A Greenwich to Deptford Pub Crawl

A bank holiday Sunday trip to the capital to explore a few bits of Greenwich and Deptford that I hadn't visited before.  The plan was to mix up a couple of traditional pubs with some modern bars and breweries.  And here's how it went...

Catching a Southeastern train from London Bridge, we hopped off at Maze Hill, the closest station to our first pub of the day.

Plume of Feathers (19 Park Vista, Greenwich, SE10 9LZ - web)
This attractive pub on a smart street at the bottom of Greenwich Park traces it's history back to 1691 when it would have been a coaching stop on the Dover Road.
The front of the pub is full of character, a square bar facing the entrance and looking out from each side onto cosy seating areas.  A handful of locals were settled in the window seat by the fireplace, although most of the punters had obviously been attracted by the Sunday lunch offering.

I ordered a Harvey's 'Sussex Best', in good nick, with Windsor & Eton 'Hurricane' or 'Windsor Knot' being the other cask options. 
Lovely pub, but I'd much rather visit outside of food service times.  Tables being at a premium, we perched on stools by the back bar, right next to where the staff trod on each others feet, broke the occasional wine glass, and stressed over juggling reservations, and who was going to take the payment from table seven.

There was, however, some interesting artwork in the WCs...

Mild smut in the gents - an ongoing series

Leaving the pub, we felt it only right to make a diversion through Greenwich Park to the observatory to take in the views over East London.
Crikey, it was busy. Thousands of folk seeming to be shuffling in a procession up the path to pose for pictures with Canary Wharf in the background.
We marched up to the top of hill, then we marched back down again. And through the side-streets to this gem of a pub...

Morden Arms (1 Broad Street, Greenwich, SE10 8SP)
'Without a pub sign or even name' says WhatPub, although they can't have been very good at looking up, as 'The Morden Arms' is in the brickwork on the parapet in the corner.
A one-time Courage pub, it's the kind of unspoilt ramshackle place that you don't find very often these days. One single room, with a bare wood floor, mismatched furniture and - quite honestly - the worst complimentary cheese and biscuit offering I've seen in a long time.

On the bar counter (with a great bit of artwork above it) were four hand pumps. Local ale from Brockley and Forest Road breweries, Doom Bar for the purists, or an Iron Pier 'Wealdway' IPA from Kent.
Poured by a grumpy fella who looked put-out by having to leave his seat and crossword to serve me. He gave me short shrift for not having seen the cash only signage, so it was fortunate I had real money in the wallet.

A blackboard advertised plenty of live music - the Magic City Trio arriving shortly after us to begin setting up in the corner.

A great soundtrack played in the meantime included Darondo's 'Luscious Lady' and Nolan Porter 'Keep on Keepin' on', before some more familiar Buzzcocks and Blondie.

I have to apologise to the dog in the picture below.
It took 5-minutes of staring at me like this before I realised he wasn't posing for a picture but wanted me to open the door for him... 

There were a fair few folks arriving for the afternoon music session and I felt a pang of guilt that we weren't sticking around to listen to the band.  But we still had four more stops on the itinerary to make and wanted to be on a homeward-bound bus at a sensible hour.

Crossing the Greenwich-Deptford boundary, we were heading to a brewery tap.
Footpaths alongside railway arches, bridges over partly redeveloped docklands, and Top Cat grafitti - sounds like the right way to a brewery tap.

Here it is...

Little Faith Taproom (Artworks, 3 Creekside, Deptford, SE8 4SA - web)
A little off the beaten track, Little Faith was short of custom on a Sunday afternoon.  Just a few folks in the covered courtyard at the side of the building, leaving us a with the bar to ourselves.
All the raucous noise was coming from the gravel car park across the road where there was either a private party in a portacabin or a secret brewery tap - we weren't bold enough to look closer.  And we were a week too late for the punk rock Sunday lunch at the fantastic looking Birds Nest pub on the corner.

Twelve taps dispensed beers from the likes of Anspach & Hobday, Lost & Grounded and Pressure Drop.
Just tap#1 offered one of Little Faith's own brews - 'New Colours', a 4.9% hazy pale.  £3 for a half of very easy-going murky craft, sat amongst a collection of old advertising signs, listening to 50's rock 'n' roll.

Mrs PropUptheBar had said we could go anywhere in London as long as it involved a brewery in a railway arch.  Her wish is my command...

