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
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
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London – Holborn and Legal London
 Old Bell Tavern, London EC4 Traditional pub (Nicholson’s/Mitchells & Butlers)
95 Fleet Street EC4Y 1DH
T (020) 7583 0216 W www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/theoldbelltavernfleetstreetlondon
Open 1000 (1200 Sat)-2330 (1800 Sat, closed Sun). Children welcome until early evening, with children’s menu.
Cask beer 7 (Fuller’s, Sharp’s, St Austell, unusual guests) Cask Marque, Other beer 2 bottles, Also Some wines
Food Nicholson’s breakfast and pub grub menu, Wifi.
One of Nicholson’s smaller pubs, but handily placed at the City end of Fleet Street, the Old Bell claims a license dating back 300 years. It also claims it was designed by Christopher Wren and once housed the stonemasons that accomplished his building projects after the Great Fire of 1666, but I suspect what you see today is much rebuilt. The front section of the pub, with its flagstone floor, is clearly distinct from the floorboarded rear with its open fire, backing up the claim that the main part of the building was originally set back from the street in its own court, and there’s a rear exit onto an intriguing back alley. You’ll also spot the remains of a Victorian partition. Seven pumps dispense the chain’s standard London Pride, Doom Bar and Tribute plus guests that explore the more exotic reaches of Nicholson’s seasonal guest lists — perhaps Downton, Oakleaf, Moor or RCH. An eighth pump has real cider. A pleasant retreat.
National Rail City Thameslink Underground Chancery Lane, St Pauls River Blackfriars Cycling NCN4, LCN+7 Walking Jubilee Walkway, link to Thames Path
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
West London: Hammersmith and Fulham
 Choices at the Duchess of Cambridge, London W6 Contemporary pub, brewpub (Independent)
320 Goldhawk Road W6 0XF
T (020) 8834 7336 W www.theduchessofcambridgepub.com f theduchesspubw6 tw duchesspubw6
Open 1200 (1100 Sat)-2300 (2400 Fri-Sat, 2230 Sun). Children welcome until 2000.
Cask beers 13 (Own beer when brewery commissioned, unusual often local guests), Other beers 55 bottles, Also 11 real ciders, wines, specialist spirits
Food Upmarket pub grub, Outdoors Side terrace, Wifi. No disabled toilet but flat access.
Tue quiz, Fri live music, seasonal parties, functions
The latest venture from the owners of one of my Top 25, the Bree Louise specialist real ale and cider pub near Euston, the Duchess is a big and previously unloved roadside pub on a main junction of the route between Shepherds Bush and Chiswick, just on the edge of Hammersmith right by leafy Ravenscourt Park. It was once known as the Brook but has been renamed to commemorate a certain new member of the royal family — only the second pub in the country to take the name — and is being managed by two former Mitchells and Butlers staff, Ruth Boult and Simon Waind. Behind the imposing frontage with its attractive wooden side terrace there’s an extensive single drinking area refurbished along clean and contemporary lines, notably more upmarket than its sister pub, with red and white paint, heavy wood tables, dark brown chairs, beer advertising enamels, a welcoming open fire and the remains of a decorated ceiling.
Like the Bree, much of the beer is served from the cask by gravity — there’s a stillage with an impressive hoist above, dispensing up to nine ever changing beers, plus four on handpump, often from small and local producers. Windsor & Eton and Redemption regularly feature, alongside perhaps Crag Vale, Little Valley or Titanic from further afield and there are usually dark beers and unusual styles. Things will get even more local in January 2012 when the pub opens its own in-house brewery. And unlike the Bree, the draught choices are supplemented by over 50 bottles of world beer classics including Anker Gouden Carolus, several British craft lagers from Calvors, Goose Island 312 wheat beer, Nils Oscar God Lager and Westmalle Tripel. An impressive range of real ciders, around 25 wines by the glass and more by the bottle, and a back bar crowded with single malts, tequilas and other specialist spirits including gin and vodka from local craft distillery Sipsmith vastly extend the drinks offer. Suitably British food ranges from tasting plates of artisanal cheeses, sausage snack platters and Welsh rarebit to reasonably priced steaks, burgers, fish and chips and roast butternut squash.
It’s a bigger and more ambitious project than the Bree, and on a site less favoured than its sister’s central location, but if you’re not local it’s well worth making the trip. Alot of effort has gone into creating a very special and remarkable pub that deserves to flourish.
