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Best beer and travel writing award 2015, 2011 -- British Guild of Beer Writers Awards
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 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
 The Skylark, Croydon CR0 (London). Pic: J D Wetherspoon. London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southeast London: Croydon
Contemporary pub (Wetherspoon)
34 South End, Croydon CR0 1DP
T 020 8649 9909 w www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs/the-skylark tw skylarkcroydon
Open 0800-2400. Children welcome if dining until early evening.
Cask beer Up to 10 (Greene King, 8 sometimes local or unusual guests) Cask Marque, Other beer Usual Wetherspoon keg and bottles, Also Real cider and perry, usual Wetherspoon wines.
Food Wetherspoon menu, Outdoor Rear yard, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Regular Wetherspoon promotions, real ale club, brewery visits.
“We love real ale,” announces the chalkboard in this otherwise everyday shopfront Wetherspoons, among a strip of eateries along the southern stretch of Croydon’s main thoroughfare that’s recently been grandly dubbed the “Restaurant Quarter”. You might find that love expressed through beers sourced from Dark Star and local brewers Cronx, imaginative use of the wider JDW guest list and keen participation in the pubco’s festivals.
Further devotion is demonstrated by a real ale club that organises brewery trips and there are other community events and initiatives. Otherwise this huge and typically furnished pub is distinguished by a decent beer garden and a sweeping staircase with art deco stained glass detailing that leads to a large and rather pleasant gallery.
Pub trivia. It could be a reference to Percy Bysse Shelley or a reminder that the site of London’s first international airport is only a short hop away, but in fact the pub name is borrowed from a poem by early modernist Gerard Manley Hopkins, who knew the area well.
National Rail South Croydon Bus Spice’s Yard (numerous West/East Croydon) Cycling LCN+ 23 Walking Link to Vanguard Way, Wandle Trail
 The Craft Beer Co Islington, London N1 London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Islington (Angel)
Contemporary pub, specialist (Craft)
55 White Lion Street N1 9PP
e islington@thecraftbeerco.com w thecraftbeerco.com/location/islington-london f thecraftbeerco tw thecraftbeerco
Open 1200-2300 (2400 Thu, 0100 Fri-Sat, 2230 Sun). Children welcome until 1700.
Cask beer 10 (Kent, unusual guests), Other beer 22 keg, 100+ bottles, Also 14 wines, specialist spirits.
Food Scotch eggs & pies only, Outdoor Front terrace, side beer garden, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Impromptu piano, beer events, occasional live music, functions.
The expansion of the Craft Beer Co over the past couple of years to five branches (if you count the Cask in Pimlico) has been a trailblazer for the phenomenal surge in interest in craft and specialist beer in the UK in general and London in particular. This new Islington outlet represents another breakthrough, further upping the game in a part of London curiously bereft of such places before the Earl of Essex opened earlier this year.
Whereas the Crafts in Brixton and Clerkenwell are relatively small places, the N1 branch is a generously proportioned multi-roomed pub which, until recently, was an underachieving local known as the Lord Wolseley, delivering standard lagers and big screen TV to Arsenal fans. And this was despite a promising location just round the corner from Chapel Market and only a few minutes from Angel Tube.
The designers have tackled the broader canvas by giving the pub a more traditional look than its sister venues, with plenty of tables, stools and armchairs filling not only a main bar but a separate adjoining space where the business has at some point clearly expanded into a neighbouring house, and an extension at the back that’s ideal for tastings and functions. Deep green dominates the decor, as chosen by enthusiastic manager Emma, formerly of the Jolly Butchers. Only a few days after opening it already felt lived in, and busy with a good mix of people, from tattooed young hopheads to a tableful of bearded gents conforming to an older stereotype.
“British Ale will always be our number one passion,” declares the beer menu, a claim borne out by a range of ten casks featuring standout craft brewers like Magic Rock, Marble and Thornbridge, newcomers like Cromarty and Tiny Rebel, and a house pale supplied by Kent. Two ranks of keg taps divide into domestic – Beavertown, Dark Star, Leeds, more Magic Rock and Thornbridge – plus exclusives like a Mikkeller lager, and imported novelties from the likes of 8 Wired (New Zealand), Evil Twin (Denmark/US) and Port (US).
