London, Revisited

Conventional wisdom has always held that London is horrifically expensive. So far this trip, I don't think that holds up anymore. There are two reasons for this.

First, the last time most Americans went to London, their cards didn't work. We used mag stripe, which is for feeble minded idiots who hate change more than they hate credit card theft, and they used chip and pin, which is actually safe. This meant that we needed to use money changer services. These assholes do nothing but rip you off. Today, they would sell me a pound for $1.36. If you can use your normal bank credit card, your rate is $1.27,  and your debit card hits you with a flat fee that may add a cent or two if you get a lot of pounds out at once. That's a substantial savings.

More importantly, the pound has cratered in the past two years. When I was here in 2014, it was $1.66 at LIBOR, and the money changers were selling pounds at closer to $2. That turns a £4 beer into an almost $8 beer. Yikes. But today, I bought all my pounds at $1.27. That £4 beer is now $5.08. That is cheaper than getting a beer in STL once you add the tip. Dinner for two plus two pints was $43. The fiscal hurt just isn't there anymore.

Another way to save your money is to do all your drinking at Samuel Smith's owned pubs. In England, many pubs are "tied houses", where they have a deal with a brewer like Fuller's or Greene King to sell only their beer. Samuel Smith's tied pubs are the cheapest we've seen in London, they have the best beer, and they have some unbelievably historic pubs. Near the British Museum, the Princess Louise is a Victorian era "gin palace" of dark wood and etched glass, prettier than any bar stateside. On Fleet Street, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese dates to 1667, and men like Dickens, Twain, Ben Johnson, and countless literary giants sank pints there. These would be tourist traps anywhere else, but the fact that they will hand you a pint of Old Brewery Bitter for £3.10 ensures that locals come to these bars just as often as the tourists.

London's subway is still more expensive than most anywhere at £2.40 one way, but man do they get what they pay for. There's a stop within a few blocks of everywhere, and almost no waiting. If smaller systems get trapped in the vicious cycle of "doesn't go anywhere so nobody uses it so there's no reason to make it go more places", then "The Tube" is an example of the virtuous cycle. It makes traveling around the city easy.