BITE user comments - buzzard1
Comments by buzzard1
I must agree with the recent comments. From the outside and to an outsider perhaps passing through the area on the #8 bus, you could get the impression this is a rough pub. Well it isn't. Friendly owners and staff, and by friendly I don't mean the standard "friendly" that some east end boozers band around, meaning if you're not already known you have to work on your welcome. This place they serve with a cheer, and they have a good selection of ales and lagers. It's a "drink like the old days" kind of place, in keeping with the decor.
Recommended
30 Sep 2009 15:42
Nice boozer indeed. Standard lager fayre on the pumps, but a good pool table, some good bandits and a massive tv. Pleasant ambience. Mind the pool table though. Everyone was sneezing when I was there. Not one for a girls night out.
17 Aug 2009 18:11
I drank so much here in 2000-2003 that I can't walk past this place without feeling disorientated unless I have sunk half a dozen pints of smirnoff ice and a few black russians before midday. This part of Fetter lane just doesn't make sense to me except through bleary eyes. I miss the wonky pool table, and the smell of toasting pizza drifting down from the restaurant upstairs competing with the aroma of stale minstrels from the machine in the corner. On a quiet day, I can still here the shrill of the bell followed by the dulcet tones of the giant landlady shouting "ring that bell again and you're barred" in the wind. Rat and Swan have moved to pastures new (Rat to The Crown and Swan to Artillery Arms) but if this place was open still, sure as eggs is eggs, their names would be occupying 90% of the names scrolling up the golden tee best scores machine. A legend has gone. I'll still rate it highly, even though it is closed for those memories.
8 Jul 2009 12:01
The Hare and Billet, Blackheath
Glasses smell like they have been washed in the pond across the road (but that is common to all pubs in Blackheath). Standard food fayre. I had ham, egg and chips and while I was the only person in the pub, the eggs were overcooked, and the chips burnt so I wouldn't write home about the food. Beer was nice enough if you don't smell when you drink. They have sky tv, but don't seem to show it unless you ask. I was there for the 1st day of the 1st test at lords, and the staff had no idea it was on. So, a nice pub setting, but missing a few tricks.
9 May 2009 12:45
There must be something in the water in Blackheath. All the pubs glasses smell like they have all been washed in the pond. This one was particularly bad for smelly glasses. But it does have a beer "garden" (or terrace) that catches the sun, and you can run across the (busy) road for a punt in the (empty) turf accountants so you could have a good time here if you held your nose. I also like the fact they scrubbed out the 8 in "new menu, 2008" and replaced the 8 with a 9, while leaving the "new". It kind of somes up the place. Good if you want a pint, and not care too much about the furniture.
9 May 2009 12:39
I wonder if this place is owned by the same people as the crown the other side of the park? Same paintwork, interior decor theme, and same beer selection (good old addlestons and sharpes doom). I like the crown a lot, but the Britannia seemed a bit souless probably because it is much bigger, and was emptier (echoing the point about lack of custom mentioned below). If they fill it up it is probably a different place. It strikes me as the kind of place you could take a family during a day out in the park. It does have a park facing beer garden and serves a great pie dish. I hope it does well but my visit was unremarkable
9 May 2009 12:32
Nice boozer. Struck me as having a lot of space. Typical east london beer selection (no brown beer). Flat screens . Atmosphere was friendly. Didn't try the food
9 May 2009 12:25
This looks like another place in the area that isn't open during the day. It least it wasn't on the thursday afternoon on both times I tried.
9 May 2009 12:21
locals (i.e. rough) boozer, with punters shuffling between the pub and the bookies next door. Got some pool tables, and flat screens showing the sport, and the usual lager fayre. I wouldn't make an effort unless you live in the neighbourhood and want a boozer/bookies double act for the afternoon.
9 May 2009 12:15
Doesn't open until 3pm on weekdays so wasn't open when I came to look around.
9 May 2009 12:05
Bowhammer is right. It has reopened. And it has been refurbished. Or it has at least been given the spring clean it needed as I could at least see through the glass when I walked past it last weekend.
16 Feb 2009 15:47
The Paternoster, City Of London
The price of drinks in here is now bordering on the ridiculous. It is an amiable place, and sufficiently well staffed to cope with the busiest of periods so there's not too much waiting around at the bar, but why would you bother anymore when you can go to some of the off-piste boozers in the area like the White Horse or Lord Raglan and not walk away thinking you have just been robbed.
