In the video, narrator Jimmy Mac delivers a poetic and tongue-in-cheek commentary on the pub and his search for the obscure. He describes the search as a kind of mania.
He says: “Pub hunting is addictive stuff. All you care about is your next high.
“It’s a mania that drives you to the farthest reaches of town.”
Those far reaches include Biggin Hill, a town in the borough of Bromley best known for its airport and wartime history.
The Flying Machine is not close to a railway station or high street and is not the sort of venue found by accident. Mac suggests the remoteness is part of its identity.
Its isolation shapes its regulars. According to Mac, the pub is “frequented solely by people who are trapped here – Biggin Hilites, Biggin Hillians, whatever you call them.
“Tom Cruise is apparently one.”
The tone throughout the video blends observation with exaggerated humour.
The Flying Machine’s architecture is likened to a Pentecostal church. Its preserved interior is described in affectionate detail.
He says: “Marvel at its Pentecostal church exterior, fall head over heels for its rich cerulean carpet, go gaga for its perfect sixties mahogany bar.”
Mac notes that a pint of Stella costs four pounds seventy, adding:
“I could quite honestly spend all day at the Flying Machine and with Stella at four seventy, I can afford to too.”
The Flying Machine scores highly in the video’s informal rating system. It receives an eight for atmosphere, a nine for interiors, and another eight for drinks.
The visit ends with Mac saying he has “a plane back to Crouch End to catch.”
@deadpubs A Swift One at… The Flying Machine, Biggin Hill. #review #pubs #southlondon #bigginhill #london #fypシ゚ #lager ♬ original sound – Dead Pubs
Despite the humour, there is a serious note.
The pub is currently listed on Stonegate’s website as available for takeover. Mac reflects on the difficulty of keeping pubs like this going.
He says: “Village pubs are rarely this charming and weirdly metropolitan, but they’re also, unfortunately, one of the hardest types of pub to run.”
In a closing appeal, he encourages viewers to seek out lesser-known pubs in the outer edges of London.
He says: “If you can make a trip out here to Biggin Hill, or Addlestone, Abbots Langley, Aveley, the fringes of the city are where the real magic happens. Drink in their public houses before they all fly away.”
The Flying Machine, in his words, is a “proper community local” with an atmosphere “so beautiful and unspoilt you could cry.”
Whether it remains that way now depends on what happens next.