Villages Taproom (Units 21-22 Resolution Way, Deptford, SE8 4NT - web)
Located just off Deptford High Street, the arches under the railway line contain eateries, a gym, fabric wholesalers, and the Villages brewery tap.
This was established in 2016 by brothers Archie and Louis Village, although they've recently sold the business to 52-degrees Brewing who also own Backyard and Grasshopper breweries.

The single arch with half-a-dozen big tables was much busier than my picture makes it look.  Shortly after we grabbed our seats it was full with a youthful crowd, a DJ spinning some interesting psych vinyl in the corner, gradually drowned out by the hum of conversation.

Surprisingly enough, Villages also offered a cask ale alongside eight tap beers.
Not only that, they'd built a shrine for it! 

The 'Full Bloom', a 4% hazy pale ale, was an easy-drinking flavoursome pint of murk, priced at under a fiver, and most enjoyable. 

We walked the short distance from the railway arches to the market yard, 
Running along one side of this is the 1835 carriage ramp which would have provided access to the platform level.  Now restored, the arches under this contain various street food options and Deptford is suddenly looking a whole lot hipper than I would have given it credit for.
At the far end of the market is SALT...

 

SALT Deptford (Unit 2, St Paul's House, 3 Market Yard, SE8 4BX - web)
A rectangular ground-floor unit in a modern block, this was previously Taproom SE8, run by Hop Stuff.  When they ceased trading in 2021 SALT stepped in to takeover their sites in Woolwich and Deptford, giving them a presence outside of their Yorkshire base.

The tap list contained five of their own beers alongside those from a few other well-known crafty brewers.
I have a bit of a gripe that our request for a smaller measure than 2/3 of a 7.5% saison was denied - really?  no thirds or halves?

My SALT 'Citra' did a fine job of washing down an enormous pizza, whilst around us the tables filled up with a good mixed crowd of folk.

Full of pizza, I realistically had no space left for more beer.  But that wouldn't stop me trying to squeeze one more half pint in.  
For this, we strolled up the High Street and into the housing estate on Prince Street to reach the Dog & Bell.

Dog & Bell (116 Prince Street, Deptford, SE8 3JD)
For a change we found ourselves somewhere not just busy, but really busy.
A large bar counter stretches through two rooms with several banks of hand pumps.  I didn't properly investigate what was on offer, finding a gap and ordering the beer that was in front of me - a quite acceptable 'Sugar Moon' from The Park Brewery, Kingston-on-Thames.

Rammed it may have been, but we did manage to get a comfy seat in a dimly lit rear room.

In the packed outdoor area in front of the pub, I never did find out why there was a man inside a column of leaves...

Just so long as Lord Summerisle doesn't turn up and set it alight.

Three traditional pubs & three modern venues for the murky craft connoisseur.
Being as I'd only decided which part of London to go to a few minutes before setting off for the bus, I was quietly chuffed about how the day had gone.

Fagan's, Forest and the Fat Cat

Three Sheffield pubs, all happening to begin with 'F', plus three more modern venues which we visited alongside them, as our explorations of the city got off to a good start.

We arrived in a grey overcast Sheffield on a Sunday lunchtime, wandering the streets of the city centre, visiting the Winter Garden and learning all about steel in the Millennium Gallery. 
After which we declared it was a quite acceptable time to visit the pub, picking one with a striking mural on the side...

Fagan's (69 Broad Lane, Sheffield, S1 4BS)
The pub is named after Joe Fagan, a wartime bomber command pilot who went on to be a long-serving landlord here from 1947 to 1985, when it was known as the Barrel.
The interior hasn't changed much since a refit in 1953, except to add an extra room at the back which used to be private quarters.  The snug to the right of the entrance, named the Dram Shop, looks cosy and tempting, but I fancied sitting in the main bar alongside the handful of other customers.  Proper pub seating and wood panelled walls decorated with pictures of RAF planes.

I grabbed myself a pint of Abbeydale 'Moonshine', the other ale available being Tetley's.

Fagan's is a great old-school pub.  Forget ordering by scanning a QR code on your app - it was 'cash only' as we picked food from the snack menu, hand-written on a bit of paper and pinned to the notice board next to the bar.

We may have opted for a "snack" but our sandwiches were door-stoppers, with a portion of chips large enough to feed a small army.  Watching the enormous plates of fish 'n' chips and all-day brunch being delivered to the next table, this is somewhere to bring your appetite!

Next up, we walked a couple of minutes across the road and through an alleyway to find the Perch Brewhouse...

Perch Brewhouse (44 Garden Street, Sheffield, S1 4BJ)
A pretty dramatic change, then, from being sat in the traditional surroundings of Fagans.
Situated in an old workshop, Perch has high stools and canteen-style chairs in a modern rectangular room with fancy lighting and a retro PacMan video game. 

