Royal Standard, Deptford, SE8

This Courage pub still displays its red and gold Courage box sign and dates from the 19th century. As mentioned, this is a totally modernised pub with a modern boarded floor, bar fashioned from planks with some corrugated iron sheeting, lots of dangling filament bulbs with some hanging lamps created from barrels, mixed furniture and games machines with a Space Invaders arcade game housed in a repurposed K9 phone box. Customers were young and few on a Saturday evening, probably backpackers from above, then a multitude of helmeted Deliveroo drivers collecting food from a kitchen hatch, completely dominating the barman’s time. However, what I didn’t initially realise is that there was a barmaid sitting across from me at the bar, sipping a drink and ignoring me. I made a note of the time, gave her five minutes then pointedly walked out, dodging a lousy fizz range hence the grade which if served with a drink, would have elicited a '3'. No doubt built as the sister pub to the Royal George at 85 Tanners Hill, one of these pubs is where you’ll want to spend an evening, one of them is one you’ll want to avoid.

Official site of Royal Standard - theroyalstandardpub.co.uk

Official site of Royal Standard - theroyalstandardpub.co.uk

There was no real ale on in here - the lone handpump hiding at the far end of the bar counter was not in use when I visited. There are some less usually seen keg (some might call them "craft") lagers, such as Lucky Jack, which is an American style pale ale brewed by an unpronouncable brewery in Stavangar, Norway, and Big Wave, from the Kona Brewery in Hawaii. The latter was £2.50 a half, but it had presumably travelled a long way to get to St Johns. This is the sort of place where you are given your change with a receipt. I guess this must now count as a gastropub judging by the prices and the stuff available (for some reason I didn't have the enthusiasm to list the menu items and prices). The kitchen doesn't open until 5.00 PM - or at least it didn't on the Wednesday afternoon when I dropped in. This is obviously an old traditional pub whose interior has clearly been wrecked - others may say that it has been given a modern and quirky twist. There's the typical exposed brick wall; some reclaimed wood is on another wall; the modern bar counter front is painted a sort of distressed blue/grey; and the ceiling has some sort of wooden thing on it as decor presumably. There are several bits of artwork painted directly on the walls and ceilings - the ceiling has an opening blasted through the ceiling painted on it showing a blue sky above it, and one of the wall has painted on it an aeroplane crashing through. All very surreal. All of the modern canteen style tables were laid for diners (obviously I sat at one to drink my half of Big Wave), with a clutch of sofas at the back. This struck me as a caff pretending to be a pub. The only other customers in were a bloke at the bar engaged in conversation with the barman, and a couple of builders in high visibility jackets (presumably from the building site opposite) sinking their pints of lager. It looks as if a lot of money has been spent on making this place look as charmless as it does. It's not for me.