The Duke of Fife, 350 Katherine Road

Finding a pub on match day close to West Ham’s football ground can be a challenging experience these days. The pubs nearest to the ground fall into one of the following categories:

1. So full that even if you manage to cram yourself in, you will have to wait 20 minutes to get served;
2. Full of dangerous psychopaths from Essex;
3. Demolished to make way for flats;

So it was with great delight that we found a pub that was a) still standing and apparently serving beer, b) contained a healthy cross section of the local community plus some West Ham fans and c) wasn’t rammed.

The pub occupies a sizable late Victorian building. Inside, all that remains of its heritage are two circular cast iron columns sitting in the middle of a large open bar area. It feels like a barn with the bar sitting at the far end, minimal seating and (eek) laminate flooring. There are two pool tables to keep the local “yoof” occupied. The photo of Bobby Moore over the bar holding the Jules Rimet cup aloft commemorates the local footballing hero.

Drinks-wise there are the usual suspects at the bar (Fosters, 1664, Stella blah blah blah) and on the wall-mounted screen there’s more satellite TV than you can shake a dish at. Basically, that’s all the ingredients you need for watching a match with the lads. Incidentally, on our visit there were only lads in the pub and no women. We couldn’t even see a ladies toilet. In spite of this, we don’t think this is a pub for men who are romantically attached to each other, although at one point we did start to wonder when the Village People’s YMCA started playing on the juke box.

Whilst this is certainly not a great pub, it provides enough to keep both locals and football fans alike happy.

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