The Circle Line Challenge

by Oskar Falkenberg

We humans enjoy a challenge. It’s in our nature to always think bigger, better and push the boundaries. Especially when it

comes to things we really like; we expand, extend and enlarge everything from sizes on hamburgers to the amount of football on TV. Speaking of human nature, man and beer go hand in hand throughout history, in fact, man invented beer 1500 years before the wheel. Considering the chief part of the western world challenges its alcohol limits on a weekly basis, of course someone was always going to take the drinking game a little further. Of course someone was going to invent the Circle Line Challenge.

The iconic, yellow London tube line is the chosen arena for this marathon of alcohol. The goal is to alight at all 27 stations, find a nearby pub and have a beer. The challenge is usually done with half-pints and is completed by having the 28th beer at the station you first started within a time limit of twelve hours.

Although an official founder was never revealed, the tradition was assumedly born during the 1960s as The Twelve Pubs of Christmas. It was later adopted into rag week for medical students in the 1980s. Being notorious drinkers, they expanded the crawl from twelve to 27 stations, completing the infamous circle we know, love and fear today.

"The best part about the challenge is to see your friends go down one by one.”

- Tobias Frandsen, survivor

Due to its spacious carriages and central route in zone 1, the Circle line has remained a venue for public drunkenness in recent times. Although time and place was usually pre-arranged, spontaneous subway parties were thrown, without consent from TfL or police. Participants would decorate the carriages, play music, pole dance on the yellow poles and provide free drinks and snacks to commuters.

When Boris Johnson banned drinking on public transport from 1 June 2008, thousands turned to the underground on 31 May, to celebrate a final night of legal tunnel drinking that forced six tube stations to close and got 17 people arrested.

1,020

1,667

A fresh FOI request, however, shows the Circle line is statistically less dangerous than most of the other London subway lines. Numbers showing both accidental and non-accidental incidents on the Tube, where either the victim or offender was intoxicated, reveal the Circle & Hammersmith lines ranks as only the 5th most dangerous line in both categories.

Over the last seven years, only 1,020 alcohol-related incidents have been reported on the Circle & Hammersmith lines, split into 544 accidental and 476 non-accidental cases. This is not only well below the averages of 587,67 and 520 incidents per line - the numbers bleak in comparison to the hardcore Central line, which had 858 accidents and 809 assaults over the same time period.

Download the FOI statistics here

of their entourage woke up in a public toilet the following day, while another lost all items of value at King’s Cross St. Pancras. Tobias smiles and says: “The best part about the challenge is to see your friends go down one by one."

With those inspirational words fresh in memory, I make my way to Liverpool Street station, which will mark the beginning and end to my alcoholic adventure. In the name of bub and human nature, I have decided to up the ante by giving the challenge a twist. In order to test how far the craft beer market has come in all geographical corners of the capital, I will attempt to only drink beers from microbreweries, without ordering the same one twice. I stroll into legendary The Railway and order a Brixton Porter and a big, traditional breakfast. The clock strikes noon. Game on.

With numbers seemingly on my side, I still seek some advise from former survivors as part of the final preparation for the challenge. Tobias Frandsen and Fredrik Svanes were once the only two men standing of a team of seven and they happily share their wisdom with me. “Don’t try to show off in the beginning by chugging,” says Fredrik. “You will fail. Miserably.”

“Drink a lot of water and eat more snacks,” adds Tobias. “I had problems speaking and walking but except for that I was pretty well off.” Although none of the two have a clear recollection of actually finishing the challenge, a GoPro camera made sure they saved the big moment.

“The critical point is the last seven stops,” Fredrik says. “That’s when you lose most of the people.” One member

“I feel a bit of the alcohol already,” says Kristian Svenningsen, a friend who has come along as drinking buddy, mental support and emergency rescue crew. Promising signs early, as we make our way outside. Travelling clockwise, the first stop is Aldgate where we enter The Hoop and Grapes, famous for being a timber-framed survivor of The Great Fire of London, which stopped just 50 yards away.

