The Joiners, SE5

The pub has a horseshoe bar split between the front and back rooms. Boarded floors, high tables in the front bar plus bar stools. The back bar has more going on, there is a pool table in here plus a stage for bands and so on plus a separated area with a couple of decks. Pool and the juke box are free, the music was pretty loud in the back room however leading me to seek peace in the front. The front room is interesting, one wall is fully tiled with a central focal piece of the Joiner's Livery Company with the slogan "Join Truth With Trust". An area of etched glazing over the entrance states that this is "Camberwell's Whisky Bar". Decor does include a large selection of whisky boxes as well as dart flights, Gaellic football photos (good one of Croke Park) and golf balls and clubs. There is also a large 1950's Bakelite radio on display. A few drink related slogans are stencilled on the upper walls. Food seems based on home made pizzas and pie and mash, two pumps in the front bar and three at the back, the two on were Goddards Fuggle Dee Dum and Caledonian 80/-. An interesting and worthwhile pub to drop by.

This is a CAMRA London Heritage pub, so you can expect something special inside. And it doesn’t disappoint with pride of place taken by the tiling covering the entire right wall of the front bar (which would originally have been the public bar), featuring the arms of the Joiners’ Livery Company. Unfortunately it’s clearly been used as the backdrop for a dartboard at some stage. These original features have only relatively recently become treasured, now that they’re no longer commonplace. The front room has mainly tall tables/stools, but there is a separate, and larger, room at the back, with its own bar counter that is furnished with normal tables and chairs. There’s a pool table in the back room as well, and the large skylight (now largely obscured) indicates that it may originally have been a billiards room. The front bar had two pumps, clipped with Adnam’s Lighthouse and Caledonian 80/-. After hanging around the front bar for a while I went round to the back bar in search of some bar staff. The counter here had another Lighthouse clipped pump, and another with a Harvey’s Best clipped reversed. The barman there said that the Lighthouse was off but that they had Landlord on – which he fetched for me from the front bar. All a bit confusing, but it tasted fine. There was no sign of any food or menus when I was in there at around 5.45 PM on a weekday. This one is definitely worth a visit to see some rather exceptional 100+ year old tiling. In fact the pub as a whole is quite unpretentious, and the evidence is there of a reasonable selection of ales. I’d drop in again if I was passing, but I don’t think I would make the trip to Camberwell just to visit this pub.