House of MOBO, West Norwood, SE27

Visited 26/01/26 No cask. Keg offering of Hepcat and Swell lager from Gipsy Hill, Brixton Reliance Pale Ale, Asahi, Amstel, Estrella Galicia, Guinness and Aspall. Newly re-opened venue, up a couple of steps from the pavement out front with a bare boarded front bar area with the front side of the bar counter over to the right-hand side of the venue. Regular tables and chairs around this front bar area with a stage to the left of the entrance. Colourful wallpaper, a single TV and framed pictures of incredibly notable black ladies and gentlemen and the narrative of their achievements. I particularly loved reading about Vince Hilaire, a much-loved figure in these parts (and indeed way wider parts). To the left of the bar counter was a couple of steps down, on one side of a wall dividing this area was the continuation of the bar counter with a few tall stools at the bar counter and some bucket armchairs on the opposite wall serving small copper topped tables. At the end of this side were some bifold doors leading to an outside balcony area that was hard to discern in the darkness, but there was clearly some outside seating. The other side of the wall on this lower level was another seating area and also providing access to the outside seating area. The seating on this side was in the form of booths down the left-hand side and a raised leather banquette down the right-hand side serving some tall tables. A lot of music photos and art on the walls. Thought this was a classy venue and an amazing reincarnation of a venue that I assumed would be shut to hospitality for infinity. OK no cask, but a small thing in the grand scheme of things.

The Paxton is a large and grand looking pub that is in a upmarket area of West Norwood. Once inside the bar faces,there is a large room to the front which runs the width of the pub,the seatnig is normal tables and chairs,there was a TV to the left showing the Norwich v Sunderland game,this area was full of yummie mummy's and daddy's with their young children who were dining. There are more seating area to the rear which are down steps,these areas have bench seating and normal tables and chairs,the floor is bare boarded throughout. There were four real ales on the bar,i had a drink of London Beer Factory Beyond the Pale which went down well,the other beers were Dark Star pale Ale,Southwark Mosaic and GK IPA. There was decent background music playing. I thought this was a decent enough pub with some decent beer on the bar. Pub visited 16/4/2016

Very impressive looking pub from outside and bright and fresh inside.Good large garden at rear.Good selection of keg beers from Meantime, Hackney and Trumans.Four handpumps inc Hackney -love not war and Florence-dam tasty beaver beer.(dam tasteless imo).Reasonably priced beer for this food led pub.

This pub had on a reasonably good ale selection, comprising GKIPA, Sambrook Pumphouse Pale Ale, Sharp's Equinox Citrus IPA, and Dam Tasty Beaver Beer. I'm not a great fan of citrus beers, and the Beaver Beer had some spicy additive so the only real choice, for me anyway, was the Pumphouse Pale Ale, which was in excellent shape and a nice refreshing drink. Despite the four ales on, this struck as a largely food led pub. There's an open to view kitchen on the right, and not much that could be regarded as traditional pub grub - e.g. "Harissa lamb, bittersweet salad & yoghurt dressing" for £12. I had a salt beef bagel, with gherkin and fries, for £8.50. The fries came in a little metal bucket thingy, and the bagel was made of bread (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) and was the size and shape of a ringed doughnut. All a bit unusual but rather good nonetheless. The pub itself is something of a monolith dominating a busy junction, and overlooking the old plague pits. It's mainly painted that ubiquitous battleship grey on the outside, although it's thankfully reverted to its original name (named after Joseph Paxton who designed the Crystal Palace that housed the Great Exhibition, and which ended up just up the road from the pub) after a spell as The Mansion. Inside it's bare-boarded, and furnished with a mixed bag of cheap looking furnishings, but no tall tables/tall stools. I suppose it must cost a lot of money to get a place looking this cheap. The pub stretches back a long way into a lowered area, where there are shelf dividers containg a load of vases and the like. This in turn leads out into a garden at the back. I didn’t see any sign of one armed bandits, pool tables or dartboards. But it does have disabled access, and a disabled toilet on the ground floor in the main bar. This is another pub that’s lost its original pub character, but it’s not a bad place for all that.