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Best beer and travel writing award 2015, 2011 -- British Guild of Beer Writers Awards
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"A beer guru" - Popbitch.
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London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
East London: Other locations — Dalston
Bar
18-22 Ashwin Street E8 3DL
email info@cafeoto.co.uk web http://cafeoto.co.uk tw Cafeoto
Open 0930 (1030 Sat-Sun)-1730 (1630 if no evening event; also most evenings from 2000 with admission charge). Children welcome.
Cask beers None, Other beers 3 keg, 10 bottles (Kernel, Pitfield’s), Also Japanese drinks, malts
Food Breakfasts, wrap/salad lunches, cakes and pastries, Outdoor Tables on street. Disabled toilet
Experimental, jazz, folk, rock music most evenings
 Café Oto, London E8 Developing in the 19th century along the main Cambridge Road, Roman Ermine Street, from what were once two small villages, Dalston became an outlier of the poor East End in the 20th century. Its traditional character is still much in evidence on celebrated Ridley Road market, but a longstanding arty and alternative edge has recently developed into more obvious gentrification, spurred by regeneration projects like Gillett Square with its ‘culture house’ and jazz club and major improvements in transport brought by the London Overground extensions. Another aspect of the area’s changing face, only a few steps from Dalston Junction Overground, is the Print Works complex, originally built for the Hackney Gazette but renovated in the late 2000s by the Bootstrap Company, a local regeneration and development charity dating back to the 1970s. Besides solar powered workspaces for creative enterprises, a roof garden and a gallery, the buildings house Café Oto, one of London’s more unusual music venues, with a programme of experimental, avant garde and more left field rock, folk and acoustic music – and a surprisingly nifty range of craft beer.
Four choices come from the Kernel brewery include one brewed specially for the venue, and the rest is made up of interesting stuff from Pitfield’s, including their historic recreations. Cristal Alken and Palm amber ale from Belgium grace the keg taps, and a supplementary lineup of sake, shochu, plum wine and Yamazaki malt whisky reflects a notable Japanese influence. During the day this attractive post-industrial space is open as a chilled out café, dishing up simple breakfasts and lunches on weekdays and snacks and pastries at weekends, before reopening most evenings for bands. Midori, one of the managers, tells me the jazzier the music, the more popular the better craft beers.
Visitor note. Nearby Fassett Square was the original model for Albert Square in long running BBC soap EastEnders.
Overground Dalston Junction, Dalston Kingsland Cycling LCN+10
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
North London — Hampstead
Contemporary pub
14 South End Road NW3 2QE
T (020) 8874 8460 W http://thegardengatehampstead.co.uk
Open 1200 (1100 Sat-Sun)-2300 (2400 Fri-Sat, 2230 Sun). Children welcome until 1900.
Cask beer 6 (Sharp’s, Timothy Taylor, M&B guests), Other beer 8 keg, 6 bottles, Also wines
Food Gastroish menu, Outdoor Large beer garden
Fri monthly hog roast & live band, summer Sat barbecue, board games
 Garden Gate, London NW3 “This is the nicest pub I’ve ever been in,” said the customer to the assistant manager as he took his leave. “And I’m a 48-year-old Scotsman so that’s saying something.” While I wouldn’t go quite that far, there’s certainly something very charming and attractive about this Brewer’s Tudor place in Hampstead’s southern reaches, on recently restored South End Green with its historic fountain, just down from Hampstead Heath Overground station and within easy reach of the Heath itself.
The pub’s most notable feature is a very large and well looked after beer garden, decked out with greenery and with a cloister-like wooden terrace around the side, its walls decorated with an impressive collection of flower pictures. The floral theme continues indoors with some big murals as well as real flowers enlivening a good mix of seating. Stained glass and painted pillars enhance the colourful aspect, complemented by the cheerfulness of the staff.
This is a Mitchells and Butlers Castle pub: Doom Bar and Landlord are regular cask ales while three other handpumps dispense guest beers on rapid rotation. BrewDog (strongish Alice Porter), Fuller’s and Red Rat were in evidence when I called and more unusual styles aren’t uncommon. Camden Lager, Duvel-Moortgat Vedett White and Sierra Nevada pale are among the kegs while it’s always good to spot classics like Duvel and Worthington White Shield in the fridges. Food is a cut above too. Given the area, don’t expect rock bottom prices, but a weekday prix fixe deal will get you two courses for £10, which might include smoked trout, roasted butternut squash and fennel salad, asparagus risotto or chargrilled gammon amongst the mains.
