Croydon pubs
London’s very own 60s timewarp Manhattan, its much-maligned Brutalist architecture slowly emerging into critical respectability, and its council still intent on planning a high-rise future. Vibrant, with an active club scene and a growing arts circuit, Croydon delights and appals in unpredictable measures.
| The Bedford Tavern, 16 Sydenham Rd, Croydon, CR0 2EF |
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Not reviewed yet.
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Telephone: 020 8688 2584
Nearest station: East Croydon, Zone 5 (520 metres)
| The Builders Arms, 65 Leslie Park Road, CR0 6TP |
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Not reviewed yet.
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Telephone: 020 8654 1803
Nearest station: East Croydon, Zone 5 (530 metres)
| The Cricketers Arms, 23 Southbridge Place, Croydon, CR0 4HA |
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Not reviewed yet.
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Telephone: 020 8686 1405
Nearest station: South Croydon, Zone 5 (980 metres)
| The Crown and Pepper, 242 High Street, Croydon, CR0 1NF |
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For God’s sake, it’s a Nando’s
pub. Is there no escape?
Reviewed by Fred Flange, May 2008
Telephone: 020 8688 7507
Nearest station: South Croydon, Zone 5 (850 metres)
| The Dog and Bull, 24 Surrey Street, Croydon, CR0 1RG |
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Being only familiar with Croydon’s brutalist ‘60’s towerblocks, flyovers and 8 lane highways, I was surprised to discover the remnants of the Old Town beyond, with its tramlines and old churches feeling very middle European, and the ramshackle lines of Georgian and Victorian buildings, the occasional carpet shop presiding in something much older, succeeding in conveying a charm that is, well, very un-Croydon. Surrey Street itself has existed since at least the thirteenth century, and there has been a pub on the site for at least seven hundred years. The Dog and Bull shares much in common with Hampstead’s Holly Bush, most notably a rather endearingly dilapidated entrance, an interior that hasn’t seen much updating in the last three hundred years, and a singleminded devotion to the fine art of beer. Three generously-sized rooms, all unfeigned spit’n’sawdust appeal, with barrels for tables and the occasional knackered leather sofa, are arranged around a central bar area, and there is an attractive outside patio that was almost worth trying out in February’s summer-like conditions. One area is set aside for viewing Sky Sports etc, while the other two rooms drift along in a cheerful, pleasingly hazy way, with no music or radio or any other distractions. Full range of Young’s beers, plus the usual other nonsense on tap. Calling it the best pub in Croydon barely does it justice; it might well be the best pub south of the river.
Reviewed by Fred Flange, Feb 2008
Telephone: 020 8667 9718
Nearest station: West Croydon, Zone 5 (650 metres)
| Green Dragon, 60 High Street, Croydon, CR0 1NA |
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Let’s start off by getting the Croydon thing out of the way. Croydon is not bad. Croydon is good. Croydon is Manhattan as imagined by Le Corbusier, full of alienating, brutalist blocks that will, if we can overcome our hatred of anything from the fifties to the seventies, become national treasures in several decades’ time, when we finally begin deriding the Disney architecture of the current age. Leaving my prejudices at East Croydon station, I actually found it a very exciting landscape, with towerblocks rearing up from unexpected places, weird sixties murals erupting from concrete fascia and odd Blackpool lights adding a psychedelic tinge to such classics as the Nestle building. If Croydon is our Manhattan, it is a Manhattan before Giuliani came along and cleaned the whole thing up; slightly seedy, slightly edgy, the last place you’d find Amy Winehouse or Damien Hirst. It is a place screaming out for a properly metropolitan pub, and amidst the sea of tedious clone hangouts and (the horror!) a Nando’s pub, in the Green Dragon it’s found one. Refitted from some godawful chain pub past, the Dragon is a weird mixture of traditional and modernist: wooden fittings and big traditional tavern windows mix it with exposed aircon pipes, on-sale modern art and more plasma screens than Houston mission control. This is a pub that does the lot: food, a vast array of real ales (four on tap at any one time, plus two kegs behind the bar), mead, pool (two pool tables), games, quizzes and a pretty relaxed atmosphere to boot. Appropriately, it seems to appeal to a very mixed bag of people. Pretty large, with plenty of seating, it sets a pretty high standard both in beer and entertainment for the rest of Croydon’s pubs to follow. It’s a pretty safe bet if you’re in the town centre to get your fix of the past of London’s future.
Reviewed by Fred Flange, May 2008
Telephone: 020 8667 0684
Nearest station: East Croydon, Zone 5 (790 metres)
| The Lion, 182 Pawsons Road, Croydon, CR0 2QD |
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Not reviewed yet.
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Telephone: 020 8684 2978
Nearest station: Selhurst, Zone 4 (640 metres)
| The Oval Tavern, 131 Oval Rd, CR0 6BR |
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It always strikes me as odd that Oval, with, y’know, the Oval, doesn’t have an Oval Tavern, and yet Croydon, which is distinctively not cricket-related, does. The Oval Tavern is really Oval’s loss, and Croydon’s gain, being a well-proportioned townhouse-style pub, traditionally decked out with plenty of seating, a large bar area and a pretty funky garden to the rear. Has 4 real ales on tap, supplies tasty food, shows sports and all that blah, and does late night opening with djs and whatever else goes on after I’ve gone to bed. It’s worth the trip into Croydon’s plush northern suburbs to find.
Reviewed by Fred Flange, May 2008
Telephone: 020 8686 6023
Nearest station: East Croydon, Zone 5 (350 metres)
| Saints and Sinners, 482 London Road, Croydon, Surrey, CR0 2SS |
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Not reviewed yet.
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Telephone: 020 8689 3713
Nearest station: West Croydon, Zone 5 (1180 metres)
| The Ship, 47 High St, Croydon, CR0 1QD |
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I didn’t know my youth was still alive. I didn’t even know that places like this still existed. Way too cool in its uncoolness for the centre of London, the Ship – with its large array of bitters, trad décor, toilet roll either in the urinal trough or behind the bar, but certainly never in the toilet cubicle – is a Heavy Metal pub. Guitar riffs slam out over the PA, black-clad hordes stand by the bar growing long hair and big tattoos, time swims backwards and I feel like I’m eighteen again. Some people headbang. Others play air guitar. Many simply get very drunk. Most importantly – and this is what I recall from the hazy memories of my yoot, something completely against the media image of Metal – it’s warm-hearted, inclusive, extremely social. Make like the devil and get to the Ship – it’s not only got the best tunes, it’s got the best atmosphere too.
Reviewed by Fred Flange, May 2008
Telephone: 020 8688 2810
Nearest station: East Croydon, Zone 5 (700 metres)
| The Windmill, 224 St. James's Rd, CR0 2BW |
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Not reviewed yet.
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Telephone: 020 8684 2272
Nearest station: East Croydon, Zone 5 (650 metres)
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