Hello, Berko!
Another big week for music in town live gigs, tribute acts, classical and opera all happening within a few days of each other. There’s a great looking guided walk happening on Sunday and we look briefly at Berko’s hotels.
Quick mention of the Band Against Cancer gig we listed a few weeks back which raised over £4,000 for charity. Berko native Stefan Rieckenberg plays bass for headliners BABYSTEP and it’s so good to see local talent doing well and doing good at the same time.
In this week's check-in:
Royalty, exiles, and the Berko landlady who turned down Versailles
What's happenin' this week
Sports, dogs & music
Let’s get into it.
Take It Easy - checking out Berko’s hotel history
Desperados at the Vyne on Sunday — a full Eagles tribute marking 50 years of Hotel California — is, admittedly, a fairly tenuous reason to look into the history of Berko's coaching inns. But that’s where we’ve arrived.
Berko's High Street was one of the great trunk roads between London and the North, and by the late 18th century this stretch was essentially Hotel Row. The Universal British Directory of 1791 rated the Kings Arms the ‘best inn in the town’.
Running it from 1792 was a man called John Page and he was an innkeeper, constable, coach master, and postmaster, all at once. When he died in 1840, his daughter Polly took over and became somewhat of a celebrity.
Louis XVIII — the exiled King of France, lying low at Hartwell House near Aylesbury, had taken to stopping at the Kings Arms whenever he passed through en route to London. The Times described Polly as the ‘sprightly, chatting entertainer of King Louis XVIII’. His minister Count Talleyrand was reportedly outraged, not because of the rumoured romance, but because Polly was ‘paysan’; a peasant. When Napoleon fell in 1814 and Louis was restored to the throne, he reportedly had apartments prepared for Polly at the Palace of Versailles. She declined and got on with running the pub.
During restoration work in The Swan in 1899, workers found a well-preserved oil painting of the poet William Cowper hidden in the cellar. There's also a persistent local legend about a tunnel connecting The Swan's cellars to the church crypt. If you can confirm that, hit reply and let us know.
So many great inns with great stories and you can check these out any time you like.
Hotel Ghost | John Doe
Lawyers, Guns and Money | Warren Zevon
Let Down | Radiohead
What’s happenin’ this week
Tuesday
21 Apr | Northchurch Social Centre | 14:00 - 15:30 | Community Fridge — surplus food collected by volunteers from a range of local sources and supermarkets, ready to be collected by anyone, to save it from being wasted!
21 Apr | Berkhamsted Library | 14:00 - 15:30 | Berkhamsted Walking Book Club — this month discussing The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. Walk and talk the book, with refreshments back at the library at 3pm. Donations to the library welcome, pay on the day
21 Apr | The Highwayman | 19:30 | Quiz Night
21 Apr | Berkhamsted Civic Centre | 20:00 | : Vermiglio (15) — presented by Berkhamsted Film Society, this devastating Italian drama set in a remote Alpine village in the last winter of the Second World War | Details
Wednesday
22 Apr | The Crystal Palace | 19:30 | Quiz Night
Thursday
23 Apr | The Denton, Berkhamsted | 11:00 - 13:00 | Sally Gunnell OBE — the Olympic legend gives a talk especially suited to those aged 65 and over, offering practical insight and inspiration around staying active and building positive habits as you get older
23 Apr | Old Town Hall | 18:45 - 20:45 | BDCC AGM — Berkhamsted & District Chamber of Commerce annual general meeting. Cheese and wine for those attending | Details
Friday
24 Apr | Mad Squirrel | 19:00 - 21:00 | Rev Ferriday — the venue's favourite foot-tapping blues man | Details
Saturday
25 Apr | St Peter & St Paul Church Square, Tring | 10:00 - 14:00 | Tring Together Spring Fayre Launch — live music from the Zebra Jazz Collective and Market Mynstralls, a mini petting farm, Tring Farmers' Market, and community and charity stalls
25 Apr | The Vyne Theatre | 19:00 | The Magic Flute (Royal Opera) — Mozart's fantastical opera in David McVicar's enchanting production | Details
25 Apr | Berkhamsted Civic Centre | 19:30 | Bootleg Blondie — the world's No.1 official Debbie Harry and Blondie tribute band, going strong since 2001 | Details
25 Apr | St Peter's Church | 19:30 | Berkhamsted Choral Society: Ein Deutsches Requiem — Brahms' profound requiem performed with the English Philharmonia Orchestra, soloists Elen Lloyd Roberts (soprano) and Dyfed Wynn Evans (baritone), conducted by Graham Wili | Details
Sunday
26 Apr | Berkhamsted Castle Gate | 10:00 | Kings & Queens, Dungeons & Dragons — a guided walk through the Royal Deer Park uncovering the castle's kings, queens, knights and lovers. Family-friendly, gentle pace, but expect steep fields and muddy tracks | Details
26 Apr | The Vyne Theatre | TBC | Desperados Live — The Music & Legacy of Eagles — celebrating 50 years of Eagles magic and the 50th anniversary of Hotel California. Tickets £22 | Details
Monday
26 Apr | The Bull | 19:00 | Quiz Night — £12pp entry + prizes to be won + inc. food at half time (£2 of entry fee goes to Mind Mental Health)
If you want to tell us (and other locals!) about something happening, use this form!
Movie Pick of the Week
Wed 22 Apr | The Rex | 14:00 & 19:30 | Splitsville (15)
Smart, candid and frequently very funny, this relationship comedy dives into the messy realities of modern love, as writer-director Michael Angelo Covino explores fidelity, jealousy and emotional honesty with a refreshingly grown-up sense of humour.
Berko Sports
21 Apr | Berkhamsted FC | Men's First Team | 19:45 KO (n) | vs. Royston Town — Cup, at St Albans City
25 Apr | Berkhamsted FC | Men's First Team | 15:00 KO (h) | vs. Weymouth
Adoption edition
Tag | X Breed | 0.5 | Loyal little shadow
That’s it for this week.
If you found something useful, share us with your friends.
Enjoy the week and take it to the limit.
— from Berko.