The Ship, Rotherhithe, SE16

Randomness Guide to London - Ship entry

The Ship wasn't on out initial pub crawl but we needed somewhere to watch the England v Poland match and this was as good a place as any. The first impressions were that of a straight forward no nonsense boozer. Very polite and chatty barmaid (we were somewhat soaked from walking to the pub). Decent pint of Youngs (not my favourite brewery but quite drinkable). Locals were fine – switched channels on TV for us, adjusted volume for us even asking if it was loud enough. Although it was dark, there appeared to be a small but quite attractive illuminated garden outside. 2 TV's for sport etc. Basically an unspectacular but decent honest pub that catered for our needs at the time.

This is essentially a backstreet locals' pub – epitomized by the large Millwall FC “No One Likes Us” flag at the end of the pub. There were half a dozen or so regulars in on a Wednesday lunchtime, all sitting at the bar, and when one left all the others said goodbye by to him by name. It has the typical, yet attractive, Young's pub exterior. Inside it is now a single-room pub with an island bar, but clearly in the past the different doors led to different rooms. They only had Young's Bitter on, but it was OK. There are two very large plasma TVs on two of the walls; both were on with the volume tolerably high, showing a documentary about the Waco siege, with only one person watching. The models of ships sitting on top of the bar gantry is a nice touch. There was no food unfortunately – presumably there is insufficient call for it. Probably just as well as the smell of cleaning products was a little off-putting. All in all this is a pretty decent backstreet pub. The piano is still there as well. I would be happy to return.

I visit The Ship occasionally when I get together in London with a mate I went to college with in the 70s. We discovered it by accident, fell in love with it and now make a pilgimage there, for a refreshing pint at the end of a pleasant stroll along the river. A real pub with real people, something that's very rare and special these days.