Baxter's Court, Hackneyback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
one of the few weatherspoons pubs where the staff seem to enjoy there work,other than that an average weatherspoonsdoes have disabled toilet
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I have a complex relationship to this pub -- I absolutely love it but it depresses me massively. I usually go here on Sundays, after a big big Saturday night when my emotions are tender to say the least. When you're so sick you can't drink water somehow a few bottles of Koppenburg cider and mushroom doppiaza make you realise being alive isn't quite as lonely and rubbish as you though it was. Sky sports news on loop can be cathartic after a while. I once spent 11 hours in the upstairs, I had 2 meals and a snack and lots to drink, it was great in the end but depressing at points. It has a nice balcony. I take my parents here for dinner when they visit me in London, they claim to like it but refuse to complain when the food is served cold, or when one time the vegetables came in the sealed plastic bag they were microwaved in. I think Weatherspoons are the new old man pubs as old men can't afford to go to places like The George (Parkholme Road) anymore. Would it be so bad to be old and be able to get the community mobility bus to pick you up from home, drop you at Weatherspoons, drink a bottle of wine for £6 all day, then get the community bus home again? Sounds OK to me.
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Whilst it is undeniable that the Pembury Tavern is in a different league altogether, this really isn't too bad a Wetherspoons. Had a perfectly respectable pint of Wexford "Irish-style ale" (wherever that actually comes from). Only complaint is that you have to walk through the smoking area on the way in.
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I think this pub has a policy of employing local people. This is a terrible mistake. As a lifelong Hackney resident, educated in the borough, I can vouch for the fact that the alumni of Hackney schools are often not equipped for working in the service industry. The staff here are nice, often witty and quite sharp, however they have little or no knowledge of beer, pubs, or drinking. They also dislike having the piss taken out of them, this Wetherspoon’s system of employing the bare minimum of staff doesn’t fit well with this.
On two separate occasions in the upstairs bar I have seen the lone barmen leave to find their colleague who suggested to us that we go upstairs to be served, rather than be served downstairs at their bar. On another occasion I saw a member of staff have a fight with a rude, drunken customer.
Although this place is cheap it is far from cheerful. Up-on-their-luck alcoholics sit alongside the seemingly deranged, while gaggles of local girls and boys loudly get drunk on cheap cocktails. If you want decent food and drink in a pleasant environment go to the Pembury. If you’re feeling a bit down and want to be cheered by the fact that there are others worse off than you go to Baxter’s Court.
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Agree with Mog 100%. Whilst there was no alternative in the vicinity this pub was a convenient stop for a bite to eat and a pint of cask-conditioned ale.
With the addition of the Pembury to Hackney 18 months ago I have not had the reason or the occasion to revisit Baxters Court. I hasten to add that the pub has not deteriorated in any way - there simply emerged a better one nearby.
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Since I made my last posting, last year, one thing has changed. There is now a very much better pub in the area: the Pembury.
If you're looking for good beer, good food, friendly, intelligent staff and general good vibes, give this dump a miss, walk round the corner and go up Amhurst Road. You won't be sorry.
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I despise wetherspoons pubs.
But this one isnt too bad.
one of the better pubs in area
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Was I in the same pub?
I notice that the most recent of the previous notices was nearly a year ago, but the place hasn't changed much since then. It's got nothing much to recommend it. It's cheap, but not all that cheerful. Usually understaffed, and the service is generally slow and surly, sometimes even aggressive [especially at closing time: stiil only 11.0 ]. Often two or three staff behind the bar lining up glasses, doing the housework, talking on the phone: anything except sell you a drink: they don't seem to think it's part of their job...
The live beer is often out of condition, and sometimes runs out altogether.
I can't believe that anybody could like the design of the place. It was an empty site, a golden opportunity to build something really imaginative, but what did we get?
A dark dreary depressing shambles of misunderstood retro styling, crap 'paintings' and superficial stupid architectural gimmicks. For example: can you believe it, the 'Atrium' in front; about 25% of the total area of the pub, is open to the sky!!! This is East London, not fucking Andalucia! Whenever it's cold or wet, which it often is, that means 25% of the pub is unusable. [They all got a bit tired of my jokes about getting the leak in the roof fixed: in the end, so did I...]
As a result of this architectural blunder, the front wall, which could have accommodated a pleasant first floor verandah, overlooking a tree-lined square outside a rather fine thirties deco Town Hall, is almost completely blank: the only small windows are on the top floor, in what appears to be a dingy passageway to the cleaners cupboards.
Actually, there is a verandah: but it's at the back, surrounded by high walls on three sides, and looking across a narrow back street at a very nondescript block of flats. It would be some consolation if they dragged the architect back and put him or her to work clearing tables and washing glasses.
Why do I go there? It's cheap and it's near, and since the demise of the much lamented Samuel Pepys, there's not all that much choice in the area, so we grit our teeth and put up with it.
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Best 'spoons I've ever been too. Amazing range of clientele and well-kept cheap beer. Interesting decor and superlative loos. Well worth a look!
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Not been there very recently but its possibly the nicest wetherspoons i've ever been in.. food wasn't bad, drinks not badly priced either
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The pub that lost its personality. Like most chain owned pubs, this "branch" of Wetherspoons on Mare Street has the design potential to be great place.
Unfortunatley, it all stops at the architechture, because this place is about as exciting, welcoming and comfortable as a dentist waiting room.
The staff are freindly enough (sometimes) - but they lack the love of the job of their independent counterparts.
The food is lousy and plastic tasting - but does that surprise you? The range of drinks is quite good and reasonably priced, but I would rather pay 20p extra for a pint served in a pub where I feel relaxed than here where I just feel like I need to clock watch.
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A functional and convenient Wetherspoons in the centre of Hackney. I found the pub highly convenient as I was in the area last night needing a quick bite, bbut ended up having a pint of well kept Thwaite's Thoroughbred.
The pub welcomes all sections of the local community, and my visit, although rare in a Wetherspoon's pub, was a pleasant one.
Lee Newton - 6 Nov 2003 16:29 |
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