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 The Hand and Flower, London W14. Pic: Fuller’s. London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
West London: Fulham and Hammersmith
Contemporary pub (Fuller’s)
1 Hammersmith Road W14 8XJ
T 020 7371 4105 w handandflower.co.uk f Handandflowerw14 tw handfw14
Open 0700 (0800 Sat, 1200 Sun)-2300 (2330 Th, 2400 F, 2230 Sn). Children welcome until early evening.
Cask beer 6 (Fuller’s, occasional guests) Cask Marque, Other beer 5 keg, 12 bottles, Also A few wines and specialist spirits.
Food Breakfasts, imaginative upmarket pub grub, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Seasonal parties, functions.
Taken over from Marston’s and relaunched as a Fuller’s pub in January 2012, the Hand and Flower is particularly notable for its useful location right opposite the Olympia exhibition hall, home for the time being of the Great British Beer Festival alongside numerous other events. Sadly the interior of this handsome Victorian corner building at the very top of Hammersmith Road has long since been knocked through into a single canteen-like space that feels rather noisy and brash, with loud music and inescapable big screens, so grab the “Flowers Corner” snug if you can.
The beer range is wider than average – Chiswick, HSB, London Pride, Seafarers and changing seasonals and specials on cask, Brooklyn Lager, Honey Dew and Veltins on keg and 1845, Bengal Lancer, Golden Pride and Vintage Ale alongside various Chimays, Vedett White and the rarely seen Hoegaarden Grand Cru in bottle. A few surprises – blue cheese stuffed roast figs, calves liver with black pudding mash – lurk in a menu of upmarket pub grub, and there are eight boutique bedrooms for hire upstairs.
National Rail Overground Kensington Olympia Underground Kensington Olympia, West Kensington Cycling LCN+ 35, 44, links to Putney
 The Old Pack Horse, London W4. Pic: Fuller’s. London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
West London: Chiswick
Contemporary pub (Fuller’s) Regional heritage pub
434 Chiswick High Road W4 5TF
T 020 8994 2872 w oldpackhorsechiswick.co.uk f oldpackhorse tw OPHW4
Open 1100 (1200 Sun)-2400 (0100 Thu, 0200 Fri-Sat). Children welcome until early evening.
Cask beer 7 (Fuller’s, 1-2 guests) Cask Marque, Other beer 6 keg, 14 bottles, Also 1 real cider, 20 whiskies, other specialist spirits, 25 wines.
Food Better than average Thai menu, Outdoor Front terrace, side yard, Wifi.
Retro DJs, art gallery, board games, functions.
This big pub overlooking Turnham Green reopened in November 2012 following a refurbishment that successfully combines heritage elements with a more contemporary, funky feel, functioning both as a youthful late night venue and as a fine town centre showcase for nearby owning brewery Fuller’s. A longstanding part of the brewery estate, it was rebuilt in 1910 to the designs of celebrated Edwardian pub architect T H Nowell Parr and well exemplifies his distinctively exuberant style – rich glazed ceramic faïence exterior finishes, elaborate arched doorways, Ionic columns and first floor bay windows.
Inside, a wonderful snug with an Arts and Crafts fireplace housed inside a Tudor arch provides a particularly attractive feature; elsewhere there’s an original bar back and counter and fragments of art deco stained glass. Quirky modern touches include tip-up seats, while a collage of playbills and a lightbox recall a vanished piece of local heritage, the Empire Theatre, which stood nearby until 1959.
ESB, London Pride, Seafarers and numerous Fuller’s specials and seasonals occupy the handpumps – Bengal Lancer features regularly and an external guest from a better known brewery might well be spotted. Keg offerings include Fuller’s own Honey Dew and London Porter besides Hoegaarden, Innis & Gunn and Veltins, while bottles of 1845 and Vintage Ale line up alongside a full range of Chimay Trappist beers, Anchor Steam, Delirium Tremens and Singha.
The Thai food is a cut above the cheap and cheerful stir fry standard you might expect: it can be enjoyed in a bright and cheerful restaurant at the back or elsewhere in the pub if you wish.
Underground Chiswick Park, Gunnersbury Cycling LCN+ 35 and links to Chiswick national rail
 Waitrose Westfield London, London W12 London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
West London: Other locations – Shepherds Bush
Shop (Waitrose)
Westfield London W12 7GA
T 020 8749 1201 w www.waitrose.com
Open 0800 (1200 Sun)-2200 (1800 Sun).
Cask beer None, Other beer 90 bottles, Also Wines and specialist spirits.
Food Grocery food, takeaway, food court nearby. Disabled toilet in shopping centre.
