Victoria SE15

London’s Best Beer, Pubs and Bars updates
Southeast London: Camberwell, Dulwich and Peckham

Victoria, London SE15

Contemporary pub (Capital/Greene King)
72 Choumert Road SE15 4AR
T (020) 7639 5052 W capitalpubcompany.com/The-Victoria-Inn f The Victoria Inn tw victoriainnse15
Open 1200 (1100 Sat-Sun)-2400 (0100 Fri-Sat). Children very welcome until 2100 in side bar and children’s room.
Cask beers 4 (Adnams, Florence, Greene King, Sharp’s), Other beers 4 keg (including Meantime), 9 bottles, Also Wines.
Food Upmarket pub grub/gastro menu, Outdoor Front terrace, Wifi. Disabled toilet.
Board games, table football, retro video games.

Peckham has become one of London’s most patchwork areas, with regenerated but still deprived social housing and a resolutely downmarket, if cosmopolitan, High Street mixing it with the striking contemporary architecture of Peckham Square and splashes of local bohemia. A tendril of gentrification and cultivated artiness extends northwards from East Dulwich along Bellenden Road, the axis of a pretty conservation area to the west of the High Street, where restored Victorian terraces are curiously complemented by designer street furniture by Antony Gormley and Tom Phillips, and artists’ studios rub shoulders with specialist shops. The Victoria, formlerly known as the Wishing Wells and refurbished and reopened in 2010 by pubco Capital, now part of Greene King, stands at the junction of Bellenden and Choumert Roads, at the heart of the area geographically and already an important community focus.

Designers have been at work here too, with several different styles in the knocked through space of a biggish corner pub, like a science fiction TV episode in which several dimensions intersect. One side is in stripped back gastropub style, with bare floorboards, a hatch to the kitchen and preserved heritage features like a lovely wooden bar back with mirrors and clock. Another side is like a 1970s Habitat design for a home library, with bright colours, exposed brick, retro computer games, curious seating and shelves of books. An attractive cubby hole links the two, and a street terrace catches the sun. Families are catered for on the library side which has an adjoining children’s room too, with a family loyalty card scheme. Upstairs is an 18-room boutique hotel. That these disparate and borderline pretentious ingredients gell into a coherent and comfortable venue is in part thanks to friendly and enthusiastic staff who help generate a pleasant and relaxing atmosphere.

Four real ales form a key part of the offer, with tasters on offer for the indecisive. They typically include at least one beer from the brewery at sister pub the Florence in Herne Hill, with a changing Adnams beer (often a special), a Sharp’s seasonal and something from parent group Greene King that’s usually more exciting than IPA. Vedett lager, Erdinger wheat beer and Meantime London Pale Ale and Lager are on keg, while there’s a reasonable collection of better known world bottled beers that stretches to Duvel, Coopers Sparkling Ale and Negra Modelo. Upmarket pub grub runs from prawns and bread through fish pies and posh burgers to the likes of aubergine curry and crab lasagne, with more veggie options than usual.

National Rail Peckham Rye Overground Peckham Rye (from late 2012) Cycling LCN+ 22 Walking Link to Surrey Canal path