Burke's Warehouse, E8

Converted from the perpetually uninviting Kingsland pub, this place is now a modern, rather boxy bar set in a roughly square-shaped room next to Dalston Kingsland station. The room has been completely refitted, with modern floorboards, exposed brick walls and large plain front windows now the order of the day. The vast majority of the room is filled with mid-height metal framed tables and stools, with a few regular chairs lined up along the front windows. The servery dominates the rear wall and has a timber fronted counter, copper top and metal cage bar back and gantry, which fits in well with the general semi-industrial feel the place seems to be going for. A largely undressed ceiling crossed by Brewdog-style utilities adds to this feel, whilst a skylight above the bar ensures a bit of daylight in the rear part of the room. There’s not too much décor to write home about – one or two brewery adverts, a collection of home nations rugby badges and very little else. The main distraction comes from multiple TV screens, which were all showing a live rugby union fixture with the commentary very much audible and a large number of Kiwi’s avidly watching their team. The room extends a little way to the left at the front, partitioned from the rest of the room by a metal cage storage space, and offering additional seating. Unsurprisingly, there’s no cask ale available here, but the keg taps did include a couple of craft options from Beavertown and another from Brixton, as well as Inch’s Cider. I ordered a pint of the Brixton Reliance (£5.60), which was so cold on a freezing Winter’s night, that I could barely hold it at first, but turned out to be a decent drop once it had warmed up a touch. The staff seemed really nice and there was a boisterous atmosphere thanks to a good mix of supporters for each of the teams playing rugby on the TV. This is a pretty run of the mill craft beer bar which has admittedly been fitted out quite well but doesn’t really offer anything you can’t find in countless other bars in this part of town. The USP seems to be its sports coverage, and it also gets a plus point for the friendly service, but if it’s good beer you want, then there are several better pubs, brewery taps and craft beer bars within a relatively short distance from here.

Not to be confused with Berk’s Warehousing & Trucking in Sayreville, NJ, this was originally the Bull (then Black Bull), dating from 1765, the current incarnation probably dating from the late 19th century, the former name of The Kingsland arriving around 1990, with the current name dating from 2022, as the fascia reads ‘Est. 2022’. There’s still the Taylor Walker sign frame with trademark cannon, but now with a Burke’s sign, though sadly the historic SKOL illumination running down the south side has been removed. I don’t know what the previous interior was like as the place exuded an air which said ‘Avoid Me’, but I’ll bet it’s nothing like what we have now. There’s a planking floor, with planking mirrored to the ceiling, bare brick walls with some exposed original structural ironwork and an industrial suspended ceiling gantry running round said ceiling, which conceals a lighting array which periodically changes colour; suspended from this are large metal lamps and ‘disco’ lights. The bar array is the usual industrial scaffold, but the bar counter is underlit, with another concealed lighting array which changes colour. Décor amounted to some floor-to-ceiling height metal shelving unit which doubled as a cage for storing Scotch bottles, but thereafter the place was littered with awful Halloween flummery: blooded skulls, giant spiders…and all with just three weeks to go. There was a decent soundtrack, but this was drowned out by commentary from five TVs showing different sporting events, watched in virtual silence by a laddish crowd, though a couple of women were spotted. Unsurprisingly there’s no real ale here, the closest being John Smith’s which undoubtedly was extra cold and crap, me opting for a half of Neck Oil (£3.50) and yup, it was freezing cold, served by a friendly barman. This really isn’t my cup of tea but then I knew that before I set foot in the place. Steve’s final comment still applies: ‘I was glad when I had finished my pint and could leave as I could feel all of the energy draining from my body’.

The Kingsland is situated on Kingsland high street,just the sort of street i like doing pubs on. This pub was a god send after walking past six pubs that had not opened after 11am and on a warm day. It looks like the pub has had a new paint job and now looks a bit gawdy from the outside,but once inside it is a pretty basic pub which is bare boarded with the bar facing,the room is L shaped and the seating is bench type to the right with bucket chairs,there are alo bucket chairs and tables to the front,there is a pool table to the rear right. There were no real ales on the bar and the keg bitters were GK IPA and John Smiths Extra Cold crap,so i opted for a half of Heineken which went down very well. There was background music playing and the pub was fairly busy on my Saturday dinner visit. I was happy enough having a drink in this pub. Pub visited 11/6/2016