East Ham pubs
This is the London that the Daily Mail pretends not to know about. It's an intoxicating cultural melting pot that comes to a boil every Saturday night in the Denmark Arms.
| The Boleyn, 1 Barking Road, E6 1PW |
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The first thing I saw upon entering this temple of all things West Ham was a bloke in a Robbie Fowler Liverpool shirt. Oh. Having been let down so gently, it instantly became clear that this monster sized pub was a genuine oddity. Several different lounges curl around a huge central bar, conversation drifts gently, the beer is fine and the clientele varied. A new toy in the massive rear bar (this pub really is big, and I can't emphasise that enough) is a video jukebox with a toe-curling selection of eighties "classics" that had everyone under the age of 20 laughing, and everyone over that either wincing or staring in total incomprehension. A sea of pool tables drifts off hallucinogenically to one side. I suspect it could be a bit of a nightmare on a match day, but otherwise this truly is a marvellous place. Go on, visit it. West Ham need your money...
Reviewed by Fred Flange
Telephone: 020 8472 2182
Nearest station: Upton Park, Zone 3 (730 metres)
| The Central, 150 Barking Rd, E6 3BD |
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A large, slightly battered old building with very big windows, this takes its name from Central Park in East Ham, which is central to absolutely nowhere at all. Mostly painted a sort of russet red on the inside, it still has hints of grandeur about it, mostly through the size of the rooms and the occasional remnant of baroque decoration. Sadly, the huge back room is no longer in use, its final spurt of life back in the 1980s evident from the mirrors clumsily bolted to the walls. You can look through the door to it on the way to the toilet and imagine livelier times. Beer-wise, added to the usual corporate crap on sale is the odd decent bitter, and for entertainment it has a pool table and several large screens, the two in different rooms usually showing different channels while the third is permanently glued to the horse racing on teletext. Pleasant barstaff and a cheerful, diverse crowd make up for the feeling that this is a pub already past its best. The closed curtains on a Friday and Saturday night suggest a bit of after-hours drinking may go on.
Reviewed by Fred Flange, Apr 2005
Telephone: 020 8470 6686
Nearest station: Upton Park, Zone 3 (930 metres)
| The Denmark Arms, 381 Barking Road, E6 1LA |
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A sprawling monster with a penchant for club nights, lazy Saturday afternoons and karaoke on Sunday (when all types and ages can be found belting out Cher hits). What crowd you get depends on when you go, but the range of punters is incredibly diverse at any time - cheerfully ranging across all age and racial barriers. Sunday evening is recommended for maximum insanity
Reviewed by Fred Flange, Feb 2003
Telephone: 020 8472 0535
Nearest station: East Ham, Zone 3,4 (700 metres)
| The Duke of Edinburgh, 299 Green Street, E13 9AR |
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Perhaps not the most appropriate name for a pub as culturally diverse as this. The first time we visited, we sat by the bar with the other punters watching a Diwali celebration passing in the street outside. Can get slightly loud in the immediate aftermath of a West Ham game, and the crisps were a bit suspect, but they are extremely minor points.
Reviewed by Fred Flange
Telephone: 020 8548 2691
Nearest station: Upton Park, Zone 3 (40 metres)
| Overdraft Tavern, 202 High Street North, E6 2JA |
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Our first impressions of this place were not good: 90s stripped pine décor and anything on tap as long as it is lager. Scratching below the surface we found something more pleasing: a stellar barman who was willing to go the extra mile to find the football match we wanted to watch and reasonable prices at the bar. The pub attracts a mixed blend of clientele from locals and West Ham fans to Sikhs and Eastern Europeans and everything in between. The unthreatening atmosphere, friendly banter and profusion of TV screens make this an ideal place to watch the Saturday afternoon football. The pub also possesses a hexagonal pool table – the only one we’ve ever seen.
Reviewed by Paul Melton, May 2008
Telephone: 020 8471 3585
Nearest station: East Ham, Zone 3,4 (30 metres)
| The Ruskin Arms, 386 High Street North, E12 6PH |
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The Punjabi word 'paanch', meaning 'five', is where we derive the word 'punch', with both its meanings of a five-fingered fist in the face and five spirits mixed in a bowl with fruit. It was, therefore, quite appropriate that in this well-loved Punjabi drinking den I had to break up a drunken squabble in the toilets. Two men walked in, began a very heated conversation in Punjabi and squared up to each other. Toilets, as I told them, really aren't the sort of place for this sort of thing, especially with a third party nearby trying to ease the pressure on his bladder. They looked embarrassed, promised me they were best friends and headed back out again; I later saw them sat together at the bar, laughing and sharing a joke, so no damage done there, then. About a year ago the Ruskin Arms decided it was a restaurant, and the canopies above the windows bear the motto "Ruskin Arms Restaurant", with "Punjabi Restaurant" painted round the door. It was with considerable disappointment that I discovered this no longer to be the case, and I initially thought the pub had reverted back to something like normal. To call the decor in this place completely minimal would possibly be an understatement; when I first walked in I was overwhelmed by the cavernous emptiness of the place: no carpets, wallpaper, pictures or anything, it's just like an old school hall with long arrays of plain wooden tables. It was only when I was standing at the bar, being served by one of the statuesque Eastern European barmaids that I realised I was standing in the shadow of a colossal figurehead. Above the bar runs a very ordinary garden fence, and through the fence a motorcycle has crashed, throwing out its rider (a leather- and helmet-clad skeleton, no less) in a cantileved sprawl over the centre of the pub, arms akimbo, skeletal face twisted into a paroxism of horror. Uh, weird. I stared at it, while the locals just carried on drinking and playing cards.I didn't think it was a Punjabi thing, but didn't like to ask, so I took my drink, sat down and watched the cricket on a tiny TV perched somewhere near the ceiling. Later, while inspecting the further recesses of the cavernous gloom, I discover that the pub plays host to a veritable legion of Death Metal bands on various nights of the month, which sort of explains it. So now this place has turned into a Punjabi/Eastern European Death Metal gastro-pub that doesn't serve food. Right. A veritable vortex of weirdness, but mighty pleasing for all that.
Reviewed by Fred Flange, Aug 2004
Telephone: 020 8472 0377
Nearest station: East Ham, Zone 3,4 (550 metres)
| The White Hart, 249 Green Street, E7 8LJ |
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This place almost seems to be falling down. The walls are in a state of disintegration, the ceiling is peeling, there appeared to be little in the way of furnishing apart from a few tables, some West Ham memorabilia and a glass case full of empty alcohol bottles. I was disturbed by the thought it could collapse if one of us sneezed too hard. Structural matters aside, it is a fantastic place. It has an immensely cheerful atmosphere, lively banter, a broad range of (very polite) punters, decent booze and delightful barstaff. Small TVs, a pool table, a dedicated South Asian cricket audience and a total lack of heating in the front bar add to its distinctive charm. Well worth a visit
Reviewed by Fred Flange, March 2003
Nearest station: Upton Park, Zone 3 (420 metres)
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