Overground Hampstead Heath Underground Hampstead Cycling Hampstead Heath paths Walking Hampstead Heath paths, links to Belsize Walk
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
North London — Hampstead
Traditional pub, Regional heritage pub
14 Flask Walk NW3 1HG
T (020) 7435 4580 W www.theflaskhampstead.co.uk
Open 1100-2330 (0030 Fri-Sat, 2300 Sun). Children welcome until 2000.
Cask beer 5 (Wells & Young’s, Sambrook’s, occasional guest), Other beer 3 keg, 3 bottles (Wells & Young’s), Also wines
Food Upmarket pub grub menu, Outdoor Tables at front, small rear terrace
Tue quiz
 The Flask, London NW3 This famous Hampstead pub, a Young’s house down a characteristically picturesque alley lined with second hand bookshops round the corner from the Tube, has offered an expanded beer range since a sympathetic refurbishment in 2007. Besides Young’s Bitter, Special and London Gold, Sambrook’s Wandle is regularly available alongside a guest that might be a Wells & Young’s seasonal or even another Sambrook’s beer. Pilsner Urquell and Erdinger on keg and bottled Young’s Special London are also worthy of consideration. Manager Claudia McCarthy-Milcher notes delightedly that this is in response to growing demand, with the cask beers now appealing to a discriminating younger audience. They compliment a classic British pub menu that includes pies, lamb shank, goats cheese and beetroot salad, crispy duck and Cockney-style shellfish, though at prices you’d expect for the area.
While you’re there there take a good look at the pub itself, the history of which can be traced at least to Hampstead’s first flourishing as a spa resort in the early 18th century when a thatched building stood on the site. The name recalls the flasks in which spa waters were packaged, and there were originally three pubs in the village with the same name, of which this is the Lower Flask. An old pub sign in the conservatory interprets the name differently as a flask of gunpowder, featuring a grenadier. The current building dates from 1874, and the front retains its public and saloon bars, divided by an impressive panelled screen that displays the pubs own art treasures: five original chromolithographs of sentimental paintings by Flemish artist Jan van Beers (1852-1927). Famous regulars have included comedy duo Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.
Insider tip. Arrive early on quieter evenings and there may be delicious complimentary roast potatoes on the bar.
Underground Hampstead Cycling Links to Hampstead Heath paths Walking Links to Hampstead Heath paths, Belsize Walk
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
North London — Hampstead
Traditional pub
23-25 New End NW3 1JD
T (020) 7794 0258 W http://thedukeofhamilton.com tw dukeofhamilton
Open 1100-2330 (2300 Sun). Children welcome until early evening.
Cask beer 4-5 (Brodies, Fuller’s, unusual/local guests), Other beer 2 keg, 6 bottles
Food Rolls and jacket potatoes, Outdoor Front terrace, rear beer garden
Fri occasional live music, Sat in summer barbeque, poker & quizzes planned, darts, occasional big screen sport, functions
 Duke of Hamilton, London NW3 A veteran real ale stalwart and regular Good Beer Guide listing with a lengthy roll call of arty celebrity regulars, including Oliver Reed who often overindulged here, the Duke would have been an obvious choice for the Guide. But when I paid a research visit early in 2011, the place was being run down prior to longstanding landlord Woody moving on, its future beer policy uncertain. Happily it’s ended up in the hands of the same people who’ve recently made the Barnsbury in Islington (see Canonbury & Barnsbury) into a great beer destination. The main drinking area around the island bar has been spruced up but the slightly eccentric decor is essentially unchanged – traditional furnishings, liberal use of red paint, unusual stained glass above the bar and tiles bearing advertisements for long obsolete cleaning products below it.
The pub is curiously sited on a raised platform which, given its popularity with actors and the presence of the New End Theatre, one of London’s most respected fringe drama venues, next door, might remind you of a stage. The new owners have refurbished and reopened the cellar below, creating an attractive additional space for music, functions and overspill at busy times.
Longstanding favourite London Pride is now supplemented by a changing Brodie’s beer. Adnams and O’Hanlon’s are popular choices on the other pumps and they aim for a variety of flavours. Keg German black lager Köstritzer Schwarzbier is an unusual sight and Schneider Weisse, Achouffe McChouffe and Jever Pils might be spotted in a small but intriguing range of bottled beers. Food is restricted to rolls and snacks – the Scotch eggs are particularly popular. A commanding performance.
