They say… 
Best beer and travel writing award 2015, 2011 -- British Guild of Beer Writers Awards
Accredited Beer Sommelier
Writer of "Probably the best book about beer in London" - Londonist
"A necessity if you're a beer geek travelling to London town" - Beer Advocate
"A joy to read" - Roger Protz
"Very authoritative" - Tim Webb.
"One of the top beer writers in the UK" - Mark Dredge.
"A beer guru" - Popbitch.
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London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Bloomsbury, Euston and St Pancras
 Lamb, London WC1 Traditional pub (Young’s), Regional Heritage pub
94 Lambs Conduit Street WC1N 3LZ
T (020) 7405 0713 W www.youngs.co.uk
Open 1200-2300 (2400 Thu-Sat, 2230 Sun). Children welcome until 1700.
Cask beers 7 (5 Wells & Young’s, 2 guests), Other beers 1 keg (Meantime), 6 bottles (Wells & Young’s), Also 15 wines
Food Enhanced pub grub, Outdoors Small beer garden, Wifi.
Sat monthly live music, Sun quiz, functions.
A rare original pub dating from the late 18th century development of Bloomsbury, the Lamb is now both a heritage gem and a prime central London showcase for Young’s beers, with numerous Good Beer Guide listings to its credit. Bitter, Special, Gold and Wells Bombardier are the regulars, with a Young’s seasonal (it’s a reliable source of Winter Warmer at the right time of year) and selections from its owner’s typically mainstream but decent guest roster, like St Austell Tribute or Caledonian Deuchars. Meantime London Lager is on keg while Double Chocolate Stout and Special London Ale are among the bottles. A broad menu includes reasonably priced sandwiches at lunchtime, grazing platters, sausages, salads and main course specials like roast dinners, pies or scampi and minted pea risotto that creep over a tenner.
Inside it’s a charming and comfortable little place arranged around a three-sided bar, with wood panelling and engraved glass, plenty of secluded corners and an upstairs room with a theatrical theme. Numerous interesting prints on display include a series of Victorian political caricatures down the stairs. Star heritage features, though, are the surviving twin rows of “snob screens” on each side of the bar — opaque glass panes meant to obscure eye contact between well heeled customers and lowly staff that could be pivoted aside to serve drinks through. There’s no piped music, unless you count the polyphon, a giant Victorian music box that can be set working in exchange for a donation to charity. The pub is near the top of a picturesque street leading to Coram’s Fields, the only London park where adults are allowed only if accompanied by children, and the adjoining Foundling Museum on the site of the Foundling Hospital, a charitable orphanage founded by Thomas Coram in 1739.
National Rail Kings Cross, St Pancras Underground Russell Square, Holborn Cycling LCN+ 0 6 Walking Jubilee Walkway
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
East London: Round the Olympic Park
 Cow, London E20 Contemporary pub (Geronimo/Young’s)
4 Chestnut Plaza, Westfield Stratford City E20 1GL
T (020) 8291 8644 W www.geronimo-inns.co.uk/thecow f TheCowWestfield
Open 1200-2300 (2400 Thu-Sat, 2230 Sun). Children welcome until 2100.
Cask beers 4 (usually Adnams Redemption, Sharp’s, Wells & Young’s), Other beers 3 keg, 4 bottles, Also Wines, some specialist spirits including Adnams
Food Enhanced pub grub/gastro menu, Outdoors Small terrace on square, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Sat DJ, functions.
Commerce has driven the development of London since the beginning, so it’s curiously appropriate that the first component of the enormous Olympic Park redevelopment to open to the public should be a correspondingly enormous shopping mall. Westfield Stratford City opened in September 2011 on formerly industrial land between Stratford’s domestic and international stations, with more than 370 retailers occupying over 175,000m2 of floor area: the largest in London, the third largest in the UK in terms of retail space and the largest in the European Union in terms of size. You don’t have to be a shopaholic to appreciate its spectacular scale, with a grand staircase leading over the railways lines from the town centre, and some big public spaces, and it’s so environmentally friendly there’s even a special floor that generates electricity from the footsteps of shoppers. It’s already proved a great success, attracting over 1million visitors in its first week, and certainly transformed the local shopping experience, completely overshadowing the dowdy 1970s Stratford Centre opposite, with its 99p shops and fruit and veg stalls.
