The Talbot, SE4

Official site of The Talbot - www.thetalbotbrockley.co.uk

Official site of The Talbot - www.thetalbotbrockley.co.uk

There were four ales on in here, which came as a pleasant surprise after already visiting several pubs in the area which did not serve real ale. The ales on were Fuller's Front Row, Harvey's Best, Salopian Shropshire Gold, and Brockley Pale Ale (£2 a half). I didn't see any sign of food, but I was in after 3.0 PM and maybe they had stopped serving by then. Despite the remnants of Charrington's signage outside, there's nothing of heritage interest inside. It's now a thoroughly modernised pub. The walls up to dado level are painted a sort of indigo colour and cream above it; furnishings are mainly hard wooden recycled church chairs with mainly scrubbed light wood tables. Obviously there's a coffee machine on the bar counter, along with large jars of nuts and the like, as well as the now ubiquitous water container. Music was retro in the extreme - I recognised tracks by Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers. There's also some bench seating outside. The beer choice was pretty good, but I didn't think that it was really a comfortable enough place for me to want to spend any length of time, although I'm sure that it would suit many people down to the ground.

I seem to have caught this place at exactly the wrong time, having visited not long after the pub changed ownership. This pub was, by all accounts, a bit of a dilapidated mess when the previous owners took it on, but they managed to turn things around and the pub appeared in recent editions of the Good Beer Guide as a result of their hard work. The current owners took over in August 2014 and my visit seems to have been timed during their redecorating phase, as all of the walls were painted white but had been left completely bare. Sadly, this left for a very bland, sterile feeling pub devoid of warmth or character, so one would hope that this gets addressed pretty quickly. The pub has a single room layout with the servery opposite the main front door and seating areas to either side. The room is bare boarded with an L-shaped servery which had a large coffee and tea making station at one end. Furniture is mostly scrubbed tables and standard chairs, with a few high tables and stools here and there. A few bits of CAMRA literature and flyers for local events were knocking about, but the lack of visual distraction was very, erm... distracting. There is a good amount of picnic bench seating out the front, but it's not the most pleasant spot you're likely to find. We had a good laugh watching one bloke have his bench invaded by the pub cat who seemed determined to position himself between the customer and his pint. The staff were very friendly and welcoming and obviously keen to make a good impression with their new enterprise. We were also afforded a warm welcome from the lovely pub dog. Four handpulls were offering the choice of Clarence and Fredericks Cascadian Black, Brick Sir Thomas Gardyner, Harveys Best and Mighty Oak Sun Downer. I noticed a pretty good bottled beer range and my impressions were that the owners were keen to maintain their inherited reputation for good ale. My pint of the Brick enhanced that opinion and went down very well on a hot summer's afternoon. This was clearly, at least I hope, a work in progress and merits a revisit to establish if it's going to emerge as the charming locals pub it could easily be transformed into. If the décor is to remain minimal, then it's possibly still worth a look for the beer range, but wouldn't merit more than a quick look before moving on. I'll be interested to see which way this one goes.