The Queen Victoria, Bermondsey, SE16

Official site of The Queen Victoria - www.craftunionpubs.com

Official site of The Queen Victoria - www.craftunionpubs.com

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.