Bored, live in London and like cheap beer? Then the Sam Smith's Challenge is perfect for you!
The original idea for the Sam Smith's Challenge was conceived by myself, my wife Anna and Rich. We had all recently read Yes Man by Danny Wallace, and were intrigued by the idea of doing a 'stupid boy project' (as coined by Danny's then-girlfriend). Having a drink in every Samuel Smith's pub in London seemed a perfect fit for this. So we set to work, finding out all the pubs in London and arranging them so that we would have to crawl the minimum distance!
We took a picture of each pub, and wrote notes as we progressed. The challenge took us longer than expected, partly because on some days we couldn't drink as fast as we had expected, but mostly because we had managed to miss out a few pubs! We finally completed the challenge on 8th March 2008 with a pint in the Duke of York on New Cavendish Street.
For information on each pub and an interactive map, please click on 'Map of London Pubs' in the menu above.
I've added an ad banner at the bottom of each page to try and help with hosting costs. I hope it's not too obtrusive for anyone.
Here are over 400 photos of Sam Smiths pubs taken by Ian - he's had a drink in 214 Sam Smiths pubs, I think I've only been to 50 so am very impressed by this! I've also updated the name of The Cardinal to The Windsor Castle (hat tip to DarkieBoy).
I've made a couple of minor changes which aren't really noticeable. I'd love to completely redesign the site but I don't really have the time unfortunately.
Thanks to Wayne Sheppard for his email informing me that The George and Vulture is more of a restaurant than a pub and doesn't cater for casual drinkers.
I've finally added The George and Vulture to the map.
The sixth Alpine Trail takes place this Thursday 21st April, covering seven pubs around Fitzrovia and Soho, it's well worth checking out!
A couple of things - firstly, thanks to Benedict Curran for letting me know about a petition to keep The Cardinal named that way. I'd also like to wish good luck to Chris Allison who is attempting to drink in every zone 1 pub on 21st May! Chris also let me know about The George and Vulture which isn't currently on the map, but will be added shortly.
I had an update from Matt Ellis telling me that he's also been to the Anerley Arms, so has properly completed the challenge (unlike me), well done! Also heard from Chris Stack about an iPhone app called Find-a-Smith that maps every Sam Smith's pub in the country, very handy!
©2011 Keane Ingram