The Florence, Herne Hill, SE24

The Florence situated very close to the main eastern entrance to Brockwell Park is a much-remodelled Victorian Corner pub that is now very food led but did at least have a couple of ales on. At some point it has had the full usual Gastro pub makeover with the usual exposed brick, pastel colour shades and several separate dining sections with the usual clean laminated wood flooring in some and coloured floor tiles in others. It’s part of the Metropolitan Arm of Greene King, whose pubs usually have a couple of local guest brews alongside their own insipid offerings, but unfortunately not here, where TT Landlord was the only other option alongside the Hardys & Hansons Bitter masquerading as the house Florence Bitter. It was very busy, mainly with people eating and the young upwardly mobile of SE24 seemed to like the place. But it really wasn’t doing it for me and if I was looking for a place to have Sunday lunch in Herne Hill I would have chose the nearby Half Moon over this one.

Second venue in this crawl around Herne / Tulse Hill this evening. This was a rather plush venue with nice seating options, stools with backs at the counter all along the external windows (overlooking the park in my positioning), high tables (you had the circular or oblong option) with more traditional bar stools, dining tables with traditional dining chairs, leather banquettes around the internal walls. In other words this was effing seating heaven and literally had something for all seating fans. And I don’t mean a random mish mash of tables and chairs this was beautifully co-ordinated. It was busy and became busier during my 6.30-7.15 stay here and the initially quite loud but tasteful music eventually got drowned out by the well heeled of this part of South London plotting world domination. Plenty of keg options but cask was TT Landlord and their own labelled bitter - the Florence Bitter, OK but nothing special at a tad under 4% abv. Assume this is some GK brewed swill but nothing to demark it on the clip. In reality I would have given it a 5.5 as I feel I would return to a 6 but I can’t see myself returning here but it is slightly better than a 5. I would be disappointed if I didn’t find a better one this evening.

Another much-refurbished pub, which in this case has gone for the posh dining room look with polished floors, dark woodwork and smart furnishings. There is a nice high ceiling but it is painted dark brown. I can't say I was over-impressed by having to wait for the barman to serve a pot of tea to the table in the corner, nor by the rather dodgy TT Landlord (the other cask option being the GK house ale). The surroundings are not unpleasant though.

Substantial pub overlooking Brockwell Park. Partially opened-out inside to leave an almost islanded bar, with additional seating / dining areas off to one side (one with a glazed enclosure housing the micro-brewery kit). Quite dark paintwork offset by generally light furniture. Three of four handpumps in each of the two banks in use, with Greene King IPA, LBF Beyond the Pale and the in-house Craft Academy Pale (£4.20).