Fox & Hounds, Sydenham, SE26

Oh dear, not quite the proper pub at the time of Alan’s review a bit over 8 years ago. This venue has had a beauty make over for sure. Front area has a bar facing you as you enter, quite new carpet by the look of it, mixture of high stools and more conventional tables, very coordinated and good quality. Nice decoration, can’t fault that aspect. To the right of the bar is another seating area, combination of tables and booth type tables presumably aimed at diners . Had a preconception from on line reviews that this place had a decent dining reputation but could find no evidence of a food offering on my visit a bit after 8pm. There was an attractive beer garden out the back, but not the evening to investigate that. Nothing cask here. Not even turned around clips on hand pumps. Nothing. Nada. Keg options also moribund (Aspall cider, Madri, Brixton Reliance Pale Ale, Pravha lager, Cruzcampo, Camden Helles, Guinness and Neck Oil). Attractive interior only thing that nudged this to a 4 for me. Maybe this is the sort of place that does well around here. Bar wannabe is the best I can classify it as. Ticked off but zero change of a return for me. A wannabe place for wannabes only. Had expectations of better but they were brutally dashed.

Facebook page of Fox & Hounds - www.facebook.com

Official site of Fox & Hounds - thefoxandhoundspub.com

Facebook page of Fox & Hounds - www.facebook.com

Official site of Fox & Hounds - thefoxandhoundspub.com

Fox's is a large looking corner pub which is situated on Sydenhams main shopping road. Once inside there is a single with the bar facing,i do not normally take note of bar fronts but this one looked quite nice,the right side extends to the rear where there is bench seating and chairs,the front left side is up one step,the TV to the front left was showing vintage music videos which i love the watch,the TV to the rear right was showing horse racing. There was one real ale on the bar which was Courage Best which went down well. This is a proper pub and just the sort i like doing,it was also quite busy on my Saturday afternoon visit. Pub visited 14/5/2016

Like the Bricklayers around the corner, this is also a basic locals' pub. But it struck me as being a bit more basic than that one. This one had a central peninsular servery with one or two tall tables/tall stools, a couple of sofas, but mainly normal tables and chairs wrapped around it. There's a tatty cheap looking old brown carpet on the floor, a dartboard at the front, a pool table at the back where the room stretches back behind the servery, and a garden at the back. Fruit machines and TVs are present of course, with one of the latter showing a news channel (muted) and another the horse racing. One unusual thing here was the electric screen on one of the walls, with a notice beside it enjoining businesses to advertise on their screen. Some green banded glazing in the windows suggests a former Charrington's pub. There was just the one real ale on - Courage Best at £2.60 a pint until 5.0 PM. There was no sign of food. This one's fine if you fancy a cheap pint of Courage Best, but I doubt if I'll return.