly The Queen Vic, 118 Wellington Street, Maryland E15 1HH And finally a classic pub that's now lumpen flats. For almost all of its life it was known as The Albert House, having originally been the pub at the end of Albert Road. At some point that street inexplicably became Albert Square, despite not even being oblong, and that no doubt is why the pub's final owners decided to name it The Queen Vic. It didn't ultimately help to bring a rush of punters, even with a flapping inn sign out front, and when I turned up for the 20th anniversary it was already being redeveloped. The resulting block is called Basle House and the bit that used to be the pub has hardly any windows and looks terribly bland. Judging by the outbreak of angry posters all over the bin store an angry row appears to have broken out regarding the improper dumping of black bags, but as storylines go that's pretty poor so I'd stick with the real Queen Vic on the actual Albert Square tonight instead. from 2015: locations that inspired EastEnders [photos] from 2010: Two Albert Squares, E15 and SW8 from 2005: The real EastEnders, E20 at 20

One of my clients was a co-founder of a company that had raised $60 million in funding before they signed on my editorial studio to work with them. We met to discuss the project, and it went well—they liked the strategy and were ready to kick off.  Towards the end of the meeting, he wanted […]

25 dull lists One stop short of Barking: Upney, East Ham, West Ham, Upminster, Woodgrange Park, Barking Riverside, Stratford Current Walkers crisp flavours: ready salted, cheese & onion, salt & vinegar, prawn cocktail, roast chicken, smoky bacon, tomato ketchup, pickled onion, cheese toastie (and beanz), roast chicken (and mayonnaise), sausage sarnie (and ketchup) Days on which I had my hair cut in 1985: 17th January, 6th March, 24th April, 18th June, 8th August, 7th October, 13th December Towns where the National Eisteddfod has been held at least three times: Aberdare, Aberystwyth, Bala, Bangor, Caernarfon, Cardiff, Carmarthen, Denbigh, Liverpool, Llandudno, Llanelli, Llanrwst, Mold, Mountain Ash, Neath, Newport, Pwllheli, Rhyl, Swansea, Wrexham Ferry departures from Wemyss Bay on Sundays in the summer of 1993: 0930, 1130, 1330, 1530, 1730, 1920, 2040 Winners of the prestigious Only Connect Third Place Play-off: Chessmen, Wrights, Trade Unionists, Wordsmiths, Poptimists, Forrests, Whodunnits, Ramblers, Scrummagers, Mercians, Cat Cows or Crunchers European countries that drive on the left: Channel Islands, Cyprus, Ireland, Isle of Man, Malta, UK Zodiac signs in Polish: Baran, Bliźnięta, Byk, Rak, Lew, Panna, Waga, Skorpion, Strzelec, Koziorożec, Wodnik, Ryby Numbers which haven't been drawn in the National Lottery so far this year: 3, 4, 9, 15, 21, 37, 40, 43, 44, 48, 49, 53, 58 US states ending in a consonant: Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming Satellites of Saturn discovered in 2000: Albiorix, Erriapus, Ijiraq, Kiviuq, Mundilfari, Paaliaq, Siarnaq, Skathi, Suttungr, Tarvos, Thrymr, Ymir Lettered buses than ran in London 25 years ago but have since been withdrawn: C2, C4, H23, H24, H29, H30, H40, K9, K10, P3, P15, PR1, PR2, R62, R69, S5, T4, T123, TL1, W10, W17, X30, X53 Chemical elements with a double letter: Beryllium, Potassium, Copper, Gallium, Yttrium, Palladium, Tellurium, Ytterbium, Thallium, Hassium, Tennessine, Oganesson European countries that'll see a total solar eclipse in the next 50 years: Greenland, Iceland, Portugal, Spain, Russia, Gibraltar, Ukraine 6Music's daytime schedule from next week: 5am Chris Hawkins, 7am Nick Grimshaw, 10am Lauren Laverne, 1pm Craig Charles, 4pm Steve Lamacq/Huw Stephens House numbers I've lived at: 7 (twice), 8, 20, 26, 46, 59, 125, 200, 215A Programmes on BBC1 40 years ago today: Breakfast Time, Play School, A Change In The Weather, Pebble Mill At One, Postman Pat, Ken Hom's Chinese Cookery, See Hear, Songs of Praise, Super Ted, Jackanory, Bananaman, Newsround, Blue Peter, Grange Hill, Wogan, Fame, Are You Being Served? Panorama, Dirty Harry Postcode areas adjoining PE: