The Prince of Wales, SW9

This place dates back to at least the start of the 19th century and was a Charrington’s house by the century’s end. It was rebuilt in the 1930s in a slightly Art Deco style as part of the road widening scheme when it sold Bass and Wenlock ales. At that time, it took up the entire corner curve, the clue being the two huge Prince of Wales ostrich feather motifs and motto ‘Ich Dien’ bookending the tops of the party walls. As Rex mentions, today the pub has been substantially truncated with around two-thirds given over to a branch of Kentucky Fired Chicken; the remaining pub though is spacious, so the original must have been substantial. Today, the frontage is ugly and blue, the sign just bearing the initialism of POW, which I always thought stood for Prisoner of War. Having negotiated the bouncer with aplomb, I entered an utterly modernised interior, with pale grey walls or similarly coloured bare brick, boarded floor with polychromatic encaustic Minton-style tiled bar apron, tall furniture then booth-style low seating and décor by way of trendy prints, some an Art Deco throwback to when this pub was built. Cask has now been banished, the only choices being cheap Eurofizz, so it was a half of Guinness at £2.90. This is a bit of a soul-destroying pub, but it’s better than the Prince Albert.

Facebook page of The Prince of Wales - www.facebook.com

Official site of The Prince of Wales - www.instagram.com

Official site of The Prince of Wales - www.instagram.com

Facebook page of The Prince of Wales - www.facebook.com

Large one roomed pub with the bar to the right hand side. No real ales, just craft. Nothing special at all.

This one had three ales on during my Monday afternoon visit - Doom Bar (of course), St Austell Tribute and Brixton Brewery Effra Ale (£2.25 a half) which judging by the previous review seems to be a regular ale. There really was no choice but to go for the ale from the local brewery, and it was in fine shape as well. There was no sign of any food. I seem to recall that this used to be more of a giant landmark pub than it is now; it's been truncated I reckon. But it's still a fairly large single-room pub. There's nothing of heritage value left now, with both the bar counter and bar back being modern constructs; it's bare-boarded with a tiled splash area surrounding the bar. There are one or two tall tables/tall stools, but furnishings are mainly normal tables and chairs on a raised area on the left. There are modern looking arty prints on the walls, plus new mirrors covered with advertisements and the like. Oddly enough, not that many Brixton pubs are open at lunchtime on a weekday in Brixton, so this one was a welcome stopping off point even if it's not really my kind of pub. But it gets extra marks for the excellent Brixton Effra ale though.

Prominently located on a busy crossroads in the heart of Brixton, a short walk from tube and train stations, the Prince of Wales is a large pub and live music venue with a separate nightclub venue on the first floor. The pub has a huge, single room layout accessed through a porch manned by two burly bouncers on our Saturday evening visit. The servery runs down most of the right hand side, with a counter that kinks a number of times along its length. Opposite is an extremely large open area for vertical drinking which was being tested to its capacity by a large and lively evening time crowd. Further to the left there are a number of seating areas, including a couple of raised sections, offering standard and comfy seating options. To the rear, beyond the reach of the bar, the crowds thinned out a bit, revealing another seating area with smart tables and chairs under plain, uninteresting walls. A door to the rear right seemed to lead into another room, but again the crowd was in full force and I didn't have the motivation to fight my way through to explore where it led. Unsurprisingly, loud music played throughout our visit, none of which was really to my taste although the punters seemed to be lapping it up. Three handpulls were offering Sharps Doom Bar, Caledonian Deuchars IPA and London Beer Factory Chelsea Blonde. Sadly I didn't spot the latter until late in my visit, by which time I was already enjoying a bottle of Goose Island IPA; part of a fairly limited bottled beer range. I didn't find much to recommend about this place, although to be fair, it wasn't the ideal time to visit and opportunities to properly explore were limited. The pub is clearly popular and serves its purpose in that respect, but I think if I was going to return I would want to do so out of peak hours.

Official site of The Prince of Wales - www.pow-london.com

Official site of The Prince of Wales - www.pow-london.com

Modernised pub (also known as the POW) with club and roof terraces advertised above (not visited). Gastro-pub by day, lively party-type venue by night. Three handpumps on the counter, with Deuchars IPA and LBF Chelsea Blonde (£4.20) available (and Doom Bar off) when I visited.