Well, we did it. 44 evenings. 12 guests. 118 pubs. 259½ pints (and more than a few double JDs and coke). We’ve been on quite the journey – from the formality of Farringdon to the drama of Deptford. We’ve visited inner-city boozers and riverside restaurants. Traditional public houses and modern bars. Pubs that featured in Harry Potter, and those that should have done. So, what have we learnt?
Address: 83 Lansdowne Way, SW8 2PB
Nearest Station: Stockwell
Welcome: Good; Service: Good (SIT); Beer: Adequate; Toilets: Basic
Cost of two pints: £7.20 (Firebrand Cross Pacific Pale Ale)
Guest: Jim; Word: Attention-seeking; Person: Alan Sugar
Rating: 7.5/10
We’ve made it to the final pub of Pub Impressions, and we can’t avoid it any longer. It’s time to talk about CAMRA. CAMRA, or the Campaign for Real Ale, aims to promote real ale, real cider and the traditional British pub. All good things, you might think, and this is true – but how do you define real ale? By how it’s made, or how it tastes? Sadly, for CAMRA, it’s the former, and as we found at the Priory Arms, this isn’t enough. The Priory Arms has been featured for 21 consecutive years in the Good Beer Guide. (If you don’t believe them, they have the guides in the corner to show you.) They offer a number of local ales, and frequently change them (as all the beer mats on the wall attest). But when we visited, there wasn’t a single good beer to drink.
Address: The Terrace, SW13 0NR
Nearest Station: Barnes
Welcome: Good; Service: Good (SIT); Beer: Good; Toilets: Good
Cost of two pints: £7.48 (Young’s Bitter)
Guest: Jim; Word: Vibe; Person: Jon Richardson
Rating: 8/10
If there’s a single premise underlying Pub Impressions, it’s this: you can learn a lot about a pub very quickly. As we entered Ye White Hart, we were immediately struck by the relaxing atmosphere and the relaxed clientele, from footballers and cricketers to couples and families. Beyond the French doors, a crowded balcony overlooked the Thames, and we could see the sun shining on Barnes Bridge. As Dad said, it was “open and inviting, without pretence”.
Address: 15 Strand-on-the-Green, W4 3PQ
Nearest Station: Chiswick
Welcome: Good; Service: Good (SIT); Beer: Good; Toilets: Good
Cost of two pints: £7.38 (Adnams Broadside)
Rating: 8/10
If, before we started all this, you had asked us to imagine a London pub, we would have described a classic inner-city watering hole: punters spilling out onto the streets, with barely any room to sit inside, enjoying a hasty pint after work. But Pub Impressions has introduced us to another image entirely: the riverside pub, where drinkers and diners spread out by the Thames for a relaxing evening. The Bulls Head is a classic of the type. In fact, we discovered that it’s so close to the river, you can see swans swimming right past the windows (at least after a British summer).
Address: 2 Bath Road, W4 1LW
Nearest Station: Turnham Green
Welcome: Good; Service: Good (SIT); Beer: Good; Toilets: Basic
Rating: 8/10
After a journey that had taken us across London and to parts of the capital we had never even imagined, the final night of Pub Impressions had arrived. And it seemed fitting that the first pub of the evening made us feel that we were barely in London at all. In the heart of Chiswick, just next to Turnham Green station and the Tabard theatre, stands The Tabard, its flowers and bunting evoking the natural charm and communal warmth of a village pub.
Address: Mawson Lane, W4 2QA
Nearest Station: Stamford Brook
Welcome: Good; Service: Good (SIT); Beer: Excellent; Toilets: Good
Rating: 8.5/10
It’s not in the book but The Mawson Arms undoubtedly deserves a mention. Here, next door to Fuller’s Griffin Brewery, is the smoothest beer you can find: delicious, clear pints of London Pride, Seafarers, ESB and Chiswick Bitter, as fresh as they can be. We felt like pilgrims arriving in Jerusalem. A tour earlier in the day had shown us a long history of brewing, with beer first made on the site over 350 years before. And now we were ready to enjoy Fuller’s flagship watering hole, its signs immaculately polished, its hanging baskets in full bloom, its bar gleaming in the sunlight.
Address: 59-61 High Street, E13 0AD
Nearest Station: Plaistow
Welcome: Adequate; Service: Good (SIT); Beer: Adequate; Toilets: Basic
Cost of two pints: £6.80 (Courage & Adnams Southwold)
Guest: Jim; Word: Pub; Person: Danny Dyer
Rating: 6.5/10
“Are you sure it’s The Black Lion? Have we got the right one?” Dad’s confusion was understandable. After a long journey from Stoke Newington, and with a thunderstorm rumbling ever closer overhead, it wasn’t clear why we were here. The Black Lion was entirely ordinary. The interior was like so many of the pubs we’d walked past previously – red carpet, sofa and chairs; dark wooden tables; framed pages of London Illustrated News. Tudor windows. Basic toilets. Why had this made the cut?
Address: 204 Stoke Newington High Street, N16 7HU
Nearest Station: Stoke Newington
Welcome: Good; Service: Good (SIT); Beer: Good; Toilets: Basic
Cost of two pints: £7.40 (Redemption Urban Dusk & Pale Ale)
Guest: Jim; Word: Pew; Person: Oliver Twist
Rating: 8/10
The Jolly Butchers is a different type of local. Here, the punters might travel a long distance, but the beer is all sourced nearby. As the sign above the bar reads, “We are proud to serve beers from the finest local breweries including Brodie’s, ELB, The Kernel, Partizan and Redemption”. The selection changes daily; for our visit there were many ales on tap from Redemption – including Hopspur, Big Chief, Little Chief and Trinity – as well as a number from Bristol. We weren’t alone in asking the barman for his recommendation, which was happily provided, and we returned from the bar with a pint each of Redemption’s Pale Ale and Urban Dusk – plus of course a double JD and coke for Jim.
Address: 93 Warrington Crescent, W9 1EH
Nearest Station: Maida Vale
Welcome: Adequate; Service: Good (SIT); Beer: Good; Toilets: Good
Cost of two pints and a cider: £12.00 (Young’s Bitter)
Guest: Jim; Word: Lavish; Person: Woody, Toy Story
Rating: 7.5/10
Perhaps the clue was in the name. ‘The Warrington Hotel’ doesn’t sound like the average pub. And even without the name, the sign outside (complete with Latin motto: constantia et labore) and wide sweeping staircase just within made clear that this is no standalone public house. Greeted by the happy chatter of many different accents and languages, we quickly realised that The Warrington is less pub and more hotel bar.
Address: 89 Westbourne Park Road, W2 5QH
Nearest Station: Royal Oak
Welcome: Adequate; Service: Adequate (SIT); Beer: Adequate; Toilets: Basic
Cost of two pints: £9.00 (Landlord)
Guest: Jim; Word: Fishy; Person: Charlie Chaplin
Rating: 6/10
There are some pubs that survive by finding a speciality and building a small but dedicated following among the local community. The Cow is a textbook example. Their speciality is advertised on a sign above the door – “Guinness and Oysters” – with the theme continuing inside, from Guinness stools to a Dali-esque painting of crayfish. And at the bar we found two old men, clearly regulars who knew the script, supping their pints of Guinness, and no doubt preparing to order some shellfish.
Pub Impressions 