The Windmill, Brixton, SW2

This is a very run down looking estate pub located at the end of a nice row of houses on a backstreet 15 minutes walk South from Brixton station, close to the eponymous windmill. The pub has a two bar layout, but the partitioning wall has been removed, creating what is essentially a single, awkward shaped room with exposed floorboards and a dark painted ceiling, sadly now without the o-level art project mentioned in the review below. The front area houses the main bar access point and has a decent servery painted in blue with a tinted glass canopy and traditional dark wood bar back. Seating here is limited to a few tub chairs and some bench and low stool options around the perimeter. The decor here is bright and multi-coloured, falling somewhere between street-art/graffiti and outsider art, and this continues as you move into the other side of the pub, which has a similar bar, albeit with just the one T-bar keg font. Two or three benches run along the side wall under another mural, a Johnnie Walker light and a liberally stickered Jagermeiseter mirror. The pub’s main raison d'être is its roster of live music, and as such, you’ll find a small stage rammed into the furthest corner of the room, but the sightlines are not ideal thanks to the position of the servery and a very unfortunate large structural pillar, meaning only the first three or four rows of people will be ensured a decent view. There was obviously a decent soundtrack playing in the background and the pub has recently achieved a degree of global fame for nurturing the current crop of critically acclaimed British rock acts such as black midi, Shame, Black Country New Road and Goat Girl. With live music scheduled almost every night, you may find you cannot visit in the evening without paying for a ticket, and it did appear that a few old boys were shuffling off when I arrived ahead of a gig here. As with most live music venues, I had no expectation of any cask ale being available, but to my surprise they had a London Pride pump clip with a St Austell Tribute sticker on it. I took the risk and ordered a pint of the Tribute (£5.00) which was pretty tired and a bit too warm, so I switched to one of the two craft keg beers from Signature Brew, which was much easier drinking. They also had Hog’s Back TEA, Adnams Ghost Ship and Greene King IPA in bottles in the fridge. The staff were all super friendly and there was a nice buzz in the place as it started to fill with gig-goers. This pub isn’t really going to appeal to anyone but their immediate locals, unless you’re planning to come here for a bit of live music. I really enjoyed my visit here, but there’s no getting away from the fact that a lot of that was due to the impending gig. The poor beer quality and lack of comfortable seating mean that a daytime visit is unlikely to offer a great pub-going experience, but it was nice to finally check out the pub that has soundtracked the last few years of my life.

Official site of The Windmill - windmillbrixton.co.uk

Official site of The Windmill - windmillbrixton.co.uk

Randomness Guide to London - Windmill entry

Randomness Guide to London - Windmill entry

The first impressions of the Windmill are that it would look a lot better from the driving seat of a bulldozer. In an avenue of elegant Victorian houses, the Windmill is a monstrous, ugly block that has little architectural merit other than to act as a bad example of taste. Armed with reviews from previous visitors I expected a vast improvement inside but to be frank it was little better once through the door. Having read about the “finest ceiling in London” I was somewhat disappointed to find little more than what looked like a failed o-level art class project. The bar was probably knocked up by their colleagues in the woodwork class and the whole place was a design disaster with the bar taking up so much space that the punters are confined to a narrow corridor that leads down the stage area. The beers were the basic keg varieties and there are no real ales despite there being hand pumps available. The prices were very good for a music pub – little more than the average pub price. The toilets are surprisingly clean, spacious and hardly a sign of any vandalism or graffiti aside from the odd band promo sticker. Of course, the main reason anyone ventures near the place is to see the live bands and there is a good selection of live music almost every night with several notable bands having played here in their embryonic stages. Most gigs are £4 admission and for that you will normally get 3 bands. Actually seeing the bands however, is a nightmare. With the stage little more than 6 inches off the ground and in a blind spot from 75% of the pub you are lucky to get even the briefest glimpse of the action. If there are more than 15 people standing in front of the stage you will not see a thing – I am well over 6ft and saw little more than the tops of the artist's heads. By way of compensation, the sound quality was very good and the bands I saw were very professional. In a nutshell, the Windmill as a pub is a dump, but as part of the live music “toilet circuit” it has an important role in the development of up and coming bands and, as a music lover, I applaud it's efforts and would certainly go back if there is a band I want to see (or at least try to see!).