The Royal Oak, Borough

Fabulous find in the back streets of Borough. There aren't many good Harvey's pubs in the area, but this counts as at least three. Beer and food delicious, ambience is spot on, and if you can't spend a pleasant evening here you've got no business going into pubs at all.

Obviously some music thing going on, with leaflets for festivals and - oh dear - the odd musician. Which can be OK, but the evening we were there was not; one of these painfully earnest, painfully loud, painfully self-indulgent acoustic guitarist/singers IN A HAT who churns out tastefully-fashioned cliches as if they were searing exposes of the human condition. We made our excuses and moved to the other bar: no tedious twanger of the twelve-string was going to ruin our pint of Armada.

10 Dec 2010 15:55

The Holloway, Holloway

Not only closed, but gutted - the place is a shell. No idea whether it's going to re-open, but the estate agent's sign is residential. With any luck this miserable excuse for a boozer has gone for good.

10 Dec 2010 15:46

The Rose and Crown, Southwark

Great London boozer, with a surprisingly large beer garden. Staff very friendly, and the food at lunchtime is classic pub grub in portions big enough to stun a nutritionist. No big screen TV, no loud music, the punters are a mix of teams from the netball/tennis courts nearby, office workers, and the odd bishop (the beer garden is part of a churchyard). The beer is Shepherd Neame, which you like or you don't, but it's well kept and the seasonal beer changes about once a quarter (currently on the the ve' fine Whistable Bay; will be on Late Red soon enough).

Although it's close to Waterloo, the South Bank, the London Eye, the Globe, Tate Modern and all that stuff, the Rose and Crown feels like an out-of-the-way gem. If you're a tourist in the area and want to know why the British pub is so important to the culture, sinking a couple of beers here will explain it superbly.

3 Oct 2010 19:00