‘I spent £8.30 on bottle of beer at a rip-off London pub – now I need therapy’

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    A London pub has defended charging customers £7.90 a pint and £8.35 per beer bottle as "everything costs more around here".

    With Brits more cash-strapped than ever, the drink prices at Greenwich’s Trafalgar Tavern, near the Cutty Sark, are unlikely to assuage concerns pub trips could soon become just a wealthy leisure pursuit.

    After being tipped off by a disgruntled pub-goer, the Daily Star sent a secret drinker down to the Thameside spot to split a £20 note on the outlandish booze costs.

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    I had heard rumours.

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    A friend of mine who, to be kind, is flexible with the truth, had recently groaned to me that he had spent almost £8 on a Beavertown brewery Gamma Ray pint at a London pub.

    "Swear down", he claimed. "I was fuming!"

    Leaving aside how hilarious it was his fetish for craft beer had finally sunk him, I was intrigued – in the midst of such economic turmoil, how a pub could really be charging that much for a pint.

    A quick check on their website confirmed my darkest suspicions and more, as among the £7.90 Gamma Ray there lurked a £8.35 bottle of BrewDog Dead Pony Club.

    I arrived at the curiously patriotic riverside pub after navigating the hordes of tourists who for some reason find empty British maritime buildings interesting.

    Flanked by hanging plant pots and bedecked in Union Jack flags – the pub certainly looked inviting, is that part of the trick?

    At the bar, I was forthright and prepared.

    "One bottle of BrewDog Dead Pony Club please," I muttered, never breaking eye contact.

    Without so much of a hint of a smirk, the barman replied: "Sure, that'll be £8.35."

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    After paying my mortgage, I left the bar and sat down outside shell-shocked – was this the new normal? The best part of a tenner for a 330ml bottle!

    I poured it into the glass and held the liquid up to the sun, half expecting to find it had been enthused with party drugs to justify the price.

    The boring liquid stared back, taunting me.

    I raised the glass to my lips, swallowed and pulled back my head roaring: "It's not even a full pint!"

    The family next to me moved seats, but I was lost now, consumed by rage and indignation.

    After drowning my 2/3 pint, I marched back to the bar and ordered a £7.90 Gamma Ray.

    "Quite expensive in here isn't it?" I asked testingly after I'd been robbed. "First the Brewdog, now this, why does it cost so much in here?"

    "Everything just costs more around here because of the location," straight batted the barman.

    "Mmmmmhmmmm," said I, [In all honesty I was fuming].

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    I drank the booze in a sour mood and left the pretty rip-off riverside pub – never to return.

    For context, the nearby Wetherspoons in Cutty Sark sells the same BrewDog for £3.30.

    Then again, "everything is more expensive round here".

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