The Bridge Inn, 2 High Street, Penge

A bold experiment, this. Penge’s Bridge Inn was once just a musty shadow under the railway tracks, but new owners have come in with an extraordinary vision. They seem to see a funky, cosmopolitan, self-confident district where others see a destroyed suburban tundra served by trains that arrive as frequently as Halley’s comet. They have refurbished the Bridge Inn accordingly, and it’s a pretty lavish job, departing from the New Baroque-by-numbers script in many and varied ways. There’s now an expansive wooden deck at the front, a kind of strange cafeteria-style bit just inside the entrance, an Edwardian lounge next to that, and then upstairs gets all stripped-back and wooden, containing the bar, a few tables, a sofa or two and a long area that slightly reminds me of a school hall, followed by a patio and garden. Not small, then, and definitely food-oriented, with vast families of Pengeites drifting in for a monstrous (and monstrously expensive) repast. It’s not all perfect: the beer selection is pretty crummy for somewhere with such lofty aims, the food is on the pricey side, and the black olives (okay, yeah, this is getting really petty) were pitted and dyed, i.e. came straight out of a supermarket tin, which is not really on when I’m paying £2.50 for a little bowl of them. But to be honest, such minor pretentious quibbles aside, the attention paid to this refurb, into creating what is essentially a brand new pub, has paid off handsomely, and it’s a welcoming, relaxed, friendly place. Is Penge the new Islington?

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