I love the Hope in Carshalton.
It just won my London Pub of the Year award for the fourth time, and a few days later CAMRA turned out to be in full agreement with me, naming the Hope as the best pub in Greater London. Big achievement and entirely deserved, I think.
But this isn't about how absolutely fucking awesome this pub is. I'm going to say something controversial, and I'm not I completely believe it to be true, but it's worth floating the idea for debate at least:
Great pubs are killing good pubs. Maybe.
I'd better explain exactly what I mean by this...