Amersham - The Beech House

Saturday 10th June 2023

If you plan on walking from Amersham to Trafalgar Square it's likely to take you the best part of ten hours. Closer to Luton than it is to Central London, and a good five miles from the nearest junction of the M25, Amersham falls within Buckinghamshire so certainly, unless your geography is appalling, can't be considered London. And yet it still has a tube station.

Whilst it comes second in the rankings of most westerly, northerly and furtherest station from Central London on the underground, Amersham does hold claim to being the highest station of them all. At 147m above sea level, the station is higher than Big Ben. However, unlike that grandiose Victorian landmark, Amersham station is quite a quaint station similar to that you see in villages across the country.

This might be the result of the challenges of getting the railway here in the first place. At the time the proposals were deemed highly controversial resulting in local landowners managing to prevent the station's construction until 1892. As a result it is located about a mile away from Amersham Old Town in an area called Amersham-on-the-Hill.

Unfortunately for me this ruled out some of the delightful looking pubs in the Old Town so instead we headed for The Beech House, a short stroll from the station. From the terrace out front, where we sat on in the scorching sunshine, you can see the tubes coming and going (twice an hour in the off-peak) in the distance.

Inside the pub is an industrial chic tardis with mustard coloured booths, a tank room available for private hire, an open kitchen along with plenty seating options largely for visitors wanting food. The enormity of the space suggested to me that The Beech House might be the place to be for Amersham locals to frequent for their big night out.

Throughout the bar area, where the mustard theme continues on the tiling, there were Pub Pride flags and bunting supporting the Talk to Clive initiative for pubs to highlight their commitment to inclusively and celebrating their LGBTQ+ community.

Given the high temperatures I opted for a lager (Grolsch) shandy and Elena, a Campari Soda, a drink the barman claimed he'd never heard of. Collectively they came to £10.50 making up for the hit a trip to Zone 9 had taken on my Oyster Card. There was also an advertisement highlighting the opportunity to spend more money yet by offsetting the carbon of your pint. Despite how cheap my shandy had been I opted not to; not because I'm not an environmentalist but principally because I'm a tight-arse.

Having done my bit for my wallet and not the planet, I headed off onto the terrace with our drinks hand to enjoy the soaring temperatures courtesy of Grolsch and Campari transportation.