Overground Hampstead Heath Underground Hampstead Cycling Walking Links to Hampstead Heath paths
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London — Soho and Leicester Square
Traditional pub
34 Kingly Street W1B 5QH
T (020) 7494 0834 W www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/theclachankinglystreetlondon/
Open 1000-2300 (2330 Fri, 2230 Sat-Sun). Children welcome until mid-evening.
Cask beer 8-12 (Fuller’s, Sharp’s, St Austell, Nicholson’s guests) Cask marque, Other beer 1 keg, 3 bottles
Food Nicholson’s pub grub menu
Occasional meet the brewer events, functions
 Clachan, London W1 The first boutique opened in Carnaby Street, on the western edge of Soho, in 1958. Eight years later the street, now crammed with “gear” shops and underground music clubs, was identified as the epicentre of Swinging London by Time magazine. An early beneficiary of pedestrianisation in 1973, the area has been through some tawdry phases since, but is still welcoming the world thanks to the enduring interest in the fashion, music and youth culture of its heyday, remaining a London must-see.
Pubgoing round here can be rather hit-and-miss, so it’s good to know about the Clachan near the top end of parallel Kingly Street, a pleasant Nicholson’s pub that boasts a particularly well-used range of handpumps. The regular trio of London Pride, Doom Bar and Tribute is supplemented by up to nine others from the chain’s changing seasonal range – Thornbridge is often spotted alongside Cropton, Harviestoun, Nethergate and White Horse. Duvel, Leffe and Vedett might be found in the fridges. Pub grub is the usual Nicholson’s menu, starting with breakfast. A decently sized main drinking area under a deep red ceiling surrounds an island bar with a big fancy bar back, and mosaic tiling featuring the pub name survives on the Little Marlborough Street side but has been sadly partly obscured by some more recent remodelling. Upstairs is an elegant room with a table service restaurant.
Visitor note. A clachan is a small settlement or hamlet once common in Ireland and Scotland – an image that contrasts sharply with the pub’s actual setting in the busy West End. For more conventional shopping than Carnaby Street offers, you’re right by Liberty’s department store and a few steps from Regent Street and the celebrated Hamley’s toy shop.
Underground Oxford Circus Cycling LCN+39, links to 6A, 50
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars update
Central London — Soho and Leicester Square
Restaurant
11 Haymarket SW1Y 4BP
T (020) 7925 0276 W www.byronhamburgers.com f Byron-Hamburgers tw byronhamburgers
Open 1200-2300 (2330 Fri-Sat, 2230 Sun). Children welcome.
Cask beer None, Other beers 12 bottles, Also grown-up soft drinks
Food Gourmet burgers
 Byron Hamburgers promoting craft beer at Haymarket, London SW1 Founded by Tom Byng in 2007 to replicate the quality hamburger experience he’d enjoyed while living in the USA, Byron now has 16 branches across London. In a further nod to US practice and another indicator of how the market for quality beer is evolving, in summer 2011 Byron worked with award winning beer blogger Mark Dredge to add a short but very well chosen craft bottled beer list to its menu, available across the chain. 10 beers are listed, half from the USA (obvious choices like Brooklyn Lager and Goose Island Honker’s but also Odell Cutthroat Porter), three from London’s Camden Town and Kernel, and one each from Scotland and Australia, significantly expanding on a couple of passable listings on the regular drinks menu (Modelo and London Pride). This is an extremely welcome initiative – let’s hope it’s well supported and endures beyond its summer trial.
My one gripe was my Kernel IPA was served too cold, and even in an iced glass – not the best way to flatter such a complex beer. I’m sure they’ll bring a room temperature glass if you ask but it would be good to see the choice offered especially considering they take pains to do things your way with the food menu. This is simple and traditional but quality and well cooked burger bar fare, including veggie options and main course salads, served by very friendly staff in a stylish venue, with an elaborate 19th century ceiling, a curious contemporary chandelier and a kitschy collection of Royal Wedding plates down the stairs to the toilets. Note drinks are available only with meals – the first exception to the general rule in these listings but a well deserved one.
Branches. Currently 15 across London, with another due to open shortly. The nearest alternative in Soho is at 97 Wardour Street W1F 0UD, formerly the Intrepid Fox pub, with additional branches in Charing Cross Road and Covent Garden – see website for full details.