Waitrose is about the best of a puzzlingly bad bunch among British national supermarket chains when it comes to beer, so it’s worth bearing in mind that the branch in the massive Westfield London mall is one of the biggest in the capital. The UK range is the strongest, with numerous selections from Brains, Meantime, Rebellion and Thornbridge among the highlights, and a particularly extensive lineup from Fuller’s. A more restricted selection of imports includes reasonable stuff like Budvar Dark, Chimay Bleue, Tripel Karmaliet, and Duvel in big bottles. For more about the area see the review of the Defectors Weld.
Overground Shepherds Bush Underground Wood Lane, Shepherds Bush Cycling LCN+ 35, 39
 Battersea Mess and Music Hall, London SW11 London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southwest London: Battersea and Clapham
Contemporary pub (Antic)
51 Lavender Gardens SW11 1DJ
T 020 7223 6927 w www.batterseamessandmusichall.com f Battersea-Mess-and-Music-Hall tw MessandMusic
Open 1600 (1200 Sat-Sun)-2300 (2400 Thu-Sat, 2230 Sun). Children welcome until 2100.
Cask beer 6 (Adnams, 5 sometimes unusual guests), Other beer 4 keg, 20 bottles, Also 2 real ciders/perries, 30 wines including champagnes, specialist spirits.
Food Gastroish enhanced pub grub and cooked bar snacks/sharing plates, Outdoor Beer garden, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Mon quiz, Sun live music, regular live music and cabaret in upstairs venue, functions, board games, table football, bar billiards.
They mean ‘mess’, of course, in the sense of somewhere to eat, but there’s no ambiguity about the ‘music hall’ bit. Above the bar area of an already sprawling pub behind an unassuming frontage on a side street just off Lavender Hill is the former music hall, complete with stage, mirror balls, flock wallpaper and its own entrance and box office, capable of accommodating 300 people.
And it’s not the only surprise in the warren of eccentrically decorated rooms – behind an unmarked door is the den-like Games Room, with sofas, bar billiards and its own stage. Elsewhere there are attractive window booths, reclaimed kitchen tables, old rocking horses and powder blue walls decorated with junk.
It could only be an Antic pub. This former Walkabout, once home to the first Jongleurs comedy club, was relaunched under its new name by the ambitious south London-based pubco in October 2011.
As with most Antics unencumbered by ties, the beer range is noteworthy. The casks change regularly but there’s always an Adnams beer or two on, with guests often from small and unusual brewers like Stringers or Devilfish, and in a range of styles. Kegs include Meantime London Lager and changing beers from Moor, while classics like White Shield and Duvel are in the fridges alongside less often seen options like Krušovice Černe and Sierra Nevada Kellerweiss. Imaginative home cooked food includes a burger deal on Mondays.
National Rail Overground Clapham Junction Cycling Link to LCN+ 37
 The Windsor Castle, Carshalton SM5 (London) London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southwest London: Other locations – Carshalton
Traditional pub (Shepherd Neame)
358 Carshalton Road, Carshalton SM5 3PT
T 020 8669 1191 w www.windsorcastlepub.com f WindsorCastleCarshalton
Open 1100 (1200 Sun)-2300 (2330 Fri-Sat, 2230 Sun). Children welcome until 1800.
Cask beer 6 (Shepherd Neame, Long Man, 2 sometimes local guests) Cask Marque.
Food Pub grub in bar, more upmarket restaurant menu, Outdoor Beer garden, Wifi.
Mon,Sat live music, Tue quiz, seasonal events, functions, beer festivals.
Carshalton is curiously well served by decent pubs, so this biggish place on a prominent corner of the main road between Sutton and Croydon is doing well to hold its own against stiff competition led by the excellent Hope (p216). It’s a homely, traditionally styled wood panelled former Charrington pub which, although now a single unevenly shaped walk-through space, retains some pleasant nooks and crannies. It also boasts a pleasant garden, a separate function room in an outbuilding, and a regular programme of live music.
Though it’s been part of the Shepherd Neame estate since 2009, the pub is still run as an independently managed leasehold. Besides three rotating Shep’s beers, the handpumps dispense regularly changing guests, usually including one from the Long Man brewery in the Sussex Downs, and local choices from brewers like Croydon’s Clarence & Fredericks besides better known options from Brains, Sharp’s or St Austell. All are kept in excellent condition as the wall full of local CAMRA awards demonstrates.
National Rail Carshalton Beeches, Carshalton Cycling LCN+ 75, link to NCN 20
 The Queens Head, Downe BR6 (London) London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southeast London: Other locations – Downe
Contemporary pub (Independent)
25 High Street, Downe BR6 7US
T 01689 852145 w www.queensheaddowne.com
Open 1200-2300 (2330 Fri-Sat, 2230 Sun). Children welcome until early evening.
Cask beer 4 (Adnams, Harveys, Sharp’s, Westerham), Also Malts and specialist spirits.
