The Ship, Rotherhithe, SE16

A comfortable locals pub, open plan with a central bar protruding, pier-like into the room. Two sets of three hand pumps with identical offerings of Young’s Ordinary and Special to both left and right. I managed to ask for Original, the proper name of the 3.7% bitter. The very young barman offered me a taster, as the new barrel had just gone on (and everyone else was drinking lager). It turned out to be better than I remember from recent visits to pubs in the West End, possibly helped by not being poured with a tight sparkler, which doesn't suit this beer. I liked it here, with numerous pictures and models of sailing ships on every wall, a pleasant, well-stuffed soda beside a sunny window, and a fireplace to my left which suggests it would be cosy here in winter. It's never going to be a destination pub for cask beer drinkers, but as a first pub of the day, 45 minutes after arriving at St Pancras, not bad at all.

A sturdy looking Youngs pub with a U shaped room wrapped around the horseshoe bar. There is unsurprisingly, given the pubs name, a nautical theme with pictures and models od sailing ships mounted on and around the walls. Despite boasting six handpumps only two were on with the expected Youngs London Original and the nowadays ubiquitous Timothy Taylor Landlord, the keg available was the usual stuff. A reasonable pub but no beer pull for me to return in a hurry.

Originally known as the Ship & Bells, this dates from 1790 and is clearly an interwar year’s pub, currently part of the Ram pen. With a modern boarded floor, the interior is relatively plain, with walls with black Anaglypta to the dado, then a combination of white painted bare brick, distressed white planking – looking a bit nautical – and brick red paintwork, with a white ceiling on high. Lighting is conventional, with metal shades over the horseshoe shaped bar, with an attractive frontage, then brassy sconces. There’s an upright piano and – worryingly – toys for potential children, thankfully absent at the time of my arrival. Thereafter, there’s an attractive 1930s’ fireplace, unused, then décor in the form of many ship images and seafaring iconography, such as model ships and lifebuoys. Furniture is conventional and customers seemed to be young professional incomers, all to an adult orientated rock soundtrack. The ale front revealed one unused pump, then Young’s Original and Special at £2.50 a half on good form and served by another suspicious barmaid. This isn’t a bad pub, better than the Brunel, but holed below the waterline by the Mayflower.

Facebook page of The Ship - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of The Ship - www.facebook.com

Made a visit to this one on a cold pre 2020 lockdown II October afternoon whilst on route to the nearby Mayflower and found it virtually unchanged from Malden mans review from six years ago. Nothing really special in this one room pub, but it is very comfortable and still has the feeling of an old school community local. Two of the pumps in operation and table service only in these covid pandemic times, but good service levels from the serving barmaid and our halves of Youngs Bitter and Special were in decent nick. It may not have the interior charm of its two nearby neighbours but this is a solid enough locals pub and you could do a lot worse.