National Rail Charing Cross Underground Piccadilly Circus Cycling LCN+ 6A, 50 Walking Jubilee Walkway
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars Updates
Central London – Soho and Leicester Square
Traditional pub
28 Rupert Street W1D 6DJ
T (020) 7437 1415
Open 1100 (1200 Sat-Sun)-2330 (2400 Fri-Sat, 2230 Sun). Children welcome lunchtimes only.
Cask beer 4 (Fuller’s, Hopback, Timothy Taylor, guest) Cask marque, Other beer 2 keg, 3 bottles
Food Simple, good value pub grub, Outdoors Standing room and barrels on alley
Tue quiz, Sun lunchtime and evening live jazz/blues, meetings & functions
 The Blue Posts, Rupert Street, London W1 The best evidence that a genuine community exists alongside the throngs of tourists, shoppers and entertainment seekers in this part of London can be found in its handful of thriving local pubs. The Blue Posts, at the end of an alleyway on the western edge of Chinatown, is a case in point. Michael, its landlord since 2004, says most of his customers are regulars he knows by name, but the casual visitor can still expect a warm and friendly welcome. The downstairs bar, which looks like it was last refitted in the 1970s, is small and basic but homely, with an impressive collection of maneki neko beckoning cat ornaments; upstairs there’s another smallish square room with a big window, where bands play on Sundays and BBC scriptwriters hold regular meetings.
The lengthy traditional menu is impressively low priced for the area, with sandwiches, jacket potatoes, curries, cottage pie, chile con carne, smoked salmon salad and a choice of hot vegetarian options. The beer range at this Enterprise tenancy opts for better known names which are kept to Cask Marque standards – London Pride, Summer Lightning and Landlord are regulars with a changing guest that might come from Black Sheep, Wells & Young’s or Wychwood. Keg Hoegaarden and Leffe and bottled Budvar, Duvel and Newcastle Brown extend possibilities. At Christmas they go for strangely sculpted topiary rather than a tree.
Visitor note. Most authorities on pub names explain names like the Blue Posts by the pre-literate practice of using visual features like blue painted poles to identify particular buildings. But that doesn’t explain why there are so many pubs in the West End with that name – currently five but once at least seven, with the nearest only a few minutes walk away in Berwick Street. Michael says blue posts marked the boundaries of the hunting park that formerly stood here, but if so it must have been a very strangely shaped park. The Blue Posts in St James’s claims blue posts once indicated sedan chairs for hire. Whatever the reason, make sure you arrange to meet in the right one!
National Rail Charing Cross Underground Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus Cycling Links to LCN+6A, 39, 50 Walking Jubilee Walkway
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Central London – Clerkenwell & Smithfield
 Old Red Cow, London EC1 Contemporary pub
71 Long Lane EC1A 9EJ
T (020) 7726 2595 W www.theoldredcow.com tw oldredcow
Open 1200 – 2300 (2400 Thu-Sat). Children welcome until early evening.
Cask beer 4 (Local and unusual guests), Other beer 10 keg, 32 bottles, Also wines
Food Imaginative pub grub, “English tapas”
Sat acoustic music, Sun quiz, occasional Meet the Brewer events and launches, pub for hire
The next venture from the people that brought you the Dean Swift in SE1, this “local ale house” reopened following refurbishment in April 2011 and quickly established a keen following. Well located by the southeast corner of Smithfield Market, within sight of the Barbican and in an area rapidly developing a dense population of good beer venues, it is obviously cut from the same cloth as the Dean but adapted to a different space and location. The small bar downstairs has the cask pumps and high stools around tall communal tables; upstairs is a keg-only bar and more space, with smaller tables and long padded benches.
Big mirrors, old German beer posters and quirky wallpaper create a pleasant environment in which to enjoy drink and food that also follows the Dean’s lead. The cask taps pull local ales from Redemption and Sambrook’s, with BrewDog and Dark Star also popular choices. There’s a good choice of German and Austrian kegs including Maisels Weisse, Schremser, Stiegl and Veltins, plus Camden Town and changing Belgian and US guests. Highlights of the well chosen bottled menu are Brooklyn East India Pale, Odells 90/-, Sierra Nevada Torpedo, Harviestoun Ola Dubh, Hirter Privat Pils and Trappists from Chimay, Orval, Rochefort and Westmalle. Imaginative food might include gourmet sandwiches with chips, Welsh rarebit soldiers, whitebait, mussels in cider, premium burgers and sage dumplings in tomato sauce.