Food Upmarket pub grub, Outdoor Small front terrace, beer garden, Wifi. No disabled toilet but largely flat access.
Occasional quiz and karaoke, seasonal events, functions, darts.
Red buses, albeit on an irregular timetable, stop in the centre of Downe, but though it’s only minutes from Orpington, it feels a world away. One of the prettiest, and arguably the most historically interesting, of Bromley’s scattered villages, it is justly celebrated as the home of Charles Darwin, who lived and worked at the old manor, Down House – the principle reason why the area is now on the list of candidates for World Heritage Site status. The great scientist is commemorated by a plaque on the corner of the pretty part-12th century village church overlooking the village square, though you can only speculate what the vicar of the day might have made of his theories of the origin of species.
Darwin would almost certainly have popped in to the Queens Head next door to the church, where now he’s commemorated in the Darwin bar. The pub’s history goes back to 1565, the year Queen Elizabeth paid a visit, and although it’s been worked on extensively since, most recently with the additional of sofas and armchairs, it retains a rustic feel, not to mention customers in green wellies trailing Labradors behind them.
Under new ownership since 2011, it always stocks a local cask guest, usually from Westerham, alongside the well kept likes of Doom Bar, Sussex Best and various Adnams beers. The latter’s distilled spirits are also on sale. Understandably food (sausage and mash, haddock fish cakes, 1970s favourite prawn cocktail) is a big deal but drinkers, and walkers, are welcome.
Pub trivia. The attached Suhaili restaurant commemorates a lesser known local hero, Robin Knox-Johnston, the first man to circumnavigate the Earth non-stop and single handed, a feat he accomplished in a ketch of that name in 1968-69.
National Rail Bromley South, Orpington (then bus) Bus Downe Church (146 Bromley South, R8 Orpington) Walking Cudham and Leaves Green Circular Walks, link to London Loop
 The Old Nuns Head, London SE15. London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southeast London: Other locations – Nunhead
Contemporary pub (Punch)
15 Nunhead Green SE15 3QQ
T 020 7639 4007 w www.theoldnunshead.co.uk f TheOldNunsHead tw theoldnunshead
Open 1200-2300 (0100 Fri-Sat). Children very welcome until 2100.
Cask beer 4 (Hogs Back, 3 often local guests) Cask Marque, Other beer 3 keg, 5 bottles.
Food Limited but imaginative seasonal menu, children’s menu, Outdoor Rear terrace, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Mon mums’ club, Wed open mic, Thu quiz, Fri monthly comedy, beer festivals, occasional live music & DJs, classes, functions, food promotions, board games.
Nunhead, on the hilly ridge south of Peckham and New Cross, is one of London’s more tucked away suburbs, and for a while one of its poorer ones, although gentrification is slowly creeping in. Historically it had monastic connections, and its name happily derives from that of a pub, the Nuns Head (local legends linking the name to the story of a beheaded holy woman are sensational but unreliable). On John Rocque’s 1762 map you can see the pub and a scattering of cottages among green fields, clustered around Nunhead Green. The green still survives as a little strip of public space, but the pub now known as the Old Nuns Head, though on a site which has been put to this use since at least the 17th century, is a 1930s Brewer’s Tudor affair, with a half-timbered upper floor contributing to the villagey feel of this conservation area.
The pub has been well looked after under new management since 2010, with a cosy interior making good use of warm wood panelling and fireplaces, and lots of stuff going on. Given the limitations of a Punch tie it also does well for beer, often stocking local brews from the likes of By the Horns, East London, London Fields and Sambrook’s alongside choices from the pubco’s guest beer programme sourced from, say, Batemans, Exmoor, Jennings, Mordue or Stonehenge. A handful of bottles including BrewDog, Meantime and Singha, and Staropramen and Hoegaarden on keg, widens options, while a beer festival every few months opens things up still further. The pub is also linked to the London Craft Beer Rising event.
Visitor note. The area is also noted for Nunhead Cemetery, one of London’s “Magnificent Seven” suburban cemeteries created following new laws in 1832, once derelict and now partly managed as a nature reserve; and as the former home of Brock’s fireworks factory, commemorated in the name of another pub on the green, the Pyrotechnist’s Arms.
National Rail Nunhead Cycling LCN+ 25, Forest Hill & Peckham Walking Green Chain Walk
 Bambuni, London SE15 London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southeast London: Other locations – Nunhead
Shop, bar (Independent)
143 Evelina Road SE15 3HB
T 020 7732 4150 w www.bambuni.co.uk tw BambuniNunhead
Open 0900 (1000 Sun)-1730 (1600 Sun, closed Mon). Children welcome.
Cask beer None, Other beer 90+ bottles, Also Fine wines including refills, tea and coffee.
Food Cheese, charcuterie, sandwiches, deli goods, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Occasional tastings, bar nights, masterclasses.
