Upton Park pubs

Finding a pub on match day close to West Ham’s football ground can be a challenging experience these days. The pubs nearest to the ground fall into one of the following categories:

1. So full that even if you manage to cram yourself in, you will have to wait 20 minutes to get served;
2. Full of dangerous psychopaths from Essex;
3. Demolished to make way for flats;

So it was with great delight that we found a pub that was a) still standing and apparently serving beer, b) contained a healthy cross section of the local community plus some West Ham fans and c) wasn’t rammed.

The pub occupies a sizable late Victorian building. Inside, all that remains of its heritage are two circular cast iron columns sitting in the middle of a large open bar area. It feels like a barn with the bar sitting at the far end, minimal seating and (eek) laminate flooring. There are two pool tables to keep the local “yoof” occupied. The photo of Bobby Moore over the bar holding the Jules Rimet cup aloft commemorates the local footballing hero.

Drinks-wise there are the usual suspects at the bar (Fosters, 1664, Stella blah blah blah) and on the wall-mounted screen there’s more satellite TV than you can shake a dish at. Basically, that’s all the ingredients you need for watching a match with the lads. Incidentally, on our visit there were only lads in the pub and no women. We couldn’t even see a ladies toilet. In spite of this, we don’t think this is a pub for men who are romantically attached to each other, although at one point we did start to wonder when the Village People’s YMCA started playing on the juke box.

Whilst this is certainly not a great pub, it provides enough to keep both locals and football fans alike happy. What's going on? It's the weekend of the FA Cup 5th Round and the start of the six nations rugby tournament and what do they show on the big screen? A black and white documentary about farming. Not the best start. Actually it gets worse before it gets better - the Toby Bitter turns out to be off (or perhaps it normally tastes that rank). Thankfully, the delightful barmaid changes our beer without any further ado and we get down to the serious business of drinking. After the shakey start, we begin to appreciate our surroundings. The Wakefield is a large turn-of-the-century style pub with a generously sized public bar on one side and the even larger saloon bar on the other side. Its battered decor has seen better days, but adds a certain rustic charm. There is a more modern extension at the back containing two pool tables, fruit machines and a digital juke box. The juke box contains the most eclectic mix of music known to man. However that did not stop us from selecting tracks which would make any sane person run into the beer garden screaming whilst grasping their ears in horror. Thankfully, most people seemed to be in a world of their own. There was a good mixture of clientele ranging from the local yoof at the pool table to sullen old men in darkened corners. On days when West Ham play at home the place is a sea of claret and blue shirts. As it turns out - not bad at all.

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