The Dead Parrot Beer Company is located in the yard behind the bar, with four of their beers available on cask when we visited.  An 'Aardvark Biscuit' 3.8% bitter was my pick, because putting 'biscuit' in the name is all it takes to sell it to me.  

The next planned stop was some way away... it involved a trek through Kelham Island and a walk up our first Sheffield hill.

The Forest (Rutland Street, Neepsend, Sheffield, S3 9PA)
As with the Perch, the idea to come here came from the Sheffield CAMRA guide to the cities breweries, where I'd spotted it was the tap for the nearby Toolmakers Brewery.

'Parked cars in way of pub picture'...one of an ongoing series

The Forest is a basic no-thrills boozer: cricket on the TV and a handful of locals putting the world to rights over a pint on a Sunday afternoon.

Unfortunately most of those locals obviously had a Pub Seating Allergy, unable to tear themselves away from the bar to use any of the empty tables. 
And not one of them budged an inch to assist me getting to the bar to be served.
Not very welcoming - almost makes me nostalgic for last year's table service.

My second gripe was that the mild was undrinkable.  It was changed with no fuss, other than a sample being delivered to the landlord who agreed it was past it's best.
The replacement 'Battleaxe' bitter was okay, but I just didn't warm to the place on this visit.

The Forest wasn't Mrs PropUptheBar's favourite pub.
What was needed to cheer her up was craft beer, so it was handy that Heist was just down the hill...

Heist Brew Co (107 Neepsend Lane, Neepsend, Sheffield, S3 8AT - web)
A quick perusal of the menu and I'd spotted a peanut butter stout called 'When a Beer's so Lit it Turns you into a Bagel' - safe in the knowledge that someone was going to be happy.
There's plenty more to choose from, both Heist's own beers as well as interesting guests.  Sticking with thirds enabled us to try a few, including a quite marvelous 12% Imperial black IPA from Loch Lomond Brewery.

There are two beer halls adjacent to one another for busy times, but on our Sunday teatime visit just the main one was in action.  It's a super place with chunky bench seating, good-looking food coming out the kitchen, extreme skiing on TV and folks playing shuffleboard.
And an arcade corner, which is nicely out of the ordinary...

 

Leaving Heist, we headed back across the river and onto Green Lane, where we'd spotted the opportunity for more craft murk at SALT.  It's located next to the grand triumphal arch that once led into the Green Lane Works.

SALT (Unit 1, Green Lane Works, Green Lane, Kelham Island, S3 8SE - web)
Cask ale aficionados were being catered for with four hand pumps dispensing Ossett beers, but I fancied the chance to try one of SALT's own creations that didn't come in a can from Tesco.
This time I was being sensible after picking the strongest things in Heist - not even a normal IPA, but an 'IPA Junior', which was impressively flavoursome for its lower ABV.

Murk - the Citra NEIPA JR

Based in Saltaire in West Yorkshire, SALT have recently opened taprooms in Leeds and London as well as this Sheffield venture, unveiled in December '21.  The food offering from a hatch in the corner was from Bao Mesters, enabling us to accompany our beer with some tasty buns and gyozas.

 

'Say hello to Retired Martin' was on my list of things to do in Sheffield, so I was happy to get a message from him asking where we were, then saying he could be at the Fat Cat in 10 minutes.
Google Maps: 25 minutes, RM Speed:10 minutes.

Here's a picture of the Fat Cat from earlier in the day, as I've given up on night-time photography...

Fat Cat (23 Alma Street, Kelham Island, S3 8SA - web)
Not much needs saying about the Fat Cat (which is convenient, because I always run out of things to say about pubs by this stage...)
It's got Jarvis painted on one side and a colourful Fat Cat mural on the front which wasn't there last time I was in this neck of the woods.
The next door neighbours, Kelham Island Brewery, supply a number of the beers alongside guests - served on the top form that you'd expect from somewhere that attracts tickers from far and wide.

It was lovely to catch up with Martin, who probably missed some fine Sunday evening TV to come down the hill for a couple of pints with this tipsy idiot.  Luckily Mrs PropUptheBar was on hand to provide some intelligent conversation.

Oh goodness me, I don't really look like that do I?

This artists impression of me on the way back to the hotel, suffering the after-effects of the double IPA from Heist, is much more accurate...

More Sheffield in the next post, in which I head off the beaten track for Polish fast food and trek across town to find the Heritage Pub has decided not to open until we'd left town.
Cheers! 🍺