The Copper Tap, Peckham, SE15

As unlovable locations go, this place must rank pretty highly, situated as it is, at the bottom of an ugly high rise building on the noisy Peckham High Street, but the grim environs give way to a surprisingly smart, modern pub that I suspect is a million miles away from the old Courage pub (The Red Cow) that used to inhabit these premises. The main room appears to be the former Saloon Bar, to the left hand side of the pub, where bare boards and a mix of wood plank, tongue and groove and exposed brick walls combine to good effect. The bar is to the front right and has a curved tongue and groove panelled counter and wood plank bar back, with many of the planks stamped with words like 'Hops' and 'Grain', presumably in the hope of convincing us that they are parts of former storage crates. High tables and stools in long formations, mainly to the rear of the room, provide the majority of seating options, with a few stools also arranged along a drinking ledge opposite the bar with some nice old sherry barrels on the end. A huge pull down screen covered much of the back wall and was next to a plasma screen TV, both of which were showing live rugby with the sound turned on. Sadly, the pull down screen obscured a nice old set of decorative windows with wooden shutters flanked by ornate pillars and topped with a mantle with a tankard on the top. In the right rear corner, an Abbey Road sign and portraits of various musician suggested that the pub might host occasional live music performances. A passage behind the bar leads through to the right hand bar which is notably smaller and has a tap-less servery to the left and a lots of regular tables and chairs elsewhere. Blackboards covered a lot of wall space, detailing various drink options and upcoming events. I turned up here early on a Saturday evening and was a little surprised to find that not only were there no other customers in the pub, but that there was also no ale available, despite a row of five hand pumps on the bar. Thankfully the keg range had a few mainstream lagers and a decent craft selection, mainly from local micros such as Brick and Brixton as well as a couple of ciders. i tried something from Brixton Brewery which was okay and I noticed that one of their beers had appeared on handpull by the time I left. I found it difficult to get a good feel for this place when it was completely empty and with no ale on, but it seemed like a pretty smart bar with a good bit of potential. This place has only been open a year or so in its current guise and I hope my weekend visit isn't indicative of a typical Saturday or else I can't see it lasting much longer. This is probably worth a look in passing in the hope they have something decent on those underworked handpulls.

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