The Blue Maid, Borough, SE1

A long single room with a small raised section at the rear accessed via a couple of steps. The decor is basic with a few random prints here and there mounted on the ivory coloured upper walls, the lower walls being modern wood panels. The hard surfaces mean the acoustics are not great. Any downsides are more than tempered by a good beer selection with twenty four craft taps and three hand pulls, on cask were Five Points Best, Howling Hops Small Batch Mild and Burning Sky Plateau, all priced at £5.00, pretty good for London. A decent pub and may become a frequently visited one.

Perhaps this pub takes its name from a female pupil from a long defunct Bluecoat school as it seems that this was originally just called the Blue Maid as there are references to the name in the immediate vicinity in the early 18th century, the pub presumably rebuilt in the 19th when it was Eyed-up sometime in or after 1842. Closed in 2020, the pub reopened last Monday (7th), original name reinstated and with a substantial makeover, the previous reviews no longer apply. It’s part of the same chain as the Earl of Essex (N1), Duke of St. Albans (NW5) and Axe (N16), their trademark being a huge, slatted beer board (see photo), no pump clips or fisheyes allowed. The interior is relatively narrow but goes back a fair way to a raised snug. The floor is new bare boarded, natural wood wainscoting to white walls and Anaglypta ceiling; window reveals to the front are painted a sympathetic navy blue, where you can see a new Blue Maid mirror. The bar back along with said board is modern, the bar front possibly of some vintage. Furniture is dark wood contemporary, tall to a peripheral drinking ledge, décor thin aside from a few trendy prints. I counted 18 options advertised including a cider – ‘real’ or not unknown – and margarita for those looking to supercharge their blood pressure, fourteen ‘craft’ keg options featuring Verdant Pulp DIPA at 8% then just three cask offerings which I could have predicted from visits to the three pubs mentioned above: Five Points Best, Howling Hops Dark Mild, £2.50 the half and not bad then Burning Sky Plateau, £2.50 a half and a bit green, both served by very friendly bartenders. Customers were few, though of course the place has just reopened, so it was young trendies, then an infuriating trio of jabbering Scandi-noir types at the neighbouring table, behaviour perhaps precipitated by not paying thirty quid a pint like back home, their Swedish meatball routine forcing me to change tables, though either way, the acoustics here are terrible. Obviously this place is an improvement on the former incarnation and makes for a good addition to the Borough drinking scene, but a short walk to the Hand & Marigold delivered greater rewards. Nevertheless, this pub would make for a good SE1 crawl inclusion along with the above, Simon the Tanner, Market Porter, Lord Palmerston, Gladstone and Royal Oak, but the place desperately needs some sound deadening material. So does the Earl of Essex.

Official site of Blue Maid - www.thebluemaid.com

Official site of Blue Maid - www.thebluemaid.com

Beaten-up and scruffy interior with a remarkable stench of damp. Enter to immediately confront a pool table and that gives you an idea of how this place operates. Three pumps displaying Doom Bar, GK IPA and Tim Taylor Landlord. My half of the latter was a rancid pea souper which tasted of farmhouse scrumpy. On its immediate return all I got was a shrug, told that the others were off and I could have a Blue Moon as replacement even though 'it is more expensive'. Wow, how generous! Despite a mutterance about changing the barrel after I harped on, nothing happened and I suspect they were waiting for me to shove off before attempting to palm it off on an unsuspecting customer later. Anyway, I think this one won't last much longer in its current guise – if at all.