The appearance of a specialist deli among a parade of bookies, convenience stores and launderettes is a sure sign of gentrification hitting a suburb. In Bambuni’s case, there’s the added bonus of several shelves full of top notch bottled beer, and a drink-in policy that means this small, clean and tidy shop doubles as a miniature daytime bar. Opening hours are extended into the evening on occasional “bar nights,” usually in conjunction with some other local event. A location just across Nunhead Green from the Old Nun’s Head pub, with whom they have partnered to run miniature local beer festivals, adds to the convenience.
The range is a roll call of UK craft brewers of the moment like Arbor, Buxton, Dark Star, Hardknott, Kernel, Mallinsons, Moor, Oakham, Redwillow, Saltaire, Summer Wine and Thornbridge, alongside rare Italians like Brewfist and Mastri Birrai Umbri. Enthusiastic owner Huey, who opened the shop, next door to long established and locally celebrated fishmonger Sopers, in September 2011, clearly knows his stuff.
National Rail Nunhead Cycling LCN+ 25, Forest Hill & Peckham Walking Green Chain Walk
 Hundred Crows Rising, London N1 London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Islington (Angel)
Gastropub (Elk in the Woods)
58 Penton Street N1 9PZ
T 020 7837 3891 w www.hundredcrowsrising.co.uk f Hundred-Crows-Rising tw 100crowsrising
Open 0900-2300. Children welcome.
Cask beer 4 (Old Dairy), Other beer 4 keg, 2 bottles, Also English and other wines, cocktails, hot drinks.
Food Gastro British and Mediterranean menu, Outdoor Benches on street, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Fri DJs, functions.
Opened in June 2012 round the corner from Chapel Market and only a short step from the wonderful new Craft Beer Co, this stripped back gastropub with a small but unusual beer range provides a potential workaround for Craft’s limited food offer. Four handpumps are usually dedicated to the products of Kent’s Old Dairy brewery, otherwise rarely seen in London, including exclusive house beer Murder a Crow and changing specials in a variety of styles. Besides lagers from Pilsner Urquell and Kozel on keg you’ll find the Curious beers brewed by Hepworth for Kent vineyard Chapel Down, plus bottled Erdinger.
A very interesting menu mixes British and Mediterranean influences, with imaginative sharing boards and main courses like marinated pork ribs, fish pie or bulgur and spinach pilaff, also available to take away. Look out for a comfy corner decorated with old bottles and sheepskin throws.
Pub trivia. Rather forebodingly, the traditional collective noun for a group of crows is a ‘murder’.
Underground Angel Cycling LCN+7 16, link to 8 and Regents Canal towpath Walking Jubilee Greenway, link to New River Path
 The Alleyns Head, London SE21. London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southeast London: Camberwell, Dulwich and Peckham
Contemporary pub (Ember/Mitchells & Butlers)
Park Hall Road SE21 8BW
T 020 8670 6540 w www.emberpubanddining.co.uk/thealleynsheadwestdulwich
Open 1000-2400. Children welcome if dining.
Cask beer 7-8 (Timothy Taylor, Wells & Young’s, up to 6 guests) Cask Marque, Other beer 2 bottles, Also A few wines.
Food Breakfasts, enhanced pub grub menu, Outdoor Large front terrace, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Tue/Sun quiz, occasional live music, seasonal events, food promotions.
The refurbishment of this huge old red brick pub on the not so leafy edge of leafy Dulwich Village in June 2011 contributed significantly to widening beer choice in a surprisingly underpubbed area. It’s been rejigged as part of Mitchells & Butlers’ Ember Inns chain of pub-restaurants, with a focus on an extensive menu of traditional comfort food, but the success that has greeted the widening of the beer range in other parts of the M&B estate (witness the number of Nicholson’s and Castle pubs mentioned in these listings) is clearly rubbing off, and the availability of up to ten real ales is proudly announced at the door.
Six to eight is more typical – besides Landlord and Young’s Bitter you might find St Austell Nicholson’s Pale Ale, local beers from Sambrook’s and guests from Purity, RCH, Wadworth and the like from a changing printed guest list. Decor is a little in the furniture catalogue category, but the big front terrace is a particularly attractive feature, and besides a large area with neatly set tables there is plenty of room for drinkers.
Insider tip. Sample all the real ales for only £2.50 a pint at the Monday night ale club.
National Rail West Dulwich Bus Ildersly Grove (3 West Dulwich, Crystal Palace) Cycling Link to LCN+ 23 Walking Link to Green Chain Walk
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Cask  This pioneering new book explains what makes cask beer so special, and explores its past, present and future. Order now from CAMRA Books. Read more here.
London’s Best Beer  The fully updated 3rd edition of my essential award-winning guide to London’s vibrant beer scene is available now from CAMRA Books. Read more here.
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