London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southwest London: Wandsworth
The John Young Room at the Old Sergeant
Contemporary pub (Young’s lease)
104 Garratt Lane SW18 4DJ
T (020) 8874 4099 W www.youngs.co.uk
Open 1200-2300 (2400 Fri-Sat, 2230 Sun). Children welcome until 2100.
Cask beers 6 (Wells & Young’s, Sambrook’s, 2 guests), Other beers 6 bottles
Food Quality pub grub, Outdoors Large beer garden, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Mon fortnighly quiz, Tue poker, Sat occasional live music, Sun pizza night, board games, big screen sport, functions.
This former coaching inn has stood since 1780 on the main road that follows the Wandle valley south from Wandsworth towards Tooting, a Young’s pub since 1857 and a local landmark well recognised enough to have a bus stop named after it. It got a major boost in May 2011 when the leasehold was taken on by friendly South Africans Lee and Keris, former managers of the Nightingale SW12 (p201), a gem of a community pub that made the Top 25 in my guide. The keynotes of their approach are “local” and “community” and the magic is already starting to work. Downstairs the single largish main bar has been reupholstered with a contemporary feel, and a formerly neglected yard has been turned into a delightful sheltered beer garden, with cushioned seats, wood panelling, a cubby hole known as the Love Shack, a stack of blankets and murals themed around Young’s brewery.
The brewery theme continues upstairs where an overspill/function room has been designated the John Young Room in honour of the longstanding brewery boss and industry figure, with an engrossing collection of old posters, price lists, bottles, promotional items and ephemera. There’s some irony to all this Young’s mania, as the brewery, just up the road from here for hundreds of years, closed in 2006 when the firm merged with Wells in Bedford, and John Young himself, for decades a champion of independence, tradition and cask ale, died soon afterwards (see Ram, p277). Since then the Young’s side of the business has sold the remainder of its brewing interests to Wells and is now just a pub company. But the brewery and its last chief certainly deserve memorialising for the role they played in helping save traditional cask ale in the later 20th century.
Still, the Bedford versions of Young’s brands are decent enough, and the Sergeant showcases them well — one of the new management’s first actions was to triple the handpull count from two to six, and as well as Young’s Bitter and Special and Wells Bombardier, these now dispense Sambrook’s Wandle, brewed not much further away than Young’s once was, and guests that might come from Adnams, Black Sheep or Otter. Bottled beers include Special London Ale and Double Chocolate, with the possibility of more widely sourced craft beers appearing. Good pub grub is given added interest by South African specialities like Bobotie, and exotic roasts like springbok alongside more traditional options on Sunday lunchtimes. Sunday evening, meanwhile, means pizza night — apparently the only time Lee is allowed in the kitchen.
National Rail Wandsworth Town, Earlsfield Underground Tooting Broadway (for bus) Bus Old Sergeant (44 270 Wandsworth – Earlsfield – Tooting) Cycling NCN20, link to CS8, LCN+ Wandsworth, Southfields, Wimbledon, Wandsworth Common Walking Wandle Trail linking to Thames Path
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