Clapton Hart E5*

Clapton Hart, London E5

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East London: Other locations – Clapton

Contemporary pub (Antic)
231 Lower Clapton Road E5 8EG
T 020 8985 8124 w www.claptonhart.com f claptonhart tw claptonhart
Open 1600 (1200 Sat-Sun)-2300 (2400 Fri-Sat). Children welcome until 2100.
Cask beer 7-8 (changing usually London and unusual guests), Other beer 2 keg, 25 bottles, Also Real cider, specialist spirits, own spirit mixes.
Food Shortish gastro-tinged menu, Outdoor Benches on street, beer garden, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Wed quiz, planned live music, table football, board games.

This vast old pub by Lea Bridge Road roundabout reopened in May 2012 as one of rapidly expanding pubco Antic’s most ambitious projects. Formerly the White Hart Hotel, it was clearly once a sumptuous affair on a prime site, but in the latter part of the 20^th century earned a grim reputation as a landmark on ‘murder mile’ and spent the best part of a decade derelict and boarded.

Antic have been working on it since spring 2011 and have left it looking still distressed but appealingly atmospheric, its elaborate exterior mouldings eroded like old gravestones, with only pillar capitals, fireplaces and the old hotel sign displayed on one wall as reminders of former glories. Added to this is the usual seemingly random Antic collection – 16mm film cans, wrecked pianos, dolls and Dinky toys. The already huge spaces around the central bar on the ground floor are soon to be complemented by an upstairs area. The rear beer garden was very much a work in progress when I visited but shows major potential.

A changing but always well chosen selection of cask beers covers numerous styles including milds, stouts and contemporary pale ales, drawing on local brewers like East London, Hackney and London Fields, credible provincials like Arbor, Buxton, Ilkley, Tiny Rebel and Titanic and brewers rarely seen in London (Lymestone and Truefitt on my visit). A few keg beers of interest include Cotswold lager and a changing Kernel beer, and there’s more Kernel in the bottle fridge alongside Freedom lagers, BrewDog, Goose Island and Belgian gems like Rochefort and Saison Dupont. A welcome new addition in a previously unpromising part of town.

National Rail Clapton Bus Lea Bridge Roundabout (numerous Hackney Central Clapton, Leyton Bakers Arms) Cycling Links to NCN 1, LCN+ 9, London 2012 Hackney Parks route Walking Links to Capital Ring, Lee Valley Path, 2012 Hackney Parks route