There’s not a wasted entry in the bottled list, divided roughly three ways between Belgium, the US and Scandinavia, with a good range of Kernel beers providing the few British entries. The Belgians are mainly first rate classics – Orval, Dupont, St Bernardus – and a good choice of lambics, including Tilquin and limited edition 3 Fonteinen bottles in the Armand 4 series (a mere £55). The Americans include numerous rarely seen brewers like Shorts and Sly Fox alongside heavy hitters like AeSmith, Cigar City, Green Flash and Southern Tier. Innovative cuckoo and small brewers like Evil Twin, Mikkeler and To Øl account for the northerners. Off sales are also provided, with a “buy five, get one free” offer.
While the beer range and quality keeps up the very high standard we’ve come to expect from Craft, the comfortable and expansive surroundings make this an instant contender for the best specialist beer bar in London. Some customers might find the decision to limit the food offer a regrettable one, but there are numerous options nearby, including Hundred Crows Rising.
Insider tip. A working piano is available to anyone able and willing to play it, with the possibility of a return slot for popular contributors.
Underground Angel Cycling LCN+7 16, link to 8 and Regents Canal towpath Walking Jubilee Greenway, link to New River Path
 The Royal Standard, Croydon CR0 (London). Pic: Royal Standard. London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southeast London: Croydon
Traditional pub (Fuller’s)
1 Sheldon Street, Croydon CR0 1SS
T 020 8688 9749 w www.royalstandard-croydon.co.uk
Open 1200-2400 (2300 Sun). Children welcome until early evening.
Cask beer 6 (Fuller’s, up to 2 guests) Cask Marque.
Food Good value pub grub lunches, sandwiches, Outdoor Small beer garden, Wifi.
Quiz, board games, darts, occasional comedy and live music.
In terms of beer choice, the Royal Standard might not be the best of Croydon’s handful of Fuller’s pubs – the Spreadeagle in the town centre has a bigger range of the brewery’s beers, and local guests too – but as an outstanding example of that vanishing breed, the proper community local, it’s a must.
On a quiet street only a sidestep from the main drag and under the shadow of the ugly 1960s Croydon Flyover, it occupies a solid white corner building with an imposing cornice but feels much more modest inside. The pub retains a three room layout, including a no nonsense public bar with a well used dartboard, and offers a warm and easygoing welcome.
Perfectly kept Chiswick, ESB, London Pride and HSB are regularly on sale alongside changing guests that might be Fuller’s seasonals – Wild River was on when I called – or third party brews from better known brewers like Arkells or Wychwood. Given the obvious cellar skills on show, it’s no surprise that the licensee holds a Fuller’s Master Cellarman accreditation and that the pub has been a fixture in the Good Beer Guide since the 1990s. A treasure.
National Rail Waddon, East Croydon, South Croydon Tram George Street Cycling LCN+ 23, links to 75, 222 Walking Link to Vanguard Way, Wandle Trail
 The George Shillibeer, London N7 London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
North London: Other locations – Holloway
Contemporary pub (Butcher & Barrel)
Carpenters Mews, North Road N7 9EF
T 020 3218 0083 w www.thegeorgeshillibeer.co.uk f shillibeers
Open 1100-2300 (0200 Fri, closed Sat-Sun). Children welcome.
Cask beer 5-6 (Fuller’s, changing often local guests), Other beer 4 keg, 10 bottles, Also 20 wines.
Food Upmarket pub grub, Outdoor Front terrace in yard, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Mon-Tue food promotions, Wed live jazz, Th quiz, Fri 80s DJs, big screen sport, board games, functions, weekend private hire, adjacent to theatre.
The wedge of London between Islington and Caledonian Road once flourished in the presence of the huge Metropolitan Cattle Market, which became a bric-a-brac and antiques market before vacating for Bermondsey just after World War II. With the market site partially rebuilt into a grim social housing estate and the rest becoming rather desultory parkland or industrial units, the area took on something of a decaying and marginal character until relatively recently.