Beer connoisseurs adrift in this temple of retail will likely gravitate towards Tap East but there is an alternative, with a modest but reasonable beer selection and considerably more expansive accommodation. The Cow stands alongside several restaurants on Chestnut Plaza, a large square used for events and winter ice skating that during Games Time in 2012 will be on the pedestrian route from Stratford’s stations to the main eastern entrance of the Olympic Park. It’s arranged on three levels: a ground floor bar with plenty of vertical drinking space, a clubby and comfy mezzanine and a brighter upstairs restaurant-style area. Pleasingly, given the youth of the building, the decor is unashamedly, self-consciously fake, with sofas, tiles, bare bricks and quirky decorations with squirm-inducing dairy-themed puns. The toilets, inevitably, are labelled “Cowboys” and “Cowgirls”. But it seems to have worked, and when I visited on a busy midweek evening only a couple of months after opening, it already felt lived in.
The four handpumps each rotate different brands from the same brewer — Adnams, Redemption, Sharp’s (Cornish Coaster is favoured over the ubiquitous Doom Bar) and Wells & Young’s — with Bitburger, Erdinger and Staropramen on keg and two Camden Town beers plus Brooklyn Lager and Duvel in bottle. Typically for a Geronimo pub, food edges towards gastro and relatively high prices, with the likes of dry aged steak, haddock omelette, honey and lemon roast autumn vegetables and — of course — Cow Pie. Sandwiches, sharing boards and salad boxes widen the options. In terms of variety and rarity, the beer range might be the Stratford Centre next to Tap East’s Westfield, but beers are well served, it’s likely more partner and family friendly and there’s more of a chance of a comfy chair and a square meal after a hard day generating electricity.
National Rail Stratford, Stratford International Overground, Underground Stratford DLR Stratford, Stratford International Cycling Link to NCN1, LCN+ 16 155 156, Greenway, 2012 Games Walking and Cycling Routes Walking 2102 Games Epping Forest route, link to Capital Ring, Lee Valley Path
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Bloomsbury, Euston and St Pancras
Update: This shop appears now to have closed (10/01/12).
 Belgique Boutique W1 Shop (Belgique)
179 Tottenham Court Road W1T 7NZ
T (020) 7436 7006 Website www.belgique.co.uk
Open 1030-1830 (closed Sun).
Cask beers None, Other beers 100 bottles, gift packs (Belgian), Also A few Belgian genevers and spirits
Food Belgian cheese, charcuterie, chocolates and other specialities
Fri fortnightly beer tastings.
This boldly branded shop — think Hercule Poirot and the colours of the Belgian flag — on the Bloomsbury side of Tottenham Court Road is something of an unexpected find, an emporium of Belgian food and drink. The beer range, though not a treasurehouse of rarities, reaches notably beyond the mainstream, and at reasonable prices given the area. You’d expect to see Trappists (Achel, Chimay, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle) and the likes of Delirium Tremens, but there’s also Belgoo, Ellezelloise, Gouyasse, Proef’s Reinaert beers, Viven and one of the better Belgian pilsners, Slaghmuylder’s curiously named Slag Pils. Lambics, unfortunately, are represented only a by a few more mainstream sweetened and mainly fruity versions. There’s much besides the beer, including Chimay and Maredsous cheeses, Rochefort butter, mouthwatering chocolate patisserie, artisanal bread and some products that can only possibly be of interest to expat lowlanders, like hagelslag — chocolate flakes for sprinkling on your breakfast bread. The shop is the West End outpost of a largely East London-based group run by Belgian Igor Bekaert which also includes several brasserie-style restaurants.
National Rail, Overground Euston Underground Goodge Street, Warren Street Cycling LCN+ 0 6 6A Walking Link to Jubilee Walkway
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
East London: Bethnal Green and Mile End
 Albion in Goldsmiths Row, London E2 Traditional pub (Independent)
94 Goldsmiths Row, London E2 8QY
T (020) 7739 0185
Open 1200-2300 (0100 Fri-Sat). Children welcome daytimes
Cask beers 4 (Sharp’s, Timothy Taylor, 2 often local guests), Other beers 4 keg, 8 bottles, Also 12 wines
Food Lunchtime cold plates, weekend barbecues, Outdoors Front terrace, Wifi.
Fri live blues night, big screen football, darts, shove ha’penny.