9 Jul 2008 11:14
As dangerous for vistors as a Kandahar bazaar on market day. Freehold for sale "with potential for redevelopment" according to AG&G.
30 Jun 2008 10:49
Now reopened, it is not a typical boozer for the area (think gastro in E3) but probably the most reflective pub of the changing area in this part of the smoke. I was impressed. Can't comment on the freshness of the beer as it is has just reopened, but it has taken a punt that the typical drinker will stay for a session if the atmosphere, beer and food are good and it seems this place has come out of the blocks strongly. Great view of the park but not the most accessible being a hike even for the most determined of drinkers, but the staff were very polite and the interior is well thought out. I like the fact the dining rooms upstairs are separate although I didn't sample the food. Attracts a young probably professional crowd mixed with the curious from the neighbourhood, and I hope it keeps up its promising start.
14 Apr 2008 21:13
I've been visiting this pub on and off for the last ten years and it has had its ups and downs. I'd say this is in one of its better phases. Beer is well kept, and the staff are neither rude nor friendly: they just seem to be getting on with their job. If you want to be on first name terms with the staff in this area, go up the road to the tipperary. The interior keeps a sense of history notably via the floorboards and wooden fixings, and while busy it is usually possible to secure a seat because the throughput in the pub is quite high with passing trade. Food is pretty good. I think they still even have the pickled eggs in the corner cupboard at the back that looks like it should be hiding a dart board. Shame it isn't open at weekends though. Finally if you hear people talking of a rat in this place, it isn't a concern. A gentleman who goes by the pseudonym rat is in there all the time, and his name usually comes up in the context of drinking games and a failure to get a penalty drink down. Nice chap though.
7 Apr 2008 15:27
Dropped in here accidentally at the start of a crawl round these parts ( while we waited for one of our crowd to turn up eventually dragging him off the virtual roulette in Hills up the road ). Wasn't disappointed. We ended up staying for three and there were even free sandwiches. Guinness was excellent. Banter was friendly and hearty. The random music selection on the jukie ranged from classical to hard rock, which provided great entertainment. I think orientbear's review below got it spot on. A good find.
7 Apr 2008 13:35
The Old Duke Of Cambridge, Mile End
Took a peek in here one saturday afternoon after being recommended it by a regular at Top Of The Morning. Wasn't dissapointed. A pub - a bit like the Palm Tree in Mile End - that has been caught in time from days gone by. Small enough that the landlady could bake sausage rolls between pints for the punters, and friendly enough that friendly east-end banter was soon enough forthcoming once it was clear I wasn't in there for just a cheeky one. Bland beer selection though, but for people who look beyond beer choices aone as their method of grading pubs then this boozer a good one.
2 Sep 2007 13:12
The Top Of The Morning, Victoria Park
A quality boozer on the edge of Victoria Park, although perhaps not one for people who like rotating guest taps of real ale, or those who are afraid of others who use the F word every other time. I frequent some of the other pubs on there that are regularly (by which I mean more than a dozen times a year) voted in the top 10 on here, and this ranks amongst them. A hidden gem - a rough diamond.
Genuinely an old-style, bona fide east end pub without the nastiness others may have come to expect from this neck of the woods. I was in there today and the landlord (Sean) won one a punt on the feature race at Glorious Goodwood and bought the pub a pint. For a pub of this class, I doubt many can say they have this essence of atmosphere. 10/10
4 Aug 2007 17:14
The White Swan, Holborn
When this was the Mucky Duck in/around late 2000, this was the location where the ubiquitous "panel" was formed. During the final of a routine game of spoof, Orf and Reilly went head to head. It was clear Orf had lost, but in a last minute attempt to escape the penalty, he feigned a distraction (by pointing at the ceiling) and dropped one of the coins from his hand to the floor, cushioning the coins fall with his feet. He nearly got away with it but Buzzard saw it. To decide the consequence from the bluff, the panel was formed, consisting of Rat, Swan and Buzzard. The penalty issued is lost to history, as too (these days) is Orf.
Now called the White Swan (and not connected to the panel member Swan), this is a nice quiet little boozer, certainly one for ladies as they have a good wine selection.
23 Oct 2009 13:50