The George, SE1

Got to come here at least once in your life. A living piece of history. Sadly, the beer is usually ghastly. Although on my last visit - the nutty hen was in good condition. Some photos at my blog - http://bit.ly/2cYVT2P

A good sized pub in a small courtyard just off Borough High Street, it is owned by the National Trust although leased out to Greene King who run it on their behalf. It is the last remaining galleried coaching inn in London, with many others unfortunately having been destroyed in the war. The courtyard has plenty of picnic tables for the warmer weather, although there are also a few heaters and many of the tables are covered. Internally it doesn’t have quite the “olde worlde” charm that one might anticipate from the outside, with the bar area in particular being fairly uninspiring. That said, it’s pleasant enough and some areas are certainly cosier than others. It consists of several interconnected rooms and there is dark wood flooring throughout and cream paintwork on the walls. One of the rooms had a low beamed ceiling and another had dark wood panelling on the walls making it somewhat reminiscent of a hotel drawing room. A number of old black and white photograph of the locale were on the walls as well as a few water colours. Food wise, the menu offered a decent enough looking selection of pub grub dishes such as sausage & mash, steak & ale pie, burger, fish & chips, etc., and these were mostly priced around £12 or so. There was also a bar snack menu which we chose from and shared a selection of scotch egg, deep fried calamari, popcorn chicken, olives and bread with an oil and balsamic dip, chips and onion rings. This was all decent enough without obviously being fine dining, but it did the job and kept us going. Beers on tap were Southwark Gold, Southwark Potters Fields Porter, Greene King IPA, their own George Ale and London Glory. Another pump for Greene King IPA Gold appeared to have run out. The solitary cider was a rather disappointing Aspall’s Suffolk.

Official site of The George - www.nationaltrust.org.uk

Official site of The George - www.nationaltrust.org.uk