Now the park with its surviving market clock tower has been done up, the estate is being regenerated and the Pleasance Theatre – an outpost of the famous Edinburgh Fringe venue – provides some cultural cred. The theatre occupies part of a large Victorian industrial development at the back of the market that was once a factory making horse drawn buses and later a depot owned by London General, one of the predecessors of Transport for London. Its conversion in the 1980s into the Busworks, a modern office and workshop complex, was an early sign of a turnaround for the area.
Also incorporated is a pub, the George Shillibeer, its name honouring the man who ran London’s first bus services, which meets the needs of local workers, theatregoers and people from further afield attracted by its offbeat charms. It’s a big barn of a place, its former industrial use clearly evident from the bare brick walls and high ceilings, but it’s well divided into several pleasant spaces on various mezzanines and raised floors. It’s become even more comfortable since being refurbished by Butcher and Barrel in Autumn 2011, and the beer range has notably improved too.
Fuller’s London Pride is the regular cask beer, while guests might come from smaller, more local outfits like By the Horns or Red Squirrel as well as the likes of Brains, Sharp’s or Thwaites. London Fields and sometimes Camden Town supply the keg beer alongside Anchor and Brooklyn, and there are a few bottles of interest too, from Cooper’s, Nils Oscar, St Peter’s and the like. A highlight in an unpromising area – although the background music can get a bit loud and it’s private hire only at weekends.
Insider tip. Weekend hires include a long running monthly latex and PVC party run by the London Fetish Fair – a somewhat radical alternative to drinking real ale in cardigan and sandals!
Underground Caledonian Road Cycling Links to LCN+ 6 7 14
 The Defectors Weld, London W12 London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
West London: Other locations – Shepherds Bush
Contemporary pub (Five Eight Zero)
170 Uxbridge Road W12 8AA
T 020 8749 0008 w defectors-weld.com f DefectorsWeld tw DefectorsWeld
Open 1200-2400 (0200 Fri-Sat, 2300 Sun). Children welcome until 1800.
Cask beer 5 (Adnams, 4 sometimes local/unusual guests), Other beer 6 keg, 30 bottles, Also Cocktails, 20+ wines.
Food Gourmet burgers, quality cooked snacks, sharing boards, pub grub, Outdoor Small rear yard, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Thu-Sun DJs, occasional live music, quiz, functions.
The small triangle of green space known as Shepherds Bush Green is a rare remnant of the rural past still reflected in the name of what’s now one of inner London’s busiest local centres. Shepherds Bush has long been an important road junction, shopping focus and entertainment centre. In 1908 it hosted one of the big outdoor events popular at the time, the Franco-British Exhibition.
Today the area continues to draw crowds through the presence of major popular music venue the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire (a former music hall that also once did service as the BBC Television Theatre) and the rather more sedate and elegant Bush Hall, not to mention Premier League football club Queens Park Rangers, based at Loftus Road since 1917. In 2008 the opening of the massive Westfield shopping centre on the old exhibition site brought millions of new visitors, and the BBC will retain a presence at its White City media village even after its landmark Television Centre closes. Yet despite all this activity Shepherds Bush retains a reputation for being tatty and downmarket and isn’t exactly bursting with great pubs.
One possible exception is the Defectors Weld, a big place in the northwest corner of the green formerly known as the Beaufort Arms that was reworked in contemporary style in 2004 and has continued to evolve since. Named in an online poll as the best pub in the Bush, the Weld divides opinions, with numerous reports of bad service and irritatingly arbitrary house rules.
Certainly the burly black clad door supervisors regularly on duty, and the prominent notices everywhere telling you to look after your belongings at all times, don’t send out the most welcoming signals. But it’s civilised enough, with a customer base of young professionals, shoppers, concertgoers and arty BBC types mixing on match days with well behaved QPR fans.
