Hope & Anchor, Brixton, SW2

This pub has been here since at least 1815, leased to Young’s in 1891, rebuilt with a bowling green in 1899, bought by Young’s in 1933 and rebuilt in 1937 in the brewers’ Tudor style presented today. This is still a Young’s pub, though you’d never guess it on entering; perhaps a good thing, given their obsession with ruining pubs. There’s much pink fluorescent signage to the exterior and also inside. The floor’s bare boarded, walls being either bare brick, black tiled, dark grey painted, bare brick and a black wall with dayglow ‘graffiti’, then floral wallpaper. There’s no bar back as such, but the front is field panelled and painted a vulgar shade of Barbie pink, a colour mirrored to the windowsills (see photo); décor is absent, silent F1 was showing on a TV and an awful soundtrack played; lighting is mixed retro, furniture mixed, low and tall and the four other customers at the time of my Wednesday 9.30pm visit (who left before me) were young, undiscerning and nothing like the pretty models depicted on the website; to the rear, the enormous beer garden was empty, despite the balmy weather. A trip downstairs to the loo elicited an increasingly strong smell of garlic as I descended; on entering, I encountered a friendly barman who warned me not to go into the cubicle as the stench was even stronger. There’s no cask, so it was a pint of Neck Oil, £7.20, served by another friendly barman. I can’t see how this place could get any worse, so a return visit is not on the cards; no good will come of it.

Official site of Hope & Anchor - www.instagram.com

Official site of Hope & Anchor - www.instagram.com

Bouncers on the door of this pub early on a weekday afternoon was not the most hopeful sign. Once we'd negotiated them and all Covid formalities, we were requested to scan a QR code to order drinks. There's no real ale here. The most exciting prospect seemed to be Little Creatures Pale Ale on keg, but that was off. Therefore, it was a rather unexciting Brixton Reliance Pale Ale for me. Others I recall were Camden Pale, Beavertown Neck Oil, Guinness & Orchard Thieves. The garden area at the rear looked interesting, but it was too cold to be seated outdoors. So we sat at the rear indoors. There is a central island bar and some rather strange lighting features, but it really wasn't worth the effort of stopping here.

Official site of The Hope & Anchor - www.hopeandanchorbrixton.co.uk

Official site of The Hope & Anchor - www.hopeandanchorbrixton.co.uk