Montpelier, Peckham Rye, SE15

The backstreet pubs in this part of Peckham have all been quite heavily gentrified and that is certainly with this place, although unlike nearby food-led pubs such as the Victoria Inn and Prince Albert, this place feels very much like a drinker’s bar and was suitably packed on a midweek evening as a result. You enter into a spacious front section with bare floorboards and a mix of plush banquettes in the front corners and basic tables and chairs elsewhere. Walls with low wood panelling, a dado rail and blue painted upper sections have been liberally decorated with all manner of arty posters, miscellaneous photos and one particularly huge plain mirror, whilst an upright piano nestles snugly into a space over to the left. The servery appears midway into the room, along the left-hand wall and has a dark wood panelled counter front with an unusual brick tile top and simple mirrored bar back. High tables and stools run along the wall opposite the bar under some fairly light-strewn windows, creating a bit of a pinch point in this narrow section. Thankfully the room opens out again to the rear where a few more tables and chairs can be found around a rear fireplace with a decorative mirror above it and more art prints on the other walls. An alcove to the rear leads to the toilets and has been completely covered in old beer mats, whilst another door leads to a small cinema which hosts regular screenings. Obscure hipster tunes played in the background and posters advertised upcoming live music evenings. The pub offers a decent selection of cask ales by Peckham standards, with By The Horns Diamond Geezer, St Austell Tribute, Truman’s Swift and a beer called Seaside Resort by an unknown brewer all available on this visit. My pint of the Diamond Geezer was very nice and served to me by a friendly enough barmaid and with the pub being so packed I was forced to stand and drink it at the end of the bar next to the water dispenser which one woman used and unbeknownst to me, didn’t turn off properly, resulting in me discovering a few minutes later that I was now stood in a huge pool of water! I liked the lively midweek crowd that this pub had drawn, which made for a great atmosphere enhanced further by some decent beer. The pub seems to be targeting younger, craft beer drinking customers but with several well-conditioned cask ales on the bar as well, I was more than happy enjoying my pint in here and would suggest it’s the pick on the three backstreet pubs in this part of Peckham.

The ales on here were Brick Brewery Kinsale, St Austell Tribute, Truman’s Swift, and Brixton Brewery Electric IPA (£2.15 a half), presumably named after Electric Avenue in Brixton. This was the first time that I had encountered a Brixton Brewery beer, and I seem to have strated at the top as this is a stonking, full-flavoured and hoppy 6.5% monster. There was also a Weston's cider on handpump, plus some less usually seen keg offerings such as Sagres, Camden Gentleman's Wit, Brick Brewery Peckham Pils, Five Points Pale Ale, and several others. I didn't any sign of food or menus when I was in on Wednesday afternoon, but this would be because the kitchen closes for the afternoon after lunch on weekdays. The exterior seems very simple, with the only signage being on the faded pub sign. The interior seems to be unchanged since Alan's visit a couple of years ago. The furnishings are standard stuff, and black or indigo features prominently in the colour scheme. It's bare boarded of course. I saw a backroom cinema advertised for Sunday to Wednesday for "only" £3.95. There was a list of the forthcoming films pinned up in the gents, none of which I had ever heard of, which probably means that they are all cinematic masterpieces. A lot of modern art is on the walls at the back; but otherwise there's no decor of note unless you count the re-cycled "church notices" board being used as - a notice board of course. Nonetheless I quite enjoyed my visit. This could be because it was very quite during my midweek afternoon visit; I had somewhere comfortable to sit; and my Brixton Electric IPA was superb.

Official site of Montpelier - themontpelier.net

Official site of Montpelier - themontpelier.net

The Montpellier is a plain looking three storey pub that had a free standing pub sign,i quite liked the look of this pub. Once inside there is a long oblonged shaped room which runs to the rear,the bar runs down the left side,the room is bare boarded and had normal tables and chairs to the front with american diner type seating to the rear. There were three real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Harveys bitter which was a very nice drink,the other beers were Deuchars IPA and St Austell Tribute. The pub was quite busy on my late Saturday afternoon visit,i quite liked this one. Pub visited 25/1/2014