London’s Beer Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southwest London: Other locations — Balham
Bar
7 Ramsden Road SW12 8QX
T (020) 8673 4700 W www.balhambowlsclub.com f balhambowlsclub tw balhambowls
Open 1600 (1200 Sat-Sun)-2300 (2400 Thu, 0100 Fri-Sat). Children very welcome until 2100.
Cask beers 3 (Adnams, Purity, 1 often local guest) Cask marque, Other beers 2 keg, 10 bottles
Food Gastroish menu, Outdoor Front terrace, garden. Disabled toilet
Mon chess club, Tue quiz, Wed knitting club, ukelele society, poetry, comedy, snooker, board games, table football, summer barbecues
Balham Bowls Club, gateway to good beer, London SW12
Those of a certain age and/or taste in British comedy may well find the words “Bal-Ham, Gateway to the South” springing to mind as the tube pulls in, as declaimed in mock-American travelogue style by Peter Sellers in a celebrated 1958 radio sketch poking fun at what was then buttoned-up South London suburbia. North American visitors are well advised to remember the local pronunciation is the more modest ‘Ballum’. A settlement since Saxon times, it’s now a typical mixed inner city area, though well placed for access to several historic commons – open green spaces – including Clapham, Tooting and Wandsworth, reminders of its rural past.
Thankfully refreshment choices are no longer limited to Sellers’ tea room where everything was off, as the area is home to one of London’s most extraordinary drinking places. The Balham Bowls Club is, as its name suggests, a genuine former private bowls club. A refurbishment in 2006 by the enterprising Antic pubco preserved much of the 1950s retro decor – wood panelling decorated with pennants, trophies and even original scoring cards – to create a unique contemporary bar. There are several intriguing rooms, one of which is mainly restaurant space, and a pleasant garden, though the bowling green itself wasn’t included in the deal and is currently languishing unused behind fences while Wandsworth council decides what to do with it.
Roasted wood pigeon, harissa chicken salad and aubergine and spinach tortelloni should tempt the hungry, while the handpumps dispense Pure Gold, a rotating Adnams brand and a local from the likes of Sambrook’s or Truman, supplemented by Blue Moon and Früli on keg and several bottles including Budvar, Hobgoblin and Kenyan Tusker lager. The range isn’t as extensive as some Antic venues but the surroundings compliment the well-kept liquid offerings perfectly. Table reservations are accepted in both bar and restaurant.
Insider tip. There’s still more space upstairs, including two full size snooker tables.
National Rail, Underground Balham Cycling CS7, LCN+3, 5 Walking Link to Capital Ring
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