LN, NG, LE, NN, MK, SG, CB, IP, NR Female hurricane names for the 2025 Atlantic season: Andrea, Chantal, Erin, Gabrielle, Imelda, Karen, Melissa, Olga, Rebekah, Tanya, Wendy Hills in the City of London: Addle, Bennet's, Cock, College, Dowgate, Fish Street, Garlick, Huggin, Lambeth, Laurence Pountney, Ludgate, Old Fish Street, Peter's, Primrose, Snow, St Andrew's, St Dunstans, Tower, White Lion Blue Peter cats: Jason, Jack, Jill, Willow, Kari, Oke, Smudge, Socks, Cookie Prime numbers whose digits total 5: 5, 23, 41, 113, 131, 311, 401, 1031, 1301, 2003, 4001, 10103, 10301, 20201, 21011, 30011, 101021, 101111, 103001, 120011, 121001, 200003, 201011, 202001, 210011, 1001003, 1003001, 1010003, 10011101, 10101101, 10110011, 10111001, 11000111, 11100101, 100100111, 100111001, 101001011, 10000000000000000000000000000000000000121 Accented letter e's: è, é, ê, ë, ē, ė, ȩ, ę, ě, ȅ, ẹ, ẽ, ę̋, ḕ, ḗ, ḙ, ḛ, ḝ, ė̄, ê̄, ê̌ "A dull, boring list" (generated by AI): Lampposts are... installed by the local council, typically made of metal, painted grey or black, numbered for maintenance purposes, use LED or halogen bulbs, turn on at dusk and off at dawn, occasionally have stickers on them. Places mentioned in tomorrow's post: Bermondsey, Woolwich, Haggerston, Bethnal Green, Bromley-by-Bow, North Cheam, Hounslow, Battersea, Maryland

If it's true that some of the country's most exciting and dynamic country gastropubs are the product of their surroundings - the lush farmlands and rivers of Bowland that supply the Parker's Arms, for example, the or the orchards, woodlands and fields of wild game that provide the Royal Oak Whatcote with their astonishing seasonal variety - then the downside of this reliance on super-locality is that the places themselves can be quite hard to get to. Often many miles from the nearest rail station, connected only by two-a-day rural bus routes - if at all - it's a real job for the average city-dweller (and, by extension, non car-owner) to be persuaded that anywhere is worth a £100+ train journey and a £50+ cab, even if, as in the case of both places mentioned above, it really, really is worth the effort. So the Sun Inn, Felmersham is a much easier sell. Bedford is 40m from St Pancras on a train journey (at the weekend at least) that cost £13.30 return. From Bedford, the 12-minute cab ride costs £17 (they have Uber as well which is probably even cheaper) and you will be greeted in their cozy, log-fired bar - should you wish - with a pint of Westbrooks Laguna pale ale (4.6%ABV) which costs £4.90 a pint. You really don't have to travel far out of the city to rediscover what true value really means. And I haven't even mentioned the price of the evening meal yet. Before that, though, a little mention of the rooms above the pub. The particular suite we stayed in, "Dawn", is one of the most impressively luxurious spaces I've had the pleasure to overnight in since l'Enclume. Occupying a number of levels of a converted barn, downstairs is a kitchenette and living room with sofa bed, and round the corner a giant bathroom with walk-in shower bigger than my entire kitchen. Up some spot-lit stairs and a wonderfully quirky hand-crafted banister is a giant loft bedroom with a copper claw-foot bath at the foot of a second flight of stairs. Attention to detail is everywhere, from the way the spotlights come on to guide your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night, to the lovely bright white soft towels to the USB-C sockets next to all the beds. But the most impressive achievement is that staircase - my photos can't do it justice, but the way the skirting board matches the contours of the 17th century stone walls is an absolute joy, a woodworking masterclass. Anyway I expect you'll be wanting to know about dinner. First up was house bread and butter, served warm in little napkin swaddling. To go with this and in fact everything else that followed we'd chosen a bottle of an organic Penedes cava for £33, which if it sounds good value (and it was) it's worth pointing out there were 2 bottles of fizz cheaper available. Whites started