Magic Garden, Battersea Park, SW11

Official site of Magic Garden - magicgardenpub.com

Official site of Magic Garden - magicgardenpub.com

As the Eagle, this pub dates back to at least 1851, to be rebuilt in the interwar years by Watney’s inhouse architect A. W. Blomfield, best known for designing the French House in Soho. Despite the provenance, this isn’t the prettiest pub, the exterior looking graffiti bombed. The interior can be seen on the pub’s website gallery where it doesn’t look nearly as scruffy as it does in the cold light of day at the time of my Wednesday 10.00pm visit. Above the modern boarded floor, there’s much eclectic artwork, including a portrait of Jimi Hendrix behind a DJ pulpit; otherwise, it’s a bit trippy, with some areas trying to look a bit clubby but ultimately appearing rather like an old people’s home on acid. Furniture amounted to some velour sofas, then cheap wood and metal trestle tables with matching benches, as uncomfortable as they sound. The only items of heritage I could spot were the lav doors with their leaded occluded lights. What you can’t fail to spot is the substantial raised stage area to the left, especially prominent for being upholstered with astroturf; equally eye-catching is the array of human skulls to a raised ledge. There were only about four young customers in, a bit sad for a midweek visit, the local youths’ favoured drinking holes being the Lighthouse, Victoria or Masons Arms. The cask selection – if you can call it that – amounted to two unused pumps, then just Doom, swerved in favour of a half of Blue Moon, £3.70, served by a friendly barman. In a – magic? – roundabout way this, as mentioned, makes for something different, but with the poor cask selection I couldn’t really justify coming here again for anything other than the live music, but it’s miles better than the aptly named Lost Society next door.