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Picture of The Leytonstone Tavern
Image posted by paulof horsham
Submitted on Tuesday, 11th July 2023
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The Leytonstone Tavern, Leytonstone, E11

119 Harrow Road
E11
E11 3PX
Correct details

Served areas

Reviews of The Leytonstone Tavern (Average Rating: 5 of 10) Add Review see review guidelines

Tris C left this review about The Leytonstone Tavern

Dating from 1865, this was originally the Woodhouse Tavern, a name it held until at least 2003 and formerly a Charrington’s house.
On approach, there’s some fine residual glazed tiling to the left-hand side and sizeable ‘LOUNGE’ tiled sign above the entrance; there’s also a lot of flimsy polythene covered gazebo-style stuff for smokers then covered right-hand extension.
The first thing you notice is that the interior is a thoroughly - therefore recently - modernised affair. You also can't fail to notice Front of House standing behind her lectern, asking me if I’d booked a table. As an avowed quaffer I hadn’t, but was told that I could drink at the cramped bar. Otherwise, the floor’s worn boarded, threequarters-height smoky blue modern panelling then off-white to a similar ceiling. There’s a tubular steel bar back and furniture is modern, laid out to maximize dining capacity. Décor amounted to trendy/pretentious prints of characters such as Grace Jones and Elvis, then others bearing legends such as ‘Love…Too Beautiful To Hide’ or ‘If You Can Dream Then Anything Is Possible’. The place was rammed with seated diners, young professional types, munching on burgers and burritos as the house speciality, photos of which can be seen in abundance on their website, many items looking like something from John Carpenter’s The Thing. Ambient mood music played but was all but drowned out by the sound of very loud conversation.
Beverages included not one cask beer, then a veritable ‘who’s that’ of keg stuff trying to look ‘crafty’, but unheard of, me opting for something called Exhale Skoosh IPA at £3.25 a half, served by a smiley barmaid.
With the lack of pub authenticity or cask beer (not to mention the trek to get here) I can’t really recommend this place, but it may be a good food destination, which is really what it is and no longer a pub.

On 23rd January 2024 - rating: 3
[User has posted 1956 recommendations about 1923 pubs]


Please Note: This review is over a year old.


Steve of N21 left this review about The Leytonstone Tavern

Formerly a traditional working man’s boozer known as the Woodhouse Tavern it has had a chequered past in recent years and was shut and derelict for a while around 2012 and came perilously close to being pulled down and converted into flats. It got a stay of execution when it was purchased in 2015 by a property management team who restored and refurbished the original wood features and had ideas of making it a bar and events venue and opened it as the questionably titled Larj Lounge. This didn’t last long and it shut as quickly as it opened and it looked again like this 150 year old pub was going to be lost for good and turned into more flats or a supermarket.
Fortunately, it was purchased mid last year by the same team who own the nearby Duke up the A113 in Wanstead and has now been done up and reopened in December 2018 as a “pub and dining room” and has been renamed the Leytonstone Tavern.
As I was in the area to visit the Red Lion and the North Star, I thought I’d take a look and I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised and suitably impressed.
Firstly, from what I could see the new owners have paid homage to the classic pub style and a lot of the original features including the exterior tiles, etched windows and the excellent wood panelling and superb fire place in what I assume was the original lounge bar all still remain.
With a lot of wood period tables and chairs, interestingly the former lounge is no longer the focal room, but what I am guessing was the public bar is now the main room you enter by modern glass doors and has been given the usual gastro pub makeover with stripped backed wooden floor, Farrell and Ball green wood panelling and white ceiling and beams colour scheme and again wooden tables throughout with some padded seating booths around the edges. I never visited in any of the former guises so do not know if the internal space was there already, or whether this room has been extended out to the side with the addition of a modern conservatory space.
The two rooms are now connected internally through a smallish opening next to the two bar sections, which have four groups of 4 shiny brass beer taps, two on each bar section, which sport large numbers and you have to look at the large chalk board above the bar to see what’s on them.
Alongside a couple of Lager and Guinness draft offerings there was an interesting collection of Craft beers in the form of Founders All Day IPA, Neckstamper Brewing Elbow Crooker, Sirencraft Enrich and Undercurrent Oatmeal Pale Ale and Hammerton Brewery Crunch Stout and one from Mad Squirrel alongside a couple of ciders from Hawkes.
Good friendly service levels and when I went for the Stout the barmaid was very quick to point out it was a Peanutbutter Milk Stout and almost insisted I went for a taster first to make sure I liked it. I did and as the main bar seemed to be more utilised for dining and I had spotted that there was a pull down screen in the wood panelled former Lounge back bar which was in operation for the football I took my pint of Peanut Butter stout through here to watch Barcelona toy with Man United for a while. And it was only when I had done this that I noticed the back bar had three ale pumps on it and that the ELB Foundation Bitter on the chalk board was a cask ale from the back bar.
You can say what you like about the continued gentrification of East London and the continued expansion of Craft Keg, but if this is what it takes for a fine former Victorian boozer like this one to stay functioning as a pub, then I am all for it.

On 15th April 2019 - rating: 7
[User has posted 2094 recommendations about 1985 pubs]

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Pub location see interactive map of local area
Map location corrected by Just a quick pint, then I'm off
Leytonstone High Road, 0.45 miles, 8 min walk (show)
Wanstead Park, 0.95 miles, 18 min walk (show)
Forest Gate, 1.03 miles, 19 min walk (show)
Latest updates View all updates for The Leytonstone Tavern, E11
23rd Jan 2024, 12:03
Review submitted by Tris C amended by Tris C
 
23rd Jan 2024, 11:46
Review submitted by Tris C amended by Tris C

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 03 July 2023 by paulof horsham
  • Bar Billiards : No last updated 23 January 2024 by Tris C
  • Beer Festivals : Yes - September. - last updated 23 January 2024 by Tris C
  • Beer Garden : Yes last updated 03 July 2023 by paulof horsham
  • CAMRA Discount : No last updated 23 January 2024 by Tris C
  • Car Park : No last updated 03 July 2023 by paulof horsham
  • Child Friendly : Yes last updated 03 July 2023 by paulof horsham
  • Darts : No last updated 23 January 2024 by Tris C
  • Hot Food : Yes last updated 22 June 2023 by paulof horsham
  • Jukebox : No last updated 23 January 2024 by Tris C
  • Karaoke : No last updated 23 January 2024 by Tris C
  • Live Music : No last updated 23 January 2024 by Tris C
  • Live TV Sports : No last updated 23 January 2024 by Tris C
  • Micropub : No last updated 22 June 2023 by paulof horsham
  • Pinball : No last updated 23 January 2024 by Tris C
  • Pool Table : No last updated 23 January 2024 by Tris C
  • Quiz Night : Yes last updated 22 June 2023 by paulof horsham
  • Real Ale : No last updated 07 December 2022 by Rex Rattus
  • Real Cider : No last updated 23 January 2024 by Tris C
  • WiFi : Yes last updated 23 January 2024 by Tris C
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