“Circle Line challenge - basically every Saturday,” says Hamish West, bartender of ten years, as we present our plans for the day. “They’re usually fine in this part of town, we normally get them between 12 and 2. I don’t know if everyone starts in the east but we don’t get many drunken ones. Which is fine!”

Unfortunately, already at the next stop, Tower Hill marks an early end of our streak of craft beers, when a lack of pubs in close proximity of the tube station leads us to a traitorous decision. In a quirky location underneath a bridge, we’re lured in by possibly the only country where their love for beer exceeds the one here. I’m talking, of course, about the Germans.

Bavarian Beerhouse basically operates as a small piece of German territory on English soil. Blonde waitresses carry litre jugs of blonde beverages, dressed in traditional, local dirndl dresses and lederhosen. Even the interior is simplistic, with quadratic wooden tables and brick walls, it all screams of Germany. We conclude it was a clever exception as we clink our huge glasses of Krombacher together.

Picture Gallery:

Liverpool Street - Blackfriars

Our Circle Line Challenge

1: Liverpool Street

The Railway

Brixton Porter

Pub rating: 52 / 100

Beer rating: 67 / 100

Comment: Dark, heavy beer with a taste of licorice. "I can feel a bit of the alcohol already"

2: Aldgate

Hoop & Grapes

Truman's Runner

Pub rating: 65

Beer rating: 55

Comment: One of few timber buildings to survive The Great Fire of London in 1666.

3: Tower Hill

Bavarian Beer House

Krombacher

Pub rating: 58

Beer rating: 67

Comment: Quirky location, lederhosen, liter glasses. Fruity beer from Bavaria, Germany.

4: Monument

The Monument

Monument

Pub rating: 70

Beer rating: 77

Comment: Great selection of London craft beer - nice interior, good brown beer brewed by pub

5: Cannon Street

The Bell

Cornish Coaster

Pub rating: 85

Beer rating: 32

Comment: Tiny, intimate pub with small TVs up in every corner. Lovely interior but boring beer

“Last week a group came in dressed as sumo wrestlers and ordered 15 pints of Guinness”

- Tatiana, bartender, The Hatchet

6: Mansion House

The Hatchet

Greene King IPA

Pub rating: 43

Beer rating: 55

Comment: Small, friendly local frequenters. Good social potential and typical tasty IPA

7: Blackfriars

The Black Friar

Top of the Hops

Pub rating: 64

Beer rating: 50

Comment: Beautiful, traditional pub with fine ancient interior. Cool flat-iron shaped building

8: Temple

Walkabout

Little Creatures Pale Ale

Pub rating: 85

Beer rating: 75

Comment: Huge pub with that good Aussie vibe. Delicious local craft beer from Freemantle

9: Embankment

Champagne Charlie's

Old Wallop

Pub rating: 87

Beer rating: 60

Comment: Amazing location, really cool interior with an ordering booth / office. Good craft beer

10: Westminster

St. Stephens Tavern

Tangle Foot

Pub rating: 66

Beer rating: 59

Comment: Small and quirky with an intelligent design. Fruity ale/IPA ish with interesting taste

Many of the pubs are natural targets for Circle line challengers due to their location but fewer pubs are a more natural choice than The Hatchet outside Mansion House. Situated five seconds from the station’s only exit, it’s a small, intimate and seemingly quiet pub but every now and then it is lit up by parties halfway through their challenge. “They’re always wasted,” says bartender Tatiana, “Last week a group came in dressed as sumo wrestlers and ordered 15 pints of Guinness.”

We start to feel a slight buzz as well as we station for station crawl westbound alongside the Thames. We are met with a typical, welcoming reception from the Aussies at Walkabout, who treat us to delicious pale ale from Little Creatures, a brewery of Fremantle. This tasty ale has a fruity, floral aroma and feels smooth and hoppy in the mouth – strongly recommended. Draped in leftover flags from the recent Australia Day we set the course back to Temple station and the United Kingdom.

