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New pub visits 2024 with Tris39
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Detail Pages
The Queen Victoria, Bermondsey, SE16
SE16
SE16 3RP
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 4½ of 10) see review guidelines
Tris C left this review about The Queen Victoria
This is a 19th century pub with attractive brown glazed tiling to the exterior’s ground floor and along with the Blue Anchor it’s one of two Craft Union pubs along Southwark Park Road, this being by far the more civilised and relaxed of the two, though it’s all relative.
The carpeted interior now has some trendy wallpaper featuring an enlarged A-Z of the area, otherwise dark grey walls. Furniture is mixed, with some vinyl booth-style banquette seating with little of the interior remaining aside from some wood panelling to the entrance vestibules. There’s no bar back, just some pine planking to hold the bottles, décor comes courtesy of some eclectic mixed framed prints, which probably come from a shop which specialises in selling such stuff. Customers are resolutely older locals, mainly sitting in silence, oblivious to the loud jukebox which metamorphosed into karaoke as the evening progressed.
With four unused pumps, the best option was a half of Guinness (£2.50), served by a suspicious barmaid.
This place may serve as a local community hub, but unless you’re from the locality it’s of little interest.
On 12th July 2023
- rating: 3
[User has posted 1993 recommendations about 1959 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Queen Victoria
They had one ale on in here - Courage Best (£1.65 for a half). The pump facing me at the front of the bar counter discouragingly (pun intended) had a Courage Best clip reversed, but there was another pump hidden away down at the far end of the bar counter on the left that was in use. There was no sign of any food when I was in on Thursday afernoon.
This is another down-to-earth Bermondsey boozer. This one is a classic Victorian corner site pub with a classic Eastenders pub name. The main room as you enter is dominated by a pool table in the middle of the floor. There is a small raised and balustraded area on the left as you enter, with a large TV sceen on the wall above it. A dartboard graces the wall between the main bar and the smaller room on the right - in fact this wall is dedicated to darts as the board is surrounded by chalkboard scoring boards, and a shelf at the top of the wall bears a number of darts trophies. Furnishings throughout the pub are normal tables and chairs, without any sight of sofas or tall tables.
The room meanders around to the left of the servery and if you keep going past the toilets at the back you arrive in another small room. I also spotted a very small (now unused) access doorway in the wall between the rooms, which is a throwback to when this pub was built, and when it would not have been possible for customers to move between the rooms without going out into the street, but the access door would allow cleaners and the like easier access.
This is a real pub, which had a good number of apparent locals in on a weekday afternoon. There are no luxuries or pretentions on show here. A more interesting beer than Courage Best would be a big plus, but my half was in good nick. This is most certainly better than most Bermondsey pubs, but to be honest there's not a lot of competition.
On 6th January 2013
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]