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Pub annoyances #834 with Tris39
on the Pub Forum
Detail Pages
The Crown and Shuttle, Shoreditch, E1
E1
E1 6PJ
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 6 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about The Crown & Shuttle
EDITED:
I've deducted 4 points from my previous review as this pub conducts mandatory bag searches. This is ostensibly a respectable neighbourhood pub not a dodgy nightclub. Bag checks are a gross invasion of privacy.
14-5-2013:
This pub has just reopened having been boarded up for an incredible 12 years. Externally the pub is painted grey with the name fascia painted bottle green with the letters picked out in gold; along with the stepped gable it is very pretty. Internally the pub is very distressed - deliberately so. Walls are rough hewn bare brick, the floor is of rough, probably original, floorboards. Adorning the walls are remnants of stained and leaded windows, perhaps reclaimed from the original pub. Furniture is traditional and eclectic.
The pub is quite deep and the side bar runs almost the entire length. Lighting is provided by both bare bulbs on long flexes and ceiling lamps with black enamelled shades. To the rear is a surprisingly large and sunny beer garden. There's a gastro menu which reads well and I think eating is at table, i.e. no dedicated eating area.
Great service was provided by a very friendly barmaid. Aside from premium lagers and cider, ales on offer include several from the Meantime brewery, Hoxton stout, Truman's Runner, Doom Bar, Redemption's Urban Dusk, Hackney brewery's Golden Ale and Adnam's Explorer. Pricing was surprisingly reasonable considering the pub's location between the wealth of the City and the gentrification of Shoreditch.
One minor complaint: the bar stools are made of pressed steel with a metal rim running around the top - it's like sitting on a razor blade. That aside, I would certainly go out of my way to visit this pub if vaguely in the area, though I suspect that it's probably heaving on a Friday or Saturday night.
On 26th August 2013
- rating: 4
[User has posted 2004 recommendations about 1970 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Crown & Shuttle
They had six ales on handpump when I visited on Saturday lunchtime – the same as the previous reviewer found, except that I didn’t see the Hoxton Stout but they did have Thornbridge Brother Rabbit. The menu does have the cask ales listed. A word of caution though in case like me you march straight up to the bar without consulting menus first – the cask ales are on two banks of three handpumps with the first bank readily spotted as you enter, but with the second bank down at the far end of the long bar counter. I have to say that I didn’t consider the prices reasonable, based on having to pay £2.20 for a half of Truman’s Runner. It would be astonishing if they did pub grub in somewhere like this. The so-called “big meals” on the menu come “served in a homemade wheat beer & poppy poppy seed flat bread”. Prices range from £6.50 to £8 for such things as “crispy Loomswood duck, watercress, raspberry and beetroot”. I’m not sure what that would look like, as I didn’t make this my lunch stop.
The exterior looks quite enticing, but the interior’s been completely trashed. Whatever was on the walls – probably wooden panelling – has been removed at some stage leaving just exposed brickwork. There are some nice bits of furniture, such as an ornate carved wood sideboard, and plenty of attractive high backed chairs coupled with normal wooden tables. There’s virtually no decor on the walls – just a few remnants of old leaded light windows hung there, as already speculated possibly from this pub. I suppose the idea is that the exposed brickwork itself is seen as interesting enough. I didn’t see any TVs or fruit machines, and there was some music playing but I didn’t find it too intrusive.
The room stretches back, through brick archways of course, into another room that looks as if it is a later addition to the pub. The furnishings in this room look more basic, including wooden benches and some cheap looking plastic chairs. This room’s roof is sloping, and includes some skylights providing some welcome natural light. This room leads out to a fairly large garden, which is something of a luxury so close to the centre of London.
This is a thoroughly madeover pub, with no original features that I could see. Although it’s good to see a long-closed pub brought back to life, this isn’t really my sort of place, and I found the expensive beer – expensive even by London gastropub prices – somewhat offputting.
On 20th May 2013
- rating: 5
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]