The Mawbey Arms, South Lambeth, SW8

I managed to pay a return visit here the other day. It's essentially unchanged since my first visit some four years ago, and is comprehensively described by Pubsignman in his review from a few days ago. The overwhelming feature for me is the mass of Chelsea memorabilia everywhere. As long as you're OK with that sort of thing, then this pub is the sort of relaxing backstreet local that's a pleasure to find. Unfortunately, the ale on when I visited was from the ranks of the usual suspects - Doom Bar and Young's Bitter. Nonetheless the Young's was in good nick, and this pub is definitely worth the effort of finding.

Wandering around the surrounding estates in the dark, trying to locate this charming back street boozer wasn't the greatest experience, but I'm glad I persevered as this pub is worth making a bit of an effort to seek out. The layout sees an opened up, U-shaped room winding around the prominent servery. Some unusual and rather comfy upholstered chairs have been lined up along the front wall, serving a couple of small tables with a few standard chairs in attendance. Down the right hand side of the room, a drinking ledge covered in beer towels runs down the wall with a vast collection of Chelsea FC memorabilia hung above and a dartboard at the far end. This is a fairly basic area, yet it seemed to be more popular with the locals than the left hand side, which has bench and standard seating, a lit stone fireplace and another dartboard. The pub seems to be popular with arrows fans, as they run several teams and the locals were engrossed in a televised darts match being shown on a couple of screens around the room. The colour scheme is predominantly white, with some grey sections beneath the dado rail that runs around the left side of the pub. Whilst this might sound a little bland, it highlighted the spotless state of the pub, which the owners clearly take great pride in. There is an outdoor drinking area to the rear right which was hard to see through the windows in the dark, but there seemed to be a decent amount of picnic bench seating available. The locals all seemed like a friendly bunch and having picked a seat close to the front door, I was somewhat surprised when several of them bade me goodnight on their way out. There were just two ales available when I arrived - Young's Ordinary and Hardy and Hanson Rocking Rudolph - with a turned pump clip on a third handpull. I ordered the Rocking Rudolph and immediately regretted picking a Christmas beer midway through January, assuming it had probably been on for a long time. Thankfully it was in excellent condition and I enjoyed supping it whilst secretly snooping on the group of locals wrapped up in a card game on the table next to me. I really enjoyed my visit to this understated pub which offered a warm welcome and good beer in clean and pleasant surroundings. This place does all the simple things very well and whilst it's unlikely I will find myself in the vicinity again, I'd be more than happy to make a return visit.