We let us impress by the interior of Champagne Charlie’s near Embankment, a cellar-style bar with good craft beer selection served in pewter tankards and an old wooden office next to the bar with a window for taking orders. Other honourable mentions are the delightful London Fields Brewery Hackney Hopster served at The Greyhound just off

High Street Kensington and the charming jungle-themed heated beer garden of The Prince Albert in Notting Hill.

Picture Gallery: Temple - Bayswater

11: St. James's Park

The Albert

Portebello Star

Pub rating: 52

Beer rating: 60

Comment: Traditional style pub, cool location. Bitter, light beer that goes down well

13: Sloane Square

Colbert

Biere Meteor

Pub rating: 63

Beer rating: 65

Comment: French pub, quite posh but very friendly bar staff. Light, fruity French beer.

Well past the midway point now, we realise it’s time for dinner and use Bayswater Arms’ wild boar & pork burger as a legitimate excuse for a quick breather. After a lovely meal flushed down with Portobello Craft Lager, we get back in the saddle.

Some will argue it’s the rising blood alcohol content talking but the following four beers all receive ratings in the 80s and we are heading eastbound again feeling the true optimism of drunk men. The optimism gradually turns into exhaustion but luckily the light at the end of the tunnel seems to get closer and closer until it turns out to be Barbican station.

A wild boar and pork burger to keep going

12: Victoria

Shakespeare's

Adnams Southwold Dry Hopped Lager

Pub rating: 60

Beer rating: 85

Comment: Nice pub with pizzeria downstairs. Very tasty beer, smell of orange, hard to binge

14: South Kensington

The Hoop & Toy

New World

Pub rating: 78

Beer rating: 67

Comment: Good vibe, stylish booths, friendly staff. Light IPA with good taste, not too special

15: Gloucester Road

Stanhope Arms

Frontier

Pub rating: 59

Beer rating: 66

Comment: Another little traditional corner pub. Very fruity beer, a bit too much in the long run

16: High St Kensington

The Greyhound

London Fields Brewery Hackney Hopster

Pub rating: 70

Beer rating: 90

Comment: Slightly hidden pub, great interior. The beer full of taste and with a perfect balance

17: Notting Hill Gate

The Prince Albert

Camden Hells

Pub rating: 80

Beer rating: 72

Comment: Beautiful jungle themed backyard, nice booths, great pub. Good beer too.

18: Bayswater

Bayswater Arms

Portobello Craft Lager

Pub rating: 75

Beer rating: 77

Comment: Nice pub, not the biggest. Good selection of music and tasty beer. Lovely food!

“Here we want the drinks to be the focus.”

- Mark Johnson, supervisor, The Old Red Cow

Picture Gallery: Paddington - Liverpool Street

At Barbican, we meet Mark Jordan, supervisor of The Old Red Cow, a fascinating pub specialising itself on craft beer. “We try to do different things, different beers, get people tasting new flavours and get them out of their comfort zone.”

“I find a lot of pubs, when you leave them you have no memory of the beer there,” he says. “Here we want the drinks to be the focus.” They have successfully achieved that, with a very wide, rotating selection of about 20 UK craft beers. Once a keg is emptied it is replaced with a new, different craft beer, which can lead to problems, according to Mark. “When people like something, they come back a week later, looking for the same thing and it’s gone. But it’s good, because then they’re out of their comfort zone again, and that’s what you want.”

Slightly outside our own comfort zone, we arrive at Liverpool Street at 10pm, well within the maximum time limit. Meantime Brewery’s London Pale Ale gets the honour of being our 28th and final beer and there is a mixture of relief and pride waking out of Woodin’s Shades knowing the challenge was completed. Until next time, Circle line: Cheers!

WORDS AND ALL IMAGES BY OSKAR FALKENBERG