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Submitted on Tuesday, 17th August 2021
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Detail Pages
The Spurstowe Arms, E8
E8
E8 1AB
Served areas
Reviews of The Spurstowe Arms (Average Rating: 6 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about The Spurstowe Arms
This is a mid-Victorian pub, seemingly originally built for the Wenlock Brewery, situated a few minutes’ walk from hipster central: Broadway Market.
The interior is broadly J-shaped and holds few surprises given the location. The walls are black to the dado, white to the picture rail, thereon up black to the black ceiling; for once it looks quite good, even with three surprisingly neat ceiling fans, not the awful industrial ones looking like they’ve been half-inched from the set of Tenko. The rear has doors with leaded lights combining frosted panes and either red or green stained glass, so perhaps the place was run by Fuller, Smith & Turner; beyond is a decent beer garden. There are three fireplaces, one with a wood burning stove. Lighting comes from several metal shaded hanging lamps above the attractive bar, a few sconce lights fitted predictably with filament bulbs and wax encrusted bottles containing candles on the tables, the whole resulting in a pub that’s bordering on being a little dark. Furniture generally comprises conventional wooden tables, old school chairs and some pews; the floor is boarded. The large vase on the bar was still in place from Rex’s review, filled with dried flowers.
Décor comes in the form of a few wall mounted pairs of antlers, framed prints and paintings in ornate gilded frames. There are also plenty of large, framed mirrors, some ornate, part silvered, part painted and a few with silvering that has failed, giving a distressed look.
Customers seemed to be mainly trustafarian or of hipster persuasion; unsurprisingly Portishead’s Dummy played over the gramophone; there was no sign of the topless man in a black bra.
Sadly there’s now no real ale, a solitary unclipped pump hiding behind said vase. The so-called ‘craft’ selection was limited; I spotted Neck Oil. Otherwise, there’s Moretti so I opted for a decently poured Guinness at a thoroughly indecent £5.70.
This is quite a nice place and far better than expected, but the lack of real ale means a lower score by at least two points. There’s no shortage of real ale breweries in Hackney, so why not use them?
On 17th August 2021
- rating: 5
[User has posted 1985 recommendations about 1951 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Alan Winfield left this review about The Spurstowe Arms
The Spurstowe Arms is a back street corner pub that is a short walk from Hackney Central station.
Once inside there is a decent sized single U shaped room with the bar facing,the room is bare boarded and the seating is a mix of bench seating and pew seats and a few normal tables and chairs.
There was one real ale on the which was Sambrooks Wandle,this was a decent drink.
There were menus on all tables so i think it is more of a dining pub,but none in on my Saturday dinner visit.
I thought this was a decent enough pub to have a drink in.
Pub visited 11/6/2016
On 30th July 2016
- rating: 7
[User has posted 6113 recommendations about 6113 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Spurstowe Arms
This now appears to be a gastropub, with nothing like pub grub on the menu. The "28 day aged Angus burger", plus usual accompaniments is 12.5 (or £12.50 in english). The salad nicoise is also 12.5. There were a couple of ales on - Doom Bar and Sambrook Wandle (£2 a half). My half was served in a stemmed wine glass affair - my fault for ordering a half I suppose.
The place is bare-boarded of course, with loads of scrubbed wood tables, some wood settles, and normal chairs - but no upholstery. The bar counter has the usual gastro stuff on it, including a massive vase of flowers (but not lilies for some reason), baskets of limes/lemons, as well as what looked like a couple of antique soda syphons. The black painted bar counter looks an original feature - you can see where the join is between what would have been separate rooms in times past.
There was some blues and old rock (Eddie Floyd, et al) being played, but seemingly being piped only to the back on the right, and the busy garden where there was something of a summer party atmosphere going on. Obviously I avoided that area and sat in the quiet area at the front of the bar. There were one or two old mirrors about the place, and with pride of place behind the bar going to a framed and gilded display of moths. A new one on me for a pub. The barmaid said it was an original Victorian piece, and I have to say that it looked like she was right.
I didn't mind this place at all. I enjoyed a quiet drink at the front of the bar, but maybe it would get busier and noisy later (I was in at about 7.0 PM on Friday). I guess that these old Victorian backstreet pubs in this area have to provide the environment that will attract the sort of punters that now live around here. This one looks to be a survivor.
On 13th July 2015
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
Pubs Galore is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
- Official site of The Spurstowe Arms - www.spurstowearms.com
- Randomness Guide to London - Spurstowe Arms entry
- Facebook - Spurstowe Arms
- CAMRA WhatPub :: The Spurstowe Arms - whatpub.com
London Fields, 0.45 miles, 8 min walk (show)
Hackney Central, 0.52 miles, 10 min walk (show)
Pub Details
Pub details supplied by members of this site to the best of their knowledge. Please check with pub directly before making a special trip.
- Accommodation : No last updated 17 August 2021 by Tris C
- Bar Billiards : No last updated 17 August 2021 by Tris C
- Beer Festivals : No last updated 17 August 2021 by Tris C
- Beer Garden : Yes last updated 13 July 2015 by Rex Rattus
- Car Park : No last updated 13 July 2015 by Rex Rattus
- Child Friendly : Yes - Highchairs. - last updated 17 August 2021 by Tris C
- Darts : No last updated 17 August 2021 by Tris C
- Function Room : No last updated 17 August 2021 by Tris C
- Hot Food : Yes last updated 13 July 2015 by Rex Rattus
- Jukebox : No last updated 17 August 2021 by Tris C
- Karaoke : No last updated 17 August 2021 by Tris C
- Live Music : No last updated 17 August 2021 by Tris C
- Live TV Sports : No last updated 17 August 2021 by Tris C
- Micropub : No last updated 17 August 2021 by Tris C
- Pinball : No last updated 17 August 2021 by Tris C
- Pool Table : No last updated 17 August 2021 by Tris C
- Real Ale : No last updated 17 August 2021 by Tris C
- Real Cider : No last updated 17 August 2021 by Tris C
- WiFi : Yes last updated 17 August 2021 by Tris C
