Kennington pubs
| The Beehive, 60 Carter Street, SE17 3EW |
|
This fine establishment has seemingly been dropped from outer space into the middle of a South London housing estate. It is certainly not a grotty backstreet boozer and would be more suited to one of the more well-healed districts of West London. The walls are adorned with a variety of modern art pictures together with an assortment of bric-a-brac including decorative childrens potties. Quite bizarre. The beer selection included four ales: Wadworth 6X, London Pride, Directors and Speckled Hen; and for the whisky fans there is a bewildering array of single malts located in a cabinet behind the back bar. There is a very appealing food menu here, although this was not sampled during our review. There is also television located in the corner close to the main door for sports fans, which on our visit showed a hybrid between gymnastics and moto-cross. It's less than 10 minutes walk to Kennington tube and well worth taking the trouble to find in amongst the back streets. Recommended.
Reviewed by Paul Melton, Jul 2004
Telephone: 020 7703 4992
Nearest station: Kennington, Zone 2 (500 metres)
| The Black Prince, 6 Black Prince Rd, SE11 6HS |
|
This large, ramshackle Victorian pile clings grimly to its spot near the Kennington Lane crossroads, looking about as inviting as an election day special with Iain Duncan Smith and Norman Tebbit. I enter anyway, and immediately wheeze for breath in the lunar atmosphere of another fun-packed Friday evening. Five grey men stand around the bar, served by another grey man. Plates hang on the walls, and above the bar stand life-size models of a pig, a ram and a cockerel (why?) BBC News 24 chunters silently on the big screen and every so often the juke box is prodded into life, belting out a selection of traditional Irish 'classics' and some Motown. I sit and stare into the middle distance (and it being a large pub, there's quite a lot of that) fidgeting uncomfortably as the word 'Bannockburn' is repeatedly bandied round the bar. Hideous curtains cut off any promise of the outside world. All of a sudden, a woman walks in, begins to arrange party food across the tables and the juke box spontaneously comes out with a Bob Marley song. I begin to imagine life, love, hope and a better future. A disco is slated to happen later in the night, and if it filled with people, I can imagine this place transforming Cinderella-style into a truly rocking South London boozer. As it is, my evening takes me elsewhere, so all that's left for me is to imagine...
Reviewed by Fred Flange, Feb 2005
Telephone: 020 7735 2307
Nearest station: Kennington, Zone 2 (500 metres)
| The Little Apple, 98 Kennington Lane, SE11 4XD |
|
I had long been intrigued by this pub, it being close to the Health Centre I used to visit when I lived in the area. A curved, red brick 1930s building, appealingly floodlit in green at night, it had always looked exceptionally cosy. I was rather disappointed, therefore, when I entered with my girlfriend and found most of the original fittings removed and the central bar demolished, creating two large interconnected rooms rather bare of features. Some blokes were playing pool, older men sat at the tables and watched the world go by. We got two pints of Gunness from the uninspiring beer selection and sat in the far room, away from the pool table. A number of facts slowly began to align in my head: 1) The decor. Orange walls, a red carpet, white ceiling, dark red skirting. 2) The music. From Prince to Kylie, missing out the 90s altogether and relentlessly disco. 3) The pool-playing bloke obviously exploding with curiousity as to what we could be saying, who came and very unsubtly sat on the stool near us, which wasn't by any table, pretending to read the food menu as he eavesdropped. 4) The other two old men sitting in our part of the pub, arms draped over each other. Rather belatedly, the penny dropped. Does food (including the tasty-looking 'little apple breakfast'), has Sky TV and puts on discos (on I think) Friday and Saturday nights.
Reviewed by Fred Flange, Feb 2005
Telephone: 020 7582 7911
Nearest station: Kennington, Zone 2 (260 metres)
| The Prince of Wales, 48 Cleaver Square, SE11 4EA |
|
Cleaver Square is part of the posh Other London that keeps itself quiet, rarely seen or noticed, cheek by jowl with the rotting hulks of buildings most of us are forced to inhabit. The Prince of Wales (the pub, not the man, although he wouldn't be out of place) sits at one end of the square, part gastropub and part old-fashioned boozer, no TV or thundering music to distract from the important food and drink-related activities going on within. Occasional alarming interjections - as when a woman suddenly asked the couple next to me if they needed a part time chef - remind you that you're mixing with the lords and ladies of London, but overall it is a decent and unpretentious sort of place, with a quiet but friendly atmosphere and good food and drink. Also useful if you're on the lookout for a chef, the evening chores being too tiresome after a day spent firing the office staff and exploiting third world nations.
Reviewed by Fred Flange, Nov 2006
Telephone: 020 7735 9916
Nearest station: Kennington, Zone 2 (260 metres)
| South London Pacific, 340 Kennington Road, SE11 4LD |
|
Not reviewed yet.
Want to review it?
Telephone: 020 7820 9189
Nearest station: Kennington, Zone 2 (510 metres)
| The White Bear, 138 Kennington Park Road, SE11 4DJ |
|
Sprawls monstrously around a central bar. Endearingly tatty. Theatre goes on go upstairs, and therefore sometimes there can be a very peculiar mix of people gracing the battered sofas; the football crowd, the pub quiz crowd and the theatre crowd, all at once. Which shows the general cosmopolitan nature of pubs, and therefore makes me very happy.
Reviewed by Fred Flange
Telephone: 020 7735 8664
Nearest station: Kennington, Zone 2 (280 metres)
All content © Random Pub Finder 2001-2008, website development by
Doogal
