Queen Elizabeth, Walworth, SE17

Official site of Queen Elizabeth - queenelizabethpub.co.uk

Official site of Queen Elizabeth - queenelizabethpub.co.uk

A classic inter war years exterior,the interior probably dates from the 50's and I was drawn here by the CAMRA Historic Pub of National Importance listing,which I felt was a bit over the top.There are however two destinct rooms,a saloon entrance down Lytham Street and a public bar entrance in Merrow Street.The saloon is the more interesting room with a fine bass mirror,original bar back and Watney's signage and tiling around the bar.Through an arch is a back room with some comfy chairs ,other traditional furniture and a serving hatch but sadly the sliding doors here have been lost.The juke box had some good tunes at a sensible volume,the corridor to the loos has attractive doors and there is a pleasant beer garden. I spotted a Bass handpump and asked for a pint but the feisty landlady simply poured a pint of keg Courage Bitter from another tap ,without explaining that the Bass handpump was for decoration as it matched the mirror.A price of £3.30 didn't soften the blow of a poor keg beer and I didn't appreciate the seeming deception. This is a family run estate boozer,with mother,daughter and baby grand daughter also joined in the saloon by a step sister.The landlady berated a Deliveroo lad for rushing to the gents without asking to use it,his helmet still in place on his head. I've seen better examples of a post war pub interior ,and the original features are not really celebrated but it's the only real reason to visit this pub unless you like a strong female character behind the bar,friendly as long as you don't rub her up the wrong way.

Corner pub with two separate rooms with their own entrances. No hand pumps - just keg offerings.

This is an inter-war pub that appears to cater for locals - plus the occasional itinerant pub reviewer. This remains a dying breed, and is usually a pleasure to find. This one has two separate rooms each only accessed from the street. I was told by a local that at one time you could walk between the bars, but now rather unusually a ladies toilet (i.e. a single cubicle - I believe) sits between the rooms. The bar back in the public bar on the left bears signage saying "Welcome to this Watney House" - and the bar back in the saloon bar has the same signage but being the saloon bar this sign is illuminated. These look like post war embellishments to me. The bar counters are original as well, with the one in the saloon bar having both piped and concave matchboard panelling - most unusual. The place is carpeted and furnished mainly with normal tables and chairs although there are one or two tall tables/tall stools. There's another room behind the saloon bar that can be separated from the saloon bar with a sliding screen, with a garden at the back. A nice Bass brewery mirror sits on the wall in the saloon bar. As you might expect in a pub like this, there's no real ale. But nonetheless it's a delightful pub, although a decent real ale would make it a much more desirable pub to visit, for me anyway. But there were quite a few customers enjoying the pub at early doors on a Tuesday, so it clearly appeals to the locals.

The Queen Elizabeth is a back street pub that looked quite nice outside with lots of hanging baskets,i also liked the look of the pub. Once inside i had a drink in an oblong shaped room which was to the front,this room was part carpeted and wood laminate floor,there were two tall tables and chairs to the left with normal tables and chairs elsewhere. There were no real ales on the bar,i had a drink of John Smiths smooth crap which was a pretty poor drink. Background music was playing and the pub was fairly busy on my Saturday afternoon visit. I thought this was a decent enough pub just a shame about the lack of one real ale on the bar. Pub visited 13/9/2014