National Rail Farringdon Underground Barbican Cycling LCN+7, 39, Angel Walking Link to Jubilee Walkway
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
North London — Canonbury & Barnsbury
 The George Orwell, London N1 Contemporary pub
382 Essex Road N1 3PF
T 07973 695517 W www.thegeorgeorwell.com f thegeorgeorwell tw georgeorwellpub
Open 1630 (1200 Sat-Sun) -2300 (2400 Thu, 0200 Fri-Sat, 2230 Sun). Children welcome until 1900.
Cask beer 2 (local), Other beer 4 keg, 10 bottles, Also 2 ciders/perries, 10 malts, specialist bourbon, rum, mezcal
Food Scotch eggs and pies only, Outdoor Small beer garden
Thu quiz, Fri, Sat live acoustic music or DJs, board games, functions
This big old Victorian pub near the top of Essex Road has been through numerous incarnations over the years – not so long ago it was a goth club. Since early 2010 it’s been a friendly, independently owned free house with a smallish but well chosen beer list, reviving a former name that commemorates 20th century writer and keen pubgoer George Orwell (real name Eric Blair, 1903-50), who lived nearby in the mid-1940s. Some of the interior decoration picks up on the theme, with Spanish civil war posters recalling Orwell’s involvement with the International Brigades in the 1930s [see comment below for historical correction on this]. Otherwise it’s floorboards, wooden tables and a cosy corner with bookshelves, sofas and a standard lamp, while a small narrow courtyard to the side serves as a beer garden. It’s regularly used for parties and functions but is always kept open to the public too.
Cask comes from local producers like Redemption or Sambrook’s, and at least five different bottled Kernel beers are stocked, alongside Freedom lagers, Sierra Nevada Pale and Innis & Gunn. Freedom also features on the keg taps alongside Staropramen and Pilsner Urquell. In fact it fails rather miserably against Orwell’s checklist for the perfect pub as outlined in his essay ‘The Moon Under Water’, with a distinct lack of aspirins and foaming stout in pewter pots, but there are numerous other compensations.
National Rail Essex Road Overground Canonbury Underground Angel Bus Ockendon Road (numerous Angel) Cycling LCN+ Angel, Camden, Dalston, Hackney Walking Link to New River Path
London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
East London — Other locations: Ilford
 The Bar, Gants HIll, Ilford IG2 Bar
19 Seven Ways Parade, Woodford Avenue, Ilford IG2 6JX
T (020) 8551 7441 W thebargantshill.co.uk
Open 1200-2330 (2400 Fri-Sun)
Cask beer 2-3 (local), Other beer 1-2 keg
Outdoor Front terrace on street
Fri, Sun live music, Sat karaoke, pool, big screen sport, occasional beer festivals and meet the brewer evenings
Observant readers of the guide may well spot the vast swathe of suburban east London between Leytonstone and Upminster where I’ve been unable to recommend a single notable beer outlet. This little place, simply titled The Bar, goes some way to plugging the gap with its dedication to offering a modest but well-kept range of local microbrewed cask. It’s in an unpromising location deep in 1930s suburbia, in one of a parade of shops typical of its period right by the busy, and recently refurbished, Gants Hill roundabout on the A12, with the tube station beneath in a labyrinth of subways. A sports bar interior with a plethora of big screens entertaining what when I called on a Saturday afternoon was an all-male clientele didn’t bode especially well either. But it didn’t win the local CAMRA branch’s Pub of the Year award in 2011 for its industrial keg lager, as owner Darren Bullman is clearly passionate about his beer.
The cask ales – always two, expanded to three at weekends – are sourced locally, with beers from nearby Ha’penny often available, and Brentwood and Mighty Oak often spotted too. They’re in top nick, well promoted through posters and tasting notes, and sold at a discount to card carrying CAMRA members. The craft choice is slightly widened by the likes of Fuller’s Honey Dew on keg. And there’s just enough pavement width to make the outdoor seating worthwhile. Quite a find especially considering the area, though note there’s no food other snacks.
Visitor’s note. The imposing art deco barrel vaulted spaces of Gants Hill Tube station influenced the Moscow Metro, as London Underground architects advised their Soviet counterparts in the 1930s.
Underground Gants Hill Cycling LCN+ 55, Redbridge Greenway Walking Link to Redbridge Greenway
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