East London Pub Crawl

South Central CAMRA Region London Crawl

On Saturday 19th January members from Berkshire, Bucks and Oxfordshire CAMRA groups gathered at midday in the 'Spoons at Liverpool Street station, ready to undertake an ale trail around some of east London's hostelries.
I hooked up with the friendly folk of South-Oxfordshire CAMRA, for whom I'm very grateful for letting me traipse around the pubs with them.
Leaving Hamilton Hall a little late, we were definitely bringing up the rear of the procession as we ambled along Shoreditch High Street.

The shiny new buildings of the City encroach upon the Crown and Shuttle

🕐 Crown & Shuttle (226 Shoreditch High Street, E1 6PJ)

The downfall of arriving late was that we found all three pump-clips turned around and the cask ale drunk dry by those before us at the Crown & Shuttle.

Fortunately - for most - the keg lines offered some quality alternatives - in my case a pale ale by The Kernel brewery.  
The pub features lots of exposed brick-work with a ramshackle, half-finished look to it.  To the rear was a large garden with an array of multi-coloured benches - not a feature we could really appreciate on this cold day. 

During our visit, the barman diligently cleaned the lines and pulled through the next two real ales.  Which put us even further behind as we decided we should stay for at least a half-pint of the freshly-tapped beer.  It'd be rude not to.  I picked the Hammerton 'N7' - well worth the wait, with Windsor & Eton's 'Kohinoor' being the alternative.

Moving on from the Crown & Shuttle, a short walk took us past the shipping containers that make up Shoreditch Box Park, then along Bethnal Green Road to our next destination...

🕑 Well & Bucket (143 Bethnal Green Road, E2 7DG -  website)

The Well & Bucket was a pub between 1818 and 1989, at which point it closed, became a Chinese restaurant for a short time, then turned into a shop called Leathertex.

Great news for pub fans (not so good for purveyors of East End fashion wholesalers) it returned to life as an ale house in 2013. 

And they've done a splendid job.  As much of the grand Victorian tiling as possible has been restored, looking somewhat battered, but that adds to the character.  The single large room features an island bar with an elegant glass shelving centrepiece full of spirit bottles.  Unsurprisingly for a rejuvenated Shoreditch bar, craft beers featured heavily with a good range including Mondo, Stone, Mikkeller and Thornbridge breweries.  

We didn't stop at Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium.  But it was certainly proving a popular attraction along Bethnal Green Road...

Cats.

We then deviated from the pre-planned route and headed to the Kings Arms. 

🕒 Kings Arms (11a Buckfast Street, E2 6EY)
This is a well respected drinking establishment that I'd visited several times in the past.  At first glance it looks like an old-school corner boozer, tucked next to housing blocks just off the main road.  But inside it's a smart, modern craft ale bar. The beers are listed on a large board to the back of the room - providing an impromptu eye-test - with the beer taps themselves being un-badged.
For those who'd suspect a CAMRA pub crawl would be full of weird, beardy, odd-bods who'd shun anything that's not cask conditioned real ale, you'd be wrong. 
Some of us were weird, beardy odd-bods who were quite keen on a brilliant craft ale list too.  And there were some treats here including Siren Craft 'Mind on my Honey' (too strong for this afternoons pub crawl at 10.1%, but I'd been blown away by it at the Nags Head a few weeks earlier).  Instead I opted for a slightly weaker 'Steady Rolling Man', a 5.2% hoppy pale ale from Gloucestershire's DEYA brewing company.

From here we walked for just over 10 minutes to reach the eastern outlier of the crawl:
🕓 The Camel (277 Globe Road, E2 0JD)
This is an historic pub that was ear-marked for demolition at the start of the millennium. Stiff local opposition and a 500-signature-strong petition saved it from being converted to flats. 
On this Saturday afternoon it was a buzz of activity with plenty of folk in.  It was the only pub of the day to have a TV in it - channel-hopping erratically between showing snooker, tennis and Final Score.  At the opposite end of the narrow pub was a large mirror giving the illusion the room is bigger than it really is. 
Pretty much the whole of our group picked the 'XPA' from Five Points Brewery, a wonderful tasty 4% American pale that was a contender for beer of the day.

The Camel - photo-bombed by members of South Oxfordshire CAMRA.

We headed back from here by tube to Liverpool Street, from where we could set out on foot to Brick Lane.  Which may not have been the best option as we temporarily lost half our party in the station; then found the one member of the group who had chosen to take the bus standing at the bar half way through his pint.  Next time: follow Bob on the bus.

🕔 The Pride of Spitalfields (3 Heneage Street, E1 5LJ)
This is a long-standing Good Beer Guide entrant that hasn't changed much over the years.
My picture in the dark of the pub came out a bit rubbish, so here instead is a photo of Lenny, the pub cat.

Lenny, resident cat at the Pride of Spitalfields,  Relaxed.

Maybe that's the secret of blogging success?  More cat pictures.  
Just look how popular the Cat Emporium was earlier.

I first visited The Pride of Spitalfields some twenty years ago when I'd just moved down to the capital.  And I don't think it's changed a bit since then, other than the price of a pint going up a fair bit.
It's a wonderfully convivial little traditional pub where a wide variety of punters from all walks-of-life rub shoulders.  There's standing room only this evening as I enjoy a pint of Crouch Vale 'Brewers Gold' - Champion beer of Britain in 2005 and 2006.   

As most of our group were calling this the last stop of the day, I headed off by myself into the dusk in the effort to reach one more of the crawl's destinations:

🕕 The Mahogany Bar - Wiltons Music Hall (1 Graces Alley, E1 8JB - website)
And I was really pleased to have made it to this unusual venue.

Wilton's music hall is located in a building dating back to 1690.  Originally houses, it later became an ale house trading under such names as The Albion Saloon and The Prince of Denmark. In 1828 it was furnished with a magnificent mahogany bar and luxurious fittings earning it the nickname 'The Mahogany Bar'.
Sadly this building spent the last half of the 20th century derelict until the Wilton's Music Hall Trust reopened it in 2009 with final repairs to make it structurally sound completed in 2015.
Rather than being returned to a pristine state it has been left with rough walls, bare bricks and occasional battle-scarred bits of plaster-work - all reminding visitors of the derelict state it's been saved from.    

Whilst this last point of call was very different to the other pubs we'd been to today, I'd recommend each and every one of the venues on this great pub crawl.

I missed one - the Dog & Bucket, so couldn't claim ale-trail completion.  Thanks again to those who devised this crawl and all who were so welcoming on the day.