The idea of a football (soccer) theme pub might suggest rowdy lads tanked up on industrial lager, but the Albion turns out to be a relatively sedate environment where supporters of two opposing sides might comfortably watch the same match, and with good beer to boot. The obsession with the beautiful game is obvious: the walls are crammed with football posters, photos, pennants, scarves, badges, press cuttings, rosettes and other memorabilia, ecumenically representing a huge variety of teams from both Britain and abroad. There’s a subtle emphasis, however, on West Bromwich Albion, whose badge is on the pub sign — landlord David Chapman is a Baggies fan, and renamed the pub, originally the Duke of Sussex, when he took it over 14 years ago after retiring from a career in the music industry. Look hard amongst the footie junk and you’ll find his collection of backstage passes on display; regular live music and interesting radio channels streamed over the speakers reflect his interest.
David also likes his beer, and so do his customers. Demand has spiralled over recent years and there are now four handpumps, dispensing Doom Bar, Landlord, a local guest often from Brodies, and quite likely one of the new breed of cut price reduced duty 2.8% “people’s beers” — Greene King Tolly English Ale when I called in. US craft beers also feature: Blue Moon and Sierra Nevada pale on keg, Anchor, Brooklyn and Goose Island in bottle, plus some British choices including Worthington White Shield. Football fever aside, this is an unpretentious and friendly East End local on the old drove route from Hackney to the City, adjacent to the historic alms houses built by the Goldsmiths’ company in 1703, and close to Haggerston Park and Hackney City Farm. It’s also a straight, short walk across the Regents Canal to the Dove (p126) and Off Broadway, both listed under Hackney.
National Rail Cambridge Heath, London Fields Overground Shoreditch High Street Underground Bethnal Green Bus Pritchards Road (394 Hackney, Hoxton), Warner Place (numerous Cambridge Heath, Hackney, Shoreditch) Cycling LCN+ 9 16, Regents Canal towpath Walking Jubilee Greenway, link to London Fields paths
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
 2011 Budweiser Budvar John White Travel Bursary For some reason I failed to return home with the usual bottles of free beer from last night’s British Guild of Beer Writers annual awards dinner, but I did have a new engraved pewter tankard, a framed certificate, a generous cheque from České Budějovice, and a very big smile on my face. I won the Budweiser Budvar John White Travel Bursary for best travel writing for my book The CAMRA Guide to London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars. Having written many pieces over the years tagging the epithet “award winning” (or should that be “award-winning”) before “brewery”, “beer” or “pub” like a seasoned hack, I’m glad to say I can now finally describe myself as an award winning beer writer.
It’s the first time I’ve ever won anything like this, and needless to say I feel delighted, but also vindicated, as, modesty aside, I’m extremely proud of the book. I feel it achieved its aims of being a bit more than a prosaic beer guidebook, capturing a very exciting moment for beer and brewing in London and setting it within the city’s broader social history and geography. It’s great to have that recognised, particularly by my peers, as the award was judged by other beer writers, publishers and journalists.
The announcement drew very warm applause and cheers from the 230-strong crowd of beer writers and brewing industry folk, which I’ve not experienced since my heady days performing David Bowie songs with the late Russell Churney in our Darkness and Disgrace cabaret show. And there was further good news for London — indeed for southeast London — when Evin O’Riordan, founder and head brewer of the extraordinary Kernel brewery in Bermondsey, won Brewer of the Year despite only being in the business a couple of years, drawing a similar level of appreciation from the crowd. I’d been one of many Guild members who nominated him.
Between Evin, myself and the wonderful Marverine Cole, aka Beer Beauty, from Britain’s second biggest city, who won for her regional TV work, I think we did best on the clapometer score, even if we didn’t make the top award, which went to the ever-inventive, though clearly surprised, Ben McFarland.
I’m grateful, of course, to the judges, and to the Guild for organising the award and the dinner, which gets better every year. I’m also grateful to CAMRA Books, who handed me the opportunity to write the book at just the right moment. And to the several thousand people who’ve bought it so far, and the Czech taxpayers who, despite the best efforts of their government, still own Budvar. And Ian, who is relieved. But I’ll save the blubbing Oscar speech for when I win top dog, and let you know what České Budějovice’s like when I get there.
