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Submitted on Sunday, 26th January 2014
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The Gowlett, Peckham Rye, SE15
SE15
SE15 4HY
The Gowlett SE15
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Reviews of The Gowlett (Average Rating: 7 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Gowlett
If the Peckham/Nunhead area is now considered to be a worthy destination for those looking for decent ale, then the Gowlett should probably be viewed as one of the area's pioneers, having been supplying locals with consistently good beers for a number of years now - long before the craft beer and microbrewery explosion. Reaching the pub requires a bit of a trek through the back streets from Peckham Rye station, but it's worth the effort. The pub itself is a sizeable street corner affair with a large, opened out room centred around a prominent servery. The room is bare boarded, with the L-shaped servery directly opposite the main entrance. Some button backed sofas fill the space along the front walls underneath the large windows and serve a series of low, slightly impractical tables. To the right is a pleasant dark wood panelled space with pump clips running above the panels and a 'Peckham Soul' t-shirt framed on one wall. There is plenty of standard table and chair seating here as well as a couple more sofas. To the rear is an area set aside for bar billiards and a cabinet displaying some signed footballs. The servery has a dark wood counter and an unusual fully mirrored bar back. Over on the left hand side of the pub, some additional seating can be found and there was a TV screen showing muted FA Cup football, with a large pull down screen near the entrance also being used for this purpose. Music played quietly throughout my visit and food seemed to be available in pizza form only, but there was a converted double decker bus parked outside that also seemed to offer some kind of catering facility, although it appeared to be non-operational on this particular evening. Some bench seating can be found outside the front of the pub, but I didn't notice any rear beer garden.
A row of handpulls near the corner of the bar offered Belleville Commonside Pale, Brockley Golden, Harvey's Sussex Best, Sharps Doom Bar and Wharfebank Kraken, whilst the keg taps featured the likes of Leffe, Hoegaarden and Meantime Pale. I tried a pint of the Commonside Pale, which was in good nick and served by a slightly overworked barmaid on a busy Friday evening.
I thought this was a good community pub and a pleasant enough place to spend some time enjoying a few good pints. The place was too busy for me to properly settle down on this particular visit, but I nevertheless thought that the warm ambiance and traditional décor make this a very good pub and the next time I'm back in Peckham, I suspect this will be my first port of call.
On 10th February 2016
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Alan Winfield left this review about The Gowlett
The Gowlett is a back street corner pub that is in a very quiet area of Peckham Rye.
I had to wait for the pub to open at 12,once inside the main bar is L shaped with bare boards,there were a couple of leather settees to the front which looked very tatty,but this is London so they are probably meant to look like that,there was a DJ rig to the front left and a real fire roaring away to the rear left,the right side of the room is carpeted and had comfy leather bench seating with small stolls and chairs,there was also a bar billiards table and piano in this area.
There were four real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Harveys bitter £1.80 a half which had just been pulled off,this was a really nice well kept beer,the other beers were Adnams bitter and Broadside plus Otter bright.
There was some modern type background music playing.
I quite took to this pub and would happily have a good session here.
Pub visited 25/1/2014
On 25th January 2014
- rating: 8
[User has posted 6113 recommendations about 6113 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rex Rattus left this review about The Gowlett
There were four real ales on during my visit – London Pride; Deuchars IPA; Adnam’s Broadside; and Wadworth’s 6X. The 6X was excellent, and at £3.10 a pint not too unreasonably priced. There were also a couple of pumps that were unclipped. The food on offer was almost entirely pizzas, at £8 a throw, and clearly freshly made and baked. But you can buy slices at £1.50 a time, and a couple of these made an excellent and tasty snack.
There is a horseshoe shaped bar counter, with the drinking area obviously wrapped around it. The corner door brings you into what I would regard as the main bar. The floor here is bare boarded, with what are undoubtedly original boards, still with the boarded (presumably unused?) trapdoor to the cellar unusually in front of the bar counter. But maybe the bar counter has been moved at some stage. In the corner there is a DJ style music system; there’s a couple of sofas with a low table with an unusual glass panelled surface. To the right of the bar counter there is a separate drinking area that would have been a separate room at some stage. This area is carpeted, with some normal tables and chairs, and dark brown plastic upholstered banquettes and small stools. All the tables had on them those small candles.
This pub looks for all the world like a failed attempt to move upmarket. Changing the name from “The Gowlett Arms” to just “the gowlett”, and not even the more grammatically correct “The Gowlett” (whatever a gowlett might happen to be), looks to be evidence of pretentiousness to me. For a pub that was apparently the CAMRA South-East pub of the year for 2005/06, I was expecting more. But it did have four ales on, so there are some pluses, but even so I don’t think I would bother to seek it out.
On 17th August 2010
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2606 recommendations about 2520 pubs]
View more reviews of The Gowlett (5)
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- Randomness Guide to London - Gowlett entry
- Facebook - The Gowlett Pub
- Twitter - The Gowlett SE15
- CAMRA WhatPub :: The Gowlett - whatpub.com
Peckham Rye, 0.49 miles, 9 min walk (show)
East Dulwich, 0.6 miles, 11 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 10 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Bar Billiards : Yes last updated 27 January 2014 by Alan Winfield
- Beer Garden : Yes last updated 10 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Car Park : No last updated 10 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Darts : No last updated 10 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Dog Friendly : Yes last updated 10 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Function Room : Yes last updated 10 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Hot Food : Yes last updated 17 August 2010 by Moby Duck
- Jukebox : No last updated 10 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Live TV Sports : Yes last updated 10 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Micropub : No last updated 10 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Pinball : No last updated 10 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Pool Table : No last updated 10 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Real Ale : Yes last updated 17 August 2010 by Moby Duck
- Real Cider : No last updated 10 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
- Wheelchair Access : Yes last updated 10 February 2016 by Pub SignMan