Underground Stamford Brook Bus Flanchford Road (94 Turnham Green, Shepherds Bush), Stamford Brook Road (237 Gunnersbury, Shepherds Bush) Cycling LCN+ 35
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southwest London: Kingston
 Druid's Head, Kingston upon Thames KT1 (London) Contemporary pub (Greene King)
2 Market Place, Kingston KT1 1JT
T (020) 8546 0723 W gkpubs.co.uk/pubs-in-kingston-upon-thames/druids-head-pub
Open 1100-2300 (2400 Thu-Sat).
Cask beers 6 (Greene King, guests), Other beers 2 keg, 1 bottle, Also 30 wines
Food Varied enhanced pub grub, Outdoors Beer garden, upstairs sun terrrace, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Occasional seasonal events, functions, conference room.
Former coaching inn the Druids Head claims to be the oldest pub in Kingston — the sprawling Grade II*listed building, in a prime position on the market place, is partly 17th century, though it’s been much rebuilt and the frontage is largely Victorian. Inside is bigger than expected, with a long and deep ground floor area broken into several spaces, and a similarly sized first floor with some pleasant hidden corners, while both a beer garden and an upstairs sun terrace facilitate outdoor drinking. Exposed brick and beams, a massive staircase and 18th century moulded plaster ceilings add to the heritage feel, though a recent makeover has left it a thoroughly modern pub, comfortable if rather corporate.
Greene King pubs don’t figure too prominently in the guide as until now their beer choice has tended to be limited and their key brands are readily available elsewhere. But even GK are noticing the growing interest in speciality beer and this is one of the pubs expanding its range in response. Besides the brewery’s own brands — the ubiquitous IPA, a pump rotating Abbot and Ruddles County, and a changing range of other GK brands (including Belhaven)) and seasonals — you might find guests from the likes of Batemans (the excellent Salem Porter when I called), Black Sheep or Hyde’s. Staropramen and Blue Moon are on keg while Budvar is in bottles. A lengthy menu stretches from haggis and macaroni bites to hunter’s chicken, beef and Abbot pie and sweet potato, apricot and chick pea kebabs.
Insider tip. The snug at the front right not only has Victorian wood panelling, it’s also free of piped music.
National Rail Kingston Cycling NCN4, LCN+ 33 75 Walking Thames Path, Thames Down Link, links to Richmond Park paths
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London: Soho and Leicester Square
 Murals at the Crown and Two Chairmen, London W1 Contemporary pub (Castle/Mitchells & Butlers)
31 Dean Street W1D 8SB
T (020) 7437 8192 W www.thecrownandtwochairmenw1.co.uk f thecrownandtwochairmen
Open 1200-2330 (2400 Fri-Sat, 2230 Sun). Children welcome daytimes.
Cask beers 5 (Purity, Sharp’s, 3 sometimes local guests) Cask Marque, Other beers 7 keg (international), 10 bottles Also 40 wines, a few cocktails
Food Imaginative pub grub, Outdoors A few tables on street, Wifi.
Sun film club, Mon pub quiz.
This Soho stalwart has been through several different incarnations in the past few decades, attached to one pub chain or another. It’s now designated a Castle pub by owners Mitchells & Butlers, intended to be individualistic and quirky — thus the exterior purple paint job — in contrast to the more traditional Nicholson’s treatment currently applied to most M&B pubs in the area. This last makeover, in 2006, proved controversial with regulars at the time but doesn’t seem to have done trade any harm: the pub heaves even on evenings early in the week with a generally youthful Soho creative crowd. It’s also brought a much improved beer offer. Regulars Pure Ubu and Doom Bar were supplemented when I called with a trio of decidedly LocAle guests from Itchen Valley, W&J King and Sambrook’s, with Camden Town Hells on keg alongside the likes of BrewDog, Brooklyn, Sierra Nevada and Veltins. The kitchen reaches gingerly into gastro territory with dishes like ox cheek in red wine at relatively substantial prices, and in the daytimes there’s table service upstairs: enjoy the murals on the way up. Staff are trendy and friendly; furnishings are fairly basic, leaving room for the boisterous atmosphere.
Pub trivia. The curious name might suggest an inadvisable way to run a meeting, but as the sign indicates, the chairmen in question were more likely carriers of sedan chairs, a favoured form of transport for the wealthy in the days when London was still small enough for it to be practical. Queen Anne (reigned 1665-1714) is said to have sat for her portrait at James Thornhill’s studio opposite while her transport staff enjoyed a drink in the pub.
Underground Tottenham Court Road, Leicester Square 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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