You can read more about the awards online at www.beerwriters.co.uk/news.php?x=1&showarticle=1855 and a press release from CAMRA celebrating awards to me and to Adrian Tierney-Jones at www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=whatsnew1.
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
West London: Other locations — Teddington
 Masons Arms, Teddington TW11 (London) (Independent)
51 Walpole Road, Teddington TW11 8PJ
T (020) 8977 6521
Open 1130 (1100 Sun)-2300.
Cask beers 4 (Downton, Sambrook’s, unusual/local guests), Other beers 2 keg, 15+ bottles
Food Filled rolls at lunchtimes, Outdoors Small beer garden. Disabled toilet.
Darts, rings, skittles, board games, occasional quizzes and theme nights.
Landlady Rae had been running this small corner pub in a residential street behind Teddington High Street for many years when she and her partner Terry Himpfen, who runs the Roebuck in nearby Hampton, were able to buy the freehold from Enterprise. Rae’s passion for real ale thus had the opportunity to flourish and since reopening in May 2010 the place has become a real gem that will amply reward a visit. Four handpumps dispense Downton Quadhop, Sambrook’s Junction and guests that might come from Arundel, Flowerpot, Hogs Back, RCH or other small and interesting breweries, usually including a dark choice. Lager is from Kaltenberg and Rothaus, while a well-picked and mainly British bottled range includes old fashioned choices like Gold Label barley wine, Mackeson and Manns Brown as well as Hop Back Entire and a kriek lambic.
The spotless and decidedly traditional interior is arranged around a horseshoe bar, with fresh flowers offsetting a substantial collection of beer-related ephemera and breweriana — mirrors, posters and adverts, trays, pub signs and a table of CAMRA literature to browse. Then there’s the well-tended garden, in which old urinals have been recycled as planters. The modestly handsome building, with a fine tiled frontage now restored to its former glory, was once tied to the local Isleworth brewery which was taken over by Watney’s — several major changes in appearance can be traced through a series of photographs and paintings on one of the walls. Both Bushy Park, one of London’s lesser known Royal Parks, and Teddington Lock, the upper limit of the tidal Thames, are within relatively easy walking distance.
National Rail Teddington Bus Teddington Memorial Hospital (281 285 Kingston, R68 Richmond) Cycling Link to NCN4 and Bushy Park paths Walking Link to Thames Path and Bushy Park paths/London Loop
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southeast London: Camberwell, Dulwich and Peckham
 Trophies at the East Dulwich Tavern, London SE22 (Antic)
1 Lordship Lane SE22 8EW
T (020) 8693 1316 W www.eastdulwichtavern.com f edt-the-east-dulwich-tavern
Open 1200-2400 (0100 Fri-Sat). Children welcome until 2000.
Cask beers 5 (Adnams, 4 sometimes unusual guests) Cask marque, Other beers 3 keg, 12+ bottles, Also a few malts
Food Upmarket pub grub, Outdoors Benches on street, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Big screen sport for major events, quizzes planned, functions
The EDT, as it likes to be called, is one of the earlier makeovers of the innovative Antic pubco, last refurbished in the mid-2000s, and exemplifies their approach: a big landmark pub in a popular residential area, fitted out in a curious but rather pleasing mix of traditional and offbeat lounge style. You’ll find stuffed deer heads, displays of commemorative porcelain, quirkly artworks, church hall chairs, leather sofas and, in one section, a beautifully tiled floor. Three big spaces, one with more of a restaurant feel, are arranged around a square bar, and there’s a large function room upstairs. The pub attracts a mixed crowd of ages, though seems a little less warm hearted than other Antic places I’ve been to. Adnams Lighthouse is the one regular ale, and that same brewery’s seasonals and specials are popular; otherwise expect to see the likes of BrewDog, Castle Rock, Dark Star, Orkney or Skinners, with some more unusual styles, supplemented by Czech lager from Žatec, Grolsch Weizen and bottled beers like Brooklyn East India Pale Ale, König Pilsner and Westmalle Trappists. Food at moderate if not cheap prices might include spiced crab linguini, sea bass fillet with ratatouille or wild mushroom risotto. It’s right on Goose Green at the top of Lordship Lane where Peckham meets Dulwich, round the corner from the Blake mural and a shortish step from Peckham Rye Park.
