Walthamstow pubs

I used to live next door to the doorman of the pub and he quit with PTSD. A decent enough place during the day to eavesdrop on the banter of the market traders, by night the pub fills with violent maniacs fuelled by coke and vodka. If you last longer than your ice cubes you're doing OK. Well off the beaten track, this pub is easily worth a visit. Nicely decorated inside and serves about four real ales. Its isolation can be tempered by a summertime stroll across the marshes to the wonderful Anchor & Hope in Clapton Walthamstow and its pubs have a certain reputation. Some, like the Rose and Crown, work hard to disprove it. Others, like the Victoria, dont work hard to disprove it but do anyway. Then there are pubs that do everything they can to reinforce it.

The Goose, a horrid chain pub full of violent Eastern Europeans, drug dealers and their clients, is one such pub. It's a real tragedy that this cesspit is the first you come across when you come out of the station. I lived across the road from this pub for a year when it was run by a Scots guy who would have lock ins where he would bring his CD player from upstairs and play Bob Dylan albums until 4am. Good times.

The pub had a few lean years after that and at one point I heard that they had even had to cancel their Sky Sports subscription because they couldn't afford to keep it. This was a shame as it really is a beautiful building and fantastic example of pub architecture.

Happily it now appears to be making a bit of a come back. Serves a part of Walthamstow with little else going on. In most parts of the UK 'Irish pub' means fir and mna on the toilet doors, the Pogues on the jukebox and Guiness logos on everything else. In London, 'Irish pub' simply means Pub with Irish blokes in it.

The Market Inn is one of these authentic Irish places. Small, could do with a touch up and not the most welcoming place, it is a much more accurate reflection of the experience of drinking in Ireland than an O'Neill's. The framed Celtic shirt is the only concession to blarney.

The only pub in this vicinity since the closure of The Coach & Horses and the arson attack on Central Station. There are some real dives in E17 so I feel a bit bad about saying anything against one of the ones that isn't. But the Nags feels less like a pub and more like a creche at Nathan Barley's office. Full of people called Jez and Tabitha (who will be ostentatiously breatsfeeding a child called Rupert or Electra) it strives for an air of quirkiness by covering its walls with pictures of James Dean and Humphrey Bogart, serving rank tasting fruit beers and covering its tables with cloth with a shag so deep you can barely get your pint glass to stand up. The lamest pub in the Village. A beautiful old building which, once upon a time, was Walthamstow's leading War of the Roses themed pub with maps of the battle of Bosworth, pictures of George, Duke of Clarence, and swords (rather unwisely) on the walls.

This business model failed and the pub closed a couple of years ago only to reopen under new ownership and it's been a massive change. The large upstairs space is now a busy theatre and the pub serves as a hub for a resurgent E17 art scene. The pub has also gone heavily down the real ale route with three to four well kept beers on at any time. Most amazingly, the walls have been cleaned.

A real gem of a pub. One of the decent pubs in Walthamstow. The Queens Arms is situated in the trendy Village area but retains enough of the rough and ready charm of the area while remaining a welcoming place for a pint. Looks proper grot from the outside and used to have a bit of a 'reputation'. Take a deep breath, ascend the stairs, and you'll see how undeserved it was.

The Vic used to be the bar of the cinema next door which played host to The Beatles, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, The Stones... Drink in the Vic and you are drinking in the shadows of legends A quintessential British boozer situated in the gentile enclave of Walthamstow Village. It's just a short walk and half a world away from bustling Hoe Street. The narrow frontage belies the fact that this is actually a rather large pub. It seems to extend back for miles before spilling out into a generously proportioned and very pleasant beer garden. It specialises in real ales which can be enjoyed on warm lazy summer days in the splendid garden. We at the Randompubfinder sometimes go to extraordinary lengths in the name of beer and this pub review is no exception. We had recently learnt of a pub in East London that brewed small quantities of beer on the premises and quickly made up our minds that we had to go and review it. In the US an enlightened younger generation are turning their backs on the mass-produced lagers and microbrew pubs are now all the rage. The concept of microbrew pubs is not new. In the olden days all pubs would brew on the premises and were required to advertise the fact they had beer available by hanging a bunch of hops over the front door. Later, pubs were ordered by law to display a sign over the front door and this custom developed in to the pub signs we all recognize today. This particular pub is a good fifteen minute walk south from Walthamstow Central into the fringes of Leyton. The pub’s leafy exterior reveals itself on the left hand side of the road just south of the Baker’s Arms crossroads and a sign confirmed our suspicion that this was indeed the right pub. Inside, the cavernous space was heated by a roaring fire to the left of which was a well-used dart board. A mixed bunch of locals, mostly men, sat drinking pints, while in the background Heart FM floated on waves of beer fumes. As we alluded to earlier, the pub is the home of the Sweet William Brewery and unsurprisingly the bar offered all three of their beers: Brodie’s IPA, Brodie’s Mild and Brodie’s Red. We opted for the IPA first and were pleasantly surprised to hear that our pints would cost less than £2 since it was “Happy Hour” until 7pm. As we stood at the bar we noticed that a second and equally colossal part of the pub extended back beyond the bar and lead towards a beer garden. There was a friendly chat with one of the locals at the bar about “Get Carter” followed by a pint of Mild. A big floppy screen lowered itself from the ceiling and a Carling Cup match featuring a crap team from North London ensued. Apart from big screen sports, the pub has occasional jazz nights, but the big attraction is the beer and the friendly banter, both were well worth the trek from the tube. A truly great pub.

---

All content © Random Pub Finder 2001-2012, website development by Doogal