at £28 and reds at £33 - the commitment to quality at value really does extend to every bit of the operation here. Starter was confit duck from their own farm (and lovely stuff it was too, not too fatty and not at all dry, with a nice soft bite and bursting with flavour) with butter beans. On top, breadcrumbs provided texture and a healthy handful of winter herbs brought all the flavours together. An easily enjoyable, rustic starter which felt right at home in this ancient, candle-lit pub. Next, leeks with brown shrimp, which was, like the duck, seasoned perfectly (not always a given - confit duck can easily be overpoweringly salty), boldly flavoured and full of a nice range of textures. The monks beard was nice and crunchy, and the beurre blanc soaked into the leeks in the way that it always should. Fortunately we still had some bread left over by this point to soak up the leftover sauce - it would have been a real shame not to. Main was Hereford beef, again from their own farm, served as a giant chunk of slow-cooked brisket with layers of melting fat and soft cow. In all honesty the accompanying noodles and satay sauce didn't sit quite right with the theme of the evening - I don't usually mind the odd Asian influence here and there but the satay was rather sweet and the noodles soft and a bit redundant - but as the main event was the beef, and the beef was great, then they just about got away with it. Chargrilled PSB could have done with a couple more minutes as well, but the fact I polished my plate off despite being pretty full by this point probably tells you everything you need to know. brilliant. A cute little miniature apple pie, all glossy and sweet and full of nice rich apple, was served alongside a scoop of soy sauce ice cream, which I am pleased to report is an experiment which passed with flying colours. Apparently the kitchen had been testing different flavours and someone suggested soy almost as a joke, and yet it turned out to be great. It helped, too, of course, that they'd used one of those fancy ice cream machines so the texture was smooth as silk. Cheeses - a stilton, a local soft rind, Golden Cross goats and a Brillat-Savarin were all perfect temperature and - in the case of the Brillat - soft to the point of liquid, but not necessarily in a bad way. And if we are to take them at their word that this is a normal portion size (and I have no reason not to), £10 for all this cheese is - again - real value. And speaking of value, two final points. Firstly, the five-course tasting menu, made intelligently with local ingredients and with generosity of flavour and spirit, is £55. That's just over £10 a course, and I don't care how cynical you are about restaurant pricing, but that's a bargain. Also, they cutely say "We absolutely will not add 12.5% to your bill" on the menu which is either a principled stand against service charges or a coded way of suggesting you add it on yourself if you can afford it, but either way pretty commendable. Which all adds up to a day and a night at the Sun Inn being an absolute, God-given joy. I'm a sucker for ancient, low-beamed pubs at the best of times, and I would have had the time of my life in Felmersham if I'd just had a burger and chips in the bar (they do this too - I bet it's great), but sit it alongside a nicely proportioned dining room serving one of the last great tasting menu bargains in the country, and give the option of those astonishing rooms to sleep it off in after, and you have all the ingredients for a proper hotel and dining destination. For anyone wanting a foodie weekend away on a budget, somewhere that feels timeless, rural and ancient but is barely an hour from London, this should be right at the top of your list. A very special little place indeed. I was invited to the Sun Inn and didn't see a bill. However, the 2-bed suite we stayed in starts at £225/night, which if you say as £56.25pp is a far more attractive idea. All other prices, including transport, above. Sorry about the slightly rubbish photos, it was too dark in the dining room for my big camera!