The Old Bridge Hotel & Restaurant, Wine Shop and Events - what's new?

 My husband and I had been visiting The Old Bridge hotel and restaurant for years, starting when we took gigantic Quad speakers for repairs at the maker's factory nearby and we wanted lunch before driving back to London. You can see several bridges, one from the hotel, and an old bridge as you drive back to London via Cambridge. Now we go specifically to the Old Bridge hotel for lunch, staying overnight in the hotel if we are tempted by one of their evening wine dinners.

The Old Bridge Hotel. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

The hotel's name reflects the fact that it is an old hotel, and near an old bridge. The hotel looks out on the big bridge, and the River Ouse below at the end of the landscaped car park, surrounded by trees.

Over the years we got to know Master Of Wine John Hoskins who ran the place with his wife Julia. He eventually sold the business and we occasionally see him in London or elsewhere as he seems to be semi-retired and I hear he still pops into the hotel occasionally.

The new owners, the Chestnut group, who run several pubs with rooms and hotels, took over and two long time staff got promoted and played musical chairs, coming and going. 

We met William who was in charge of the wine shop.

William showed us the adjacent modern business centre which is a popular place for weddings.

There is also a traditional downstairs pub, Alongside it are the toilets with wonderful wallpaper depicting fish with funny expressions.

Useful Websites

https://www.chestnutgroup.co.uk/

Useful Websites For The Old Bridge Hotel

https://theoldbridgehuntingdon.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntingdon

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Huntingdon

Updated November 13th 2025.

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Tanglin Club Taws Wine Dinner With Bottles Bearing Artistic Labels

 The Tanglin Club offers members and guests two wine clubs which organize dinner on a regular basis. The more expensive wine club offers better, more expensive wines. 

The Affordable wine club offers wine dinners with cheaper wines at an affordable price. We have been to both.

In April 2023 the TAWS (The Affordable Wine Society) offered a buffet dinner featuring four wines from Australia's Margaret River. The Margaret River is on the west coast of Australia, you would fly into Perth as we did a couple of times.

The feature of the bottles of this wine company, Leeuwin Estate, is the labels showing different colourful works of art. Inspired, yes, you might have guessed, by the Rothschild Wine bottles.

(The Rothschild wine bottles had famous artists such as Picasso and Salvador Dali designing their labels.)

The TAWS society is run by a committee. On the evening they are aided by the knowledgeable Rose of the Tanglin Club who is studying for a qualification from WSET. I took level one. She is two levels above me, a bright jolly young woman.

Art Series bottles from Leeuwin Estate.  Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Useful Websites

https://www.tanglinclub.org.sg/

https://www.tanglinclub.org.sg/dining.html

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Wine Connection dinner at Telok Ayer, Singapore, Fabulous food.

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The event was a wine dinner. All the menu and the wines from one specialist supplier whose reps are there to address everybody at the start and intermittently as well as to wander from table to table to answer any questions you may have about their wines 

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Fabulous food. The starter was a soft beef Tataki. The buckwheat tuile was a striking decoration. The highlight of the starter was the Miso cream. Miso is a Japanese soybean paste, which can be served as a soup. 

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Circular paper labels for wine glass labels. Even if you move the glasses around, you know which wine is which. Here I have the 2019 on the left, the 2020 on the right. A very handy idea, which everybody should copy - restaurants, wine events, people serving dinners at home.

Cheese

 

Cheese at Wine Connection, Telok Ayer. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

The dessert plate was cheese. That goes nicely with red wine. We had three types of cheese, plus quince paste and bread. You can see the hard cheese at the top of the picture. The soft cheese near to the camera. On the right is a frilly cheese. 

We considered that on a next visit we might ask for room A. That area is behind the shop and by the indoor bar, which has walls partly lined with wood if you want to hear conversation. 

Sound Levels

We were in Room B at the back. It is alongside the glass doors to the outside. Other premises, bars and restaurants in the bustling area, busy at night, may be blasting and blaring loud music. We could barely hear each other. I could not hear the wine merchants when they were talking to my husband across the table. I could hear the man sitting at the table alongside me, but I could not hear his wife sitting opposite him.

Wine Connection lists on their website 14 restaurants, bars and bistros.

Getting There

When I was on my way there from Telok Ayer MRT underground railway station, on the blue downtown line, I phoned my husband who had arrived ahead of me, to ask for directions. He said, "Ask anybody. Everybody knows wine connection."

He was right. I asked a passer-by who immediately pointed out the way.

The google map seems  to show a long walk past three blocks. However, it is a very pleasant and easy walk, very nearby.

Useful Websites

https://wineconnection.com.sg/

https://wineconnection.com.sg/mpstorelocator/storelocators/restaurant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miso

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