National Rail East Dulwich Cycling Links to LCN+ 22, 23
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
West London: Fulham and Hammersmith
 Paulaner display at Fest, London SW6 (Independent)
678 Fulham Road SW6 5SA
T (020) 7736 5293 W www.octoberfestpub.com
Open 1200-2300 (2400 Fri-Sat).
Cask beers None, Other beers 9 keg (mainly German), 40+ bottles (German)
Food Bavarian-style pub grub, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Fri/Sat Oompah band, regular poker, pool, German/UK big screen sport, parties & functions
This outpost of the Bundesrepublik in deepest Fulham also goes by the name of the Oktoberfest or, in curiously Anglo-German spelling, Octoberfest, but I’ve listed it under the name it proclaims in suitably Gothic script above the door of its shop front site. Most German-themed bars in London, with the exception of Zeitgeist (p113), are party venues that unashamedly revel in Bavarian-style carousing, and the Fest too marches to the oompah tune, though in this case trailing an impressive selection of great German beers behind it. Staff are German, but owner-manager Paul Bisset describes himself as an ‘Irish Kiwi’ with an interest in German beer that takes him on regular sourcing trips, so some of the bottles are otherwise rarely seen in London. It might just about be the best German beer list in London for consumption on the premises, and certainly much more varied than you’d usually find in the Fatherland itself.
Helles from Löwenbräu and Paulaner, pils from Krombacher and Warsteiner, Paulaner and Franziskaner wheat beers and a dunkel are on draught; the bottled selection reaches to Andechs, Augustiner, Fischer, Göller, Keesman, Jever, Pyraser (the new hoppy Hopfenpflücker pils), Schlenkerla, Tegernsee and others, and the Fest lives up to its name by acquiring annual stocks of all six bottled Oktoberfest beers. It’s a friendly, informal place even when quiet, with plain tables laid out Bierhalle-style under an arched ceiling, a preponderance of blue and white check and a menu that unsurprisingly includes pretzels, Wurst platters, schnitzels and Schweinebraten at quite moderate prices given the area. TV sport dominates a little, as you’d expect at the London base of the FC Bayern München supporters’ club.
Insider tip. Look for the little wood-panelled snug behind the pool table, complete with illuminated Paulaner display case.
Underground Parsons Green, Hammersmith (for bus) Bus Fulham Road (220 Hammersmith) Cycling LCN+ 38 & Hammersmith link, link to NCN4 Walking Link to Thames Path
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Soho and Leicester Square
 Nellie Dean of Soho, London W1 Traditional pub (Enterprise)
89 Dean Street W1D 3SU
T (020) 7734 2572
Open 1100 (1200 Sun) – 2300 (0030 Fri-Sat, 2230 Sun). Children welcome until 2100.
Cask beers 5 (Fuller’s, Timothy Taylor, 3 often local guests) Cask Marque, Other beers 3 keg, Also specialist coffee
Food Simple bargain pub grub, Wifi.
Pool, functions
This compact, old fashioned, friendly and homely Soho boozer boasts some history: there’s been a pub on this site since the area was originally developed in the 1680s, although the current Grade II listed building dates from 1900. The current landlords, in situ for over 25 years, have long supported real ale but struggled with cellar problems. These were solved with the installation of a new cooling system in 2010, since when they’ve gained Cask Marque accreditation and a listing in the Good Beer Guide. Five handpumps now stand on the single long bar downstairs, dispensing London Pride, Meantime London Pale Ale and Taylor Landlord alongside guests that might come from Caledonian, Nethergate or Sambrook’s. Staropramen and Hoegaarden brighten up the keg choices a little, while Leffe and Budvar are in bottle, and the coffee comes from venerable Compton Street landmark the Algerian Coffee Stores. Fish and chips, sausage and mash, halloumi burgers, sandwiches and Pieminster pies are sold at impressively low prices for the area. The upstairs bar with its pool table is popular for private parties.
Pub trivia. The silhouette depicted in the windows is a work of imagination: Nellie Dean was not a real person but a character in the sentimental ballad of the same name written by US songwriter and boxer Henry W Armstrong in 1905 (apparently with no reference to the similarly named character in Emily Brontë”s novel Wuthering Heights). In the UK the song was adopted by music hall star Gertie Gitana and became a popular choice for pub singsongs. The pub was originally known as the Dolphin and renamed in 1967.
Underground Tottenham Court Road Cycling LCN+ 39 6 6A Walking Link to Jubilee Walkway
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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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