One recent area of improvement is the beer offer, which has grown from intermittent supplies of indifferently kept standard cask brands and overmarketed ‘premium’ lagers to a relatively modest but well chosen selection of decent stuff. Adnams Bitter is joined on cask by four rotating guests that increasingly come from London brewers like London Fields, Truman’s or Sambrook’s as well as reliable suppliers like Itchen Valley, Old Dairy and Purity. London Fields also supplies Hackney Hopster on keg, alongside Sambrook’s Pale Ale, Black Isle and imports from Bitburger, König and Licher. The bottles are mainly from better known US brewers, with a good range from Anchor and more unusual offerings from Old Dominion. Staff appear to know what they’re talking about.
Overground Shepherds Bush Underground Shepherds Bush Market, Shepherds Bush Cycling LCN+ 35, 39
 Dach and Sons, London NW3 London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
North London: Hampstead
Bar (Purl)
68 Heath Street NW3 1DN
T 020 7433 8139 w www.dachandsons.com f DachSons tw DachandSons
Open 1200 (0900 Sat-Sun)-2300 (lockin upstairs till 0100 Fri-Sat). Children welcome downstairs.
Cask beer 2 (often local guests), Other beer 4 keg, 16+ bottles, Also Large range of US whiskies, cocktails.
Food Gourmet hot dogs, burgers & US diner food, Outdoor Roof terrace planned, Wifi.
Functions, occasional tastings.
Yet another illustration of how beer in London is breaking through its traditional market boundaries is provided by this fashionable bar and diner in the heart of well heeled Hampstead, part of a group that otherwise consists of select cocktail bars like Purl and the Worship Street Whistling Shop. The small, narrow space, converted in July 2012 from an Indian restaurant, is clean and contemporary, with tiled walls, benches and post-industrial lighting, and a New York subway destination blind on display to underline its transatlantic leanings.
Two changing cask beers are likely to come from Dark Star or London brewers ike Beavertown, Hackney or London Fields. Anchor, Erdinger and Cornwall’s Harbour brewery supply the keg taps, while Beavertown, Kernel and the more specialised Sharp’s beers rub shoulders on the bottle shelves with imports from Goose Island, Odell and Old Dominion. It’s a smallish but well chosen range that’s clearly well understood by friendly staff, even though the gobsmacking variety of small batch bourbons and other specialist whiskies on the shelf next to the bar overshadows it somewhat.
Underground Hampstead Cycling Links to Hampstead Heath paths Walking Links to Hampstead Heath paths, Belsize Walk
 Draft House Charlotte, London W1. Pic: Draft House. London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Fitzrovia
Bar, specialist (Draft House)
43 Goodge Street W1T 1TA
e charlotte@drafthouseteam.com w www.drafthouse.co.uk f drafthouseuk tw drafthouseuk
Open 0800 (1200 Sat)-2300 (closed Sun). Children welcome until early evening.
Cask beer 3 (Adnams, Sambrook’s, 1 guest), Other beer 10 keg, 50 bottles, Also A few bourbons.
Food Lunchtime burgers, steaks; pork pies and cold snacks at other times, Wifi.
Occasional beer events.
The smallest and most centrally located of the Draft Houses is this little corner pub at the junction of Charlotte Street and Goodge Street, among a strip of fashionable eateries targeted at creative types from local media companies. Formerly known as the Northumberland Arms, and with a history dating back to the 18th century development of the area, it reopened in its current guise in August 2012. A small single bar that’s often crowded, it’s been done out in the chain’s pleasant contemporary style with trademark green painted furniture, but with some reminders of the past, such as a late Victorian decorated ceiling and surviving fragments of engraved glass.
The stocking policy takes the usual Draft House approach of offering an easy way in to craft and speciality beer. Adnams Ghost Ship is a fixture among the casks, with Sambrook’s Wandle regularly appearing alongside a London guest or something from Dark Star. Keg beers include choices from Camden Town and Black Isle alongside approachable imports like Lefebvre Blanche de Bruxelles, Paulaner Dunkel Weiss and Stiegl Goldbräu. The bottles are mainly well known Europeans like Chimay, Erdinger (the rather good Ur-Weisse), König Ludwig and Schneider, with a few Kernels, US beers from Anchor, Left Hand and Odell and quite a range from Great Divide. The food menu is unsurprisingly more limited than in other Draft Houses but noted for its quality.
Underground Goodge Street Cycling LCN+ 6A, link to 0
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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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